Hi Collins,

As much as you disagree with me you need to appreciate that with cloud computing and smart phones we would be moving backwards if we tried to go into casing manufacture and PCB boards as the incumbents have got the process done to a science.  There is no way we can deliver a casing in nairobi for less than the Chinese fellow.

My issue is that we have graduates out there who cannot get to their full potential because of a lack of a technological infrastructure.  What I am requesting the government it to think out of the box, we are better placed to provide the world with intellectual products and should work in that direction.

On the issue of power to me it it neither her nor there we have a sank cost in as far as the generating capacity is concerned so unless we can immediately get a cheaper source that will enable us to continue meeting the loan repayments for the existing capacity and still offer a lower cost to the consumer then we can turn off the dams and geothermal stations but until then we need to live with what we have.

Still on the issue of cost of power can you give me an example of a manufacturing company that actually closed shop as a result of this? 

I do not understand the production of sufurias or jikos but I do understand technology and from where I am sitting unless we develop the technology infrastructure we shall never even come close to meeting the vision 2030 objectives.


 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696


From: Collins Areba <arebacollins@gmail.com>
To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Wed, 30 March, 2011 8:40:26
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Local hosting - reiterated

@robert, with all respect, you seem to look at every other industry as inferior compared to information technology. I beg to differ:
 Here are my reasons:

The Industry is reliant on electronic gadgets imported from China and south Korea, these components will increasingly become a significant expenditure not only by Kenya but also by the other nations in the region.

Thanks to technology, CNC (Computer numerical control machining) and CAD / CAM, the technology gap between Kenya and China is easily narrowed. This means that technically if we wanted to start manufacturing PCBs, all we would need are the equipment, standard layout designs and raw materials. Then we can innovate and improve on existing ones.

This would fly in the face of your thinkin but actually, after roads GOK should be looking at Energy. (If you ask me it should have looked at energy first). Why Kenyan electricity is 5 times more expensive than china's is a matter for another discussion but Kenya should aspire to have the cheapest electricity in the continent. (Green or not green notwithstanding, cheap first, then maybe green).

On the Jua kali sheds, what GOK needs is to have extension officers to now work on getting those boyt and girls hammering 220L barrels into pans and jikos into better fabrication technologies to improve productivity. I believe that granted, these willbe the centers that will start manufacturing components. a shed in Nairobi could be doing computer cases, another in coast could be doing monitors, another could be doing power supplies...e..t.c.



On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 7:54 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
This says a lot about the governments lip service on vision 2030, the setting up of special economic zones and jua kali sheds is so industrial revolution thinking.

With technology the entire country becomes an special economic zone whose only infrastructure requirements are data centres and high speed broadband (wired or otherwise) all of which are much cheaper to install than 4 lane highways and 11,000 kilo volt power sub-stations, or could it be the issue of 10%.

Kazi kwa vijani needs to look beyond the standard 8 drop out to the university graduate who already has the skills and is only looking for an enabling environment.  

Dr. Ndemo, I propose you call your counterpart in the Ministry of Industrialisation and which ever other ministry is involved in the jua kali shed project and insist to be given 1 shed in every constituency then take the cash equivalent and set-up a hosting and collocation centre.  

All it requires is 1000 square feet of space in your offices (digitise your files and move the physical ones to Kabartonjo).  From your offices get at least a 1 gigabit link to KIXP and as you are next to Oranges Telephone House which sits on a node of the Secom marine cable you can tap in for the international bandwidth.

The other link you require is to KeNET (http://www.kenet.or.ke), the education network hub, which I believe is currently asleep so that the location can be accessed across all universities.  This is critical as we know what happened when the developers of google and facebook went through when trying to host within their campuses.

If you leave the issue of hosting and collocation to market forces and private enterprise then our young developers and doomed to languish in poverty like our great artists.  This is the 1968 of technology time to setup an ICDC and KNTC type entities for the technology industry which you can then float like safaricom and kenya power after the market has matured.

From where I sit not even Safaricom or Airtel have the resources or willpower to salvage this situation.
 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya

Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696


From: Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi@gmail.com>
To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Tue, 29 March, 2011 17:57:58
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Local hosting - reiterated

Developers and Local Hosting providers have for long been involved in the "chicken before the egg" situation where hosting firms say that demand has to increase for prices to come down, they have to justify investment. Developers meanwhile want prices to come down before they host locally, with some of them barely having budgets. 

At the same time, local hosting firms have to learn to offer world class cutting edge platforms and interfaces to their users if they are going to adopt them. 

At the same time, it aids when those providing this services go into technical details, like the type of databases offered, supported scripting languages rather than just tell us 2 databases, developers need that information. 

Rememeber there is tough competition from the likes of Amazon who have a robust cloud infrastructure which is free for low usage (http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/)

As a case study, a local developer has done a popular application , AroundMe (Nokia Ovi store - http://store.ovi.com/content/103911#/content/103911/reviews) which has been downloaded more than 10,000 times and with 30,000 searches. The app uses the Google App Engine (https://appengine.google.com/) cloud platform, also free to a certain usage . To now the app is still operating on the free limit (http://aroundmenow.appspot.com/). 


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