Michuki,<br>
<br>
I do agree with you in most of your comments and please do not back-off on the 'local content',<br>
though I would be hesitant on the figures((ksh)1000,2000),because it
will bring the whole debate on does it apply to the home users or
office? but if it can be realised,then it would be GREAT for Kenya!<br>
<br>
We wouldnt be hearing alot on bandwidth,because we will have spread it
accross,evenly...so everybody would not be rushing to process
their mails @8am or just before 5.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 4/25/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Michuki Mwangi</b> <<a href="mailto:michuki@kenic.or.ke">michuki@kenic.or.ke</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi Walu,<br><br><br>John Walubengo wrote:<br>> The Internet Study says that of the about 1G International<br>> International Bandwidth only 10% is outbound while 90% is<br>> inbound. What this mean is that kenya is a net IMPORTER of
<br>> internet content. In internet economic terms we are<br>> therefore consumers rather than generators of internet<br>> content - which is a bad thing. Value is always retained<br>> by those who generate rather than just consume internet
<br>> content i.e. the exporters of internet content.<br>><br><br>Less than 50% of the International content is relevant to us yet it<br>makes up 90% of our inbound traffic. </blockquote><div><br>
Unfortunately I think most of this 90% is spent on
curiosity,...just like the first time you buy a cell phone,you spend so
much time on/with it,trying to check the features,how do they
work? what happens if I do this? I think same applies,unfortunately
your time is so limited you cant exhaust it....but give guys affordable
access...it will narrow it to RELEVANCE!<br>
</div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">That means that there is a<br>potential of more than 50% percent of local content yet to be realised
<br>and monetized.<br><br><br>>What can be done to get that to happen?<br><br>IMHO, i see the following as key catalysts to the growth of local<br>content in order to change the status quo. Before we think of exporting
<br>content, we need to have sufficient & relevant local content to the users.<br><br>1) ISPs & Service providers need to introduce creative products that<br>focus more on local content. For instance an unlimited Internet
<br>connection for kshs 1,000 giving one unlimited local access per month.<br>By local access means - can access any locally hosted website and send<br>emails off a local web-based mail system. With affordability but lack of
<br>sufficient local content will spur;<br><br> o creation of local user generated content<br> o Better information on local corporate websites</blockquote><div><br>
this is seriously lacking,I dont even know a local
corporate website that gets updated,every 2 months or those
that actually respond to their info@.......<br>
</div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> o
Introduction of local online Gaming & entertainment...just make
sure you dont have to deal with .XXX</blockquote><div><br>
</div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> o
Introduction of online Services i.e banking, shopping, e-gov,I would
like to add e-health, e-business etc<br>
</blockquote><div><br>
equity bank is on the lead and its great when you have to do as little transaction f-2-f<br>
<br>
<br>
</div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">2) Looking at the graphs availed (KIXP stats). The stats (picks and<br>drops) are replayed across the International circuits at night and
<br>weekends for all operators. Thus the service providers need to monetize<br>their services in Megabit per Second. This will mean that they can offer<br>lower traffic rates i.e kshs 1,000 per month for unlimited Internet from
<br>7pm to 7am and full weekends and national holidays.<br><br>Looking at points 1 & 2 above it would be feasible (please note the<br>values are just hypothetical) to have unlimited local and international<br>night access for Kshs 2,000 per month for x Kbps of capacity.
<br><br>As the enterprising citizens of Kenya have found ways of monetizing<br>SMS's - the same would apply to web content, email etc. Of course this<br>would spawn off issues of net-neutrality but then we would be more
<br>conversant with the issues.<br><br><br>3) As a first step towards e-learning, if the academic sector would<br>(initially the colleges and universities) have all student assignments,<br>essays, reports etc submited online with the internally graded results
<br>being posted & accessed online. In essence it will trigger a demand for<br>both computing and Internet resources. Being local content the above<br>products 1 & 2 can serve the day-scholars and the boarders probably
<br>paying a flat rate of Kshs 500 per month for unlimited access to the<br>university online resources and local Internet. As a result this will spur;<br> o Academic/Scientific research content & traffic<br> o enhance e-learning products and services
<br> o User generated content<br> o Local social online networks.<br><br><br>In summary, the infrastructure providers will keep investing as long as<br>there's a business case. So far, there is immense Internet
<br>infrastructure capacity on the ground and more being laid out. But quite<br>honestly its highly underutilized. The situation may not change<br>significantly if special focus and emphasis is given to availability of<br>
local and RELEVANT content. Kenya is amongst the only two countries in<br>Africa that have the core elements of the Internet locally namely the<br>DNS Root Servers (F and J), the main TLD Root Servers (.KE, .COM and<br>.NET) and a Gigabit capacity Exchange point. We need to take advantage
<br>of these resources and infrastructure sooner rather than later.<br><br>I
dont think that we can exhaust the local content/market,because we
hardly know it...how many of us new about www.Gikomba.com(can we call
it kenyan google or ebay).</blockquote><div><br>
1)We can change that graph with affordable and availability of internet!! <br>
</div><br><div>2) Stop internet concertration on the cities only!<br>
</div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">> 1 day discussion on this theme, the floor is open...<br>><br><br>Pole this comes more later than the set time.
<br><br>my 2 cents,<br><br>--<br>Michuki Mwangi<br>KENIC<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>kictanet mailing list<br><a href="mailto:kictanet@kictanet.or.ke">kictanet@kictanet.or.ke</a><br><a href="http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet">
http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet</a><br><br>Please unsubscribe or change your options at <a href="http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/judyokite%40gmail.com">http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/judyokite%40gmail.com
</a><br></blockquote></div><br>my 1 cent!<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Judy Ann Okite,<br>+254-721237507,+254-734252336<br>P.O. BOX 2228 00100,<br>NAIROBI,KENYA.<br><br> <br>"Even if you are on the right track, you'll still get run over if you just sit there."