[kictanet] President Kenyatta secures Microsoft support for computers

[James Kariuki]

Evans et al,
> 1. It is my belief that Microsoft will not offer everything for free. <<snip>>
> But public money needs to be spent on whatever product that gives the best
> value.

I once listened to a former cabinet minister saying that the
government is in the business of spending money and not saving money.
With that in mind, the best value for money for a government whose
business is to spend money without a view in savings becomes a very
remote idea. In addition, in an area where value has not been clearly
defined, knowing what the best value for money is very difficult.
Before the right definition is done, there will be so many 'offers'
some of which will be regrettable and extremely costly. I therefore
strongly support the stakeholder engagement happening at Strath.
Probably a paper I co-authored could form some interesting background
reading  for the consultation (available here:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00910.x/abstract)

> 2. The strategy for Microsoft as Dr. Ndemo clearly put it is to lock in the
> market. <<Snip>>The result is that they continue minting money out of our economy.
<<snip>>

This is an open secret. This is a strategy well document and perfected
initially by Apple before the PC revolution. Even without looking at
the long term lock down, every parent assisting a child with his or
her homework will need to use or be familiar with the technologies the
kids are using in school. For the middle-class families, this will
translate to one or two extra gadgets purchased (and not subsidised)
and expensive license fees paid. Do the maths.

> 3. Are we doing anything as an open source community or we are just a talk
> shop? Yes we are. <<snip>>

I agree with you Evans, the FLOSS has a lot of great and interesting
activities going on. However, I think we fail miserably in marketing
and lobbying. Perhaps it still has to do with the arrogance
historically shown by the earlier pioneers of the open source movement
(or maybe we were are too ethical to be compromised into connections
that are not free and open).  I think the one of the greatest
challenge we have is communication. For instance, how many people on
this list would have known before today of your engagements in Camara
Educational Foundation (and RACHEL)? I am sure there are many more
open source based initiatives and products that have been tried and
tested but not well communicated about.

On number 4 below, I am therefore sure the president would have an
idea of what Microsoft is, but highly doubt he would know about
Edubuntu.

> 4. Unfortunately, the President may not know that there is anything else in
> the world apart from Microsoft. But the people who should be advising him
> do. These are the people who look down on us and call us dreamers.
>
> I look forward to the meeting at Strathmore where I will present my position
> paper on this.

Please remember to share the position paper.

--James