Hi Aki, Thank you a million for supporting this discussion, it is encouraging to note that there are technical people out there who appreciate the need for data to come local and are also willing to put their reputations on the line. Many have taken my raising of this issue as a personal attach on some people, I am not attaching Mr. Kukubo or Dr. Ndemo but the offices they represent as was said by one american president "the buck stops here". Please treat my use of strong words as the effects of my frustration with what is going on in the industry. I have been in the IT field for over 22 years now and however we think that we are making progress in reality we are actually back peddling. I hope more of the wazee out there can give there 2 cents on the issues raised on this and other fora. Lets hope that the 2 GBps that KIXP is bragging about can be increased to equal or surpasses the total international bandwidth at which point we shall have moved beyond 1995 when Dr. Shem Ochuodho offered us internet services at 50/- per minute. (US 1/- was equivalent to Kes. 57/- today its 92/-) Keep listing. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: aki <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, 15 July, 2011 15:45:44 Subject: Re: [kictanet] What are the core system and hosting requirements of the Open Data Inititative? While we await the requirements from KICTB as being "Open Data" too ... :-) This is very basic a translation of what happens at the moment, many will know this but for those catching up on why having the data locally is too important in the long term. - The OpenData Server is in the US. a) When a Kenyan clicks on the maps or visualized data on the site, the request on the internet browser is sent out via the device. b) The request leaves the Telco or ISP network, lands at the fiber gateway in Mombasa. It no longer becomes our responsibility to guarantee that the request will continue on its destination. The request will arrive in e.g. Fujairah ( Dubai ). From here, it it sent across global communication highways, across the Atlantic Ocean until it finds the server on another continent. c) The server responds back to the request = The request is for a a graphic display or a map. Here you go! I'm sending the Page and Image that Matches your request. d) The response travels all the way back, now it is a much bigger file than the request. So back onto the Atlantic Ocean, Dubai, Mombasa and finally in Kenya and onto your internet browser e) As an end user, the information has been served in a timely manner. Sometimes there will be errors, keeping in mind that many other users may also be requesting the same information. In the communications world, the above data travel is torture and unacceptable, unless it cannot be avoided in extreme circumstances. With every click for request for information, the eventual buildup of many requests and large responses in amounts of data. Within the first 12 months of the site being in operation, the traffic will keep building up. And each time the data displays such as graphs grow with various data sets, the more intensive the whole process. Given the advances in technilogy, not many will notice what is happening. However, for Mobile and iTab developers, in the long term this will become critical as the display application will hang up or show signs of "freezing" until a response is gotten. So why do we care? I'll just mention the basic communication aspects as an overview. If we had the Server Data locally, e.g. I'm sure Telcos like Safaricom would look at the cost of local traffic versus international traffic as the data demands grew because the data is graphic intensive and not just small text files. Infact, any traffic within Kenyan networks would be treated at cheaper costs. To put this across to Telcos, a simple hypothetical cost analysis. Local Networks 10Mbit cost = Ksh 30,000/- while International Networks 10Mbit = Ksh 400,000/- It costs the ISPs, Network Operators almost 10 times more to handle international traffic and these costs are passed onto Kenyans. The other advantage of keeping traffic local is the real broadband response times that will drastically improve thus the grahical data which will open with a click of a button. I'll ask the Network Operators or specialists to comment on costs or corrections. Thank you.