Hear hear Phares. I too was unsure whether to laugh or cry when i heard the minister considering terminating 'unproductive and unmarketable' courses. Which is irony in its truest definition given that those who do not study history (an art!) are doomed to repeat it. Civilizations like Sumerians, Incans, Aztechs, Greeks, Romans etc flourished because they took both arts and sciences seriously. Both are interdependent and feed off each other. Look at pyramids for instance. At first glance they are fancy artistic tombs. But who wonders how the ancients were able to move those blocks? How they were able to shape them in a uniform, perfect gradient? How they got the bocks to fit together without concrete? How they elevated the blocks without cranes? And that today we actually cannot build pyramids even if we wanted to? In no way shape or form is this useless! I find it sad that getting a "good (productive!) job" is fast becoming a consideration in education. If this is the case then as a society we will soon be lost. Let people study what they want to study. The Ministry's job should be to facilitate this, not to tell us BSc Medicine is somehow more valuable as BA Sculpture! Isn't the government tying itself in knots with one hand telling us arts courses are useless the another one championing local content? On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 4:19 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
Just a thought, aren't Art's programs scoffed at in Kenya? We only have one public University offering a decent music program (Kenyatta University) and last I heard, they were considering scrapping it. Isn't Kenya the country where if you study a BA you are scoffed at for studying a "Bachelor of Anything"? Until recently, Art as a career option was downplayed. If a student dares to tell a high school teacher that they want to be a musician, theyget a rather curt "can't you do something decent with your life"?
We have all become so engrossed in providing the plumbing, we forgot to look for a source of water... I like initiatives like Tusker Project Fame (much as the embarrassment is tormenting for some), Kalasha awards etc, as it makes it apparent that there is an income in the arts. On blogging, most of our bloggers work full time, and only blog in their spare time, why? Full time writing in Kenya does not really pay... We have many people in the wrong careers, in business, sciences etc, while they have a musical gift.
The situation in Kenya is counterintuitive. Why? Because Art is never created on a schedule. To give rather crude example, had someone locked Handel in a room, and told him "Write a Christmas tune, asap" the messiah would have been a rather mediocre piece. What we have in Kenya is people forcing artists to produce, and the result will be of poor quality, mechanical and not very inspired. We will still look outside as the production will not be authentic. In my opinion, give it time. Additionally, universities need to have art programs better funded. More exposure needs to be given to our artists. I'm not saying it's not happening (the Classical Fusion by Safaricom, Story Moja Hay festival and renewed interest in poetry are happening, as we speak, and other such initiatives), however, more emphasis needs to be put on this, than an "instant coffee" solution.
To give a personal example, I used to play piano as a hobby, that was the first thing that I was forced to leave (by both parents and academic staff), both in University and High school? Why? "You can never make a living on music". I probably would never have gone forward with career in music, I'm not that creative, however, if I were really gifted, I would have been wasting my time in a career I had no interest in.
On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 8:37 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
Hi,
Content is a way of life, a matter of schooling and a culture of sharing. As Africans we share information orally which is why your specific question on the forum resulted in higher hits than on the search engine.
We still have an issue with sharing information in written form maybe its because we are generally not very genuine and do not want to be quoted. This forum is a case in point, I know at least 50 people who are registered on this list yet in the over 2 years I have been a member they have never made a single post even on issues that are directly targeted at them.
When the ICTBoard makes an occasional off the cuff posting it is a sign of how the organisation is stifling content generation, they need to have a permanent presence on this list as the more information is provided by the policy makers the less time we shall spend shooting in the dark.
I commend safaricom for being active and keeping us informed on what is going on, it is heart warming to see a posting from one of the highest paid CEOs yet those bottom of the pyramid officials think that the information they have is private. Now we understand why they are so highly paid, they share their vision not only when laying on the pillow but even to those of us out here, when you give one snippet of information you receive 10 more that is what content is and this posting is my contribution to local content generation.
Dr. Ndemo please move quickly to have the open information act passed as we need access to our information such as the censors results. I was actively involved in the tribeKenya initiative that advocated for us to answer the tribe question in the censors as Kenya, the censors results indicate that we are 610,122 who are of the tribe called Kenya. We have a dispute with this figure as we suspect this refers to the households that responded as Kenya but we can only verify this information once it is posted online our other recourse is to take the ministry to court.
Kokubo do not send off the cuff statements on side show activities do something that we can remember you for long after you have left the ICTBoard. You could have kept us all in the loop on what Homeboyz where doing that would have been content as you see see it is not a loaf of bread on a supper market shelf.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
------------------------------ *From:* Brian Munyao Longwe <blongwe@gmail.com> *To:* robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
*Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Sent:* Mon, 27 September, 2010 19:01:37 *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] digital content creation just a thought...
Robert,
I'm not sure I fully agree with you on this - if content creators were innovative enough - then Kenyans would have lots of options.
Today I was searching for a mobile handset:
"Nokia E5 prices Johannesburg" yielded lots of sites that not only were offering the handset, but even some that had price comparisons from various shops and even user reviews
"Nokia E5 prices Nairobi" yielded only one local site - a blog talking about the launch of the phone in Kenya by Nokia the rest were "foreign" links and articles on the Nokia press release
Our people are sleeping.... there's no other way to put it - although Paul tried to be diplomatic about it.
Interestingly - when I asked this question on a Nairobi tech mailing list I got loads of suggestions on where to get it and even had a bunch of price lists for alternate models sent to me...
It looks like we are still in the email content creation age and haven't "graduated" to the web content creation age....
Brian
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 5:52 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
Hi,
It is unfortunate that Kokubo still believes that content is a loaf of bread that can be baked and sold in the shop, content is a lifestyle.
Kenya has enough content unfortunately it is not local to Kenya but is hosted on foreign servers hence the expense of access. Until this content is brought home we shall remain a net importer of local content.
It is time the ICTBoard put its money where its mouth is, we need cost effective local hosting and collocation services providing unlimited local bandwidth. The issue of pegging my total throughput on the cost and size of the international pipe is counter-productive.
The funds that are being offered for people to develop content and applications through the recently concluded ICTBoard project will come to nought as most of the money will be spent paying for bandwidth and hosting services. Many of the successful applicants will opt to host their applications overseas which will mean those local consumers will have to pay a premium to access the content.
This issue can also be seen on the bill boards of the mobile companies that show no single local site.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
------------------------------ *From:* Paul Kukubo <pkukubo@ict.go.ke> *To:* robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Sent:* Sat, 25 September, 2010 21:51:04 *Subject:* [kictanet] digital content creation just a thought...
Listers
Kalasha awards from the Kenya Film Commission is an important recognition platform for Kenyan media talent.
As the show is going on, it was streamed live online at the request of the Commission CEO. The CEO approached us at the ICT Board to assist with live streaming. Two sister agencies under the Ministry of Information and Communications working together.
The Kenya ICT Board approached Homeboyz who then provided the livestream feed over the internet.
Opportunity for private sector to leverage this event for marketing is clear. Opportunity for entrepreuners to leverage this and any future event. eg some clever chap may have made a commercial argument to a bank targetting the diaspora, etc.. all entreprenuer stuff really..
What is an opportunity in future is for tech savvy marketing entrepreuners to sell the live stream feed as an advertising opportunity targetting the Diaspora. In order for entrepreuners to do so, they obviously need to be tuned to what brand advertisers need.
As I write this I am listening in to feed , reading the Twitter and Facebook updates of these event and getting a sense of being there even if I was not able to. Fantastic stuff. Enabled by technology. Once we do this on a grand scale, we can create even more enterprises around understanding consumer and business needs.
Asante..
Paul Kukubo Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board PO Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street
Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 Fax: +254 20 2211962 website: www.ict.go.ke local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya twitter:@tandaaKENYA BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke
personal contacts _______________
Cell: + 254 717 180001
skype: kukubopaul googletalk: pkukubo personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke personal twitter: @pkukubo
____________________ Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub
Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment
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