[UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar essalaam|Strategy

Wed Jul 22 03:06:52 GMT 2009

Dear Pete,
I suppose the comparisons are very important to help the developers of AKN
to learn from real case studies and although Polly talks a lot of AKN, we in
Kenya have not seen its role in the unfolding ICT and related
infrastructural developments.

The thing is, the model for implementing ICT for knowledge based development
was and may still be wanting if AKN takes the same direction as it did as
OKN.

I suppose again the solution for knowledge development is not the mobile
phone. It is the content that the mobile phone is used to support or
promote. See the case of Safaricom (Vodafone from your country) and its work
with money. Its not the phone that makes things work, it is the money
transfer business that makes sense. Look at the microfinance model that
Equity uses, it's the money that people want. What I am saying is: Let us
not talk infrastructure - that will definitely follow content and I suppose
that is the knowledge AKN needs to address. It is not creating
infrastructure leaning efforts because that we have that in the telecentre
network. We also will need to look at the array of ICTs that are available
and can be used to facilitate knowledge capture and utilization.

The thing that Shaddy mentioned is: they were on the ground as local people
and institutions to develop what has sustained in Drishtie and I suppose in
others that have not been as entrepreneurially aggressive as Drishtie. 

Let there be no hype. Let all come to reality with what is needed from an
institutional perspective to host a sustainable model. When you visit Kenya,
I would be glad to have a one on one discussion to share with you my
thoughts and fears, particularly if you are engaged with AKN.

Good day

Kiringai Kamau

-----Original Message-----
From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Pete Cranston
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 2:02 AM
To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar
essalaam|Strategy

hi

I've said enough but I'm replying partly so my quietness isn't taken as a
sign that I disagree with Polly, whereas I do. Since I am here, it was great
to see Shaddy give the deservedly upbeat account of OKN in South Asia, with
it's very special context, but also to see Polly confirm that the individual
OKN Africa partners continued to do excellent work during the programme and
took in what was relevant to them. 

The stress on local is so important and indeed OKN as a single programme
wasn't continued because the global targets and ambitions weren't met. But
one of those - and it is the other issue that still remains the hardest nut
to crack - is how to connect expensive content gathering, sharing and
creation with revenue models. Services like insurance can immediately
benefit all players and everyone takes a percentage, so there is the
possibility of an inbuilt revenue model. Enabling people to share how they
deal with drought or living with HIV/Aids or their wisdom on child rearing I
think can only happen if there is some kind of public funding model in the
network, whether external or Govt. based. Clearly AKN has that network at
its centre and should be in a good position to build the kind of coalitions
that we saw working when we looked at content strategies for telecentre.org.

The other element that has changed, of course, is the availability and use
of mobile phones. Research suggests most people use their phones most of the
time to keep in touch with family and friends, exactly the local trust
networks at the centre of village/community knowledge systems. We know lots
of Question & Answer and information distribution services work well using
mobiles. I'd be interested to learn from this list how mobiles are
integrating with telecentre work, especially in connection to local content
and sharing. It's a great oppportunity for AKN since they are coming into a
very different context in terms of communication. It's one of the things I
want to learn about when I visit people in Kenya and Uganda this August.

Best wishes 

Pete

 Pete Cranston
Mob: +44 (0)7917 390133
Skype & Twitter: petecranston

----- Original Message ----
> From: Polly Gaster <polly.gaster at uem.mz>
> To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
> Sent: Monday, 20 July, 2009 4:51:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar es
salaam|Strategy
> 
> Hi again - wasn't going to say any more on this topic, but Shaddy's
> contributions re OKN deserve some feedback. Basically to say that I am in
> agreement re the primacy of local content and sharing - that's very much
what
> we tried to do in our Mozambique pilot (not totally successfully!), but I
have
> a feeling that it's pretty much what ALIN and SAFIRE and Enda were doing
too,
> to name but 3, and was very useful. Where we all came to grief was the
> international using and sharing on the international network (eg the
> Worldspace radio, which is a brilliant concept, but doesn't have a single
> channel in Portuguese so was no good to us). This in response to Kiringai
- I
> think perhaps it was the weight and cost of the international sharing
channels
> that didn't produce enough cost-benefit or even social benefit. Pete (C!)
may
> not agree, and obviously knows much more than I do about OKN. 
> 
> I think in Asia it was easier to get economies of scale, and simply more
> people in the local neighbourhoods, not to mention the basic questions of
> quality of human resources available and connectivity infrastructures. And
the
> fact that where we visited Drishtee sites, there were even 4 online
services
> available that were in demand by the community - I remember farmers buying
> insurance was one of them - in Mozambique at that time there wasn't even
one!
> In fact there hardly is even now.
> 
> But it does remain true that OKN did us all a service by opening the way
and,
> as I said right at the beginning, offering us lessons both "what to do"
and
> "what not to do". And reminds us that we should be cautious about offering
to
> change the world immediately through ICTs.
> 
> Polly
> 
> ----
> 
> Polly Gaster
> TICs para Desenvolvimento/ICT4D
> Centro de Informatica da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (CIUEM)
> Campus Universitario, Maputo, Mozambique
> e-mail: polly.gaster at uem.mz
> cel: +258-82-3264540
> tel/fax: +258-21-485779
> Skype: polly_gaster
> 
> 
> -- 
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> 
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