Barcamp Nairobi '08 is an unconference made up of of technical professionals, Internet enthusiasts, bloggers, designers and other clever people in the Nairobi area who wish to share and learn in an open environment.
See you there... ...I'm addressing the free food!
Monday, June 16, 2008
A Noble Initiative
The participants who are mainly engineering students (though not limited to) the have taken up ambitious projects some of which will be on exhibition at the annual IEEE competition. Sessions involve a variety of interests like hardware and software programming, micro-controllers and the open-source movement.
A brainchild of Dr. Kamau Gachigi, it is providing a much needed avenue for young and aspiring innovators to share ideas and learn from each other in an informal setting, and in the long run realise their potential. Through his assistance, the University of Nairobi and consequently the WAZA Platform is expecting to acquire Fab Lab equipment which enables ordinary people to design and manufacture fairly complex creations cheaply. We hope that this will soon be a re-known business incubator for our future inventors country-wide. There are six other such facilities in South Africa and one in Ghana.
Sessions take place on Saturdays from 10am at the Mechanical Engineering computer lab and Thursdays from 4pm at Rm E001 Engineering Block. All are welcome.
Watch this space for the WAZA Website (Under Contstruction)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Invitation to Tender: Episode 1.5
On a quick rejoinder before episode 2, Micheal Joseph is pulling hidden cards off his sleeve. In his latest invention since "Please call me. Thank You."- my pal's favourite quote, MJ doesn't think Kenyan's have peculiar calling habits after all... or so he says.
Three days after introducing the Ongea Tarrif Safaricom advertise that if you buy credit worth Ksh. 100 during the day, your calls would be free from 9pm that night to 6pm the next day. Too good to be true? Well, yesterday a peculiar Kenyan like me topped up my account with Ksh.100 and couldn't wait for my reward come 9pm.
9pm came and passed, my calls were still being charged! Wait a minute, did they say buy credit worth Ksh. 100 or 'spend credit worth Ksh.100 which you bought that day and exhaust any credit balance which may have been in your account, then...'.
Three days after introducing the Ongea Tarrif Safaricom advertise that if you buy credit worth Ksh. 100 during the day, your calls would be free from 9pm that night to 6pm the next day. Too good to be true? Well, yesterday a peculiar Kenyan like me topped up my account with Ksh.100 and couldn't wait for my reward come 9pm.
9pm came and passed, my calls were still being charged! Wait a minute, did they say buy credit worth Ksh. 100 or 'spend credit worth Ksh.100 which you bought that day and exhaust any credit balance which may have been in your account, then...'.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Invitation to Tender: Episode 1
An invitation to tender was offered by the kenyan populace to all GSM Mobile Phone Service Providers to offer a cost-friendly and best quality round the clock network tariff to its subscribers. My verdict... Celtel wins hands down!
For a very long time many Kenyans have had a sort of psycological inertia preventing them from shifting alliance from the ever-so-ineffecient Safaricom network to the more loyal and trustworthy Celtel network. These being the two main mobile phone networks with a large subscriber base in the country, Kenyans have had little choice but to keep up with mellow-dramatic soap opera that the tariff -war has become.
The beginning of this week saw both companies introduce a new tariff each, Safaricom with a ksh. 10/- flate-rate 'better option' and Celtel 'made life better' with a ksh.6/-peak, ksh.3/-offpeak tariff*. It is however a win-win situation, whichever side of the divide one finds him/herself since this is. The problem though is the interconnection charges still remain more than double the intraconnetion charges between the two networks, Celtel being the 'imp' (ksh.16/-) and Safaricom the 'demon'(ksh.25/-).
To me, the battle is done, but the war is just beginning! Watch out for 'Invitation to Tender, Episode 2: Bamba-net vs Uhuru-net'.
*Both of these are 'per minute' billing rates charged by the second.
For a very long time many Kenyans have had a sort of psycological inertia preventing them from shifting alliance from the ever-so-ineffecient Safaricom network to the more loyal and trustworthy Celtel network. These being the two main mobile phone networks with a large subscriber base in the country, Kenyans have had little choice but to keep up with mellow-dramatic soap opera that the tariff -war has become.
The beginning of this week saw both companies introduce a new tariff each, Safaricom with a ksh. 10/- flate-rate 'better option' and Celtel 'made life better' with a ksh.6/-peak, ksh.3/-offpeak tariff*. It is however a win-win situation, whichever side of the divide one finds him/herself since this is. The problem though is the interconnection charges still remain more than double the intraconnetion charges between the two networks, Celtel being the 'imp' (ksh.16/-) and Safaricom the 'demon'(ksh.25/-).
To me, the battle is done, but the war is just beginning! Watch out for 'Invitation to Tender, Episode 2: Bamba-net vs Uhuru-net'.
*Both of these are 'per minute' billing rates charged by the second.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
KDN to offer Free Internet!
Yesterday, I attended a talk given by Kai Wulff, CEO -Kenya Data Networks, organised by the Engineering students Association at UoN. Yes, the reigning two-time ICT CEO of the year, for the rest of us who don't know. So what did the tough-talking, average build, german-born have to say?
According to Mr. Wulff, if you want to take over Safaricom's business hands-down (as KDN did Telkom Kenya), you have to be ahead of the 'Hype Cycle'. This he described as a recurring phenomena, specific, but not exclusive to technology. Every major new technology has a hype created around it and being hype,its benefits are often greatly exaggerated in anticipation.
For his case, take Wi-Max compared to Land-laid Fibre which is more feasible in Kenya(Nation-wide) for the fore-seeable future. When KDN laid their Cable in Kenya other companies concentrated on rolling out new-tech wi-fi et al in urban areas, taking for granted the wider customer base and opportunities of service to the rest of Kenya. Now they (FON .ie GoK) including telkom Kenya are struggling to play catch-up while KDN ponder free internet for all. KDN is even planning to implement micro-power-grid systems in less urban areas plus have ATM Network Backbones, etc
KDN's popular individual-customer services are Butterfly Wi-Fi (Ksh.2900/-p.m.) and DSL* (4400/-p.m.) for unlimited internet access. Since there are no incremental costs to the company for access, this pricing system is thus unnecessary and illogical. If a shift from the traditional business model occurs, Internet connection, like free-to-air tv should be free. KDN is planning to pioneer this shift.
*Subject to confirmation
According to Mr. Wulff, if you want to take over Safaricom's business hands-down (as KDN did Telkom Kenya), you have to be ahead of the 'Hype Cycle'. This he described as a recurring phenomena, specific, but not exclusive to technology. Every major new technology has a hype created around it and being hype,its benefits are often greatly exaggerated in anticipation.
For his case, take Wi-Max compared to Land-laid Fibre which is more feasible in Kenya(Nation-wide) for the fore-seeable future. When KDN laid their Cable in Kenya other companies concentrated on rolling out new-tech wi-fi et al in urban areas, taking for granted the wider customer base and opportunities of service to the rest of Kenya. Now they (FON .ie GoK) including telkom Kenya are struggling to play catch-up while KDN ponder free internet for all. KDN is even planning to implement micro-power-grid systems in less urban areas plus have ATM Network Backbones, etc
KDN's popular individual-customer services are Butterfly Wi-Fi (Ksh.2900/-p.m.) and DSL* (4400/-p.m.) for unlimited internet access. Since there are no incremental costs to the company for access, this pricing system is thus unnecessary and illogical. If a shift from the traditional business model occurs, Internet connection, like free-to-air tv should be free. KDN is planning to pioneer this shift.
*Subject to confirmation
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Gender: Our Agenda
I recently attended a Gender Empowerment Forum organised by Kenya Model United Nations UoN Chapter. Well, I'm neither looking forward to any modelling career nor am I crossing the gender divide, but rather bridging it. The KMUN is a sort of 'model' of the real United Nations, with a mock stucture, function and purpose of the UN, and run by members of such educational institutions as the UoN.
It is quite amazing how intruiging opening your mind to a rather inconcievable mindset could be, in terms of looking at an issue from a different perspective. Here, I refer to the Kenyan 'men'. A male friend of mine quipped jokingly, "I would not attend because they are going to discuss womens' affairs... which are not my problems!" I soon made the comparison to a Kenyan livin in urban Nairobi, who is least concerned about the IDP situation in Kenya since neither him, nor his immediate family has been displaced.
Women have long been victims of too many obvious injustices that it would be impossible for anyone to discuss all of them in any forum. It has also been our problem as men to acknowledge these injustices. I call such men, simply, cowards.
I support Gender Equality, do you?
Esto vir! Be a Man!
It is quite amazing how intruiging opening your mind to a rather inconcievable mindset could be, in terms of looking at an issue from a different perspective. Here, I refer to the Kenyan 'men'. A male friend of mine quipped jokingly, "I would not attend because they are going to discuss womens' affairs... which are not my problems!" I soon made the comparison to a Kenyan livin in urban Nairobi, who is least concerned about the IDP situation in Kenya since neither him, nor his immediate family has been displaced.
Women have long been victims of too many obvious injustices that it would be impossible for anyone to discuss all of them in any forum. It has also been our problem as men to acknowledge these injustices. I call such men, simply, cowards.
I support Gender Equality, do you?
Esto vir! Be a Man!
'Disclaimer'
Welcome to my blog. For my fisrt post I would like to give a personal 'disclaimer' to this web-log. I believe every individual has certain philosophies and norms of life which although not explicitly definite, do exist. Growth is change,... for the better. Thus if certain beliefs and norms haven't been acquired or changed(again, for the better) by an individual, say for a year, then that person has not grown -not physically- for that period.
I will discuss generally about what is happening in my life, issues that affect me personally, my communities and our nation, Kenya. I hope it will be interesting and informative to my prospective readers.
"If you want to succeed, blog!" -Somefamous Guy
I will discuss generally about what is happening in my life, issues that affect me personally, my communities and our nation, Kenya. I hope it will be interesting and informative to my prospective readers.
"If you want to succeed, blog!" -Somefamous Guy
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