Hi All, We are in the process of organising a conference and exhibition to show case and discuss the readiness of Kenya to take advantage of telecommuting as a way to ease the traffic congestion issues while taking advantage of the technology. In addition we can reduce staff relocation costs (financial & emotional) as an organisation can get the best staff without having them relocate. There is no reason why your tax accountant cannot work from his farm in Timau or his beach plot on Rusinga. There is no reason why we should not be 1st african country to distribute its parliamentary sessions. We believe that the implementation of distributed workforces will actually result in an increase in savings and indirect wage increases. It was an interesting realisation that my domestic help who earns 3,500/- can save more than my secretary who has a net take home of 15,000/-. Secretary Domestic Tech. Net take home 15000 3500 Expenses Rent 5000 0 Transport 2200 0 Lunch 1100 Dinner/Breakfast 1500 0 Clothing 1000 500 Utilities 1000 0 Makeup/hair 1000 500 12800 1000 Balance 2200 2500 What I realise is that 80% of what my secretary does does not actually require a face to face such as making phone calls, replying to e-mails & editing reports. If she did not need to come to the office and carried out this activities from her house she would principally have a reduction in expenses of between 3,000/- - 5,000/-. Back to our function, to get telecommuting going we need to see where we are and where we are going thus the objective of the conference. So with reference to this we are inviting papers on the follwing issues; 1. Infrastructure readiness (what is available) 2. Legal interpretation (e.g. who is a permanent employee) 3. Managing telecommuters 4. Human Resource issues 5. Tax and accounting (Is rent contribution to telecommuters home allowable for tax as an expense?) 6. Data security and integrity 7. Any other relevant issues Send a short brief on your paper to "[email protected]" To make the conference practical we propose to run it from 3 locations simultaneously as a way to test the available infrastructure. Regards Robert Yawe Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com