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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>Dear
All:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>I
hope the definitions below help to inform the discourse?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>What
is local content?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";
color:#999900'>Answer<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>After
decades of emphasis on providing access to the new communication and
information technologies, the international community and development agencies
are now asking themselves a very crucial question: access to what? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>During
the last few years there has been a growing recognition of the need to generate
local content and make it available through new and traditional media in order
to empower communities and lead them to an inclusive knowledge society. <b>Local
content is the expression and communication of a community’s locally
owned and adapted knowledge and experience that is relevant to the
community’s situation .</b> The process of creating and disseminating
local content provides opportunities for members of the community to interact
and communicate with each other, expressing their own ideas, knowledge and
culture in their own language. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>A
community is defined by its location, culture, language, or area of interest. A
community can comprise a whole region, a sub-region, a nation, a village or a
group of people with strong cultural, linguistic, religious or common interest
links. Thus, a community may comprise of a handful of people or include
millions; its members may share the same location or be geographically
dispersed. Communities are not static or exclusive and individuals may belong
to many communities at the same time.</span></i></b><span style='font-size:
14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'> For example, a woman living in a village
in Mali may feel strong ties with the community of women in her sub-region,
take active part in the life of the community of her village and, at the same
time, be a member of the Muslim community and the artists’ collective of
Mali. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=right
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>The
need for local content<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";
color:#999900'>The lack of local content is evident across all media and
information channels. One needs to spend just a few minutes in front of a television
or computer screen to notice the overwhelming presence of content coming from
content providers in the developed countries, reflecting language, values and
lifestyles which are often vastly different from those of the community
“consuming” the content.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>Content
does not flow of its own accord; it needs owners or originators with the
motivation to create, adapt or exchange it. Obviously, the agencies that
‘push’ global or non-local content are more powerful and
resourceful than those disseminating local content. With a few exceptions (e.g.
the telephone, community radio, or indigenous knowledge systems), most formal
content and communication ‘channels’ in developing countries help
to push ‘external’ content into local communities. Counter efforts
to distribute local content (such as African film, Asian research publications,
‘southern voices’ in the media, or the e-trading of traditional
crafts) to global networks face an uphill struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>While
the importance of local content has often been raised in many international
meetings and by numerous donors and cooperation agencies, concrete initiatives
and expertise in this area are scarce. Many, if not most, content initiatives
using ICTs tend to ‘push’ external content towards local communities.
In other words, they mainly provide ‘access’ to other
people’s knowledge. With a few exceptions, new technologies are not used
to strengthen the ‘push’ of local content from local people.
Generally, the balance between ‘push’ and ‘pull’
– or supply and demand – is heavily weighted towards non-local
rather than local content. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:
6.0pt;margin-left:0cm'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif"'>It
is important to note here that, while everyone is impressed by the potential
that the new ICTs offer for sharing and exchanging local content, in many cases
the ‘new’ technologies are still tape recorders, radio, television,
newspapers, or telephones. ICTs and the Internet are still a small percentage
of the ‘toolkit’ used to create and communicate local content.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-family:"Tw Cen MT","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-family:"Tw Cen MT","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-family:"Tw Cen MT","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-family:"Tw Cen MT","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>Eric
Aligula Magolo, PhD<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>Senior
Analyst<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>Infrastructure
and Economic Services Division<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>Kenya
Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black'>P.O. Box 56445, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya<br>
Telephone: +254-20-2719933/4<br>
Fax:
+254-20-2719951<br>
E-mail: <a
href="mailto:jairah@kippra.or.ke"><i><span style='color:black'>jairah@kippra.or.ke</span></i></a><br>
URL:
<a href="http://www.kippra.org/"><i><span style='color:black'>www.kippra.org</span></i></a><br>
<br>
</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><img
border=0 width=79 height=50 id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C94998.423EFA50" alt="Kenyan flag"></span><i><span
lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black'>Proudly Kenyan</span></i></b><b><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black;background:white'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span
lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>“In the
long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of
defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this
responsibility……….I welcome it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><span
lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>John F.
Kennedy <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span
style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>"All that is
necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><span
style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>Edmund Burke <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span
lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>"Far
better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered
by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much
nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory,
nor defeat."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><span
lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>Theodore
Roosevelt</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><i><span
lang=PT-BR style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>"Ex
Africa semper aliquid novi"</span></i></b><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
kictanet-bounces+jairah=kippra.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+jairah=kippra.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] <b>On Behalf
Of </b>aki<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 18 November 2008 15:27<br>
<b>To:</b> Eric Aligula<br>
<b>Cc:</b> KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [kictanet] Tandaa - An Honest Analysis<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>My last thoughts on this before it becomes more
like a blogging site. Robert, you are still unable to define local content
and therefore unable to match any criticism or critic. Mixing small words with
bigger words for the sake of it is the usual illusion. I think the
severe arrogance and phobia of local everything ( of course with the
usual spices such as politics, leaders and events, esle the traffic to sites
would not exist ) is over-rated and the best effort so far
according to you for local content is a website that I'd never visit or
waste any time on. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>So simply moving forward, and as Josiah and the
others mentioned : Define local content and we will start to get
somewhere. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>Get to the point. <o:p></o:p></p>
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