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 debate about the challenges of domains in Africa, the issue of cost becomes a major talking point.

I have been accused of ripping Kenic and their policies on .ke; I pay Ksh 3000 about $ 40 for my domain, which I consider high. Yes. maybe I may be harping on the cost issue a bit but that has been the feeling of many people who have contributed via twitter and other forums.

So I decided it would be nice to look at the issue from a different lens; that of the administrators, just to understand why they charge the figure.

I spoke to Michuki Mwangi, the guy who set up Kenic and the first person who I heard saying that cost is not an issue a while a go. Michuki made very compelling arguments.

Sample this; the mama who sells vegetables at the local kiosk has a mobile phone that cost Ksh 2,500 and spend about Ksh. 500 on credit every month. Why? Because the mama finds value in the mobile phone and the credit spent brings returns.

Michuki's argument is very clear that if we grow the value added services, then the cost of the domain is not the issue; make it worth the while and people will spend. If local electronic commerce is developed, just like the way mobile phones have grown, people will find it easy and effective to conduct business online and so long as returns are guaranteed, then cost will not be an issue per se.

Then there is the other side of the coin. Here is a response I got from Francis hook, who was commenting on the topic:

Lets examine the numbers...according the a recent economic survey, there are about 50,000 businesses in Kenya - all the way from KQ, KCB....to the small scale SMMEs....that's 50,000...assume 5% of internet users (i.e. abt 5 million) want a .co.ke for whatever reason....and 5% is really stretching it...given a good chunk (say 50%) are students/young people/job seekers/etc doing FB, SN, IM, email, etc.... ...anyway, thats 250,000 users. Lets say its 2.5% that is 125,000 plus 50,000 (and again we are assuming even that small chips shop on Ronald Ngala gets a domain...) - 175,000 x US$2 = US$ 350,000 @ ROE 75 = 26.2 million...

I am sure the debate on domains will go on, Lets hear different scenarios!

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

I am sure we have all heard how France Telecom plans to dominate the East Africa region. They have bought and operate Orange brand in Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius and recently Ethiopia.

The desire to challenge MTN and Vodafone in the region is great but what surprises me is how hard it is to get a comment from anyone from France Telecom. No one seems to know how to get France Telecom representatives in the region.

Sample this; for the last three weeks, I have been trying to get anyone at France Telecom to comment on an article I want to do. At least I knew Ogilvy PR handles Telkom Kenya, so I thought if I asked for their help, they will lead me to the right person.

In response, the guys at Ogilvy said they are trying but till now, no response to my emails on whether you can get a France Telecom rep in the region. I was starting to wonder whether its that hard to get France Telecom.

Then I thought maybe the guy from Ogilvy doesn't want to help me, after all, it is Telkom Kenya who are the clients and not France Telecom International, though I thought they are in the same extended family.

To cast the net wider, I contacted the corporate communications head at Telkom Kenya to see if I can get some help on that end, after much optimism, nothing has come out of it.

Now am left wondering; is it that France Telecom does not know that they can decline to comment, or is it that there are no France Telecom reps in the region, or maybe the company likely to operate in a ghostly manner.

Whatever it is, I think if France telecom is to challenge the domination of other bigger companies, they need to start acting like them, in response to the public, otherwise their silence does not smell like they are contenders.

I will still continue following up, will share more frustrations....and successes as they come along....

Ends

The other day I had an interesting discussion with Juliana Rotich about the women's movement and the activism on issues. From the talk, she is not very amused with some of the issues advanced.

Juliana reminded me one post I always wanted to write; on whether the debate about women needs to be tilted or changed, especially when it comes to tech issues. She feels that women's movement has this feeling of entitlement, especially from men.

I do also understand that for women in engineering and science courses, affirmative action did not give you the high grades, you had to work hard and measure up, which means that you are not a victim, you have earned it.

Juliana had a point, I wanted to disagree just to raise the debate a bit but we were in the middle of Ushahidi meeting so I thought I should reflect and write this post.

I have very high regard for activists on women issues; coming from a village that until about 30 years ago did not appreciate the need of women going to high school, I know that the benefits I enjoy today is a result of activism and awareness by the women of those days.

That is why I have done my share of coverage of women issues and helped where I can. That is also why I was also excited when I was asked about women's issues in internet governance.

But I did not strike a very nice cord with the women's issues advocates when I argued that some of the issues are gender neutral and it would indeed raise the debate higher if women were to take up the issues.

Take for instance the cost of domains, lack of electronic commerce growth, online content etc...these are issues that affect both men and women, but if the women took it up and said...hey we will break more boundaries if domains are cheaper or e-commerce is made easier, people will start discussing such issues, maybe even wondering why they are important to women.

My argument was that women don't have to be victims anymore; ten years ago, the story was that women don't have access to this and that, men have the power over this and that, this protocol has not been signed among many other issues.

The growth of mobile in Africa has extinguished many of those myths, women have adopted technology, whether they understand what GSM works or not, they know opportunities in mobile money, they operate call kiosks and some of then charge their phones at a fee...while still at home.

I am always inspired when I go to my village and see how mobiles have opened opportunities, with mobile money, you can sell credit, send money, pay bills at the convenience of your shamba, you just need to be shown how it works.

Women are not victims, we take opportunities when presented, and I think the activism now should be on how to identify these opportunities that women can participate in.

While at the Africa Union Summit in January, I challenged one of the women to raise the debate by challenging RASCOMSATAR-QAF, the owners of RASCOMSTAR-1 satellite to provide bandwidth to women NGOs who are paying lots of money for connectivity, which I think would make many people want in.

RASCOM-QAF, the consortium, has an engineering fellowship or some training where African engineers are trained to operate the satellites, it would make a lot of sense if the women movement was to advocate for a third of women engineers to be admitted to the program, this am sure would attract even the women who are not interested in women matters.

RASCOM is owned by 47 African countries and they even have a giant online masters course project with India which I think would benefit many of us in rural areas with no access to some of the facilities.

Anyway, I was just trying to raise some of the issues in tech that am sure many women would be interested in. And am not sure I got a lot of supporters on that, I was talking to myself.

My argument still stands, the debate needs to change, am not sure how but am getting tired of same arguments especially when tech presents such opportunities.

Ends

The other day, a women’s group asked me to outline women’s issues in Internet Governance, based on my experience. Tech issues have always sounded geeky and out of touch for many people so I thought I should be as simple and basic as possible.

This is what I wrote, and in a separate post, I will tell you why the women’s group did not take me seriously……..

During the World Summit on Information Society in 2003, delegates were highly polarized over issues of who should govern the internet and its critical resources. Opinions were divided over whether the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which was under USA’s Department of Commerce should continue managing the internet or the role should be handed over to the ITU, an inter governmental body.

By the time the second phase of WSIS was held in Tunis in 2005, it was clear that there was need for a body, with no governmental affiliations. After discussions and negotiations, it was agreed that the Internet Governance Forum should be convened, to run from 2006-2010.

Africa has been largely represented within IGF, although most of the people have no access to affordable ICT. Given the historical imbalances, women have suffered most.

The IGF addresses issues and policies such as redelegation of African domains, investment in critical internet infrastructure such as Internet Exchange Points, Cyber security, censorship and the extent of government control among other issues.

In matters technology, women are largely absent; there are few female telecommunications engineers, either because they are not given opportunities or are left out.

But one of the major issues is the lack of capacity, most of the IG issues relate to technical jargon, which is not simplified enough for people to understand. For instance, policies on Cyber security affect what is accessible online by children, issues of pornography and what the government should do is discussed in cyber security meetings.

Apart from policies, African governments have not invested in critical infrastructure or have not given it the priority it deserves. Failure to subsidize the cost of hosting and domain names has affected the online market places that women can access and has stifled electronic commerce.

E-commerce is considered a tool for women especially in areas where women have multiple roles or are not allowed to leave their homes for businesses. With e-commerce, women can buy and sell without any challenges.

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.

I have been accused of not being patriotic in the past for criticizing some of the steps that Africa takes and the way some of the representatives behave. But I ask myself; should I just follow blindly without asking the questions so that I can be in the good books or be deemed patriotic enough?

For instance, at the Africa Union meetings, representatives of our governments sit and discuss how ICT is going to accelerate Africa's development while you can just see through it; some of these guys don't care about the stuff. If they did, then they would take the right steps or at least attempt to.

At the press conference, I listened to the AU secretary say how ITU and World Bank heads are going to address the heads of state summit. Then I asked myself, where is ICANN?

Yes, Africa has always felt comfortable with ITU because its an inter governmental body, where they can talk to their own kind while ICANN is a body dominated by the private sector. But the roles of ITU and ICANN are complementary!

How does Africa expect to develop without addressing issues of critical internet infrastructure? How do we develop while most of the domains are not operational or have one issue over the other?

Yes, the ITU will help by setting the policies and giving funds to governments, something that ICANN doesn't do, at ICANN, each country must make its own networks and get into partnerships with other people in there. There is no funds or donations but if there is a business case, then the country can benefit.

How can a country use ICT for development while connectivity costs are high? How can the country develop if it has no local content? How can local content develop if you do not have control over your domain? Even if you control the domain and the registry, how can local content develop while it is hosted abroad because the cost of hosting locally is high and affected by power outages? Even if there is the domain and local hosting, there is need to invest in critical infrastructure like the Internet Exchange Points where local ISPs can share and exchange local content (peer).

Yes, ICANN can not answer or solve all these questions but neither can ITU!

In the course of my job, I have heard all manner and sorts of allegations on why the governments have not leveraged on the power of ITU. If you hear some of the issues you will be disgusted at the lack of knowledge, ignorance or misinformation over the role of ICANN/ITU in the whole debate.

I would have loved to see Rod Beckstrom, ICANN CEO and president take the stand at the heads of state summit and address the presidents. Maybe tell them of ICANN's commitment to Africa and that almost all of the problems are local and can only be solved by actions from the higher offices.

It is unfortunate that when decisions come from above, then they are implemented faster than the ones coming from bottom to top. So it would have been the right thing to do.

I would have loved to hear what Rwandese president Paul Kagame will say about the fact that .rw is yet to be sorted out, am sure if he directs the relevant people to do what is necessary, it will be done. Kagame is considered the emblem of ICT progress among African heads of state.

Of course all these will amount to nothing if the public is not educated about locally available resources and why they should promote their domains. Kenya may be far in managing its domain but you can read this post on what is the problem with .ke.