This is the press release...will comment on it later..

The Kenya ICT Board is pleased to announce the launch of a Ksh 300 Million grant to promote the development of local digital content and software applications. The process kicked off with a ‘call for proposals’ in today’s Daily Nation newspaper.

The main purpose of this grant is to propel the emergent lucrative but yet underexploited local content industry to growth. The grant which targets the local content developers including software developers, film, animation, advertising, publishing, gaming and education professionals and all content creators, will provide the funding required for the development of quality applications relevant to the Kenya government and private sector.

Digital content, a major contributor and driver of economic growth in developed countries, can be broadly categorized as content accessed from electronic devices like personal computers, game consoles, mobile phones and digital TV. The internet offers the most common form of distribution of digital content. Digital content can include anything from internet based marketing, gaming, online education content and services.

Worldwide, digital content activities are transforming traditional industry structures and business models. Local examples include mobile payment systems like M-Pesa and Pesa Pal and government e-services like online PIN registration. Thus the digital content industry has vast potential as a major contributor to our economy and society through employment creation, capital investment and export earnings, provision of skills and capabilities to traditional as well as new and emerging industry sectors. At the same time it is also significant as a means of expressing Kenya’s unique cultural identity.

With over 3.4 million users of the internet in Kenya, research indicates that the importance of the internet outstrips those of several key developed countries. Even so, the latent demand for local content is underlined by the fact that surveys show that lack of local content is the main reason many Kenyans shy away from accessing the internet. On the launch of the grant facility, the CEO, Kenya ICT Board Paul Kukubo, commented,

“We are pleased that we are launching this grant at a time that the ICT industry is growing and access to the internet all over the country has vastly improved. The future for content industry is bright. Talent, creativity and skills are key drivers of competitiveness in the content sector and we expect that this grant will enable Kenyans everywhere to develop world class locally relevant content and get this industry to rapidly match the lucrative opportunities for talented content developers in developed nations.”

Kenyan content developers have already demonstrated their ability to be innovative, creative and entrepreneurial in their creation of content that is relevant to our people.

The increase in locally developed software applications, websites, films and animation has been extraordinary over the past few years. However, despite evidence of commercial potential, it is not currently competitive in attracting funds and investment capital. This content grant will give content creators in the country a chance to demonstrate their talent, in both the artistic, social and business environment and propel investor confidence in the sector in the long term.

Speaking at the press conference, the Deputy CEO, Victor Kyalo commented, “It is important that with the landing of the fiber optic cables that we as a country produce local digital content, not just ‘access’ other peoples content. It is very positive that Kenyans embrace and appreciate ICTs, but more important is that there are more Kenyan made e-Products available in the market.

We want this grant to motivate the local content creators and software developers to originate, create, and adapt quality content that the country needs .We intend this content grant to be a driver for the long term development of content and recognize that private and public sector need to pool resources to meet the capacity challenges this lucrative sector faces.”

The Government attaches high priority to addressing skills shortages because of the threat they pose to productivity and economic growth. To address this, the Kenya ICT Board has a number of initiatives purposed to build skills in the ICT sector. Among these are a Centre of Excellence for the BPO sector, an incubation program for software developers and a software certification standard that will give international accreditation and competitiveness to our local developers. Additionally, the board is creating organic growth within the ICT sector by training entrepreneurs (over 1000 already trained) to run digital villages all over the country. All these coupled with the improved infrastructure, has put Kenya in the forefront of potentially explosive growth in the content and software development sub-sector.

About the grant

The content grant is divided into two major sections: US$1.5Million for private sector applications and US$2.5M for government applications. The latter will be used to propel the utilization of ICTs to improve government service delivery . The government has in the past few years firmly embraced ICT to become more efficient and responsive in the delivery of its public service - from processing ID cards, driving licenses, registration of companies, revenue collection and currently, the digitization of records at the Ministry of Lands and the judiciary, with more government departments to follow. This is all in line with Kenya’s vision of becoming a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030.

The private sector grant of US$1.5M is open to firms and individuals to develop applications that would be of benefit to the general public or improve the delivery of existing private sector services.

The first round of grant allocation will award a maximum of US$ 50,000 per firms and US$ 10,000 for individuals. The Kenya ICT Board expects to make at least one call for application per year over the next three years.

The content funded by this grant will build capacity within the ICT sector create efficiencies, build social capital, increase utilization of ICTs by local communities and demonstrate to the world, Kenya’s talent for creation of digital content.

Key dates

Call for proposals: June 2, 2010

Deadline for proposals: July 19, 2010

Successfully grantees announced: 15 August, 2010

Disbursement of grant money: October 2010

Last week, Kenya's ICT community discussions were dominated by the anti-competition rules, published by the Communications Commission a week earlier. The regulations targeted at dominant players in the communications market and their pricing structure.

Immediately the rules were published, Safaricom jumped to the defense, buying a full page advert condemning the action taken by CCK. The following day, other mobile players ganged up and bought a full page ad, congratulating CCK for leveling the playing field.

To an ordinary person, it may appear like the regulations were all about Safaricom and the other mobile services market players. But read the regulations and you will get that they go beyond.

For those who may know the ISP field, there has been complaints about some big companies that own the infrastructure, which they lease to other ISPs, the same giant companies have smaller companies which they use to access the end user market.

Take for instance KDN, it leases local loop to other smaller ISPs, sells service on Wimax and they also sell the butterfly service to the consumer market. If you are a smaller ISP buying the service from KDN, how will you make money while they access the same consumer market and can sell at a bargain?

The impression created by the mobile service providers is that interconnection applies to voice services; what about data and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP); we know some ISPs provide free on net VoIP calls but that doesn't help because calling someone in another ISPs is either impossible or too expensive.

What about ISPs that want to connect to mobile, the way Skype operates? That also has an element of interconnectivity and there must be some rule governing how that will be done.

Yes, Safaricom may have the most to loose but the way discussions are going reminds me of the Kenya Communications (amendment) act and how the media made it look like the whole act was all about the media.

If the rules are looked at broadly, we will see that even South Africa, Nigeria, among other countries are facing similar predicaments. If anything, the complaint has always been that the government has not been quick to develop rules; in this case, it seems to have pre-empted the market complaints (read the South African case).

Desire for foreign accents stymies local content.... forget that some have never tracelled out of the country.

The desire for hollywood content and media personalities with foreign accents has led to low local content in African media.

Wachira Waruru, Royal Media Services managing director told the Pan African Media Conference that television stations in Kenya are flooded with foreign content that does not add value to African culture.

“It is sad to say but our media owners are the biggest obstacles to the development of local content on our screens,” said Waruru, who heads the media house with the highest local television content in Kenya (Citizen TV).

Regarding appreciation of the local people, Waruru said media houses hope to appear "more sophisticated" employing individuals with foreign accents.

“We do not need hollywood to survive; let us refocus our energies on developing local content for our viewers and listeners for this is where the future of this industry lies,” he said

Waruru was speaking at a breakfast session on culture and open doors; other parallel sessions included topics in New Media, reporting change and crisis in Africa and environment, media and Africa's responsibility.

For the ICANN local organizing committee, today is a great day, it is the last day of the meeting, which by any standards can be considered a success considering the security video produced by ICANN just before the meeting.

From December last year, the LOC was involved more in answering security questions, whether the ruling coalition will break and whether the Al Shabab terrorist group will get away from the lucrative piracy along the gulf of Aden to attack KICC. No one denied that there were security concerns but thats a common denominator for many countries, rich or poor.

In retrospect, I think the whole security debate benefitted Kenya and to some extent the continent. ICANN meetings have geographical rotation and am sure issues of security will come up the next time Africa is meant to host the meeting.

For Kenya, the successful meeting is vital, given that the Internet Governance Forum will be held in the country next year. If the IGF raises the security issues, Kenya can point to ICANN and the security video, and the success that was achieved.

To ICANN, the remote participation was good, the online participation matrix was shared before the meeting started and the parallel meetings in the US now look a bit ill advised.

The 100mb bandwidth at the conference venue was very stable, I did not experience any hitches, even during the opening ceremony, where there were at least 100 laptops on; everyone at ICANN at least carries a laptop but not all were on at the time.

For the ICANN participants who danced at the Carnivore till 4am, it just shows that they were enjoying the hospitality and the good things that the country has to offer. For those who took the Safaris, that is better than the caged animals out there.

The meeting was optional for many people but for those in the new gTLD debate, it was important to have the two minutes on the mic in the public forum. Even members of the Government Advisory Committee took the mic, led by Bertrard De La Chapelle from France, who took the 2 minute Mic like 20 times, just to emphasize the importance of public sessions.

For the ICM guys, the Independent Review Committee and those interested in matters of transparency in ICANN, the .xxx debate was important and their presence is vital, even in the face of security concerns.

So, the meeting had lessons and successes for everyone; with more than 1000 people picking their conference bags, I think the meeting was a success and offers vital lessons to others holding meetings in Nairobi.

Ends

In the months leading up to the ICANN meeting in Nairobi, majority of discussions and conference calls were dominated by security concerns and emergency meetings with some people wondering whether the meeting will take place or not.

Eventually some people decided to stay away. Yes, security is a concern but for everyone and no one can blame anyone for choosing safety over risk. Well, I had my opinions about the security debate, which have been expressed in blog posts scattered online.

However, it was nice to hear an admnission from Rod Beckstrom, ICANN president and CEO that perhaps the whole security debate was not handled well.

At a meeting with the Government Advisory Committee, Rod said that ICANN is striving to balance transparency and diplomacy and in this case, that balance may not have been well struck.

He was responding to the statement by Alice Munyua, CCK board, who alluded to the fact that the whole security saga may not have demonstrated respect to the local organizing committee and that the debate was dominated by security and not by serious issues.

Here is the verbatim GAC speech by Alice:

We thank the ICANN board and the ICANN community for resolving to get on with the meeting in Kenya despite the challenges and note that the geographic rotation of meeting locations is an important feature unique and special to ICANN.

However, we need to ask ourselves “what do these ICANN meetings leave behind in the various regions and/or countries?”

Kenya had ideals regarding the possible domino effect/impact that this meeting would have had in the EA region in terms of understanding ICANN, increased participation in ICANN and understanding of Internet policy and Internet governance generally (as you probably know, Kenya has offered to host the 2011 IGF). But we spent most of the months leading up to the meeting occupied and dealing with the meetings security issues due to the badly handled communication around it.

And this is not to deny that there were credible fears around the meeting security, particularly when it touches on the world’s common terrorism incidents, but communicating these same fears and efforts being made to ensure everyone's safety could have been handled more diplomatically and respectfully for  Kenya as host country, as a recognition   the hard work by the local organisers and ICANN staff.

We note that nearly all of the contracted parties (registries, registrars) are missing (physically) and have chosen to have parallel meetings in NY and Washington. What does this say about the ICANN processes? Has ICANN's foundation commitment to the introduction of competition and diversity in the DNS on the decline? If all of the registries and significant majority of registrars are based in North America what does this say? Is there a competition framework? Is it time to begin to explore the possibilities of a global one perhaps?  What will happen to the new gTLD's with registration costs that are prohibitive for most developing countries’?

Finally, we congratulate ICANN commitment to the principle of transparency, with the very active use of society networking tools, like twitter but we do believe that issues that affect a country's prospects should be handled more sensitively and respectively because they do tend to have an impact on not only  general effectiveness and efficiency of organising these kind of meetings but the  impact is broader than  the

internet and includes  issues of investment, tourism among others.

If the intentions, with the various processes including the AOC are to work towards internationalising ICANN, then ICANN must respect diversity and work more towards understanding other perspectives and interests.

There are many African governments and citizens who do not understand the role of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

For some, ICANN should operate in the bottom later ensuring that we have internet access and that the pipes are faster. Others think that ICANN should be involved in the running of domain registries, which are in shambles and in some cases fighting over petty issues. Others think that ICANN is there to fund them; talk of reliance on aid.

Of course ICANN has no role in all these things and what it points is that more outreach is needed and maybe ICANN should have an office in Africa.

But how? According to Rod Beckstrom, 90 percent of ICANN contributions come from North America, so that may be the reason why we have 3 offices in the US and none in Africa.

That makes sense; if Africa does not contribute anything, how will the office be supported? So, for Africa to be on level terms, then we must also be willing to contribute, but am not sure how when our registry operations are still manual.

I was chatting with Rafik Dammak, who accuses me of complaining or whining too much but then, what do I do?

Rafik told me of how the various constituencies within ICANN are always looking for participants but what do you do when they dont contribute to those meetings and in some cases stay outside within the coffee houses instead of meeting rooms?

Yes, its good to have geographical representations but we also need to start bringing something on the table and contributing to the debate more than we do currently.

Regarding the financial contributions, I have no words; will leave it for the others.

Ends

In the last few weeks, members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and numbers were fixated on the security issues in Kenya, the threats by Al Shabab was the reason many of the attendees stayed home to participate online.

But I must say am impressed with the people that turned up, actually I thought it would have been a nice time to pass some controversial stuff because you would have lesser people but alas....many of them came.

I was starting to feel it for the local organizers with all the preparations with dancers and dinner at Carnivore; its a popular tourist destination and its only fair that ICANN participants taste the goods.

But the lack of faith in local anything was so salient, in the morning, there was a blackout, every other place at KICC had power except the meeting room, so I asked what was the issue.

I was told that ICANN insisted that they did not want the generator provided by KICC and they had their own provided by the US embassy in Nairobi. But that generator did not work, and am sure no one said that that was not the fault of KICC.

It reminded me of the value of local knowledge and the kind of advise you get from the guys on the street.

Anyway, am happy with the turn out today; it validates so many other things that were said before.

Ends

When the Kenya ICT Board was set up about two years ago, there was a lot of optimism in the Business Process Outsourcing sector; the board was composed of the "dream team" and who is who in Kenya's marketing.

The board was tasked with the sole responsibility of marketing Kenya as an outsourcing destination; and many people in the business were hoping that their fortunes will turn around.

So, it was shocking to me when Nick Nesbitt of KenCall wrote in one of the mailinglists "I have just spent a week in the UK meeting with some of the largest outsourcers in the world.  They have never heard of Kenya as an outsourcing destination.  Very interested now, but completely unaware.  We stopped marketing Kenya as a BPO destination before we had built international recognition and credibility, which raises questions  in these prospects' minds about our commitment as a country to making Kenya an outsourcing destination..."

Earlier, Gilda Odera, the chair of the Kenya BPO society had commented to a story I was doing on why the industry had not snapped up a $ 7 million subsidy and said that maybe the BPO subsidy could have been handled better.

When commenting on my questions, Gilda is very brief and its almost hard to guess the real issue. You see once you interview many people, you can almost guess who will say what, and what they mean when they say this. For Gilda to say that there has been no flow of information from the board, it consoled me, it made me believe that am not the only one that the board does not respond to.

Gilda's response also made me believe there was a problem at the board, no one wants to speak ill about it but for people to talk about failings in marketing and the lack of information, surely there must be something.

For instance; I wrote to the board asking for names of organizations that had benefitted from the subsidy, I wanted to know whether the subsidy was the real problem with the sector, but no answer. I stuck for a week, trying to convince the board to at least answer the questions, even in part; but nothing.

In the end I had to forward the same questions to Bitange Ndemo, the PS and he answered by the end of that day. The question I always ask; how comes Ndemo is always accessible to answer the questions and the board does not? Ndemo is good, he is probably the only PS you can send an email and he will respond with answers bet he needs to convert his soldiers... a song I will keep singing.

Anyway, I also came to realize that am not the only journalist that the board does not respond to; Michael Ouma told me that he even sends texts to the people in the board that he knows, and he gets no responses, so am consoled.

But why would an agency, tasked with marketing, hug its data or be stingy with information?

Back to the question of BPOs, Agosta Liko responded to my article saying that maybe what the industry needed was not subsidy, given that the cost of connectivity has come down; maybe they needed customers. And he is right.

I bumped into Ndemo at an exhibition hall yesterday and he also commented on that piece saying that bandwidth is the last thing on people's minds, they want to have business, because without clients, they cant pay workers even if they had the fastest connectivity in town.

So, if Ndemo knows this, how comes the board does not know? After all, they are the marketing experts!

Then there is the question of the digital villages, what happened after launching them with all the pomp and color and promising to revolutinalize Kenya? Two years after, am yet to hear of anything else apart from the one opened in Kangundo.

Anyway, I have written all that but I am still not sure what is wrong with the ICT board.

So much promise so little to show!

In the many years that I have been a tech journalist, I have had a chance to interview and listen to many people, some who have genuine concerns, others whine, while others have raw talent and they do not know the opportunities.

Others are government officials who say they have opportunities but lack talented techies while others are corporate heads who justify bis spending on international software on the fact that Kenya lacks talent and even where it exists, its isolated and the technical support is wanting.

In my position, I have always wondered how to link the techies with some of the government or corporate heads and share the benefits. I have also wondered how to share the info and be part of the solution.

So, when Erik (Hash) told me the idea of the innovation hub I was already bubbling with ideas, I remember telling him how Ndemo one day told me that he has lots of bandwidth and was willing to support techies with it. This is because in the course of one of the many interviews I had mentioned the challenges that techies face.

Immediately I heard about the idea, I was sold on, I knew I had a chance to contribute in some way. I am sure people will wonder whether am still a journalist or not. The best thing is that IDG, the guys I work for, have no problem at all, provided when there is a big story, I disclose my links, in which case the story will be an opinion piece, where I can inject my inside knowledge and analysis. Like this piece on how Ushahidi has elevated Africa's global tech status.

The key idea behind iHub is to bring together a larger group of techies under one roof. I believe that if you get enough brilliant people together, they're going to generate a lot of ideas really quickly, and just as quickly weed through them to keep from working on dead ends.

The idea is to eliminate the problem, sometimes seen today in research for example, where isolated researchers work diligently to solve problems that other researchers have already solved, or perhaps more importantly, that other researchers have shown face insurmountable obstacles and so should be abandoned in favor of other approaches.

The iHub will therefore be a place for people to share ideas; not steal them, where you can call copyright lawyers to talk to techies about their rights, where we can all learn ways to incorporate companies in cost effective ways, where techies can talk to their mentors and where techies can have video conference links from Silicon Valley or India.

Techies face a variety of problems; for some, local regulatory environment, for example, is a critical determinant while for others, the availability of venture capital or the presence of a demanding local customer base are key.

In some cases, the challenges are imagined or are based on rumors from people with no first hand information. In other cases, some of the problems can be sorted through dialogue; for instance, if mobile content providers have a problem with the Ksh 200,000 license fees, maybe a talk with the CCK Director General will help both parties understand each other and maybe reduce the fees.

While a hub’s initial success can often be fueled by relying primarily on local talent, the importance of attracting, developing, and retaining a vibrant base of world-class talent increases as clusters mature and grow in complexity, which can be absorbed in other government initiatives like Malili Technopolis or Sameer ICT park.

In short, iHub will nurture the talents and link them with people who have succeeded in techprenuership. After the business grows, the techie will need space and will probably move on, giving space to other upcoming techies.

To succeed, the industry is key, and that is why we are grateful to those who have volunteered their time to offer technical services at the iHub set up phase and for the equipment donated.

We shall be open to equipment donations till February 5th (next Friday) and after that we will start the set up.

If you have good equipment to give, no junk, let us know. If you want to help with the set up, let us know.

There is no doubt that Kenya and Africa in general will benefit from holding the ICANN meeting, the region still suffers from elementary problems; from policy makers who understand little about redelegation of domains apart from shouting hard, to the public that has misconceptions about their own Top Level Domains.

I have been following Africa's challenges and opportunities within ICANN like this post on why Africa should stop whining and an interview with Ann Rachel on ICANN's activities in the region which shows that majority of the work is with us in Africa, even though in a separate post, I address the digital gaps within ICANN

My position has always been that ICANN has a role to play, and it would help if ICANN understood the region more. With all due respect, I spoke to Rod Beckstrom, ICANN CEO and president, at the meeting in Seoul and it was clear that he needed to understand the region more, what the issues are and the nexus with ICANN.

I even told Brad White, ICANN media Director that by the time the Nairobi meeting is held, he should discuss with the boss more about the issues or atleast read my interview with Ann Rachel, just to make sure that at the end of it, issues concerning the region with be given prominence.

Yes, ICANN cant go out of its way but it would help very much that in his usual press conference, which in this case will have many local and regional journalists, (I hope), the CEO can connect our challenges with the opportunities at ICANN and that can only be done if he understands the issues well.

But there is always time, and we all have a role to play.

To some extent, the ICANN folks can not help us much in some of the problems, they require policy direction, investment, and consumer education. So, even if the whole government goes to an ICANN meeting, if you have not solved some of those problems, there is little that people can do.

I recall at the Cairo meeting, the late Ndukwe Kalu, from Nigeria, stood at the public forum and told participants of the problems that Africa was facing and that we needed help. The participants, who are usually busy on their laptops, stopped for a moment, then went back to normal business and no one actually responded to Kalu. Why? Because most of that has very little to do with ICANN; its the government and the IT industry to do 90 per cent of the work.

Then there is the thorny issue of redelegation of African domains, most African countries have complained, whined and all that, yet the TLDs are still a mess. Why? Because most of them are yet to make meaningful investments in critical infrastructure.

So, for the meeting to be in Nairobi, I am sure it will raise awareness on some of those issues, the issues that ICANN can help and what it can not. It will also be an opportunity for technical training for Africa's technical managers, for instance, AfTLD will be holding its meeting and training a week before.

It will also be a networking opportunity, and am sure some of the registry managers from the west, may feel compelled to help in one way or another. After all, they will be our visitors and according to African traditions, we treat visitors well because you just never know when you might need their help.

Yes, the meeting will have its positives but am in no way saying that the security situation should be ignored. Yes, it is important to me too, I have had my share of insecuruties, and I live with them every day, but life goes on. It is actually very safe at the 5-star hotels, the problems maybe in my neighborhood, where the unemployed youth and wannabe thugs terrorize the residents, you will have none of that because even in my neighborhood, we have security measures in place! But no one can guarantee me that I will not be mugged!

Yes, I am sure the police force will be on major alert and they will pour more cops on your that you can handle. But taking the meeting to Gigiri at the UN complex is no solution.

In my Gikuyu language we say "Mbura itekura igwatagia ruhuho" loosely meaning that that if its windy and rainy, then the rain might just not be sufficient and the wind will serve as the excuse.

In this case, if ICANN does not meet our expectations, because am sure there are expectations, then the security issue may just be an excuse. For instance, if ICANN does not draw the usual 1000 participants, it might say, ohh you know of the security situation in Nairobi bla bla bla....

Believe me when I say, Nairobi is safe, and people go on with their business as usual. By the time ICANN is held, the issue of the Jamaican muslim cleric might be solved, maybe the government will work out a way to repartriate him.

So, ICANN is important, but so are we! We are in Kenya, we are not planning to move, people are holding international meetings every day.

I think I can rest my case!