So was Sir Tim's visit a success or not? Did it put Kenya 'on the map' in any way? Was it beneficial? Would we like more of such visits despite some of the bad international press we havew had? Fellow Listers, dont we have something to celebrate? Nyaki Eric M.K Osiakwan wrote:
Oyi, i thought we had gone past this old school, not to be taken serious way of doing things......i hope he did not leave with the perception that Kenya is a closed remote controlled society. The Ghana episode is @ http://www.ghanaconnect.org.gh/sir-timothy-john-“tim”-berners-lee-meets-internet-community-ghana with photos @ http://gasconi.jalbum.net/TimBerners-%20Lee%27s%20Visit/ and videos @ http://www.ghanaconnect.org.gh/videos Eric here On 26 Nov 2009, at 07:58, Harry Hare wrote:
Actually sending media invites out then, decide mid-way that you don't need the media but instead of saying so you send them in a wild goose chase was totally unacceptable especially for an individual who believes in openness.
The handlers did a perfect job on miss-handling the good Prof...sort of defeatist if you asked me.
Kindest Regards Harry
On 11/26/09 10:35 AM, "michael Ouma" <benomnta@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Mr Mureithi:
i still feel the rest of the media, i.e print journalists,
were not given sufficient time to interview and seek views of Prof Barnes on saturday and during the whole trip.
the first communication we'd from DFID
was that there'd be a media briefing at 9am on saturday, then the time was pushed to 11.30am, then 12.30pm. then after Barnes was done with Jeff, the rest of us were only given 10 mins for our interview, 5mins of which were still spent on setting the ground rules for the interview like the number of questions to ask, how not to take photos and the like.
as much as i agree
that Jeff (K24) needed the almost 2hours he'd for his 'capital talk' interview, the rest of us should also have been considered, and the appropriate ans sufficient time accorded to us so as to enable us to also inform our readers about Prof Barnes visit to the country.
thanks.
Michael Ouma Journalist Kenya Tel:+254-725-537823
"There are risks and
costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction," - JF Kennedy.
--- On Wed, 11/25/09,
muriuki mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:
From: muriuki mureithi <mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke> Subject: [kictanet] Sir Tim Berners-lee web inventor on K24 Capital Talk on Monday 30th To: benomnta@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 11:59 AM
Hi all stakeholders of the web
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the www inventor in 1989 and Time magazine member of 100 Most Important People of the 20th century honoured Kenya by a visit last week facilitated by KICTAnet. On the conclusion of the trip, he gave a wide ranging one-on-one interview to K24’s Jeff Koinange Capital Talk to be aired on Monday 30th at 2000 hrs and 2200hrs. Make a date to hear first hand the inventor of the www.
In his itinerary, he met and interacted with the
cross-section of Kenyan web stakeholders – government, parliament, academia, techies, industry and civil society. This was a fact finding mission to understand how his invention is being exploited. He also profiled Web Foundation (www.webfoundation.org ) that he launched in Sharm el Sheikh IGF on 15th Nov, Web Science Research Initiative (www.wsri.org) and clarified some of the outputs of www consortium (w3c) in standard setting especially for the virtually impaired.
He met government officials led by Vice President Hon Kalonzo Musyoka, Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo and CCK DG Mr Charles
Njoroge among others over lunch, had an interactive session with Parliamentary committee responsible for ICT led by Hon Eng James Rege. He also gave a one hour lecture to the academic community (view the video lecture at www.kenet.or.ke) and met Skunkworks at Strathmore University as well as TESPOK. A recurring theme was the opportunity provided by the www but can only be fully exploited by the development of content – just do it, put data on a web page and contribute to the growth of the web now estimated at 10 raised to power 18 pages and growing rapidly.
From the high and mighty, Sir Tim went to the grassroots. First stop was first hand interaction with the virtually impaired at the Kenya Society of the Blind. Yes, the blind who constitute up to 3% of the Kenyan population need to access the web and software to help them is available both for the computer and the cell phones. According to the virtually impaired ,the cost was a barrier, good pc software cost about $500 while for the cell phone cost $300, and open source was not as good. Equally, most of the Kenyan web developers do not incorporate features for virtually impaired.
In addition, Sir Tim saw applications of the web as a social intervention to create jobs, reduce crime and organise a neighbourhood by the excellent work by Kimathi Information Centre, and the power of the community radio to extend the power of the web to those in the slums as ably illustrated by the SIDAREC radio – Ghetto 99.9. To crown the visit to SIDAREC, he talked live on Ghetto 99.9 FM and praised the efforts of the SIDAREC to empower the poor with information.
His visit comes at time when Kenya has just plugged into submarine optic fibres cables and a repealed Kenya Communication Act chaperoning Kenya to the information society era. From the many interactions in his itinerary it was clear that all sectors of the society are highly sensitised on the opportunities created by www and ways to exploit the web. The only way to honour Sir Tim’s visit is to ACT now.
Cheers
Muriuki Mureithi
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