Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi, It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy. The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath. I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind. With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks. Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives. - 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines - 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank. - 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training. - 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers. - 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet). The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details). Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million. Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
I am right behind you. My suggestion and hope was for MP to be able to decide to spend that funding for the best implementations in their constituencies whether that is building telecenters, training centers, equipping schools and of course the Rural Internet Kiosks. With 7 million per constituency we would be able to build one main training center, equip several schools, and implement a number of kiosks. This would be REAL ICT for development that would be able to generate an income for the community in addition to service provision and would be self sustaining. Best, Crystal On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 10:40 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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-- Crystal "Naliaka" Watley Kigoni Executive Director Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development crystal@voicesofafrica.org http://www.voicesofafrica.org/ Intersat Africa, Ltd Rural Internet Kiosks Project Coordinator crystal.kigoni@intersat.ae Twitter: VOA_Crystal Skype: crystal.naliaka Facebook group: Voices of Africa "You must be the change you wish to see" - Gandhi
Nice ideas Robert. Key item that should be included would be digitized educational content to put the computers to optimum use by both learners and teachers. That would account for approx 15% of the budget. Only then would the students trully benefit from the equipment and see improved learning outcomes especially in the sciences and mathematic subject areas. See www.cyberschooltech.org Fatma Sent from my iPhone On Mar 24, 2010, at 10:40 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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That is precisely my arguement for using those funds for training centers and Rural Internet Kiosks. These are designed to teach people computer and Internet skills. The people who are trained can then working in the schools, clinics, and other areas where ICTs can be used for development. Education must be viewed holistically to encompass the whole society not simply school children who can occassionally board the bus. In addition these projects are financially self sustaining after implementation and prove much needed employment. Let us consider the long term ramifications of our investments and ensure that we get the maximum impact. It is easier said than done, but if we do not begin the journey it will never be done. Blessings, Crystal Sent from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: bitange@jambo.co.ke Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:15:50 To: <crystal@voicesofafrica.org> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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If I would look at it from another angle, I suppose also and I will keep on insisting - Let us please ensure for grand projects such as this that will impact on the nation, we develop a Multistakeholder approach, consult widely and sell the idea and also listen to other ideas out there,then settle on the best - in terms of feasibility,impact and cost effectiveness. I think while it is good to initiate good projects that stand to benefit the nation, it will be prudent also to develop a model that will ensure all angles of such projects are covered right through from the point of incubation to implementation. We are accustomed now to "Surprise projects" when least expected, which fade off as soon as they are mooted. While we on this topic, I posted earlier this morning an initiative by the Ministry of Education to digitalize the Academic curriculum in schools. For instance in this case, is the ministry of ICT Involved? What about other stakeholder...? What would this portend - especially for Educational Material /curriculum Publishers, who may lose a market share in the education sector? How feasible is it? What is the impact of the huge digital divide at present on such an initiative? What about broadband? Shouldn't we address this first..? Certainly a lot of questions..I think it would be advisable for the govt. organs to engage far & wide.. Harry -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of crystal@voicesofafrica.org Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 7:29 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus That is precisely my arguement for using those funds for training centers and Rural Internet Kiosks. These are designed to teach people computer and Internet skills. The people who are trained can then working in the schools, clinics, and other areas where ICTs can be used for development. Education must be viewed holistically to encompass the whole society not simply school children who can occassionally board the bus. In addition these projects are financially self sustaining after implementation and prove much needed employment. Let us consider the long term ramifications of our investments and ensure that we get the maximum impact. It is easier said than done, but if we do not begin the journey it will never be done. Blessings, Crystal Sent from my BlackBerryR -----Original Message----- From: bitange@jambo.co.ke Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:15:50 To: <crystal@voicesofafrica.org> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world" _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: crystal@voicesofafrica.org Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/crystal%40voicesofafric a.org _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/harry%40comtelsys.co.ke
KIE is doing a great job on education content development. We have several joint initiatives. Next week March 29 -31 we have a major e-learning conference to showcase local digital content. You are all welcome. We shall make great progress if we begin by asking rather than complaining. Development is largely thinking positive and taking risk in good faith. Regards Ndemo. Sent from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: "Harry Delano" <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:17:22 To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus If I would look at it from another angle, I suppose also and I will keep on insisting - Let us please ensure for grand projects such as this that will impact on the nation, we develop a Multistakeholder approach, consult widely and sell the idea and also listen to other ideas out there,then settle on the best - in terms of feasibility,impact and cost effectiveness. I think while it is good to initiate good projects that stand to benefit the nation, it will be prudent also to develop a model that will ensure all angles of such projects are covered right through from the point of incubation to implementation. We are accustomed now to "Surprise projects" when least expected, which fade off as soon as they are mooted. While we on this topic, I posted earlier this morning an initiative by the Ministry of Education to digitalize the Academic curriculum in schools. For instance in this case, is the ministry of ICT Involved? What about other stakeholder...? What would this portend - especially for Educational Material /curriculum Publishers, who may lose a market share in the education sector? How feasible is it? What is the impact of the huge digital divide at present on such an initiative? What about broadband? Shouldn't we address this first..? Certainly a lot of questions..I think it would be advisable for the govt. organs to engage far & wide.. Harry -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of crystal@voicesofafrica.org Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 7:29 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus That is precisely my arguement for using those funds for training centers and Rural Internet Kiosks. These are designed to teach people computer and Internet skills. The people who are trained can then working in the schools, clinics, and other areas where ICTs can be used for development. Education must be viewed holistically to encompass the whole society not simply school children who can occassionally board the bus. In addition these projects are financially self sustaining after implementation and prove much needed employment. Let us consider the long term ramifications of our investments and ensure that we get the maximum impact. It is easier said than done, but if we do not begin the journey it will never be done. Blessings, Crystal Sent from my BlackBerryR -----Original Message----- From: bitange@jambo.co.ke Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:15:50 To: <crystal@voicesofafrica.org> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world" _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: crystal@voicesofafrica.org Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/crystal%40voicesofafric a.org _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/harry%40comtelsys.co.ke _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: bitange@jambo.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke ---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"
Hi, I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide. I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more. Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling. Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats. Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish. Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and looked into more critrically. Providing ICT infrasructure to schools, using the state of the art technologies should be considered, rather than buses without roads. Regrds Vitalis ________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Hi, I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide. I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more. Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling. Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats. Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish. Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
This message was sent to: bitange@jambo.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke
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Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses Regrds Vitalis ________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Hi, I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide. I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more. Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling. Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats. Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish. Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools. If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done". Regards Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
---------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. --------------------------------------------- "easy access to the world"
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study. Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details). It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information. Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work. With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas. Regards Vitalis ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study. Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads. The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources. Ndemo. Sent from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details). It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information. Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work. With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas. Regards Vitalis ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study. Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads. The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources. Ndemo. Sent from my BlackBerry® ________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details). It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information. Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work. With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas. Regards Vitalis ________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study. Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Robert I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose..... see, there is a big challenge in kenya if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO .... I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector. Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Hi Liko, Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district? In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object. It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time. The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times. Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University. Regards Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Robert I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose..... see, there is a big challenge in kenya if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO .... I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector. Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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my point is really simple. we have broadband, security is better, roads are better. what are you doing as a Kenyan ? am saying start with the man in the mirror and then point fingers... On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerryR
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said
Listers, Let's keep the debate on course, without necessarily bringing each other within "cross-hairs" I suppose, all of us have a point. The issue is where can we get to a point of "convergence", as in the final analysis, we all would like to see a more prosperous country through fast-tracked processes that do not take us round in circles. So, let's keep it going.. Harry -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Agosta Liko Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 1:40 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus my point is really simple. we have broadband, security is better, roads are better. what are you doing as a Kenyan ? am saying start with the man in the mirror and then po int fingers... On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Harry I agree with your view .. but my point is before we rate what everyone else has done(wrong) we should at least try and do something. Even the smallest consulting company {1 man show} can build a simple site to simplify stuff ... or to put all government ICT strategy documents. The bus project may not be the best .. but do we honestly think that having those pcs in a lab in a central place will have the same effect ? Again. Its 2010, we have cheap internet, power does not potea as much, roads are better ...... IBM had some good ads about the Doing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOG_GHNVq0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudaxA80eI4 On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 2:13 PM, Harry Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:
Listers,
Let's keep the debate on course, without necessarily bringing each other within "cross-hairs"
I suppose, all of us have a point. The issue is where can we get to a point of "convergence", as in the final analysis, we all would like to see a more prosperous country through fast-tracked processes that do not take us round in circles.
So, let's keep it going..
Harry
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Agosta Liko Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 1:40 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
my point is really simple.
we have broadband, security is better, roads are better.
what are you doing as a Kenyan ?
am saying start with the man in the mirror and then po
int fingers...
Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerryR
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said
On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Hey Liko, Wow, that "ideating" bit, is quite something..... Now, am certain from the passion am seeing from these posts, everyone is out to contribute in one way or another. The idea is to create an environment of "robust" partnership - whether it's PPP or whatever we may call it, that would synergise efforts, avoid wastage, duplication, mismanagement, and move forward. I suppose, that is what the debate on this forum is all about. If anything short of this, then I suppose we just close this down, and everyone goes about minding their own business.. Harry -----Original Message----- From: Agosta Liko [mailto:agostal@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 3:47 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Harry I agree with your view .. but my point is before we rate what everyone else has done(wrong) we should at least try and do something. Even the smallest consulting company {1 man show} can build a simple site to simplify stuff ... or to put all government ICT strategy documents. The bus project may not be the best .. but do we honestly think that having those pcs in a lab in a central place will have the same effect ? Again. Its 2010, we have cheap internet, power does not potea as much, roads are better ...... IBM had some good ads about the Doing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOG_GHNVq0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudaxA80eI4 On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 2:13 PM, Harry Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:
Listers,
Let's keep the debate on course, without necessarily bringing each other within "cross-hairs"
I suppose, all of us have a point. The issue is where can we get to a point of "convergence", as in the final analysis, we all would like to see a more prosperous country through fast-tracked processes that do not take us round in circles.
So, let's keep it going..
Harry
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Agosta Liko Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 1:40 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
my point is really simple.
we have broadband, security is better, roads are better.
what are you doing as a Kenyan ?
am saying start with the man in the mirror and then po
int fingers...
On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the
country.
Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerryR
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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:) I for Implementation ... On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 4:03 PM, Harry Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:
Hey Liko,
Wow, that "ideating" bit, is quite something.....
Now, am certain from the passion am seeing from these posts, everyone is out to contribute in one way or another. The idea is to create an environment of "robust" partnership - whether it's PPP or whatever we may call it, that would synergise efforts, avoid wastage, duplication, mismanagement, and move forward.
I suppose, that is what the debate on this forum is all about. If anything short of this, then I suppose we just close this down, and everyone goes about minding their own business..
Harry
-----Original Message----- From: Agosta Liko [mailto:agostal@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 3:47 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Harry
I agree with your view .. but my point is before we rate what everyone else has done(wrong) we should at least try and do something. Even the smallest consulting company {1 man show} can build a simple site to simplify stuff ... or to put all government ICT strategy documents.
The bus project may not be the best .. but do we honestly think that having those pcs in a lab in a central place will have the same effect ?
Again. Its 2010, we have cheap internet, power does not potea as much, roads are better ......
IBM had some good ads about the Doing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziOG_GHNVq0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MudaxA80eI4
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 2:13 PM, Harry Delano <harry@comtelsys.co.ke> wrote:
Listers,
Let's keep the debate on course, without necessarily bringing each other within "cross-hairs"
I suppose, all of us have a point. The issue is where can we get to a point of "convergence", as in the final analysis, we all would like to see a more prosperous country through fast-tracked processes that do not take us round in circles.
So, let's keep it going..
Harry
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Agosta Liko Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 1:40 PM To: harry@comtelsys.co.ke Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
my point is really simple.
we have broadband, security is better, roads are better.
what are you doing as a Kenyan ?
am saying start with the man in the mirror and then po
int fingers...
On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the
country.
Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerryR
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Hi, Broadband is here and roads a better, why is it that we sit in Nairobi or along the Mombasa Kisumu highway and assume that all is bliss. As a Kenyan I am giving my feedback to my minister, acting as the devils advocate on forums like this so that you stop deceiving your selves that all is fine, and I provide my clients with practical, cost effective solutions. I make sure that every shilling spend by my clients adds something on the bottom line, I am not a dreamer, I am a realist which is why I can assure you that the bus issue is dead in the water. In addition I believe I took my time and skill to present an alternative to the bus, what more is expected of me. As the former president said, when I was seated at the front driving the bus there where pick pockets in the back. He played his part & so have I. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:40:21 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus my point is really simple. we have broadband, security is better, roads are better. what are you doing as a Kenyan ? am saying start with the man in the mirror and then point fingers... On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Robert Pole sana. I did not know you were playing devils advocate :) Thanks On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 6:41 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, Broadband is here and roads a better, why is it that we sit in Nairobi or along the Mombasa Kisumu highway and assume that all is bliss. As a Kenyan I am giving my feedback to my minister, acting as the devils advocate on forums like this so that you stop deceiving your selves that all is fine, and I provide my clients with practical, cost effective solutions. I make sure that every shilling spend by my clients adds something on the bottom line, I am not a dreamer, I am a realist which is why I can assure you that the bus issue is dead in the water. In addition I believe I took my time and skill to present an alternative to the bus, what more is expected of me. As the former president said, when I was seated at the front driving the bus there where pick pockets in the back. He played his part & so have I. Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:40:21 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
my point is really simple.
we have broadband, security is better, roads are better.
what are you doing as a Kenyan ?
am saying start with the man in the mirror and then point fingers...
On 4/7/10, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Liko,
Please make a trip to any government office location and count how many vehicles are grounded, if they cannot sort out a toyota vits that operated within Nairobi how do you expect them to service a bus that travels around a district?
In todays paper there is an issue of funds allocated to a none-existent hospital in Kayole can your imagine how much easier it will be to misdirect funds to a moving object.
It is good that you got to experience the moving bus so do you want us to stop schools from stocking their local libraries, the moving movies died because TVs became cheaper and we bought VCRs. A technology must be looked at in the context of time.
The moving bus can be equated to the computer lab at the Univeristy, yet we can today provide every student with a desktop in their room or a laptop to carry around at the same price. If safaricom can negotiate for a laptop at 24,000/- shillings imagine how much more muscle the government has, but it wont because the decision makers still remember the travelling library and refuse to change with the times.
Just to go back to the 2007 elections when Orange house was raided by thugs and Hon. Nyongo said that is was instigated by their opponents to get access to their membership list, this was a clear indication that he has not used a flash disk or send a file attachment because he still remembers the airconditioned computer room when he was in University.
Regards
Think global, act local Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: Agosta Liko <agostal@gmail.com> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 13:12:08 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert
I really dont see an issue with internet by bus.. its a step in the right direction ... can be made better but one has to start from somewhere. Internet by bus would work well cos the bus would move around schools bringing workstations to many places. If a constituency has 10 workstations, one can make the case that making them mobile would serve more people as opposed to putting them in one location
When I was growing up Kenya National Library used to bring books, KCB used to have a landrover to bring banking to the people and Cinema Leo used to bring movies. With time, that model has died ... but it served a purpose.....
see, there is a big challenge in kenya
if you give schools desktops ... some people would say laptops are a better fit
if you give schools laptops ... some people would say desktops are better fit and hard to steal
You say that BPO is a joke ... I am sure that over 3000 kenyans work in that sector now ... and its all semantics if you look at things. See, Your company manages services {at Orange :) } for clients. So you are in the local BPO ....
I respond because I borrowed books from that Kenya National Library bus, Watched Films at the market and I work in the local BPO sector.
Also ... please take time and go through this speech by JFK ... http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
Incase you are very busy .. Its always summed up as follows
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:53 PM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, I disagree on the issue of the bus, last I checked God was not sending out bills for solar unlike KPLC & the fuel companies would, so why are we obsessed with physical connections. Lets role out practical sustainable solutions that will not break down soon after implementation, the african needs to stop thinking seasonally we need to see the bigger picture. Lets agree that the bus concept was a half brainer and move onto a better model. You mentioned the issue of India please search for an article called the "hole in the wall" experiment and then based on that we role out ICT everywhere. Let us begin where the service can be paid for which I believe is at the district headquarters to which the government has laid fibre. We use this as a hub and fern outwards. In addition Bwana PS your concept on empowering the local authorities to carry out the metro cables is brilliant so lets follow it through and use the LATIF fund to implement. We can then centralise the functions such as HR, finance and procurement and use the savings to pay for the terrestrial fibre cable. 90% of these activities do not need Internet access thus they should have been implement without waiting for the marine cables. The local authorities would then connect their schools and implement a centralised management system that would then sort out the issue of students being in school for 8 years without ID cards. This issue is not rocket science nor brain surgery, it just needs basic reasoning and practical application, the bus was a joke & BPO is a bigger joke so lets get out from the centre ring and get back to reality. I have a serious problem with detail which is not a fault as I see the bigger picture where others see dots and might explain why I have not done a phd on the mating habits of the anorphalise mosquito because that will be a pixel. I know that when I spray doom on the mosquito it dies how is irrelevant.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 23:06:35 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Vitalis, Lack of electricity is one of the lame excuses we use to stop linking our rural areas. You can now provide Broadband anywhere in the country. Safaricom has done it to Digital Villages in Karachwonyo and Ugenya. Indeed in Karachwonyo their was neither electricity nor tarmaked roads.
The bus idea was a self contained project that did not require the luxuries you mention here. If we really want to develop this country and expand opportunity we must stop sounding like foreigners in this country. We must learn to be creative and speak less. We must refuse donor money and start individual social responsibilty. We must have faith in our abilities. Saying we cannot manage a bus in a constituency is defeatist and eroding the confidence of ever managing our resources.
Ndemo.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
________________________________ From: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:29:13 -0700 (PDT) To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus Thanks a lot Bwana PS for your comprehensive response on this issuue regardless of my getting into this discussion too late. I am very sorry about this lateness. Of cause I did not mean political or legal feasiblty, as this could only mean "a sacred cow project. " What I had in mind tends toward economic and technical feasibilty. Of cause not commercial viability. You have indeed responded comphensively in all areas, therefore I don't intend to pursue the matter any further. However, there are few points of interest which I would wish to share (but not into details).
It may not necessarily require to carryout feasibility study to deploy computers in rural schools, but it may be necessary, at the very basic, to gather some information e.g. availability of power, and connectivity or broadband access (fixed and mobile network coverage), before distributing computers to theses schools. This may sound simple, but there are a few of cases in the past where computers have been donated to some schools in rural areas before electricty is connected. To carryout this kind of exercise may not require paying someone huge sums of fee. This can be done using even internal resources (assuming they exist), with minimal help from a local consutant. Some of the data may be readily available and whta may be requred is only to convert it into useful information.
Digital villages in each constituency was "a very bright idea". This could be usefull in nhancing demand for ICT to rural commuinities and to extend the same to schools as well. This is where public private parnership could play a fundamental role, with involvement of all the satakeholders. Alternaetively the ministry of education (with the rural communities) could identify at least two distritric/ provicial schools (Boys' & Gilrls' OR Mixed) in each constituency where there is braodaband access (assuming electricity already exists), or the Ministry of Ifo. could work with the service providers to provide broadband aceess last mile distribution. In this case the cost of overeheads required to run such a prpject will be minimal (no fuel to run the bus, no bus drivers, no maitenace costs of buses due to poor condition of rural access roads). Also some schools may be located in "shadow zones" with no signals, and will not be linked by "ICT Bus". The eviroments differ in every country, though "adaptation" can also work.
With the use of digital villages or ICT school labs, then the excellent, bright and succesful initiatives/projects such as Data Centres, NOFBI, Teams, etc. can be of greater benefits to the rural schools through e-Learning. To train the teacher first, on how to use ICT, before traing the child is importnat, to avoid or limit computer numbers gathering dust in some corners. Similar appraoch/pilot project can be replicated for e-Health to connect all district hosiptals to a Central Data Portal. In this case, training the doctor before nurse is essential. Is to importnat to note that involving too many committes in a prpject is a challenge. "Too many rats never dig a hole." Having a Data Centre without (or limited) access/connectivity may negligible impact or benefit. CDF management is already complex and challenging. This where one meets with numrous political projects at times. I intend to stop here, and not to pursue it any more. However, I can expand my thoughts in another forum. Thanks for the good work and great ideas.
Regards
Vitalis
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: Vitalis Olunga <volunga@yahoo.com> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 7:08:38 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Dear Vitalis, My brother you are getting into this matter too late. For a start, you are confusing issues when you ask for a feasibility study. Although I do not know which feasibility (legal, economic, technical etc) you wanted in place, it is unwise in my view to pay someone to do a feasibility study on whether you need to deploy computers in the rural areas. Before we made the proposal to treasury, we developed a concept note and observed a similar bus that has been providing similar services to kids in Mathare and Kibera. The concept is based on an Indian model that has been very successful in arousing interest in ICT (boosting the demand side) in rural India. Basically, the objective was to create demand for ICT services among the rural folks, introduce ICTs on a pilot basis to schools, youth and villagers in all constituencies. The project was to be supported by digital villages throughout the country. Each bus was to have two qualified ICT instructors and managed by District Education Boards as well as CDF committees. This was a well thought idea and fits in with devolved resources idea that we have all been pushing as a basis of equitable distribution of resources. The project was fought from day 1 as not feasible. To date nobody has tabled a feasibility study that helped them arrive at that decision. Ni kupiga mudomo tu. Why do we make so much noise about devolved funds if several committees cannot manage one bus per constituency? Several studies show that countries that bought computers and simply put them in class have not seen the benefit since not even the teachers use them. Why? Because they did not create the demand for ICTs in the first place. In places where you have digital villages, you hear people talking about their e-mail, people wanting e-learning platform etc. We have been successful with digital villages because we avoided unnecessary subsidies and introduced them as enterprises. Several countries deployed these digital villages through NGOs, Donors and direct Government subsidy. They have failed. The bus was to drive demand for e-services in rural areas. Where we are in terms of development, we need to take a bit of risk by moving to design and implementation and stop wasting resources on the so called feasibility studies. Teams, NOFBI, GCCN, Data Centers, etc are some of the most successful projects that were done in record period by simply moving to design and implementation. Of course design begets you technical feasibility. Much of economic feasibility can be discerned through googling similar projects. Note Piloting a concept that has already succeeded elsewhere and within does not require detailed feasibility since you know the outcomes. Further it is usually difficult to quantify social benefits as in the bus case in order to have an objective feasibility study.
Ndemo.
Sorry to respond on this a little bit too late. My question is whether whether there was any feasibility study carried out before allocation of funds to this "ICT Bus Projects." It would be prudent to share such a report with satakeholders. The sustainability of such a project could be questionable. If other strategic alternatives (including building computer labs in schools) were considered, then the reasons for making this choice (ICT Bus) would be of interest to share, even if it is meant to be for a quick fix solution. E-education/learning is definitly a very important area that needs to be given a priority and . There are some interestesting analyses
Regrds
Vitalis
________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: volunga@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 5:39:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Hi,
I refuse to acknowledge the regional issues because I come from an in an industry that has no ethnicity or regional divide.
I plead with you stop selling yourself short by getting embroiled in political side shows, if we set out our objective and kept to the plan we can achieve what I have proposed and more.
Even if I asked you to volunteer to go to Mandera and teach ICT you definitely will not, it makes more sense to train the teacher already on the ground. We can roll out across the country simultaneously as we are not using a single contractor to build the labs or install the solar or the cabling.
Just like with the CDF if the area representatives cannot identify their priority areas then lets not try to force it down their throats.
Before teaching a man to fish make sure he does eat fish.
Technology knows no bounds only the human mind constrains itself
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
________________________________ From: "bitange@jambo.co.ke" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> To: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke; KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wed, 24 March, 2010 19:15:50 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Ongeri Hurray on ICT Bus
Robert, Things are not as easy as you write here. Today in Kenya you cannot try to do anything without taking into account of regional interests. I hope you are watching the constitutional process and the regional emotions. Imagine if we were to start with schools in the ASAL region promising to cover the entire country in the next five years. Consider that Ministry of Education does not have adequate number of teachers as we speak yet you will need at least one computer teacher in the 20,000 primary schools and 9,000 secondary schools.
If we need to close the digital divide, we all must change. We must for example begin volunteering to teach both the students and the unemployed youth computers. By so doing, you will one day live to say what you did for your country. Like it is said "it is easier said than done".
Regards
Ndemo.
Hi,
It seems that some sanity is coming into the education realm with the Hon. Minister Dr. Ongeri canceling the proposed ICT Bus project, I believe once bitten twice shy.
The project was to cost Kes. 1.2 B with each bus costing Kes. 7 Million which equates to 171 buses that is roughly 24 buses per province this was surely another scan in the making. I remember the MP of Kisumu Hon. Shabbir raising the issue of the buses and getting dismissed as a self seeking technology Neanderthal, lets hope this is the beginning of sanity in the ICT arena, but if I was you I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect that the concept of mobile computer labs was a thinking from the mobile library project but someone forgot that with a library the books are left behind.
With Kes 7 million we could do much more than just a single bus with 20 computer that requires a driver, insurance, service, generators, and many other thinks.
Here is my suggestion on how the 7 million could be better utilised to meet the objectives.
- 20% to be used for physical facilities (stone & mortar) - Kes. 1.4 M - This can build 150 sq m of classroom space inclusive of electrical wiring & burger proofed windows. An average computer lab is 15 sq m which means we can build 10 labs and each can accommodate 20 screens/pcs. We could build even more labs if the Ministry if Housing provided the interlocking soil block making machines
- 30% to be used for provision of power to the lab - Kes. 2.1 million we which we need to provide sufficient power. The computers will need to be low power consumers therefore we use TFT screens and cpu sharing devices that allow 1 computer to be used simultaneously by 4 or more students. With this our power requirement for each lab would be below 1,000 VA which can easily be supplied by a few solar panels and a battery bank.
- 20% for the actual hardware - Kes. 1.4 M - DC powered computers, printers and GSM modem with a good proxy server to provide local caching. This will also include structured cabling which will be done by the graduats of the kazi kwa Vijani initiative where they will have been offered technical training.
- 20% teacher training - Kes. 1.4 M, even if we have them certified in ICDL we shall be able to train 66 teachers which would provide enough computer teachers.
- 10% well I leave you to decide what to do with that, note that there are no recurrent costs such as drivers, diesel, electricity costs (God does not charge for solar, yet).
The 10 labs can be used by the schools during the day and could be made available to the community in the evenings and as digital villages over the weekends where content can be generated, yes local content (ask me for details).
Now that I have spend the equivalent of 1 bus to create 10 centers why won't we actually do this, because I did not factor in the feasibility study costs, 30%, seminars and workshops 50%, sitting allowances 20% and well nothing else to include as the preliminary costs have already consumed the 7 million.
Ongeri hurray but lets hope the money will not go to drinking water and writing materials for a bonding session.
Regards
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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participants (8)
-
Agosta Liko -
bitange＠jambo.co.ke -
Crystal Watley Kigoni -
crystal＠voicesofafrica.org
-
Fatma Bashir -
Harry Delano -
robert yawe -
Vitalis Olunga