Off to a flying start today.
KRA is up first with Wanjuki Muchemi the Solicitor General, looking at transformation of the companies registry through ICT. The recent state of the company registry left alot to be desired. Something akin to a massive rolodex is what government used to keep track of the registered companies.
Rapid fire typing…i will make then more comprehensive later in the day
Michael Joseph’s thoughts
• Largest impediment is hardware, looking for device manufacture to bring handset down to under 200 USD
• 120k transactions per second, servers in the UK, Germany and Kenya
• 23 billion in infrastructure rollout in 2010
• Other impediment is maintaining the infrastructure
Panel session
Moderated by Paul Kukubo; MJ, Minister and Chair of ICT Board
• Finishing school to be set up for engineers, problem is we have at trial and error work mindset. We need to do it well, first time round
• Why don’t we have unified government services?
o An issue of focus; fertilizer or ICT
o Policy
• Chair says its an issue of information. Who needs this information? Do we know?
• Minister, don’t move too fast for government. Culture in government needs to change, leads to frustration. Free fertilizer, free seeds…how about free wifi?
• MJ says we must be pragmatic. The growth must be done simultaneously. If you did ask a fella in makueni if he wants a borehole or wifi…hello, I don’t need to answer that for you continue reading »
The Kenya ICT Board in partnership with listed telecoms operator Safaricom will host the Connected Government Summit from the 29th of March to 1st April 2010 at Leisure Lodge Resort in Diani.The Connected Government Summit, the brainchild of the Kenya ICT Board in consultation with industry players and key government decision makers, aims to establish a platform for collaboration, building capacity and sharing priorities between the government and the IT sector with a view to linking and hastening implementation of government IT projects to world-class standards.
Speaking about the Summit Paul Kukubo, CEO, Kenya ICT Board commented: “The Board created the Connected Government Summit to establish a platform upon which the government and the private sector come together to deliberate on key priority areas and identify areas for partnership that will deliver services to the public in a harmonious and timely manner. We expect this to be a successful event particularly in regards to speaking to the role that shared services plays in Kenya Vision 2030.”
continue reading »
Thought to share Paul Kukubo’s posting here. I will react with my thoughts sometime but it brings to the fore the opportunity for local companies to partner with government, but also shows how local firms must have their A Game on…what was that about a ministry having an illegal server license and being off email for 2weeks? Two weeks!
Here’s Paul…
A friend of mine walked up to me at the recent Nethope NGO BPO Workhop in Nairobi and said to me, “we are suffering, where are the jobs”. I replied to her to hang in there and play for the long haul. She responds ‘ I know I know, you keep saying that’. And standing next to me was a representative from Accenture Consulting (www.accenture.com) who has just made a presentation on outsourcing space. I introduced to my friend to the Accenture lady who in turn said to my friend it is possible that firms like ours in the markets that it we work, would seek to work with local companies.
What I did not tell her is that my friend expressed the very same frustration very same comment when she launched her BPO 3 years ago and she is not alone. Within a month of the Kenya ICT Board being set up, many enterpreuners bought computers and set up what they hoped would be data entry and contact centre operations. The Board was then seen as delivering jobs to them. continue reading »
The threat may come from Russia, China, the US or even within our borders. So how safe is your personal data? Online banking, social network accounts, email… I shudder.
Now…everywhere you go, governments have access to and produce the huge amounts of information. That it is stored in different locations and different formats notwithstanding(sigh), the government of Kenya stands to benefit most from the adoption of mobile and online platforms to engage with its citizens.
In Korea for example, the government is planning to launch a mobile application store before the end of its second quarter. With the likes of Nokia – with Ovi, Safaricom – with Safaricom Live (which they did not get the .com for, which was subsequently taken by some chap), Apple – with the Appstore, Symbiotic – with KeleleMobile putting out their own tools and platforms, the government should smell the coffee and join the revolution.
There are a couple of reasons why this makes sense…three to be precise continue reading »
I feel that we hide alot behind policy and alot of other government stuff stifling innovation in government. I however believe that it does exist in small pockets (here’s that word again 
) out there…these projects and pilots needs to be taken mainstream so that we can have something to celebrate that is not linked to the constitutional review or politics.
More thoughts later…
The latest superhero on the block aka Makmende has caused quite a stir! Not with saving damsels in distress form kidnappers and thumping his subjects for information…but by becoming an overnight phenomenon in Kenya hitting the trending list on twitter as well as making the podium on the Google charts.
The fact that every other post on Facebook is about this fella Makmende, and Twitter is abuzz with his praises…”Makmende can take a passport shower with his real passport” or “Makmende doesn’t like questions. And don’t try Google. Google is still searching for Makmende!”, makes we wonder yet again…what if there was a brand behind the whole setup.
Of course yes…there’s a brand and it belongs to the brilliant chaps of Justaband…but what am really asking is why are we not seeing this creativity from larger more established…well heeled brands seeking to capture the imagination of their audience who are clearly online and on mobile? continue reading »
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