[kictanet] Sir Tim Berners-lee web inventor on K24 Capital Talk on Monday 30th

[muriuki mureithi]

Hi all stakeholders of the web 

 

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the www inventor in 1989 and Time magazine   member of
100 Most Important  People of  the 20th  century  honoured Kenya by a visit
last week facilitated by KICTAnet. On the conclusion of the trip, he gave a
wide ranging  one-on-one interview to K24's Jeff Koinange  Capital Talk to
be aired on Monday 30th at 2000 hrs and 2200hrs. Make a date to hear first
hand the inventor of the www.

 

 In his  itinerary, he met and interacted with the cross-section of Kenyan
web stakeholders - government, parliament, academia, techies, industry  and
civil society. This was a fact finding mission to understand  how his
invention is being exploited. He also profiled  Web Foundation
(www.webfoundation.org ) that he launched in Sharm el Sheikh  IGF  on 15th
Nov, Web Science Research Initiative (www.wsri.org) and clarified some of
the  outputs of www consortium (w3c)  in standard setting especially for the
virtually impaired.

 

 He met government  officials led  by   Vice President  Hon Kalonzo Musyoka,
Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo and CCK DG Mr Charles Njoroge among
others over lunch, had an interactive session with Parliamentary committee
responsible for ICT led by Hon Eng James Rege. He also gave a one hour
lecture  to the academic community  (view the video lecture at
www.kenet.or.ke)  and  met Skunkworks at  Strathmore University as well as
TESPOK.   A recurring theme    was the  opportunity provided by the www but
can only be fully exploited by the  development of content - just do it, put
data on a  web page and contribute to the growth of the web now estimated at
10 raised to power 18 pages and growing rapidly.

 

>From the high and mighty,  Sir Tim went to the grassroots. First stop was
first hand interaction  with the virtually impaired at the Kenya Society of
the Blind. Yes, the blind who constitute up  to 3% of the Kenyan population
need to access the web and software to help them is available both for the
computer and the cell phones. According to the virtually impaired ,the  cost
was a barrier, good  pc software cost about $500 while for the cell phone
cost $300, and  open source was not as good. Equally, most of the Kenyan web
developers  do not incorporate features for  virtually impaired. 

In addition, Sir Tim saw applications of the web as a social intervention to
create jobs, reduce crime and organise a neighbourhood  by the excellent
work by  Kimathi Information Centre,  and the power of the community radio
to extend the power of the web to those in the slums as ably illustrated by
the SIDAREC radio - Ghetto 99.9. To crown  the visit to  SIDAREC, he talked
live on Ghetto 99.9 FM and  praised  the efforts of the SIDAREC to empower
the poor with information. 

 

His visit comes at time when Kenya has just plugged into submarine optic
fibres cables and  a repealed Kenya Communication Act   chaperoning Kenya to
the  information society era. From the many interactions in his itinerary
it was clear that  all sectors  of the society are highly sensitised  on the
opportunities created by www and ways  to exploit the web.  The only way to
honour Sir Tim's visit is to ACT  now.

 

Cheers 

Muriuki Mureithi

 

 

 

 

 

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email - mureithi at summitstrategies.co.ke  

www.summitstrategies.co.ke

 

 

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