[kictanet] the legacy of ICANN in Kenya - my take

Sun Mar 14 21:58:31 EAT 2010

Thanks Paul 

I share your concern to  engage the policy makers and the industry  as well
as the general public . My worry  is that if the implications and
opportunities   arising from ICANN are not captured immediately,  this will
be lost.  We need a get-together of the those who participated at ICANN to
distil the key issues that Kenyan system - policy , regulatory  and industry
needs to  follow up. Else we shall find ourselves heading for Brussels
without  internalising the  Nairobi ICANN outcomes  

Cheers 

MM

From: Paul Kukubo [mailto:pkukubo at ict.go.ke] 
Sent: 14 March 2010 19:25
To: mureithi at summitstrategies.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] the legacy of ICANN in Kenya - my take

Mureithi

Excellent Summary. I did attend some sessions at the ICANN and it was
impressive to see such small details work so well. Conference organisers did
a superb job with such important things as availing enough sockets and power
cables to laptop users at the conference.  Those with the greatest
understanding of this space on the new gTLDs (global Top Level Domains) must
keep the understanding and implications of this among the policy makers, the
industry and the general public here in Kenya.

Some  (if not most) of the sessions used Adobe Acrobat Connect (Online
Conference Software) to provide online collaboration to participants both
here and globally and the feedback from many is that it worked perfectly
thanks to stable and high quality links.

Yes I do agree that this validates our ability to provide collaborative
services of any kind over the internet and thus BPO. There was sizeable
amount of twitter feeds coming out of #ICANN sending details on the debate,
and even pics from the venues. The Twitter feeds are still on.

On another note, I am sitting on my laptop on twitter following another
conference taking place in  Texas on Africa (twitter ##africa3d0,  #sxsw)
(http://sxsw.com/interactive) and Eric of Ushahidi has just been on a live
stream (about an hour ago) from Kenya speaking to conference participants
and reading in, I have seen comments on Mpesa and African Innovation come
mentioned.

>From tomorrow, www.nethope.org hosts its Annual Global Summit in Nairobi
bringing to Kenya over 70 top level CIOs from humanitarian organizations
around the world. I am hoping the Kenyans attending will broadcast this to
the rest of the world through the online tools available.

All these help build 'the ecosystem'. 

Congratulations to the ICANN team here for a good organizational job.

Paul Kukubo
Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
PO Box 27150 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya

12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street

Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960 
Fax: +254 20 2211962
website: www.ict.go.ke
local content project: www.tandaa.co.ke, www.facebook.com/tandaakenya
twitter:@tandaaKENYA
BPO Project: www. doitinkenya.co.ke
Digital Villages Project: www.pasha.co.ke

personal contacts
_______________

Cell: + 254 735 180001

skype: kukubopaul
googletalk: pkukubo
personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
personal twitter: @pkukubo

____________________
Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub

Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT,
through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for
socio economic enrichment 

On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 5:38 PM, muriuki mureithi
<mureithi at summitstrategies.co.ke> wrote:

Hi Listers 

After an  attempt that aborted in 2008, ICANN came  full throttle  into
Nairobi  and after 6 action packed days it was time to  park the bags and
leave- they did and they are gone heading for Brussels!

Will Nairobi be remembered  or put it differently will Nairobi  remember
ICANN. What's the impact both ways? My take is that the  impact was both
ways - Nairobi provided a fertile  ground for Board action and  ICANN event
affirmed the local ICT sector   and raised high to a pedestal  for the world
to see.

Nairobi was a watershed for gTLDs .  Being held  in a developing  country,
it provided a fertile  groundswell for   consideration  that resulted in at
least two resolutions. EOI      was thrown  out by the Board for good reason
- the criteria would have worked against the developing countries and small
entities. This however is a short term reprieve and should only be a
breather. Nairobi also provided a fertile  moral ground  to persuade the
Board to pass a resolution supporting the formation of  a working group to
develop a sustainable approach to providing support to applicants requiring
assistance in applying for and operating new gTLDs. These  provide a
lifeline for  developing countries  to  participate meaningfully in the new
space to be unleashed by the new gTLDs. It is a challenge thrown to us.

ICANN more than affirmed the maturity of the ICT sector , the challenge is
to build on this . A large number of ICANNers did not come to Nairobi
courtesy of the mishandled security  issues. This was a blessing in disguise
for the  ICT sector. The scribes did their work, transcribing live from
California,  some board members, presenters , and other   participants
participated fully - no latency .  ICANN confirmed beyond doubt that our ICT
infrastructure is world class and beyond reproach. In the main conference
hall, I estimated over 200 devices all online and most streaming  and the
wireless internet speeds were incredible, the cellular networks were
incredible  and according to one staffer of ICANN,  bandwidth capacity and
quality was no different from any developed world country!!  He thought the
best thing should have been to stream the Carnivore Gala live to those who
didn't come. Our ICT system has come of age and fully confirmed by ICANN.
If scribes can sit in California  and do their thing ,  the converse is
true, we can offer first class scribing to world.  This is an item we should
shout loudly when marketing  the BPO sector  . Secondly, ICANN did official
business on audio and  video conferencing , is there any reason where we
should not aggressively use audio and video conferencing in government ,
private sector  and even social   engagements? 

Finally, ICANN provided a stepping stone  and great credentials to bring IGF
to kenya  next year . 

Media was caught unawares  and never could catch up with the biggest event
on internet that ever landed in Kenya . coverage of the opening day was a
whimper and subsequent   coverage tacked away  in obscure pages. 

Cheers 

Muriuki Mureithi

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