Connected Summit highly sponsored by International tech giants
This week, the talk is about Connected Kenya Summit. There are more than 400 private and public sector folks to discuss ways to improve Kenya. The summit has cost more than Ksh 50 million. The ICT Board may not have raised the whole amount, maybe less than sh 8 million. The majority of the money is from sponsors. Look at the link on sponsors page of Connected Kenya, what do you see? These are mostly international companies? How do they make money? Read more...... http://www.wanjiku.co.ke/2013/05/kenyas-connected-summit-heavily-funded-by-i...
I never really understand this line of critique. Kenya is only the 32nd largest country in the world, the 84th largest economy, ranks 121st in ease of doing business and does not facilitate easy access to work permits for skilled foreigners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/kenya/ Why would one expect Kenyan companies to be able to compete with the international players with these statistics? People always talk about how there are local companies that are at this level, but I don't see any Kenyan ICT companies with thousands of engineers and multi-billion dollar market caps like the ones in this post. Who else is going to do large government contracts at a globally competitive calibre? Don't get me wrong, I know exactly how wasteful these contracts can be and New York is no stranger to bloated IT implementations. Nonetheless, these big projects can't just be done by a 3 year old 10 person shop either. The solution to that problem is to hire better best of breed companies like ThoughtWorks to train up high quality teams of government employees so that each department has their own internal capacity, not to simply focus on building up more of a local contractor base. -Adam --- OpenStack for Africa: http://signup.kili.io Musings: https://twitter.com/varud About Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 3:58 PM, Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com>wrote:
This week, the talk is about Connected Kenya Summit. There are more than 400 private and public sector folks to discuss ways to improve Kenya. The summit has cost more than Ksh 50 million. The ICT Board may not have raised the whole amount, maybe less than sh 8 million. The majority of the money is from sponsors. Look at the link on sponsors page of Connected Kenya, what do you see? These are mostly international companies? How do they make money? Read more......
http://www.wanjiku.co.ke/2013/05/kenyas-connected-summit-heavily-funded-by-i...
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
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Adam, Have noted many times, the world was not civilized by people primarily motivated by profit. Which of the Top 5 Ivy League Colleges, around which, whole US towns and counties have developed, was founded or grounded by hard core capitalists? We are (slowly) developing Kenya via hundreds of local businesses with visionary/missionary leaders. The biggest bank (now less hospitable after foreign shareholding increased) in Kenya focused on masses ignored by multinationals. )=: On May 30, 2013 10:38 AM, "Adam Nelson" <adam@varud.com> wrote:
I never really understand this line of critique.
Kenya is only the 32nd largest country in the world, the 84th largest economy, ranks 121st in ease of doing business and does not facilitate easy access to work permits for skilled foreigners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/kenya/
Why would one expect Kenyan companies to be able to compete with the international players with these statistics?
People always talk about how there are local companies that are at this level, but I don't see any Kenyan ICT companies with thousands of engineers and multi-billion dollar market caps like the ones in this post. Who else is going to do large government contracts at a globally competitive calibre?
Don't get me wrong, I know exactly how wasteful these contracts can be and New York is no stranger to bloated IT implementations. Nonetheless, these big projects can't just be done by a 3 year old 10 person shop either. The solution to that problem is to hire better best of breed companies like ThoughtWorks to train up high quality teams of government employees so that each department has their own internal capacity, not to simply focus on building up more of a local contractor base.
-Adam
--- OpenStack for Africa: http://signup.kili.io Musings: https://twitter.com/varud About Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 3:58 PM, Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com
wrote:
This week, the talk is about Connected Kenya Summit. There are more than 400 private and public sector folks to discuss ways to improve Kenya. The summit has cost more than Ksh 50 million. The ICT Board may not have raised the whole amount, maybe less than sh 8 million. The majority of the money is from sponsors. Look at the link on sponsors page of Connected Kenya, what do you see? These are mostly international companies? How do they make money? Read more......
http://www.wanjiku.co.ke/2013/05/kenyas-connected-summit-heavily-funded-by-i...
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
The answer to your first question is Brown University, primarily funded by a hard core capitalist slaveholder in Providence, Rhode Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Brown,_Sr. However, I agree with the critique of multinationals as being somewhat above sovereign law, but that's not the initial critique - which is simply that foreign multinationals are going to be getting Kenyan government contracts as an indirect result of making personal connections at the conference. --- OpenStack for Africa: http://signup.kili.io Musings: https://twitter.com/varud About Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 12:31 PM, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya@gmail.com>wrote:
Adam,
Have noted many times, the world was not civilized by people primarily motivated by profit.
Which of the Top 5 Ivy League Colleges, around which, whole US towns and counties have developed, was founded or grounded by hard core capitalists?
We are (slowly) developing Kenya via hundreds of local businesses with visionary/missionary leaders.
The biggest bank (now less hospitable after foreign shareholding increased) in Kenya focused on masses ignored by multinationals.
)=: On May 30, 2013 10:38 AM, "Adam Nelson" <adam@varud.com> wrote:
I never really understand this line of critique.
Kenya is only the 32nd largest country in the world, the 84th largest economy, ranks 121st in ease of doing business and does not facilitate easy access to work permits for skilled foreigners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/kenya/
Why would one expect Kenyan companies to be able to compete with the international players with these statistics?
People always talk about how there are local companies that are at this level, but I don't see any Kenyan ICT companies with thousands of engineers and multi-billion dollar market caps like the ones in this post. Who else is going to do large government contracts at a globally competitive calibre?
Don't get me wrong, I know exactly how wasteful these contracts can be and New York is no stranger to bloated IT implementations. Nonetheless, these big projects can't just be done by a 3 year old 10 person shop either. The solution to that problem is to hire better best of breed companies like ThoughtWorks to train up high quality teams of government employees so that each department has their own internal capacity, not to simply focus on building up more of a local contractor base.
-Adam
--- OpenStack for Africa: http://signup.kili.io Musings: https://twitter.com/varud About Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 3:58 PM, Rebecca Wanjiku < rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com> wrote:
This week, the talk is about Connected Kenya Summit. There are more than 400 private and public sector folks to discuss ways to improve Kenya. The summit has cost more than Ksh 50 million. The ICT Board may not have raised the whole amount, maybe less than sh 8 million. The majority of the money is from sponsors. Look at the link on sponsors page of Connected Kenya, what do you see? These are mostly international companies? How do they make money? Read more......
http://www.wanjiku.co.ke/2013/05/kenyas-connected-summit-heavily-funded-by-i...
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
Hahaa... You make good points. About Brown University... Note the Motto + History section at Wikipedia. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_University We appreciate multinationals and partner with them for IP, but not for the ethics we need to develop towns and to grow our firms into regional business leaders. Now we have about 150 Million East Africans. In 20 years time, about 250 million to serve. We need all the help we can get in building good governance for towns and cities. :) On May 30, 2013 12:41 PM, "Adam Nelson" <adam@varud.com> wrote:
The answer to your first question is Brown University, primarily funded by a hard core capitalist slaveholder in Providence, Rhode Island:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Brown,_Sr.
However, I agree with the critique of multinationals as being somewhat above sovereign law, but that's not the initial critique - which is simply that foreign multinationals are going to be getting Kenyan government contracts as an indirect result of making personal connections at the conference.
--- OpenStack for Africa: http://signup.kili.io Musings: https://twitter.com/varud About Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 12:31 PM, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya@gmail.com>wrote:
Adam,
Have noted many times, the world was not civilized by people primarily motivated by profit.
Which of the Top 5 Ivy League Colleges, around which, whole US towns and counties have developed, was founded or grounded by hard core capitalists?
We are (slowly) developing Kenya via hundreds of local businesses with visionary/missionary leaders.
The biggest bank (now less hospitable after foreign shareholding increased) in Kenya focused on masses ignored by multinationals.
)=: On May 30, 2013 10:38 AM, "Adam Nelson" <adam@varud.com> wrote:
I never really understand this line of critique.
Kenya is only the 32nd largest country in the world, the 84th largest economy, ranks 121st in ease of doing business and does not facilitate easy access to work permits for skilled foreigners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/kenya/
Why would one expect Kenyan companies to be able to compete with the international players with these statistics?
People always talk about how there are local companies that are at this level, but I don't see any Kenyan ICT companies with thousands of engineers and multi-billion dollar market caps like the ones in this post. Who else is going to do large government contracts at a globally competitive calibre?
Don't get me wrong, I know exactly how wasteful these contracts can be and New York is no stranger to bloated IT implementations. Nonetheless, these big projects can't just be done by a 3 year old 10 person shop either. The solution to that problem is to hire better best of breed companies like ThoughtWorks to train up high quality teams of government employees so that each department has their own internal capacity, not to simply focus on building up more of a local contractor base.
-Adam
--- OpenStack for Africa: http://signup.kili.io Musings: https://twitter.com/varud About Adam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 3:58 PM, Rebecca Wanjiku < rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com> wrote:
This week, the talk is about Connected Kenya Summit. There are more than 400 private and public sector folks to discuss ways to improve Kenya. The summit has cost more than Ksh 50 million. The ICT Board may not have raised the whole amount, maybe less than sh 8 million. The majority of the money is from sponsors. Look at the link on sponsors page of Connected Kenya, what do you see? These are mostly international companies? How do they make money? Read more......
http://www.wanjiku.co.ke/2013/05/kenyas-connected-summit-heavily-funded-by-i...
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
participants (3)
-
Adam Nelson -
Rebecca Wanjiku -
S.M. Muraya