<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">Okay.......okay....Tandaa and beyond. My honest opinion from this flurry of
emails is the following:<br><br>1. We need to discuss more about local content
and define it within our<br>context. I think the piece Eric Aligula sent is a
good starting point and there<br>are similar ones. There have been many debates
around these issues, remember<br>less than a decade ago the debate was all about
we in Africa needing<br>access.....the key word was 'access'.<br><br>2. Then,
we started getting the 'access' we so desired, the debate moved to "access to
what?"....that is where the local content issues come in. Aligula's piece
defined it as <span style="font-style: italic;">Local</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> content is the expression and</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> communication of a
community's locally owned and adapted knowledge and</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> experience that is
relevant to the community's situation</span>. A great starting point but we do not
have to stick to that definition but we can refine it in our context and
maybe that is partially where the challenge lies.<br><br>2. The other issue I
can flesh out is the fact that there are many who are involved in<br>local
content development; and either they are not known or they have not
made<br>themselves known. Maybe we need to provide a platform for them to
show-case<br>what they are doing but within a defined definition.<br><br>Ladies
and gentlemen, debate is healthy, but there are pertinent issues that are
coming<br>out that some may deem 'noise' but my research nose smells the
beginning of a<br>great venture. Maybe we needed Tandaa to simply get us here.
Let us refocus.<br><br>Nyaki</div><br>
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