Dear all, I had the opportunity, which I say was an honor to my country Kenya, to chair a Session "Use of The New Social Networks and other Internet Communication tools in the Parliamentary environment" at the World e-Parliament conference in Washington DC, on Nov 4, 2009. I had 4 panelists from: USA, Chile, Brazil, and European Parliament, and for 2 hours the audience paid keen attention to the panelists as they deliver very interesting presentations on how parliaments in their countries use ICT. We noted that with time we can catch on as we have enough experts in the country and the political goodwill. But for now, we are not anywhere close to these countries. Our 10th parliament has started rolling out these gadgets - thanks to our ICT-savvy Speaker Mr. Kenneth Marende. The new Standing Orders is the way to go. Most Committee meetings are now open to the public and as Mr. Clement Nyandiere, the director of ICT in parliament said Hansard contents can now be downloaded from the parliament website. With time, these will be digitized for easy access, and possibly upgraded to use atifficial intelligent software as the driver. We now have Wifi in the coffee lounge. Parliament bldgs are all connected with fibre optics less connection to the under sea cable. The Floor of the House (debating room)is fully covered with state-of-the art video cameras - equipped with feeds to media houses. The answer to the question by Edith Adera is yes, our committees will work closely with the Speaker to spearhead the required commitment to encourage our citizens, institutions and parliamentarians to use the new Social Media, as this is one of the sure ways of enhancing democracy, transparency, accountability and the elimination of graft in the country. I will end my short contribution by asking the AG to deliver the FOI and then we can start working on the Data. Hon. James Rege, MP, Karachuonyo Sent from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: CLEM NYANDIERE <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:23:03 To: james rege<[email protected]> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<[email protected]> Subject: Re: [kictanet] landmark visit by Sir Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of the World Wide Web . _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: [email protected] Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/james.rege%40gmail.com