[kictanet] Kenya's "Silicon Savannah" to challenge India on IT

[Joseph McDonald]

The local IT community need to work more closely and with collaboration,
look at problems and lobby the government, because technology is not about
programming and coding only or having web this and that or mobile this and
that. It is addressing a national or global problem by enriching life to
make it more efficient. Having said that IT people cannot work in isolation
they need to work with Business Planners, Business Model Specialist, Product
Managers and Marketers specialist,Investors,Value Chain Specialist, Lawyers
etc.so ihub should also allow other non-IT people into the hub.

I know there has been lots of debate on Investors and funding, if the
funding from Bretton Woods and the government is not forthcoming how about
people who have made their careers and riches through IT, if people who have
made all their careers and riches in IT can not support others then who
will? I know of many IT companies owned by people in this list who make
between 24-75 million USD a year.e.g Craft Silicon has made 10 billion in
the last 10 years, MJ, Seven Seas, East Africa Capital Partners etc have the
resource and clout to start venture capital or act as angel investors. As
insiders if they made a deliberate effort to support other young and
upcoming innovators we can head somewhere. Silicon Valley was largely built
by networks of people and companies whose interlocking relationships help to
spawn new start-ups e.g. After selling Paypal for 1.5 billion USD  to eBay,
its founders and alumni have helped both financially and intellectually to
start up numerous internet start-ups e.g. Yelp, Youtube, LinkedIn, Slide,
Room9Entertainment, Spacex among others. So much that in October 17 2006 NY
times run a story called It Pays to have Pals at Paypal.



The government also has a very important role; they can create an enabling
environment especially to protect the ideas through effective and efficient
copy right laws and patenting system, creating subsidies for research etc
the government can also give more business to local IT companies, and
fundamentally the government need to streamline our educational systems so
that we can have 16-25 year olds who are ready to go into innovation and
venture into business. India is reaping from the decisions their government
made in 1948 by setting up Business and Technology institutions in every
major city. The government is making efforts through building the
techno-parks etc techno-park is good but is it a real estate investment or
an investment to spur ICT growth? As a-country we need to assess our place
in the global IT value chain, we need to find out what we are good at and
can do better than everyone else. China, Malaysia and Taiwan used their
population to offer cheap labour, India used excess bandwidth to set-up call
centers, America is good at marketing etc



Having said that I think that the debates are healthy because it shows
people are genuinely worried and are ready to take action.


On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 10:22 PM, Agosta Liko <agostal at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mark
>
> I can't agree more on an easy api to enable Kenyans to pay on the phone....
>
> This would be a killer app
>
> On 6/10/11, Mark Mwangi <mwangy at gmail.com> wrote:
> > These wonderful stories are just that. Stories. I know Dr. Ndemo will
> start
> > calling me unpatriotic and negative but I stand my ground. We are not
> > America and we are not India and so attempting to replicate the same
> model
> > is rather unimaginative. I believe we should focus our efforts with
> models
> > that work here.
> > Instead of introducing a Visa card that can be loaded via mpesa, push
> local
> > developers to develop a secure API that allows for easy payment online
> via
> > phone. Make the phone number the unique identifier e.t.c
> >
> > We don't want to be Bangalore. We want a Kenyan Identity cultivated here
> not
> > by a western journalist.
> >
> > Making grand announcements and mentions in articles allover does not
> develop
> > the tech scene. I am smelling a tech bubble. Lots of talk, very little on
> > the ground.
> >
>
> --
> Sent from my mobile device
>
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