Mechanics and Mountaineers-Workshops and Summits!

This was a very intense week for the country especially for the gate keepers of its technology space. There we gathering that were designed to attract technology ministers from across the region as well as other business providers.

I could not help but think about the average basic organism. The single cell organism is most basic in its structure and functions at two basic levels. The first is internal. Dealing with food, growth, cell division and taking instructions from the nucleus. The Second has to do with its interactions with its environment. Movement and growth, dealing with neighbors and finding food...and yes dealing with threats.

So the structure of the meetings that took place this week will be viewed largely in this method.

Internals

Your organization and its interals whether that has to do with growth and expansion of your group and its brand. And so many signed up for this meeting with the hope of learning a lot more about internal dynamics. How are other companies organizing their staff and their products as well as technologies.

The need to hire more staff and to train and develop the staff that you already have.

Externals

Government to Government

Business (Local) to Business (Global)

Business (Services) to Governments

Business (Products) to Governments

Business (Products) to Business (Products)

Business (Services) to Business (Services)

Business (Services) to Business (Products)

Education to Business (Services)

Education to Business (Products)

Education to Government

Approach

The need to interact with additional players in your field of influence both for nourishment and for growth. In this regard we spotted some interesting appearances at the meeting. The government of Uganda for example split up its teams to ensure that they covered all the relevant possible players.

The Ministry of Education and Sports split up their participation (for the roundtables) to include:

1. Curriculum Development and Teacher Training
2. Higher Education Technical Vocational Educational and Training
3. ICT for Education
4. Ministry Top Table
5. ICT Ministry

As a sub-group, the larger Universities sought their own spaces Kyambogo, Mbarara University of Science and Technology and Makerere University were represented in the local and international space.

The South Africans chose to split their teams largely between education and technology.

1. Basic Education
2. Education, Gauteng Province
3. Ministry of Science and Technology
4. Ministry of Telecommunications

Larger groups simply sought to gain more coverage for their brands as well as to find links in which governments would directly sign contracts with them for hardware, software and other services (and possibly collaborations).

Visibility

In the advance of across the Education space we spotted innovations such as the MTN Educational Internet Bus which is a great way to make inroads into the educaiton sector as well as push the companies mobile internet platfrom (and speeds). This is probably a global trend with other players such as facebook and google also attempting to bridge what they see as a technlogy and internet divide across the third world. Both have pushed ideas where they sought to place satelites and internet balloons into the upper atmosphere to increase acess to the internet.

Samsung was also on site to demonstrate what a solar powered mobile internet school would look like.

It should be noted that the marked difference between the Samsung and MTN approach is that they have both chosen to be visible. Both google and facebook have a seeking to create solutions that are long term-yes but nom-visible.

Interaction

The interaction between Education and Business (Global) has been interesting because international businsesses have found that it might be much cheaper dealing with fresh recruits (students on campus and at innovation centers) to help develop new ideas as opposed to having to mine for innovations from entrenched staff members who may often also be much more costly. In addition to this, these companies have held ntohing back in making sure that young students (talent) from top universities have access to their devices both for advertising as well as for devleopment (student led google developper days).

Is there a link between poverty and innovation?

In these parts we have a word for ingenuity-we call it okuyiya. In some circles though,

It is also looked at in a rather negative manner. It can be related to what happens when

a lack of resources meets and good measure of skill. What you have here though is lack of

resources with limited measure of skill (and training).

 

The result is a blend between Mac Giver and Junk Yard wars. In the former, the guy based on experience can fix anything.

He is therefore able to get out of all sorts of fixes using his hands and his training. The latter

is really about a bunch of guys who are thrust into a yard with old, used parts. They have to compete

with other crews to create all sorts of neat new tools from old scrap.

 

In the third world, most of what we create is done in less than pleasant circumstances.

In some cases we have to contend with old used computers which are thrust on our continent

from well meaning donors. Because main stream creators are no longer creating software

For older implementations, we are turning to open source systems. But that is limiting

innovation and creativity to hardware and software that runs it.

 

The best example for this is the guy who turned an old tyre rim into a cooking

stove by welding three pieces of metal at the top and using the hollow section for

charcoal. The other is the guy who found an old cooker and used its outside stable frame

for roasting purposes. He simply chose to add charcoal in the frame both to trap the smoke

as well as to do the task of cooking.

 

So when I last shared my ideas about innovation and poverty, I upset quite

a few people. For them the whole idea behind poverty is absolutely abhorrent.

One definition of Economics is “the study of the use of

limited resources for the achievement of alternative ends”(Macroeconomic Theory

Second Edition)

Maybe the objection was with the choice of words. The point is, that you are doing

To be most creative when you face limits but everything you create has to be

Balanced with something that you have seen (Exposure) and something that you have learnt (Education).

 

Want to boost your creative space? Get rid of the clutter. Also think like a prisoner. Deliberately take steps

limit your movements and the spaces within which you can work and then watch as your creative juices kick in.

 

 

 

Between a rock and a hard place?

If you are like me, an i suspect that you are, you wondered which
major event to attend when
you received notice that the innovation summit and the BPO ICT conference were taking place on
the same date (30th September-1st October). Like a couple who in the 'local wedding month'
(peak season for wedding and similar events) find themselves having to split resources to attend two weddings taking place on the same date.

The East African Internet Governance Forum and the Forum for Internet Freedom in
East Africa are slightly different. In that the former was slated for the 24th and the 25th
of September (at Imperial Royale-Kind of Sounds like the name of a James
Bond Movie!) while the latter is to take place 28th and 29th (at the Golf
Course Hotel). The dates differ but the names seem rather similar.

So which one will you attend.

Having been part of the ISOC (Internet Society Uganda Chapter) gathering that took place at Statistics House and
i had some measure of familiarity with the group which i did write about in my blog.
This event was co-sponsored by NITA Uganda, The Uganda Internet Governance Forum,
The ministry of ICT as well as SMS Media.   

To gain a better understanding of the content of the meeting, we used a program for the day as well as the introduction page on eventbrite (www.eventbrite.com) an international platform that  allows users to create events and create simple sign-ups that can be accessed internationally.

So this is what i distilled from it.

A Regional Event (Session One)

The gathering that took place prior to this was designed to map the local governance challenges. This one is
a larger platform that allows Uganda to measure itself against regional partners.
Naturally the opportunities presented by such a gathering are many. Networking, Benchmarking
Learning and more. Please note that there was representation from the East African Communications
Organization (EACO). As well as participants from Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya all of whom
were tasked to present National Reports from their respective countries.

A Time to Identify Linkages
Locally we have struggled to get rid of overlapping organizations and responsibilities.
In a sense, the new recruit has had difficulty knowing who to salute because
there has been unclear split between the ranks of his superiors. This is why it was good to
see representation from the Uganda Communications Commission as well as the State
Minister of ICT.

Governance is at the core
As the name suggests, this is primarily designed around governance and leadership challenges.
An important difference which you will realize when you attend the Forum for Internet Freedom
which seems to have closer leanings to Civil Society (More about this in later). Naturally or Organically
discussions regarding Development (Session Three), Digital Safety (Session Five) and Democracy (Session Six)
also came up and were tackled. All of these were presented with East Africa at Heart.

The Future
Under the Subject of Emerging Challenges (Session Four) the group was tasked to deal with the technical
issues that may emerge in the Future which matches or falls in line with the second day discussions
(Session Seven-connecting the next Billion). The Eighth session was an expansion of some of the previous discussions (Net Neutrality) that were held in the local Uganda Chapter with additional material from the neighboring countries. 

Business Expansion and New Ways of Thinking
People who attended would be given a unique opportunity to engage with other thought leaders and to
begin to think about possibilities of expansion. The business person needs to know what the
structures were like in business for Information Technology Professionals and what rules (policy)
were in place to manage the manner in which business takes place.
The Forum was a good place to find out which countries in the region were actively pursuing
changes that would benefit their populace (immigration reform, tax for small business,
innovation friendly space, creation of industrial parks or special economic zones, support
for local entrepreneurs). In addition to this there was a need to have a very clear pathway
where business people could take their complaints and get support if they faced challenges.           

This week in tech!

Ideas worth sharing

So today we made a causal trip to the Hive Colab offices (http://www.hivecolab.com). The plan was to visit with the crew at Yoza App for some ideas that we think they can develop for the future. We were also trying to see if we could land an interview with Barbara Birungi (Director). 

Interest in Yoza App (http://www.yozaapp.com)piqued a few months ago when they won a competition put toghether by MTN. There is also a slight bias given that I share a name with one of the leads at Yoza App. 

Our meeting was brief and the discussion was about the possiblity of deploying a mobile washing system especially for areas that have heavy demand and traffic. 

I guess there has been a slight shift in interest on my part that has brought about an appreciation for innovation beyond just the creation of application for mobile computers. 

People worth meeting

I was also interested because the Yoza App group demonstrated that one does not have to participate purely just to win but also to gain more traction and free advertising. I say this weeks after yet another competition this time put together by Seedstarters World. 

You owe it to yourself to visit Hive Colab and Outbox Hub (http://www.outboxhub.ug) because of the people that populate these creative and collaborative spaces. 

Impromptu Interviews

Speaking of which, while here we also got an opportunity to meet James Makumbi-another influencial contributor to the broader technology and computing sector. I shared much of what I had noticed in the design and application competition space. My fear was that there was too great a push for innovation around mobile and computing at the expence of other inventive spaces. We both concluded that the idea was really around finding a meeting point between services and technlogies that enhance these services and that the applications were not really an end within themsleves. 

He also pointed me towards design thinking and paltfrom thinking. The former has come up before and is presented below in a useful image for those that thrive on graphics. 

We also talked about the value of establishing onceself as an authority and then allowing your knowledge to open the doors to those who may at some point need your services. 

Seedstarters World and Outbox Hub

Additional intererst in the Seedstarters event was triggered by the idea that it was sponsored by Stanbic Bank. 

We attended the original pitch (which we have suggested before would be better referred to as Taxi Pitch as oppsoed to Elevator Pitch). Taxi because there are a lot of interesting people that you can meet in a tweleve seater although these might not necessarily be CEOs. But the time spent in the Taxi would match the conditions necessary in narrowing down your ideas. 

Of all the participants in the Seed starters event (http://www.seedstartersworld.com), I was most interested in one idea in which  one could convert shopping time and questions answered into some kind of shopping currency. It is an idea that merges marketing with research while allowing participants to also make some money while at it. I also liked this idea because the young man that brought it to the surface also made sure that he at least mentioned the name of one of the sponsors of the event-Stanbic Bank.

ICT Association Offices

We were also able to visit the ICT Association offices to get some further clarification of the scope and services of the group as well as some of the new events for the months to come.    The first is the BPO and ICT conferencewhich is slated for the End of September beginning of October. The second is the innovation summit(http://www.innovation-africa.com) that will bring a group of ICT ministersfrom the region under one banner for three intensive days.

Participants and paid members will be able to meet potetial clients in Business to Business meetings that have been put together by the leadership team of the ICT Association as well as people from the Business Process Outsourcing Group (this if you recall has been in place for almost 6 years after meetings with the then ICT minister Hon Aggrey Awori). 

Uganda Internet Governance Forum 2015

Part of the benefits of at least signing up for the ICT Uganda Association is that you get fast access to information technology related events that take place throughout the city (the suggestion has been made to take the events further into the country). Thus we begin this blog with a suggestion-get membership or at least subscribe to mailing lists related to ICT. 

One of the participants in his introduction reminded the attendants that there had been a notable shift in attendance favoring Women. A plus point that was appreciated by the Women who attended and re-emphasized by the Lilliane Nalwoga (President of the Uganda Chapter of Internet society). 

There was a review of previous meetings and discussions regarding the forum in 2014 which dealt in some length with some of the topics that were handled as well as introduced new topics that we would deal with.

A quick look at the attendance

A quick survey of those in attendance reveals quite a number of business people, representatives from Universities, young people from innovation hubs (such as those who have benefitted from competitions that have now become common place). In addition to this members of our active press core. The Observer, New Vision's Brenda Kembabazi (she does an ICT development and innovation show). 

This day's event revealed a trend that many of us have become accustomed to. The ability to wear many hats. What this means is that many the attendants are not only handling this event but dealing with multiple other projects and platforms. 

Round One

The first session was designed around the subject of Internet Infrastructure and Local Content in Uganda. 

The NTF consult CEO talked about innovation and the need for paradigm shifts. He emphasized the need to differentiate between the circle of influence and the circle of concern. The latter lies right outside the former and quickly disappears when we learn to expand our circle of influence. 

Paul Ngabirano presented NITA's perspective on some of the current policy issues and emphasized the groups desire to work on infrastructure related challenges. He also spoke about NITA's commitment to the creation of more Internet connection alternatives (redundancy). 

Kyle Spencer director of the Internet exchange point gave a detailed description about some of the new players in the market as well as some of the distance related challenges.

Brian Ssennoga presented the perspective of the free and open software movement and the need to create partnerships between government and the education sector. 

Take aways and suggestions

Open Source software has brought about quite a disruption in the technology space by creating a new model for the design of software. 

We have also seen the strained relationship between Linux users and developers and their counterparts in Microsoft. 

It would be good if more of these events were held in the periphery of the Country to encourage the rural populations to develop and cultivate an interest in some of these technologies. It turns out, that Chinese Emperors also faced the challenge of demonstrating the effectiveness of their central governments by measuring their successes in the periphery. 

Defining Internet Service Provision

There was some difficulty defining the term internet service provider. What happens if with the purchase an internet dongle, i use my router and windows experience software to distribute that connection to my neighbors for a cost? Does that make me an internet service provider? 

Practical Tips to cutting your internet costs

The age of the night time bundle is on us. If you air advantage of 2500/= packages between Midnight and Six in the morning you could save a lot of money. 

Round Two 

The attendants were thrilled when a presentation was given by a young man (Moses Owiny) who articulated the difficulties of translating Internet freedoms in a frighteningly male dominated society to enthusiastic women. WOUGNET focuses on gender issues in ICT related laws and policies. 

Juliet Nanfuka of Cipesa dealt with subjects such as censorship, Internet freedom and rights. The organization she represents covers Africa and reports on technology and internet freedoms with a special focus on vulnerable groups such as women, children and civil society activists such as human rights advocates. The attendants were reminded of the extensive and well designed laws in Uganda but expressed dismay at the inability to put these well written laws into action. 

Kyle Spencer dealt a little more with the subject of net neutrality.

A (Emmanuel) representative from NITA also shed some light on toolkits that were developed in collaboration with the Internet society. 

Lillianne Nalwoga also helped clarify Uganda's position on child protection as well as provide some insights into previous significant events that were held in the Country such as the child protection summit. 

Round Three 

These were perhaps the most intense and technical sessions dealing with naming, numbers, authorities both local and international, protocols and internet addresses and the challenges of transitioning to new more capable systems. 

We also has a talk by the ICT ministry representative (Kenneth Bagarukayo). We were able to see the relationships between NITA, ICT ministry, Uganda Commutations Commission (UCC). In addition to this he charted a way forward for the ccTLD 

Policy men and Practical men. 

It was refreshing to hear the views of a predominantly technical core group as opposed to other sessions or meetings that had people with policy expertise. 

The moderator-a teacher by profession Ambrose Ruyooka has also done some work with the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS annual performance report). His summaries of the proceedings in that particular event in all it's length and complexity was very impressive. 

1)The Quality of our Human Resource. 

The previous problem relating to graduate skills was death with by establishing Business Process Outsourcing courses geared entirely on talk centers and other marketing and client related support services.

2)Localization and free software. 

The need to fight for localization by using Ubuntu and other open source systems and platforms such as Mozilla (the Uganda team has dome a lot of work involving language in some parts in Northern Uganda). 

3)The need to differentiate between innovation and imitation. 

4)Policies that regulate hardware especially with regards to Internet technologies which change often and can result in devices that do not last long on the market. 

Why we called them rounds

We chose to call these rounds because some of the exchanges were very intense. Invitation to the space as a panelist was a kin to a crucifixion to of the unprepared. But was balanced by some measure of humor. 

The ascot races and the hats?

Image from Glamor.com

Civil Society and Governance

Thank God its Learning Time?

Its Friday Afternoon and even the host is surprised that there is such a good,large and diverse crowd at HIVE COLAB. After carrying out a quick survey of the group, we realize the presence of several students, researchers and civil society representatives(Center for Media Literacy, Africa Initiative For Youth and Development).
On this night we will have a talk by a young lady from Kenya(Ushaidi, Making all Voices Count). The guys that turned a simple sms service into a geographic information system to help monitor the election process and later on the violence that would emerge. The simple innovation will then go on to be replicated globally and to be adopted by red cross, and other larger global civil society and disaster management players. We will then call this crowd sourcing.

The Introduction to Hive Colab    

There is an interesting introduction to Hive Colab and it Business development services as well as its focus on Governance, Health
and Enterprise interventions and not forgetting their ability to assist in Acceleration of businesses as well as Incubation.

Social Innovation and Governance

Then we make a dramatic shift of focus where we begin to attempt a marriage between governance and social media both for businesses and then for civil society. The private sector then needs policy that is made by the government (because governments spend the bulk of their resources working on policy issues there is a gap in technology that can be filled by young people). Innovation spaces can help accelerate the process by which government adopts technologies and then provide revenue sources for the young people who make these ideas happen.

Social Innovation-working conditions, economic development, community development.
Social purpose to innovation-Extending and strengthening civil society, processes and technique.

Finally the speaker in a rather expertly manner ends by defining what kind of young people will be responsible for these innovations. And so we enter into the subject of entrepreneurship. 

What is an Entrepreneur: They are the same because they are doing something that they love.

1. Love what they do.
   What is it that you love about government and its work. Reading, writing,debate politics, barazas.
2. Have Self confidence in what they do and who they are.
3. Are you happy with what you do.
4. Self-reliant, self-starters, self-confident, drive, persistent, talking to yourself (we create work
   for ourselves and make the spaces).
5. Thrive on competition (the desire to be better-raising the bar higher and higher).
6. Willing to learn and information seekers (always reading).
7. Do you feel comfortable in...supporting role...work in Teams!


Governance and Leadership

Governance: Buzz Word: An extension of leadership and extension of ones rule.
The existence of good and bad governance. One a scale of 1-10.

What is Citizens Engagement?

Field of interest, learning, excitement about the theme and the subject.
Desire to create Alternative media: Self-censorship,
Open, participatory, leveraging technology (devos, hivecolab, institute of development studies).

Government functions from a top/down.

Twitter, Facebook, Know Your Budget (Budget Transparency Initiative), Uganda Watch.

1. How is technology already used in the target audience?
   Technology is not the solution it is just a tool.
2. Simplicity
3. Adaptability: Slacktivists, Armchair Activists, There is no replacement to acutally being there!

Questions for the day

Challenges relating to Intellectual Property.

Advice for application creators

Launch first and then work on the issues you have later.
 
Points of Interest.

There is one very outstanding thing about HIve Colab. And yes they did provide some snacks for the event (shout outs to the caterers!). But the thing i missed was an intensive brain storming session which animated the rest of the night and which i could tell form the pictures and previous hive colab events is has become a very common practice. 

In addition to this i was thrilled that there was some space for young children to see the adults in action! Even if i am yet to interact with the CEO, a young and vibrant lady (Barbara Birungi) i can see that leadership models for jagganauts like Yahoo (whose CEO Marissa Ann Meyer) which makes space for women are probably being emulated.
We created a day when you could bring your kids to work...but what about creating a space where they can spend their evenings with you...doing their homework while you finish those tasks.
Over to you!

The Hustler and the Worker

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a Wednesday night show called Men (NTV). 

It is hosted by a group of well known personalities who sit down to talk about all things fellas. This time around they were talking about the work and the challenges not very unique to Uganda. 

The idea that a healthy chunk of our youthful population have found themselves juggling jobs and position in the ever complex working nation.

The broader debate was about work and it's effect in the population as well as the battle to get a successful application through.

Fast forward about four weeks and another brief though relevant show appears on the screen this time around on STR8UP (Urban TV). The host is talking about the hustle and interviewing a guest @mastergabs @mamakla. The fast paced show is dealing with the same material and giving it another twist. 

If you watch some of the earlier material that was done in the Apprentice series, you will notice that there was once a show that dealt with street smarts on one hand and book smarts on another. 

We see this too in a show in search of America's best chef in which at elimination point, one contestant looses because of a lack of book knowledge while those with some measure of schooling sail through.

Reality shows have faced a lot of controversy and debates about the usefulness of these shows are way beyond the weight size of this blog. What matters though is that these shows represent s dynamic that is unique to our age in which CEOs and other executives have to be skilled with abilities to handle the ever present media and press engine. 

In addition to this though, the topic of streets smarts comes to the fore so that people will often find themselves rather disabled with book knowledge that is completely foreign to street knowledge. 

This sentiment is expressed in the interview in the show where @mastergabs describes his preference for young people who have struggled though the system to educate and feed their peers even if their education is limited as opposed to the fresh graduate learned but completely inexperienced in the hustle. 

Crowd sourcing in the Ugandan Rural Context

It's an afternoon like any other and two strange characters waltz into a rather ordinary neighborhood or community. 

There is a crisis in the village or kyalo. There are sound coming from the put latrine and there are fears that someone a young lady perhaps has decided torpid herself of a newborn. The first young man volunteers to brave the months old stench to rescue the crying child. Before he does though, he moves through the crowd with as much tact as he can manage trying to collect an offering for himself to do the task. 

The crowd is disinterested and quickly moves him on with a few choice words in the local dialect to demonstrate their displeasure. 

The second man appears. He trims down to the bear essentials and down the hole he goes. After a few tense moments he emerges feline in hand. Soon one of the women in the crowd walks through the crowd and quickly manages to get him an offering of several Ugandan shilling-an equivalent of about 5 USD. 

These two men and the response of the crowd demonstrates one thing. People here generally prefer those go just do the job. They have enough of a heart to donate once the work is done. 

The first guy turned them off because he took the form of an opportunist. The second guy is more successful because he simply dives in. Those that gathered have enough sense to know the difference between the genuine start up and the upstart. 

We hope that you will see the difference!

My Thoughts about your ThoughtWorks

After a random look at my twitter account, I came across a tweet that said something about an event at ThoughtWorks. Its been ages since I visited the impressive office that they had set up on Solis House (The building not the person).

I walked into a well aired and well arranged space of fresh and bright minds whose brilliance I could sense as I walked in. A little like the sound of a server fan as it cools the processor in some costly but well protected room.

I was quickly ushered into a room by a well built man who was rather pleased to meet me, unfortunately I had no idea who he was and was rather pleased at the time to think that I had just hit the jack pot (I do not gamble even if Bond makes it look attractive)!

Well fast forward from that and I had now months later there was an event slated for a Friday evening and this time around in a different location. ThoughtWorks itself had moved from the 3^rd or 4^th floor right up to the 6^th floor of the Solis and commanded quite a view of the city and the busy tributary that handles traffic on the aptly named Lumumba Ave.

Time had passed and I had attempted to interact with some of the choice minds that were often present at the OutboxHub-another prominent collaborative space that is housed in the same building and that caters to yet another category of young promising individuals.

Well when Friday came I was keen to make sure that Kampala's unpredictable weather would not be a barrier and so I proceeded a little early. I found the place soon enough located in Nakawa, right where the Taxi park used to be located.

Here are some of the outstanding features that I found on the 6^th Floor at the offices of the New ThoughtWorks.

THE LOCATION and the SPACE

1. An Impressive Painting

Not entirely sure who the artist is but there is a large piece of art painted on canvas using oils but also

combining cotton material to dress the lively young lady that is part of the design. She is gazing with much hope with arms out stretched and cupped as though she is holding an invisible object. On her neck is a butterfly resplendent in its natural colors and visibly calmed by her unimposing presence. 

2. A Chess Board

A useful symbol for a environment that is designed to foster deep thought and placed strategically on a table at the opposite end of the work space. In addition to this a ping pong table (reminiscent of something you would probably find in a google office-designed to attract free thinkers).

3. Bulletin Boards

To create partitions to various sections of the works space, there are boards on which are designed to help the visually minded keep track of various projects and to present some kind of progress. An interesting one right in the middle of the office has a basic description of what it means to be hired and how the new hires, interns and mentees move through the organization.

4. The Mission

Spelt out and displayed clearly for all to see on a stand alone pull up banner. Useful for those who in the chaos of daily living are often prone to forget why they exist...or at least why the organization for which they work exists. I remember rushing to see the website and finding a reflexion of the same character.

THE EVENT AND THE ETHOS

The Culture

You could argue that most of the creative and collaborative spaces in Uganda are formed by the same western-American way of thinking. The staff is usually animated in a Hollywood kind of way. You can tell that the vast majority of the workers have had some interaction with technology related investors (presentations, mannerisms and Americanisms). The spaces are normally rather relaxed but intense in the sense in which design especially coding can be an exacting science.

The groups are on the whole humorous and witty and quick on the draw. You have a sense that you are interacting with the Best of the Best-and rightly so.

Some of what you experience is based on activities generated in places like google that are designed to 'favor' the worker. Much research has gone into creating attractive work spaces that can enhance creativity. Spend some time here though and you will realize that these places are not for slackers.

The Draw

We have made a lot of progress in our drive to mainstream technology but we are still lagging in the ability to provide Internet access. The ICT Ministry and NITA have held many discussions regarding the costs issue and we are certain that this challenge will soon be dealt with. What this means though is that most of our visitors (to creative and innovative spaces) are there for the Internet speeds and free Internet access. The few that make it for the training sessions, will benefit but what you will have is a relatively well skilled but unmanaged populace. You will have plenty of people learning various skills but you will have no way of quantifying that knowledge and using it to benefit your people on mass.

The Idea

The TechRadar event was well organized and makes a whole lot of sense. I have technology that I make use of and would like others to employ. Because I often have to install and reinstall this software on various platforms, I made the decision to create library of sorts which holds most of this software. In some of my blogs I have done software reviews in which I talk about what I use and why I use it and also provide some link between the best of the Windows World as well as the equivalents in the Open Source World. The event was therefore a summary of sorts for developers on the technology landscape with three basic categories and suggestions designed by team of experienced users.

What can often get exhausting about these events is the tendency to get into a 'space' or a 'zone of users' where language become more important and communication. Where you can find yourselves interacting with your fellow scientists and alienating new fresh faces whose interest in technology may be limited but whose engagement you really still need. So a big thumbs up on the idea behind the event but a suggestion on the creation of a software or application bank to run in conjunction with the techradar book. So that I can read about applications as well as test them for myself (which in these parts brings us back to the need for more faster and more affordable internet).

Facebook and the Office-Hit or Miss?

Rather excited about Facebook's new decision to develop or create an exclusive office platform. Although i am not certain what form it will take, i think it will go a long way in easing the pressure that employees have been experiencing in the workplace.

What i was expecting is a venture into hardware and the natural progression towards a mobile device of some kind with www.facebook.com as its core system. But i think that will come a little later.

Naturally i kept thinking about www.google.com and their apps which have been life savers in more ways than one. So i would like to see the creation of facebook apps that take the place or at least complement the more common office programs that we are now used to. While development might take some time i think it will be worth it.
Maybe a partnership with Sun Microsystems (www.oracle.com) and their Open Office would be great but the aim is really to create a platform that sits on the facebook office space that allows simple integration of basic office documents and the seamless movement to and from its systems.

In addition to this it would be good to work with groups like Microsoft and their already existing collaborative platforms that allow for various users to work on similar projects.

I think that the existence of video, and voice will obviously be an added advantage. In addition to this i suggest that the facebook crew begin to create games that can be used officially in the workplace for 'staff development'. Kind of like what you have in those team building management meetings where new members of staff can interact and learn in exciting ways.

In addition to this, maybe they could also use the recent acquisition of 3D platforms (not for printing as such) and developers to take the idea of an office to a new dimension (www.secondlife.com). A marriage between second life and new workspace. Where i can show up or register for a job interview online and actually visit the workspace in a virtual environment.