[kictanet] Results Transmission System

[ICT Researcher]

A wake-up call to Kenyans to be wary of "put all your eggs in the glorious IT basket" peddlers?  Unless you built the platform, owned and operated it, then your best could be no more than a washer in the system, a rain drop in the ocean or a mere subject in the digital kingdom. In which case the manual system restores IEBC to its due authoritative standing.

Some food for thought: 

 
'Engineering: Designed to Fail' - Henry
Petroski, American Scientist, Volume
85  

“Failure in engineering, as in lif,
is considered a negative quality--something to be avoided. When we
hear that a system has failed or a device has broken, we begin to
look for causes and culprits even as we are caring for victims and
cleaning up the pieces. We want o identify how and why each failure
happened so that we can prevent it in the future. Was the design
defective? Were the materials flawed? Was the maintenance negligent?
Was the use excessive? Such are the questions of a failure analysis,
determined to get to the heart of the matter so that blame and
liability can be assigned, and things can be redesigned. In this
sense, failed things and their makers can be said to be vindicated;
they provide lessons for improvement and for the advancement of
civilization. 
There is another aspect of failure, one
that from the beginning puts the usual pejorative connotation of the
word in a much more positive light. We actually want certain things
to fail and break, for otherwise we would be frustrated in their use
and possibly even harmed by their existence. The challenge to the
engineer in this case is to design systems and devices that have
well-defined and predictable failure and breaking points so that such
physical phenomena as collapse fracture happen in the way and at the
time they are supposed to." 


JSTOR link: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27856846?uid=3738336&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21101736419923
       


________________________________
 From: Brian Munyao Longwe <blongwe at gmail.com>
To: ict.researcher at yahoo.com 
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Results Transmission System
 

Why is another country paying for and procuring as critical and sensitive a national infrastructure and resource as our national election system?

Total, absolute fail!

Brian


On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:06 AM, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni at gmail.com> wrote:

Now, there is loads of information that is becoming available about the system. I am sharing more that has come my way:
>
>
>	1. The RFP used to source a vendor: http://buyersguide.ifes.org/procurement_pdf/1356124968.pdf
>	2. RFP was closing only 4th January, 2013, yes..only this January
>
>	3. An external party (US based) that seems to have been fully involved in the entire procurement process and i would imagine implementation as well is http://www.ifes.org/. See all details about their role in the RFP and others on their website.
>	4. Project was USAID funded.
>	5. A good blog with several discussions on this: http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/
>Before we blame anybody or feel sorry for any party, Please lets do a thorough review of the ongoings. I am sure we shall then address the IT problem in this case.
>
>
>On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 9:21 AM, Edith Adera <eadera at idrc.ca> wrote:
>
>This story and another on safaricom being pressured not to support the transmission was in the public domain, as a sector, we should have discussed these ahead of time.
>>
>>these articles were in the public domain.
>>________________________________________
>>From: kictanet [kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.ca at lists.kictanet.or.ke] on behalf of Dorcas Muthoni [dmuthoni at gmail.com]
>>Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 12:39 AM
>>To: Edith Adera
>>Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
>>Subject: [kictanet] Results Transmission System
>>
>>
>>Stories that we may have missed:
>>
>>http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-108148/iebc-must-fix-results-transmission-system-fast
>>
>>Story was published as early as Feb 19th 2013.
>>
>>I hope in future, departments like Directorate of e-Goverment launch competent QA and IS Audit teams that could be more involved in software projects at various agencies. It would be good for all of us.
>>
>>--
>>Muthoni
>>
>>My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
>>--------------------------------------------
>>Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
>>
>>First they ignore you,
>>Then they laugh at you,
>>Then they fight you,
>>AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>Muthoni
>
>My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/
>--------------------------------------------
>Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
>
>First they ignore you,
>Then they laugh at you,
>Then they fight you,
>AND THEN YOU WIN!!! 
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