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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>Hi
all stakeholders of the web <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>Sir
Tim Berners-Lee, the www inventor in 1989 and Time magazine member
of 100 Most Important People of the 20<sup>th</sup> century
honoured Kenya by a visit last week facilitated by KICTAnet. On the
conclusion of the trip, he gave a wide ranging one-on-one interview to
K24’s Jeff Koinange Capital Talk to be aired on Monday 30<sup>th</sup>
at 2000 hrs and 2200hrs. Make a date to hear first hand the inventor of the
www.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'> In
his itinerary, he met and interacted with the cross-section of Kenyan web
stakeholders – government, parliament, academia, techies, industry
and civil society. This was a fact finding mission to understand how his
invention is being exploited. He also profiled Web Foundation (<a
href="http://www.webfoundation.org">www.webfoundation.org</a> ) that he launched
in Sharm el Sheikh IGF on 15<sup>th</sup> Nov, Web Science Research
Initiative (<a href="http://www.wsri.org">www.wsri.org</a>) and clarified some
of the outputs of www consortium (w3c) in standard setting especially
for the virtually impaired.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'> He
met government officials led by Vice President Hon
Kalonzo Musyoka, Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo and CCK DG Mr Charles
Njoroge among others over lunch, had an interactive session with Parliamentary
committee responsible for ICT led by Hon Eng James Rege. He also gave a
one hour lecture to the academic community (view the video lecture
at <a href="http://www.kenet.or.ke">www.kenet.or.ke</a>) and met
Skunkworks at Strathmore University as well as TESPOK. A
recurring theme was the opportunity provided by the www
but can only be fully exploited by the development of content –
just do it, put data on a web page and contribute to the growth of the
web now estimated at 10 raised to power 18 pages and growing rapidly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>From
the high and mighty, Sir Tim went to the grassroots. First stop was first
hand interaction with the virtually impaired at the Kenya Society of the Blind.
Yes, the blind who constitute up to 3% of the Kenyan population need to
access the web and software to help them is available both for the computer and
the cell phones. According to the virtually impaired ,the cost was a
barrier, good pc software cost about $500 while for the cell phone cost $300,
and open source was not as good. Equally, most of the Kenyan web
developers do not incorporate features for virtually impaired. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>In
addition, Sir Tim saw applications of the web as a social intervention to
create jobs, reduce crime and organise a neighbourhood by the excellent
work by Kimathi Information Centre, and the power of the community radio
to extend the power of the web to those in the slums as ably illustrated by the
SIDAREC radio – Ghetto 99.9. To crown the visit to SIDAREC,
he talked live on Ghetto 99.9 FM and praised the efforts of the
SIDAREC to empower the poor with information. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>His
visit comes at time when Kenya has just plugged into submarine optic fibres
cables and a repealed Kenya Communication Act chaperoning Kenya
to the information society era. From the many interactions in his
itinerary it was clear that all sectors of the society are
highly sensitised on the opportunities created by www and ways to
exploit the web. The only way to honour Sir Tim’s visit is to ACT now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>Cheers
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>Muriuki
Mureithi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>----------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Summit Strategies Ltd <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>ICT consulting and
research <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Land mark Plaza 13th floor<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>P O Box 62454 - 00200 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Nairobi Kenya <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>tel + 254-20- 3673925<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>Cell +254 722 520090<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>email -
mureithi@summitstrategies.co.ke <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>www.summitstrategies.co.ke<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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