robert yawe wrote:
Hi,

Dr. Ndemo asked the question above and I missed it among the rest of his message.

I have said many times that the government sits on the greatest volume of relevant content which they seriously need to digitize. 

The government places adverts in the paper for vacancies yet the the particular media has a distribution of less than 1 million copies per day 80% of which are distributed within the urban areas yet 80% of the population is rural based. 

This adverts are usually spread over 4 - 6 pages which translates to over 2 million shillings yet the information will only reach 1% of the targeted audience.  If the same information was made available online including an application page then you will have participated in creating content. 

I tried application form on kenya.go.ke but the links are broken and are based in email application.  Why not spend some of the money used on ineffective print media adverts to implement an online application system.  With this the government will develop a database.

Why have you not spear headed an initiative to produce comprehensive web sites with information on government run educational institutions instead of having such institutions spend millions of shillings placing newspaper advertisements.  This could also run on an intranet that would be made available to the education officers stationed at all district head quarters.

And last and closest to my heart, when will Kenyans get a single point of contact when they need to contact their government, this has nothing to do with broadband, fibre optic or digital villages just basic voice based contact centre.  I am tired of hearing about grandiose ideas yet you are unwilling to implement basic solutions.

Dr. Ndemo, I therefore ask "are you interested in creating content?"

Regards

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696

Robert,

These are extremely powerful statements you have made before - much more relevant than ICDL spats.

We need to approach and help those concerned on the ground with these (national and local) government sites on a technical (not policy) level.

It is not easy for them factoring political dynamics that ensure 'ICT' and other deals are awarded to companies connected to elements that need to retain their parliamentary or council seats or secure their retirements if they fail to.

Have heard from a software developer or two about information systems being rejected (after development) because it made it easier to track and collect revenues - that many council officials (all over Kenya) pocket.

SMM