[kictanet] Kenya IGF 2010, Discussions :Day 8 of 8 Summary

[Solomon Mburu Kamau]

Dear Listers,


On 14/07/2010, Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Listers,
>
> Today we conclude 8 days of interesting discourse on Internet Governance
> issues in Kenya. As mentioned by some contributors in earlier posts, being a
> new area, there is a great need for capacity building and awareness to
> ensure that the country is able to reap the benefits of the new
> info-economy. We would like to invite listers who might not have had the
> chance to make their posts to do so under the respective subject lines in
> the next two days before compilation of the final report that will be
> presented during the face to face discussions scheduled for the end of this
> month.
> In a nutshell we explored the following areas:
>
>    1. Internet Governance rationale - What is internet governance and why
>    internet governance at this point in time.
>    2. Infrastructure issues: Unified Licensing., Fibre Optic cable
>    3. Critical Internet Resources
>    4. Management of the dot KE cctld
>    5. IPv6
>    6. ecrimes, privacy, data security.
>
> Despite the limited time frame the discussion was exciting, i am sure the
> many that followed the debate silently would not their heads in agreement.
> Today and tomorrow will be dedicated to exploring other areas that might of
> interest in so far Internet Governance in Kenya is concerned one of them
> being cloud computing was which pointed out by Dr. Waudo Siganga.
>
> Thank you
> --
> Barrack O. Otieno
> +41767892272
> Skype: barrack.otieno
>

The internet has become the most preferred mode of communication,
education, information and entertainment. It is probably the most
consulted tool probably, after the Holy Books, but again, there are
some things which need to make it more secure, preferable and
interactive.

Capacity Building is the core aspect of any organization; it sets pace
on how much (technical and financial) need to be invested in achieving
certain goals, objectives and mission that are already in place.
With this in mind, I firmly believe that for Internet Governance to
have positive and greater effects to the general consumer, there is an
urgent need to make sure that the understanding of IG become a part
and parcel of national goals and vision. At least, in the Kenya's
Vision 2030, this element is well captured through the acceleration of
Kenya towards a middle-level income nation by 2030.

There is also a need to determine the level in which as a nation we
want to be part of the global village - is it completely or partially?
If former, what are the parameters in place used to make this a
reality? How, for instance, can we talk about being part of the global
village, while in real sense not everybody has access to the internet,
or even a computer? In addition, the use of internet in the public
office remains just a communication tool(browsing, reading and
responding to emails, 'googling' etc) yet it goes beyond this scope
(research,  documentation etc) thus making it limited in practice than
in action.
When it comes to migration from IPV4 to IPV6, what are the mechanisms
in place ( at the regional level - the EAC) have been put to smoothly
migrate consumers without any hindrance or much-hyped expectations?
(Before the fibre cable optics were switched on, we were told that the
cost of the internet would drastically reduce, but in reality....)
How can a common person, like myself, understand these terminologies?
How would it be easier to know what equipment are already IPV6
compliant?
This takes me back to the Y2K bug. Much was said about computers
crashing, economies crumbling and even computers would not be
functioning well after 31st December 1999. I got anti-Y2K bug CD from
one of our partners from the US, giving us information of how to
upgrade the systems to be Y2K compliant and the risks we faced should
1st January 2000 set in. That was real scary. But years later, nothing
of that sort took place save for the recent global economic meltdown.

I hope such issues will be addressed during the forthcoming K-IGF and
the E-AIGF later in August, and probably IGF in Lithuania.

Thanks
-- 
Solomon Mbũrũ Kamau

*****************************************************
Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all
the same way to the side of a hill!

AND

It is better to die in dignity than in the ignomity of ambiguous generosity!

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