Afternoon all, Computer for schools is definitely a very good initiative by the Kenya government and a strong statement that it supports ICT and hopes it will be a major driving force for the economy as we transition to a knowledge economy. This was clearly demonstrated by a budgetary in this years budget. The budget though small will definitely change something in the educational sector. Cloud computing technology on the other side is growing rapidly and is being said to have the capability of making the third world leap frog to first world in terms of technology. Imagine an application in the cloud which is taken up by at least half of Kenya's SMEs and the impact it would have on them. Cloud computing is also easy and fast to deploy from a user perspective and does not necessarily require the skills of an ICT project manager in the classical sence (you probably do not need an ICT project manager to move companies mails to Google apps or hosted Microsoft exchange). Cloud computing is envisaged to revolutionise computing in the classical sence in that people may not require PCs to do their work to an extent where BYOD (bring your own device) model will be used at our workplaces. If this really happens companies will definitely realize lots of costs reduction. It is also envisaged that people will increasingly move away from convectional computing devices (desktops and laptops) to smart handheld devices like smart phones, tablets etc. This technology should inform us a lot in our computer for schools provisioning strategies. The computer for schools approach has been buying out computers, setting up LANs and connecting them to internet in a laboratory. If trends in cloud computing continue we will see less and less of computers and more and more of handheld smart devices. Think about ourselves now and see how often we use the desktops in our offices. BYOD which is being fought by most ICT Managers will be an obvious situation. There is a possibility that the students in schools today might not use computers at all in their working life. I guess we should start thinking of how we can introduce these devices in schools because really they are the future of computing. Instead of teaching convectional programing we probably should be teaching mobile and cloud applications programming. The best thing about these devices is their mobility and the fact that you can charge once and use for several hours thus appropriate for areas with electricity power challenges. I could write more but those are my quick thought. regards, James