Thanks Dr. Ndemo for your thoughts.It is true that organizations public as well as private need to manage their information as well as records well enough that citizens can have access to quality information that will enable them ascertain their various rights. This will require a more systematic approach in the way we automate our registries to ensure provision of quality information. Currently, government efforts in various information sectors such as ICT, e-Government, Records Management and FOI are disjointed and not adequately coordinated. Professionals in each sector are doing their own thing without paying attention to what is happenning in other sectors. We can certainly take this country places by having in place a more systematic and integrated approach towards information management with more attention being paid to standards. Have a good day. Justus ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: justus wamukoya <jwamukoya1@yahoo.com> Cc: "kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Friday, 21 October 2011, 21:05 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Freedom of Information laws and records management/More questions raised by Dr Ndemo and Harry Delano Justus, You are right. The Government actually is a head in this endeavor considering the fact that most registries would be digitized before the law is in place. On open data we are working on data standards. We need more apps to make it easier for the public to navigate through and find what they want. People generally would need information that affects their day to day life. Personally I would need more data or information from utilities. Here we shall need for example smart grid so that I can understand my energy consumption. I need to verify what KPLC or City Council bill me. I need to compare what my physician charges me. I need the hospital to itemise their billing. This is where we shall have a problem since most of these organization have no idea what the impact of access to information is all a bout. Soon on open data we post school performaces and qualification of teachers. This will help provide better analtics on why some schools or students perform better than others. We simply have to have all the information in digital format. It will be easier to manage the databases and create more software development jobs. Digital records are easier to manage, search and greater sharing of information. Ndemo. Sent from my BlackBerry® ________________________________ From: justus wamukoya <jwamukoya1@yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:16:08 +0100 (BST) To: bitange@jambo.co.ke<bitange@jambo.co.ke> ReplyTo: justus wamukoya <jwamukoya1@yahoo.com> Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Freedom of Information laws and records management/More questions raised by Dr Ndemo and Harry Delano Dear PS Ndemo and All. I have been following the debate on Freedom of Information and the emerging issues raised by many of you. I certainly agree with the PS that we need a cultural shift to make our people appreciate the value of information and use. But it is also my view that in order to use information and we need to manage it and especially we need to manage records and have proper structures in all of our institutions to promote sound records management. We need to think about what will happen when eventually we are able to get the FOI law enacted, will there be well managed information and more specifically records to access and to access them in a timely manner. Will it be possible to meet the timelines that may be set by the Act to provide the required information? do we even have the requisite infrastructure to ensure that this happens? and are we working hard to provide that enabling environment? Having a law in place is one thing and we certainly need an FOI law to create a demand for information and to bolster the gains brought about by our new constitution, but changing the mindset even among those of us who have an understanding of the critical issues of information and records management and beginning to lend support to initiatives to manage records properly remains a herculian task. If we are not careful, our societies may remain without memory as we embrace the digital environment. A recent IDRC study on aligning records management with e-Govt, ICTs and FOI across all five East African Community countries revealed that there were serious gaps with regard to policy, capacity building, infrastructure and much more. My appeal is that as we deliberate on issues of FOI let's all begin to think seriously and critical about how we can incorporate records management into discussions about ICT development, e-Government and development generally. It will not help our cause if we keep relegating the management of records to a clerical activity while at the same time we need quality information for decision making, etc. The resolutions of a stakeholders meeting held in Arusha to deliberate on the findings of the IDRC research acknowledged the huge gaps that exist and called for action to be taken by all five of the EAC countries. Justus Wamukoya ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: jwamukoya1@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Sent: Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 22:11 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Freedom of Information laws and records management/More questions raised by Dr Ndemo and Harry Delano Grace, Knowledge evolves when people understand new concepts and belief in them. Our situation is where we belief in unverified (non scientific) information. It is an ingrained cultural practice that must change. Since we must implement section 35 (access to information) of our constitution, our focus now is how can we make our people embrace the process of decision making. The government has made real progress in driving policy based on research. Sometime last year we expressed concern over increasing girl child dropout rate. Finance Minister wanted to know the causes. He was informed that it was due to lack of sanitary towels that forced the young minds to miss out on their education. You can clearly see this on the census data. In his budget this year the Minister put a side some 300 million shillings for sanitary towels. This is how we can begin to explain the need for information and how we can impact on policy. Unfortunately, we now define information narrowly as something the government has hidden. Media for example looks at information only when there is a scoop. Let us be more optimistic and focus on Harry's proposal of information value chain. Ndemo
Bwana PS and Harry
Thanks for those well articulated positions. Just to capture some issues you have raised:
· That FoI has not built demand for information into the kind of model under discussion on the list. · There is need for a complete cultural re-orientation to make Kenyans use information. As it is, Kenyans are not utilizing a lot of information available. · Kenyans need to move from an oral culture, and start documenting information, and make it available (I am actually curious of those 15 Ugali recipes:)). · And very important is that data being released by the government needs conversion into meaningful and usable
· There is need for ethnic language institutions to facilitate better communication. · That we need home bred solutions and must confront key challenges as well as define what works for us. · And that the Platform on Access to Information Declaration needs a review in order to capture the digital information age realities.
Some key questions arise from your contributions:
1. That Data in its stored form can never be information, until the same is conveyed to the target audience. What of knowledge? Where on the value chain do we build up data into knowledge, so that we can build ours into a "knowledge-based economy"?
2. And if we go up the data/information tree, what about data that has yet to find its way into the data bank, possibly some which remains in institutional memory form. How do we ensure we capture this for future generations?
3. What formats are we to get the information?
4. Who will set the standards for information?
5. How will the poor benefit from the information?
6. How will the information be disseminated?
Listers, please feel free to respond to any of the questions and lets keep this debate going.
Rgds Grace
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have the strength to survive, you have the power to succeed. Life is all about choices we make depending upon the situation we are in. Go forth and rule the World!
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:17:22 +0300
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Freedom of Information laws and records management/ e- discussion continued From: bitange@jambo.co.ke To: ggithaiga@hotmail.com CC: bitange@jambo.co.ke; kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
Grace, I am sort of disappointed with the discussion on FOI. We are delving much into theoretical assumptions. The whole issue of FOI has not built demand for the information into the kind of model we are discussing. Let us not allow foreigners dictate why we need information to be available to our citizens.
What needs to be done is more of cultural reorientation to make our people use information. We rarely make informed decisions. I mean use of science to make decisions. Poverty keeps on going up yet science tells us our productivity has dropped to the extent those we call farmers cannot make ends meet. Whereas we need qualified people in work place we do not require qualification for farmers. We now have novice farmers as wen grapple with food insecurity. If we cannot use available information on how we can be food secure, what more information you need that would change our lives?
For as long as we have lived on earth no Kenyan community has
information
on their own recipes. The assumptions is that if you want Ugali you just get to know how to cook it. There are more than fifteen Ugali recipes and none is documented. There are more than 100 Githeri recipes and none is documented to create rich information that application developers can proudly create apps. Until we move from our oral culture, information will be confined to storage places where it will occasionally be used.
We are also confusing information and data. The Government can release data and unless someone converts it into information, it will never translate to your theoretical assumptions. We generally want to listen to someone tells us what information is available. You recall some communities did not read the constitution since the leaders had read it. I had difficulty explaining some sections of the constitution even though we all had the document.
FOI will pass as has been many legislations that were key. We have fought for these legislations but after they are passed nothing happens. We wanted the ICT policy but many of it's advocates have not gone out there to tell Kenyans how to benefit from it. This certainly will happen the same way to FOI. We are rebels without a cause. I have met dozens of women groups and taken them through our census report highlighting the glaring disparities between men and women but in spite the fact that they promise to do something, none has ever done anything even bringing the issue up for debate.
We must aim to change our culture. We must make our people to demand to know what information they require in order to change from where they are to a desired future. We must build institutional frameworks to move date into information. As we debate, let us put a side theories from textbooks and begin from the end. Ask questions such as what formats are we to get the information? Who will set the standards for information? How will the poor benefit from the information? How will the information be disseminated?
Picture our problems and create the vision on how information can be used to bring better life for our people. Work the food security issue I mentioned backwards. We have mapped our soils in the country and the result is available on the open data yet you see farmers growing crops that will never give them
Ukambani, farmers can grow cassava or water Mellon which will give them more money to buy maize from the north rift instead of them growing the maize that would impoverish them. How can we effectively communicate this.
We must create language institutes for every ethnic group in Kenya. Language is dynamic yet we have not kept pace with technological advancement with our languages. This is why we fail to communicate. There is no African language that has a translation of break-even point or productivity yet these two words determine whether you will be poor or not. Information is information if the medium of communication is understood by all. We all need FOI but we have a lot to do if it is to making meaning in our
information. the desired productivity. For example, in lives.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwamukoya1%40yahoo.com The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.