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Google takes Ladies Mapping Party to Nairobi
by Albert Mucunguzi 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Dear All, I thought some of you might be interested in this information. http://www.pctechmagazine.com/news/324-google-takes-ladies-mapping-party-co… _____________________________ Albert Mucunguzi Team Leader PC Tech Magazine Mobile: +256 712 619812 / 782 619812 Website: www.pctechmagazine.com E-Mail: i(a)albertmucunguzi.com Twitter: @albertmuc Facebook: www.facebook.com/almuc Personal Web: www.albertmucunguzi.com Blog: www.pctechmagazine.com/blogs/almuc

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Re: [kictanet] Media council Draft bill 2010 (Day Seven--Complaints and Dispute Resolution)
by toby＠law-democracy.org 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Hi all, My comments on this round: 1) I agree the chair should not be required to be a lawyer but I think it is clear that the Council will appoint the chair and that is OK with me. 2) I think it is OK not to specify how they will publish the the decision. Surely it is understood that this will at least be on their website. The main point is that they make it public so that those with an interest can follow-up. This is not something that will usually be of very wide public interest. Related to this, publication in the Official Gazette is to ensure formal legal publication of the decision. It seems OK to me. 3) I am also OK with the decisions of the Complaints Commission having legal force. For me, what is important here is the sanctions (see s. 30), which may only be an apology and/or reprimand. I don't like the idea of an apology, which I find offensive to the (absolute) freedom to hold opinions. So I would replace this with a requirement to carry a statement by the Commission (ie to the effect that a decision has gone against you and for what reasons). 4) I have another serious problem with the complaints process, however. Pursuant to s. 27, anyone who is 'aggrieved' may complain about any publication or conduct of a journalist. The Commission will then reject or uphold such complaint. But the Bill nowhere indicates the standards against which such a complaint should be judged. This effectively leaves it up to the unfettered discretion of the members of the Commission to decide and leaves journalists and the media open to being held in breach of a standard that was never communicated to them, which is clearly inappropriate. Instead, complaints should be judged against an established a code of conduct to be adopted by the Council, after consultation with interested stakeholders. It could, theoretically, be the Code in the second schedule, except that this is not appropriate for this purpose (eg it is not appropriate for anyone to complain that a journalist has not defended the independence of the media, as required by section 2 of this Code). Also, the Code should not be legislated but should emerge from the consultation. Best wishes, Toby ___________________________________ Toby Mendel Centre for Law and Democracy toby(a)law-democracy.org Tel: +1 902 431-3688 Fax: +1 902 431-3689 www.law-democracy.org

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GOK Making progress
by robert yawe 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Hi, Today I met a government official who gave me his card, you wonder what is so major about that, well the phone number was ISDN, well PS Ndemo it is clear that there is light at the end of the tunnel as relates to the government having a single contact number. This is at the office of the Prime Minister which is a clear indication that there was more done to the building than just interior refurbishments. Regards PS. But they need to be educated about DID? Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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Re: [kictanet] Media council Draft bill 2010 (Day Six--Funds and Assets of the Council )
by toby＠law-democracy.org 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

Hi all, I agree that these provisions are problematical. There seems to me to be no reason why a press council should not receive foreign support. This should not alleviate the need for local support for its basic operations (eg complaints) but it also has a wide promotional role and enabling it to access foreign (ie donor) funds will potentially allow it to be a far more significant player in this role. Toby ___________________________________ Toby Mendel Centre for Law and Democracy toby(a)law-democracy.org Tel: +1 902 431-3688 Fax: +1 902 431-3689 www.law-democracy.org

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Fwd: Senior Advisor (ICT for Development) Vacancy: Panos London
by Alice Munyua 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Senior Advisor (ICT for Development) Vacancy: Panos London Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:19:25 +0000 From: Richard Heeks <richard.heeks(a)manchester.ac.uk> To: Richard Heeks <richard.heeks(a)manchester.ac.uk> Panos - based in London - are advertising for a senior advisor covering ICTs for development. Details below and at: http://www.panos.org.uk/?lid=33763 Senior Advisor (ICTs) London-based Salary: Up to £43,000 Closing date: Monday 14th February 2011, Noon Panos London is one of the world’s leading ‘communication for development’ organisations. We work to stimulate informed and inclusive debate around key development issues in order to foster sustainable development, and we do this through our expertise in Voice, Dialogue, Media and ICT communication projects around the world. We are seeking an experienced, creative and dynamic Senior Advisor to develop Panos London’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) programme and projects to ensure our work has increasing scope, scale and impact. The main purpose of this exciting post is to develop Panos London’s knowledge, practice and expertise in the field of ICTs and you will be expected to develop a pipeline of projects that effectively support Panos London’s new Strategy to 2015. The successful candidate will possess: * Proven expertise as a leader in the use of ICTs for development, including issues of access to knowledge, internet access and mobile phones. * Excellent understanding of ICT research methodologies as well as demonstrated knowledge of specialist monitoring and evaluation methodologies. * In depth experience in policy, research and programme management in ICTs and a wide-ranging network of contacts in the field. * Experience of working internationally in co-operation with local and global partners. * Experience of strategic programme development. * In-depth experience of designing and carrying out monitoring and evaluation activities on ICT projects. Flexible / Part-time working may be considered. How to apply: A full job description and application form attached, please support with a tailored covering letter. For further information contact: helen.crawford(a)panos.org.uk. Application deadline: Monday 14th February 2011, Noon

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Prime Time data; is safaricom ready?
by robert yawe 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

As the price war on voice escalates and the margins drop exponentially as the mobile providers move to take positions in the data realm, are Safaricom and the other mobile providers ready for prime time data services? Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

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ICANN report on DNS in Egypt
by Alice Munyua 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

Hi GG and all Events in Egypt must have slowed down the discussions on our media council bill and I apologize for diverting you again. It is worrying that a government can shut down the internet. There are permissible limitations/restrictions on expression and communication contained in International laws, however these are for narrow circumstances defined in, for example the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, where National security and pubic order is included, but it should not be used as an excuse. Governments should ensure that the limitations of restrictions are provided for by clear and precise laws that demonstrate necessity to meet the specific purpose. Anyway, Google has since introduced a speak to tweet service for people in Egypt and see below a report by ICANN on DNS: http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/31/twitter-by-phone-egypt/ http://blog.icann.org/2011/01/status-report-on-the-dns-in-egypt/Status Report on the DNS in Egypt Along with the entire global Internet community, ICANN is watching the events unfolding in Egypt with great concern for the safety of the people of Egypt and for their ability to use the Internet. On January 27, most Internet connectivity to Egypt was shut down, apparently on the instruction of the national government. This has led to the inaccessibility of the main domain name system (DNS) server of the Egyptian ccTLD (.eg). Egypt's top-level domain .eg is operated by the Egyptian Universities Network (EUN) (http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/eg.html) The Arabic script top-level domain .masr (???, http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/xn--wgbh1c.html) is operated by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) (http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/xn--wgbh1c.html) The primary servers they operate have been inaccessible to those outside of Egypt since January 27. Secondary DNS servers for .eg, located in Austria and the United States, have continued to function with data provided before the shutdown. The .??? DNS servers are exclusively in Egypt and there do not appear to be any secondary DNS servers outside the country. This means that service to sites served by this top-level domain are unreachable by the rest of the world. Secondary servers copy their data from the primary server at regular intervals. Data in the secondary DNS servers, serving anyone in the world wishing to receive .eg DNS services, have an expiration date. Secondary servers require regular updating from the primary server at specified intervals -- called "time to live" (TTL) -- and that time is set to expire in 140 days. Normally when primary servers fail -- for example, following the earthquake in Haiti -- the operator wants secondary servers to continue operating with the last zone file they had provided. This allows users around the world to connect to functioning servers in their zone. ICANN's Manager for Regional Relations for the Middle East has been communicating with both TLD operators, EUN and NTRA. The operators of .eg have communicated with ICANN and through ICANN are communicating with the secondary operators outside the country. They have requested that the secondary operators continue using the existing zone files past their time to live timeframes, if necessary. This experience offers a number of lessons, among them that a policy to encourage the establishment of secondary servers to promote continuity of service as well as DNS stability could be useful and in the global public interest. ICANN will ask the ccNSO to consider proposing a policy to address this type of situation. ICANN helps to ensure a secure and stable global Internet through its coordination of the domain name system, and is the global policy development body for the DNS and related matters. More than 100 ccTLD operators are voluntary members of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), a formal ICANN policy and coordination body.

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Necessity Creates Innovation... Speak to Tweet!
by [Brainiac] 01 Feb '11

01 Feb '11

Google to the Aid of Egypt during their 1 million man march.... http://twitter.com/#!/speak2tweet -- *“The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy”* ~ Alex Carey ~ Tel No: 0x2af23696

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Fwd: CSTD WG IGF Improvements - Internet Technical and Academic Community Representatives' Contribution
by waudo siganga 31 Jan '11

31 Jan '11

Dear Colleagues, For information of those following the IGF, attached is a submission made by the 5 "Internet technical and academic" representatives on the CSTD Chair's Working Group on Improvements to the IGF.

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Internet prices in countries without submarine fiber
by Brian Munyao Longwe 31 Jan '11

31 Jan '11

Just in case some people might be complaining about their internet prices in Kenya! These are the prices in Burundi. 128k shared : 128 Usd 128k dedicated : 375 Usd 256k shared : 200 Usd 256k dedicated : 725 Usd Mblayo

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