[kictanet] ETHIOPIAN GOVT. BANS SKYPE, GOOGLE TALK AND ALL OTHER VOIP SERVICES
tnyasani at kulahappy.com
tnyasani at kulahappy.com
Wed Jun 20 09:22:38 EAT 2012
Thanks for the heads up Grace....
Regards,
Tichi
-------------------
Quoting Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>:
>
> Yes Tichi. I think it was announced early last week and debate has
> been going on on other lists.
> RgdsGG
>
>> Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:43:19 +0000
>> From: tnyasani at kulahappy.com
>> Subject: [kictanet] ETHIOPIAN GOVT. BANS SKYPE, GOOGLE TALK AND ALL
>> OTHER VOIP SERVICES
>> CC: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> To: ggithaiga at hotmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>> Hey Listers,
>>
>> Has anyone come across this information?
>>
>> Regards,
>> Tichi
>>
>>
>>
>> ETHIOPIAN GOVT BAN ON SKYPE:
>>
>> The Ethiopian government, Al Jazeera reports, has criminalized the
>> use of Skype and other VoIP services like Google Talk. Using VoIP
>> services is now punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
>> This law actually passed last month, but mostly went unnoticed outside
>> of the country. Ethiopian authorities argue that they imposed these
>> bans because of national security concerns and to protect the state's
>> telecommunications monopoly. The country only has one ISP, the
>> state-owned Ethio Telecom, and has been filtering its citizen's
>> Internet access for quite some time now to suppress opposition blogs
>> and other news outlets.
>>
>>
>> USE SKYPE, GO TO PRISON
>>
>>
>> As for Skype and other VoIP services, the new law doesn't just
>> criminalize their usage, but the Ministry of Communication and
>> Information Technology now has the power to supervise and issue
>> licenses to all privately owned companies that import equipment used
>> for the communication of information.? It's worth noting that the new
>> law also prohibits audio and video data traffic via social media. It's
>> not clear how exactly the government plans to enforce this
>> restriction, but a potential 15-year prison term will likely keep most
>> people from using Skype in Ethiopia anytime soon.
>>
>> Reporters Without Borders also reports that Ethio Telecom installed a
>> system to block access to the Tor network, which allows users to surf
>> the Web anonymously. The organization notes that the ISP must be using
>> relatively sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection to filter out this
>> traffic.
>>
>> According to Internet filtering and censorship watchdog , Ethiopia
>> currently has the second lowest Internet penetration rate in
>> sub-Saharan Africa and just around 700,000 of the country's 84 million
>> citizens had Internet access in 2010
>>
>>
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>>
>> Quoting Kivuva <Kivuva at transworldafrica.com>:
>>
>> >> On the other hand , according to Wikipedia, e-government refers to
>> >> digital interactions between a government and its Citizens
>> >>
>> >> *Questions*
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> 5. The government has embarked on a number of e-government
>> initiatives, to
>> >> what extent has the Citizenry embraced e-government? What steps
>> should the
>> >> country take to ensure the citizens fully embrace e - government?*
>> >> *The floor is open
>> >>
>> >>
>> > Thanks Barrack, let me take the open floor. :)
>> > I Like the UK's e-governmnet motto "Digital by default".
>> > http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm. It shows real commitment to take
>> > government services to the people, not the other way round.
>> >
>> > We have an e-Governance Secretariat established by the government
>> of Kenya (
>> > http://www.e-government.go.ke/). The main objective in the website was to
>> >
>> > "oversee conceptualization, design and coordination of implementation of
>> > information technology activities in the civil service that are geared
>> > towards realization of full e-Government in public service delivery."
>> >
>> > Essentially, the term e-Government also known as Digital
>> Government, refers
>> > to 'How government utilizes IT, ICT and other telecommunication
>> > technologies, to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in the public
>> > sector' (Jeong, 2007)
>> >
>> > The government of Kenya approved a national ICT policy in
>> consultation with
>> > relevant agencies which recognized the problems of the different disjoint
>> > government systems, duplication and lack of enabling infrastructure. Since
>> > then the government has created systems for applying for public service
>> > jobs (is it working?), tracking status of passports (dead), exam results
>> > notifications (working), a government procurement portal, and submitting
>> > tax returns and declaring customs online (perfect). Many other services
>> > are still at infant stage but it is still a step in the right direction.
>> >
>> > Other successful e-government strategies by the government are:
>> >
>> > 1. Establishing a data center and implementation of a shared services
>> > platform where common services are integrated and managed centrally to
>> > improve services, reduce overhead costs and duplications as well as for
>> > optimal utilization of the ICT human capital.
>> > 2. Laid fiber optic cable through the nation but they have not yet
>> > provided last mile connectivity to government offices or other users.
>> > 3. Released Open Government Data through opendata datasets concept. The
>> > data includes: various dimensions of population data; local
>> and national
>> > government authority expenditure; public health indicator data and
>> > statistics including hospital locations; education data such
>> as enrollment
>> > rates and school locations; parliamentary proceedings (digital
>> Hansard);
>> > weather information and detailed census statistics on topics such
>> > as access
>> > to electricity, water and sanitation. https://www.opendata.go.ke/
>> > 4. The government each years offers Local content grants to about 20
>> > developers and artists of up-to $50,000 per project through a
>> competitive
>> > process.
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.ict.go.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=356&Itemid=301
>> > 5. Promoting BPO/ITES activities in the country. The Hallmark is the
>> > establishment of the grand Konza Technology Park which is billed as the
>> > next African Silicon Savannah. http://www.konzacity.co.ke/
>> > 6. And finally, entrepreneurs are given loans to start Digital villages
>> > code named Pasha (meaning disseminate). This initiative aims at
>> > establishing Cyber Cafes that providing internet access and
>> various online
>> > services at the grassroots. http://pasha.co.ke/
>> >
>> > The initiatives are more that what I've outlines, and can be a good basis
>> > for a Masters or PhD dissertation. I did a slideshare presentation a years
>> > back with the same theme, but different components. You can
>> access the link
>> > herehttp://www.slideshare.net/lordmwesh/e-government-7203413
>> >
>> > Is our e-government strategy working? Are we "more talk and no walk"? What
>> > can be done to push the stalled projects forward?
>> >
>> > Regards
>> > 10rdmwesh
>> >
>> > --
>> > ______________________
>> > Mwendwa Kivuva
>> > For
>> > Business Development
>> > Transworld Computer Channels
>> > Cel: 0722402248
>> > twitter.com/lordmwesh
>> > www.transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing
>> > kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
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