Part of this piece originally appeared on the UpNairobi. And since it is the day when we are celebrating World Telecommunication & Information Society Day with  the 2012 theme being “Women and Girls in ICT” , i think it is appropriate to hear from one of the leading women in tech in Kenya

Here is my full chat with Ms. Kaburo Kobia of Kenya ICT Board

Kachwanya:  For those who don’t know you, like me, tell us  what you do?
Kobia: I work for the Kenya ICT Board, a government agency under the Ministry of Information and Communications tasked to promote ICT in Kenya. I am the Project Manage for Local Digital Content.

Kachwanya: How did you get there?
Kobia: I was always fascinated about computers, but my original love was for art and design. I studied Fine Arts at university and was fortunate to be exposed to computer generated art. In the late 1990s I started designing websites and that lead to a career in digital media and communications.

Kachwanya: Your thoughts on Kenyan women in tech?
Kobia: Women are underrepresented in the tech industry in Kenya. In our programs at the Kenya ICT Board, we find that only about 15% of our participants are women. If, as a country, we are to reach the goals outlined in vision 2030, then we must get more women to work in the ICT industry.

Interventions to address the low numbers of women choosing a career in ICT must come from all angles. I’d like to share two perspectives.

1. Target girls and young women: we need more programs designed to demystify technology and expose girls and young women to the exciting side of technology.

The University of Nairobi’s FabLab Outreach program already does this. They use these colorful blocks and tools from Picoblock and GogoBoard Kits to teach kids the basics of science, engineering and robotics. Programs like this and other home-grown programs must get the support they need to reach schools across the country.

2. Target media to raise the profile of women in tech. Having strong and visible role models can go a long way in growing the industry. Role models allow women, especially young women, to see their aspirations reflected in public spaces.

The Kenyan women in tech are awesome. We’ve got software developers and entrepreneurs, engineers and inventors, bloggers and designers… you’ll find women across the ICT spectrum working hard and achieving great things. Their role and their voices need to be amplified.

How I’d like to see this happen is by having an open database or public list of women in tech that the media and event organizers can consult. If there’s a need for a tech perspective in a news story or a conference on tech, Kenya’s tech women must be easy to find to fulfill the needed role. Such a list will help eliminate the excuse “We could not find any woman to interview or speak”.

Kachwanya. What are some of the mistakes you have made in the course of your work or life?

Kobia : I made a big mistake early on in my career. I was still in university and the desire to create websites got the better of me. I had just completed designing a five page brochure for the Theater and Dance Department at my university. The brochure looked great. I used this success and my design portfolio to land a web design job with the Sociology  Department. The head of the department was looking to expand their online presence by creating a mini website off the main school’s website.

I knew how to create beautiful designs, but I had no clue how to publish them online. I asked a friend who was studying computer science to teach me about ‘servers’, but by the end of the semester and the end of my contract, I still had no clue.

Meanwhile I focused on repackaging the sociology department content for web, built a very functional and easy to understand content flow and site map. This did help me understand the importance of information architecture and in later years, i focused my career on information design. But, by the end of the semester, the department did not have a website.

The head of the department was very disappointed and had to hire another student to complete my work. I felt awful. I had overestimated my ability to learn a new skill that was crucial for the job I had undertaken. My ‘fake it ’till you make it’ attitude failed. I learnt that an honest approach is crucial. Ask for help, be honest about your ability. I still challenge myself by taking on projects that will stretch my ability, but I’m more forth-rite in asking for help. Besides, search engines have vastly improved since the mid 90s… making it a lot easier to learn new skills on the job.

When I think of Google, the first thing in my mind is “the know it all”, the giant that gets you what you want from the internet. Then somehow sometime back it started to go a stray with things which I still believe best left for those who are good at them. But I am happy to find out that Google is going to what it does best, get you things you don’t know but  you want . Already rolling in US and later on to the other parts of the World ..  the English Language  Knowledge Graph.

According to  readwriteweb.com

Search now looks at the words of your query and identifies the things in it. You’re not just searching the Web anymore. You’re searching the world.

Most of Google users’ queries are ambiguous. In the old Google, when you searched for “kings,” Google didn’t know whether you meant actual monarchs, the hockey team, the basketball team or the TV series, so it did its best to show you Web results for all of them.

In the new Google, with the Knowledge Graph online, a new box will come up. You’ll still get the Google results you’re used to, including the box scores for the team Google thinks you’re looking for, but on the right side, a box called “See results about” will show brief descriptions for the Los Angeles Kings, the Sacramento Kings, and the TV series, Kings. If you need to clarify, click the one you’re looking for, and Google will refine your search query for you.

With phone Virtual Assistant like Siri coming up with more exciting option for search, Google just have to do something to stay as the search industry leader. And even that could just be for the moment, the switch button is at the corner..

It seems somebody is waking up and starting to appreciate the Arts around here. ZUKU has announced sponsorship of the Zanzibar International Film Festival for a period of 10 years from 2012 to 2022 inclusive ,with a focus on supporting ZIFF’s film and festival promotion and marketing program. The sponsorship, which is for a period of ten year’s will be for $100,000 per annum and will include an incremental raise.

Wananchi Group CEO, Richard Bell, said the agreement represented a significant step forward for the partnership, which would see ZUKU become headline sponsor of ZIFF. “Of course, as the festival grows and develops we may both see different needs and opportunities – but this should give us a solid footing to start on”, he said.

“We do not, however, mean to lock out other sponsors/contributors and collaborators. On the contrary, we would hope that our long term involvement would help attract greater consistency from other partners.”

ZUKU’s initial ten-year agreement concludes at the end of the 2022 season and The ZIFF chair said the partnership would by then have evolved into a strong business and community relationship. “While we like seeing the ZUKU logo side by side with ZIFF, our partnership goes well beyond branding,” he said. “As ZUKU spreads its wings to capture the pay TV market in East and Central Africa, ZIFF will work closely together with ZUKU to develop the film and media entertainment industry”.

Zuku is  currently available in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda with plans to roll out to neighboring countries.  ZIFF will take place between 7^th and 15^th July 2012.

shiftLabs — Innovation for change powered by Oxfam, is proud to announce three summer fellowships for students and recent graduates. Summer Digital Innovation Fellowships are offered with our partners working to combat injustice and end poverty and suffering. Each fellowship is offered over a two month period and includes a stipend of $2000. Course credit is available where applicable.

Who Should Apply?
Currently enrolled Undergraduate and Graduate students, as well as recent graduates (graduated within the past 6 months) are eligible to apply. All applicants MUST BE OVER 18.  You are responsible for complying with local immigration and visa regulations at the location of your fellowship. However, shiftLabs and partners can assist with invitation letters and other documentation.

What You’ll Give
You will give two months of your summer to help incredible causes do no less than change the world for the better.  Time commitments and intensity vary slightly for each fellowship, but plan to spend the months of June and July working full-time or near full-time for your cause. Our partners need your passion, energy and dedication to make great things happen.

What You’ll Get
In addition to financial support, shiftLabs and fellowship sponsors will provide a mentorship, daily management and integration with a team working for change. We promise you that these are action-filled, boots on the ground posts — you will not be fetching coffee! Your fellowship can be tailored to meet internship or course requirements within reason.

Notes:
- All applications close May 18
- This is NOT an offer of employment. Fellowships are internships that include a small living stipend.
- All applicants will be considered equally regardless of race, age (must be over 18), nationality, or gender.
-Applicants must submit proof of current or recent enrollment in an accredited Undergraduate or Graduate  University-level program.

Learn about each fellowship and apply:

• Control Arms Social Media Fellowship
• VOICE Mobile Developer Fellowship
• VOICE Editorial and Social Media Fellowship

Innovation innovation..what a word.. I have used it before but now I just want to run a way from it. This week it was all about innovation.. On NTV African Agenda hosted  by Wallace Kantai..the topic was innovation. There were  high level top CEOs from top companies and Multinationals in Kenya. But I felt that NTV and Wallace do not understand who the potential  innovators are . If you talking about Kenyan innovation and then bringing in the big Companies and Multinationals as the point of reference then I think you are missing the point.

I have realized that NTV and Wallace in particular think that you must have made a million dollars before taking your opinion seriously on his show. I have message for NTV, the real innovators are the men on the street, the hustlers, and the guys sweating it at iHub to make something work. Innovation is never scheduled and planned for as most people tend to think. In most cases innovation is accidental. The day the media houses will start looking at the Jua Kali workers as the real innovators in Kenya, it is the day they will start to promote the right people and in extension the local home bread industry..  The guys sweating it out at the Gikomba market, making things like mekos, boxes, tables, vikapus. Those are the people who at least trying to produce things which can be labelled as made in Kenya from the scrap.

I can remember Wallace dismissing all the women in tech whom I listed here as having done nothing to be called women in Tech and be invited on his show!

Too much of Wallace, back to issue at hand, the Innovation and the week. Up in Addis Ababa, the World big fish were doing their annual useless World Economic Forum.  And the innovation came up again. Apparently something called LIONS@FRICA was announced . It is a Partnership to Promote Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Africa.  It was launched by High-level representatives from the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, African Development Bank, Microsoft, Nokia, infoDev, DEMO, and the World Economic Forum.

Sorry if you still don’t understand what the LIONS is about . It is Liberalizing Innovation Opportunity Nations (LIONS@FRICA) and it seeks to mobilize the knowledge, expertise and resources of leading public and private institutions to encourage and enhance Africa’s innovation ecosystem and to spur entrepreneurship across the continent. Great stuff but how.. It is one thing to say mobilizing but achieving the aim and measuring the achievement is another thing . I read the press release about the launch and as usual the PR guys litter it with statistics which do not help at all. Put up the stats about 6 of fastest growing economies in the World are from Africa bla bla bla and leave out the most important bit.. how the innovation is going to be encouraged!

I have seen many people complain that the Twitter they joined and how they used to interact back in the days is completely different from the current pathetic state of affairs. Kenyans no longer have that sort of mature debate and discussion on Twitter where people are allowed to disagree to agree.  To avoid being called names, and other twitter nonsense you need to avoid the following:

1. Politics and Specifically Raila

Regardless of what you think of him, mention his name and you are guaranteed to get all sort of response, ranging from the abuse, praise , disdain. There is no middle ground when comes to Raila in Kenya.. You want  your online peace, avoid Kenyan politics and specifically Raila.

2. Sexual preference and Orientation.

Homo sexual, Straight, Bi Sexual or otherwise just keep your opinion to yourself..  The hottest topic ever. You join twitter as an individual, and if you are a celeb, then people troop to follow you, otherwise you have to work hard to gain following.  With more followers you start to have the unwritten responsibility.  It is a fact that  you have no idea what your followers’ belief systems are . It is important to maintain who you are ,but better still to be sensitive to others’ beliefs, and what they are. May be you just need to avoid this ..

3. Religion

One question I have always asked, if there is one God for all of us, then where  are these problems about the religion coming from. I have never understood those who fight defending God, I mean He is all powerful, then why would you need to fight for him to the extent of killing. He simply can do it himself. Yeah..those statements can land me in hot soup..So as usual, you just need to avoid religion topic unless you are sharing Bible or Quran motivational quotes

4. Personal Matters

I think nobody wants to hear your family problems, or horrible break-ups. Avoid discussing those personal issues. I mean when you start, you might get cheering squad but what they say behind your back thereafter  is just not cool. May be the solution here is to keep it to yourself

5. Race

Ok..ok and Ok.. He is black, he is white, he is brown, does it really matter? The answer to that question is the reason why you should avoid the race topic..Scary

6. Your Opinion on KOT

Ok, Kenyans on Twitter are mmmmh lot but never say that mmmh (your opinion loud). Unfortunately you are also included there so be very careful. One thing I have realized can get you a lot of name callings is giving your personal opinion on what you think Kenyans on twitter should or should not do. You simply can’t win this one..keep off

7. Porn

Yeah yeah majority of the people reading this watch them…silent is gold when comes to this

8.Confidential Info.

If it is confidential it is Confidential..just don’t talk about it. Simple

Last weekend we had BAKE Blog Awards , a process which captured BAKE’s effort to promote Kenyan online digital content. A number of questions have been asked in particular the issue of leaving out some crucial categories. Being the  first one, it was hard to hard for us to  predict how it would turn out, so we had to limit the categories. And now after the event the BAKE team has learned  from the numerous suggestions from the Public and next time it can only be better.

Having said that, I think we were more surprised with the fact that many Kenyan companies do not have company or business blogs. In the category of Business blogs, we had only two nominees. From BAKE  Blog

Best Corporate Blog

i.            http://blog.batakenya.com

ii.            http://squaddigital.com/blog

Bata Kenya won the battle but it is a shame that many Kenyan corporate still do not consider Company blogs as important or take the aspect of blogging seriously.

But I was happy when I got email from one of BAKE Awards sponsor’s Samsung after the event announcing their plan to restructure their presence online. Central to the restructuring of Samsung is their blogging platform. Email from Maina Job Kingori-  Who is HHP, Digital Content & Solutions Specialist - East & Central Africa at Samsung states:

From next week we begin a restructuring of our online presence on the various platforms and improved feedback/responce;

• Blog – http://blog.samsung.co.ke
• < uTube – http://youtube.com/samsungeastafrica
• Twitter  – http://twitter.com/SamsungMobileKE

·         Facebook – http://facebook.com/samsungmobilekenya

Congrats to Samsung Kenya for taking the lead on the restructuring and thinking about the online presence.

Online Marketing

Probably marketers still don’t understand it but blogging is one key component of online marketing. With  the Online marketing, there are many options and channels available to marketers but it is crucial that companies understand where their prospective clients are. It is one thing to stick with tried and tested working method of traditional marketing but it is very important that marketers consider the changing trends and the effect of the ever evolving modern technology. For that, digital marketing is becoming the key to meeting the prospective clients especially the young people.  The holistic view on this would be for the marketers to ask themselves who are their customers and where to get them. To Continue with advertising on the newspapers for people who do not buy or read newspapers is a big waste of money but heeeey it is your money…

One question which people keep on asking when you discuss digital marketing, or social media is the Return on Investment. But at the same time I keep on asking them a simple question, how do  people measure the Return On Investment when they put a bill board along of the roads leading to town. With Bill Boards it is hard to tell how many people saw the ad but the beauty of online marketing is that there are  tools to help tell how many people saw the ad and even clicked on it. ..It simple , you need to consider the RETURN ON MISSING OUT (ROMO).

So what sort of products or services can be marketed online?  The answer is simple, everything .  Sometime back I wanted to try the business of selling ornaments and Kisii Soap Stones online. But I chickened out because I thought without the contacts it would be hard to find the customers. It came on one discussions I had with a  friend of mine  recently, the friend was mad that I could not figure out how easy I would have done it through online marketing. The answer to my problem was simple, start eCommerce website or join existing online shops like Maduqa.com. At the same time I came across some websites which are already doing well like beadsbarn.com. For me it was a big lesson learned and now …..

As I have said it here before, m-commerce is the key, considering the access point to the internet  for many Kenyans . Yes, it is mobile and this definitely will take advantage of much talked about Mpesa. At this point I know developers are still waiting for Mpesa API. Seriously this has taken longer than it should have been and I hope Michael Joseph now working at Vodafone will do something sooner than later.

The 2nd edition of TECH:NITE goes down on today from 7pm at Tamasha Langata, next to Uchumi Hyper (on the way to Carnivore).  TECH:NITE is a fun networking event for Operators, ISPs, Vendors and Online Businesses. There is a lot of fun games and activities to enable you meet a minimum of 15 new people from the Tech industry.

TECH:NITE will be hosted by Eddy Kimani (Capital FM) and on the decks W-DJ (Capital FM) and DJ PURPL (Superstar DJ). The theme for this event is the movie “MEN IN BLACK”.  There will be a “Black Carpet” where you will be able to take pictures with monsters from the movie MIB 3.  Entry is FREE .. Yes yes but you have to buy your own drinks. Fortunately, I have 6 vouchers for drinks to give out..leave a comment here chap chap.. with your contact. Or DM on Twitter @kachwanya

Early this week  Kenya Airways  launched a new mobile  platform that will enable the airline’s customers to enjoy enhanced interactive services. According to Kenya Airways chief executive officer Titus Naikuni, service dubbed ‘KQ Mobile’ can be accessed through the short code *737# and will allow the airline’s customers to conveniently access information on their flight status, timetable, cargo services, ticketing and query their Msafiri Miles status.

When you dial the USSD code *737#, you get the following on your mobile interface:

Welcome to KQ Mobile

Select option

1.Flight Schedule

2. Flight Status

3.Msafiri Miles

4.Pay for ticket

5. KQ offers

6. Cargo Services

7. KQ Contacts

For example , I tested the KQ offers by selecting 5.

Special Fare from Nairobi to New Delhi- USD 57* for more details visit www.kenya-airways.com

But initially this option had a problem as reported by hapakenya.com

Charges for using the KQ Mobile is Ksh.10

Last week, ICT Board announced  Tandaa grant winners for the year 2012 at Nailab.  In the process the  government released Sh106.2 million to over 30 organisations and individuals in the technology industry. But since then a number of questions have been asked regarding the criteria of selecting the winners, the nature of the program itself and whether the government is doing the right thing with the Tandaa program. Somebody asked my opinion on this on Google Plus after listing the winners here and I promised to talk about it later after Bake Blog Awards.

I think it is better to first understand the background of Tandaa grants.. Tandaa according to Kenya ICT Board website, is a brand of the Kenya ICT Board that promotes the creation and distribution of locally relevant content through the Tandaa symposium and see money to ICT entrepreneurs. The funds given under Tandaa Program  are part of a Sh250 million grant from the World Bank, specifically meant to drive local tech innovations. The money is from World Bank and I would believe ICT Board use it based on the guidelines given by World Bank. But that in itself does not mean full transparency and hence the numerous questions being asked specifically online.

Now that Kenya ICT Board has released the money for the round two grantees, people are perfectly in order to ask how the round one funds were used and how far are those projects. I have gone through the round one grantees and they are remarkable project but whether they money helped them to move forward is debatable at best on my view . The following is the list of the first round grantees.

• Farmer Mobile banking and mobile e-Services Transaction Platform by Media Edge Communications Ltd-
• Development  and Implementation of Mobile Learning in Kenya by Kenya School of Technology Studies
• Mobile phone applications to promote events, business and social networking in Kenya by KenyaBuzz Ltd.
• Jumuika Mobile Advertising and Marketing by Jumuika Media Solutions Ltd
• Project Afya: AskaDoc.co.ke  by Ask A Doc Limited
• Makutano Junction and Development of Digital Content for TV series by Mediae Company Ltd
• JAMOBI – Empowering The Jua Kali Sector Through Mobile Software by Outside The Box Africa Ltd
• Mobile phone utilities for the blind and visually impaired by Dr Peter Wagacha
• HIV and AIDS in the workplace e-Learning course by Octopus ICT Solutions Ltd
• Lost and Found Project by JBA Advertising Ltd
• EDUWEB: Education Institution Listing and Interactive Mapping Portal by Rivercross Technologies Ltd
• Kenya Online Museum by Ibid Labs
• eMazingera Software Application  by BTI Millman Company
• Teacher’s Portal by Infotrack Strategic Solutions Ltd
• IVR Tax Filling Solution Foundation Support Services Ltd

Looking at the above projects critically two years down the line I wonder which of the  projects can be called a success. And I think nobody should blame those wondering whether the money helped any of them to move forward. But above all, are they now making money on their own, the question of sustainability beyond the ICT Board funding. It is possible to survive for sometime because of the grants or the investors or loans but at one point you must have Customers or clients buying your products.  It simple Sustainability comes hand in hand with Customers

May be we are going ahead of ourselves, the first questions should go to ICT Board. What are the Board’s expectation of the grantees?  How does the Board measure the success of any of the funded projects?  At this pointing time which of the above projects do they consider success and to be realistic which ones do they consider failures?

I know the Kenya ICT Board CEO Mr. Paul Kukubo indicated on his twitter page that  Deloitte and Touche does audit their projects. But these are questions beyond the normal auditing procedures. Many of us know how auditing process works, and can easily pass the test in the eyes of the auditors. So what else is ICT Board doing to ensure that the money is being used for the intended purpose?

One of the most questioned project on the above list is the “Mobile phone applications to promote events, business and social networking in Kenya by KenyaBuzz Ltd” I don’t have much info on this but I am going through the KenyaBuzz project and I will talk about it later. Coming up soon is the part two of this…stay connected

And Congrats to the Bake Blog Awards 2012 winners.:

Best Business Blog

http://bankelele.blogspot.com

Best Agriculture Blog

http://emmiekio.blogspot.com

Best Creative Writing Blog

http://www.crazynairobian.com

Best Fashion Blog

http://www.nanciemwai.com

Best Food Blog

http://healthylivingkenya.wordpress.com

Best General Blog

http://muruginjehia.blogspot.com/

Best New Blog

http://www.my254.com

Best Corporate Blog

http://blog.batakenya.com

Best Photography Blog

http://www.mutuamatheka.co.ke

Best Politics Blog

http://www.dennisitumbi.com

Best Sports Blog

http://www.michezoafrika.com

Best Technology Blog

http://www.moseskemibaro.com

Best Tweep – Corporate

http://twitter.com/KenyaRedCross

Best Tweep – Individual

http://twitter.com/KoinangeJeff

Big thanks to the Sponsors of the Bake Blog Awards:

Safaricom, Samsung,  Google+, Microsoft, Virtual City, Samsung, AccessKenya, CapitalFm

And finally thanks to all Kenyans who took part on the process, the submission of the blogs, judges and the voting.

Follow Bake On Twitter, Like Face Book Page  and Connect on the Google Plus Page

And the winners are:

Company category (Ksh4.1 million)

1 .Entertainment

Winner : MTAA-  A Uniquely Kenyan Mobile Game by  Afroes Company Limite

2.  Education and Training

Winner: ‘DISC’ Digital Science Cloud- Animation of Secondary school Science subjects. To be available in Kiswahili and English by Cyber School Technology Solutions Ltd

3. Law and Order

Winner:  Traffic Police And Inspection Mobile Phone Application- A tool for improving road safety and efficiency in traffic compliance by E-Motion Technology Limited

4. Law and Order

Winner:  Mtracker: Laptop and Car tracking device on mobile by Fomobi Solutions by Gruppo Potente Ltd

5. Tourism

Winner:  Onspot Stories-Mobile Audio Travel Guides- Audio travel guide via mobile

6. Agriculture

Winner:  SWARM Database- Web-based management of honey farming by Honey Care Africa

7. Agriculture

Winner: Smartfarmer – Information portal for farmers by Guliyo Limited

8. Wholesale and Retail Trade?

Kuza Biashara – Equip SME’s with skills accessible on web and mobile by Iridium Interactive Limited

9. Communication

Winner: Expansion of Government IVR System – Government VOIP system to handle customer feedback by Jibu-Tel Company Ltd

10. Film/TV

Winner: 50 years of Kenyan Independence – Digital Compilation of Kenya’s History by Kenyan History and Biographies Company Ltd

11. Communication

Winner:  Bringing the Diaspora- Expand platform for diasporas to top up loved ones phones by Mamamikes

12. Water & Sanitation

Winner: Web Based Application for Reading Water Meters- Apps to help get exact water bills by Rural Focus Limited

13. Financial Services

Winner: COMMS-Chama Online Management and Mobile System- Chama Management System by Sharper Innovations Ltd

14. Health Care Delivery

Winner: Integrated Web And Mobile Enabled Continuing Professional Development Platform- Platform for health workers to network and upgrade skills by Synergy Informatics

15. History

Winner: Creating E-Books from Unpublished Oral and Written Literature Around Kenya- Recording Oral Literature through an online platform and e-books by The CAN-DO Company

16. Tourism

Winner:  MICE Business Tourism – Conferencing events Portal by Websimba Ltd

17. Entertainment-Film

Winner: Simiyu Samurai- Kung Fu Local Web film by Xmedia

18. Education and training

Winner: Yearbooks & Photography Clubs For schools- Using web platform to teach photography and create year book by Yeeboo Ltd

19. Financial Services

Winner: Pay4us – Micro-banking and saving via mobile money by Zege Technologies Ltd

20.Financial Services

Winner: Tenders Unlimited Government Procurement Portal- Summary of all Government tenders in one portal by Zeninvest Ltd

21. Wholesale and Retail Trade?

Winner: Development & Implementation of a Local Internet Payment Gatewa- Internet payment gateway that accept online payments from buyers using their locally issued debit cards  by Paysure Ltd

Individuals ($10,000)

1.Entertainment

Winner: +254sportslite- Apps for Information on local sports by Alex Kanyatieno

2. Tourism

Winner: Solution To Help Local Hotels Sell Distressed Inventory (Unoccupied Rooms)- System to sell unoccupied rooms through Priceline.com by Boniface Murigu

3. Entertainment

Winner: The Kenya Game Developers Initiative- Provide local games by Brian Kinyua

4. Gender, Youth and Vulnerable Groups?

Winner:  Let’s Talk About Child Sexual Abuse: What Every Girl And Boy Should Know: A life Skills Guide For Parents And Children- Digital content on sexual abuse by Cecilia Njoroge

5. Food and Nutrition

Winner: Tastebuds – Healthy recipes on mobile by Harun Mwangi

6. Education and Training

Winner: Kenyan Sign Language Dictionary Online- Online self-taught Kenya sign Language by Hudson Asiema

7. Social Equity and Poverty Reduction

Winner: Juakali -Linking casual laborers to customers online by Judith Owigar

8. Gender, Youth and Vulnerable Groups

Winner: Fundvijana: Online Youth Group Funding Platform – Linking Youth groups with potential investors/donors by Sam Kariu

 Matching Grants ($150,000)

Winner: Virtual City Researcher- Community health research & demographic surveillance
via Mobil Solutions by Virtual City Ltd

From Nation online..Aitel to offer its subscribers Loans over the phone. The service is called  “Kopa Chapaa” . It will allow Airtel subscribers to get loans of between Sh100 and Sh10,000 at an interest rate of between three and 10 per cent. The loans will be offered through a partnership with micro-finance lender Faulu Kenya. The loans are repayable in 10 to 30 days.

Read more here

This morning Kenya ICT Board will award  ICT innovators a total of 1.28 million dollars (ksh104,960,000) .The Kenya ICT Board will award 21 local ICT start-ups with a maximum of $50,000 (Ksh4.1 million), each, in a competition that will also see eight individuals win a maximum of $10,000 (Ksh820,000) each.  The funding, organized through the board’s project, Tandaa Local digital Content, will also see one local company get $150,000 (Ksh12,3 million), which they (the company) will match to $300,000 (Ksh24.6 million).

More here later…..

A big thank you as always to Kachwanya who allows me to re-post and post content on his brand. As a follow up to the last article I posted here that covered my thoughts on #TwitterBigStick, I felt not reposting this article here would be leaving an information gap. So from my blog to Kachwanya’s, here goes:

CONVERSATIONS WITH SUNNY BINDRA, NANJIRA SAMBULI, RAMAH NYANG AND ASIF KHAN.

Just to get everyone on the same page, there was a Twitter storm (Nanjira was kind enough to document it) of sorts after the publishing of these two articles on CIO Kenya’s online platform. One was by Management Consultant and Writer Sunny Bindra and the other by me. The storm that followed was polemic, with camps formed to dismiss the hashtag #TwitterBigStick and some loyally supporting what they felt helped them air their grievances against companies that were otherwise not paying attention.

Nanjira and I, were pitted against Sunny and Asif and as time went by, the 14o character environment noise (aka Twitter) and limitations proved limiting. We agreed to have a sit down and discuss a better way forward. We were/are all in agreement that consumer rights and complaint platforms needed to be improved in the country.

Nikhil Hira, was also a participant in the hot debate and he suggested that we have Ramahas a moderator during our meetup, and we agreed. So on Tuesday the 24th of April we had a sit down and the below was what was discussed:

Where did it begin?

Sunny came into Twitter in order to communicate and connect with a generation that was on it in order to keep up with the times. Twitter big stick was to change how organizations fear the customer, mobilizing people in order to make the change that was required to get organizations to pay attention. People seemed to tag the hashtag as they felt Sunny’s (due to his RT’s) brand gave them a platform that they as ‘smaller’ entities did not have.

How do we get brands online and how do we get clients to be represented better?

We all agreed that brands getting online required the right tools, Asif pointed out that Squad Digital, where he works also believes in monitoring brands using  sentiment engines, which pick all internet data relevant to a brand, not just a Twitter hashtag, as had been pointed out in my article. However, we still felt that the creation of a great complaint platform for customers was a key challenge. As a tech enthusiast/evangelist I proposed mapping complaints, for example, restaurants in Nairobi known for food poisoning. Nanjira suggested that we have a similar platform to GotIssuez, but one that would charge as a freemium model, allowing brands access to customer complaint data, but serving customers by aggregating their complaints and presenting it on a site as a score. Asif, having worked with Ushahidi, proposed using the software to create a complaint data mining platform. However, our resident play blond/devil’s advocate Ramah kept asking us questions of a more technical nature than we could answer. At some point we felt our solutions, noble and workable as we may have envisioned them, may not work well as we are not indeed coders/actual techies.

Where do we go forward from here?

We felt that at this point we needed to rope in those better suited to actually building a platform that could work, talking to Simeon of the iHub and Bankelele of #OverlapKe was a starting step to this. While talking on email, Simeon graciously agreed to give us space and to pitch our ideas and thoughts to techies regarding consumer complaints and a monetised model that they could also benefit from. A tentative date of 15th May 2012 has been set for this, however, till we confirm, we are open to more ideas and thoughts on the way forward. Let’s build a great customer complaints platform people!

Mid this month  Buni Media  launched  Buni TV, its new web and mobile Pan-African digital video platform. Buni TV is meant to show the best, most innovative and visually arresting content being currently produced in or about Africa and distributing it new audiences on the continent and abroad.

The platform currently offer the  entire 5 seasons of  Kenyan political satire The XYZ Show. Ok what else….Expect other videos from  award-winning Kenyan animation films like Kwame Nyong’o’s The Legend of Ngong Hills, documentaries by Egyptian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky, Nigerian children TV program Bino and Fino, music videos from across the continent.

“There is actually quite a lot of remarkable, high-quality African content out there, but it’s often scattered over niche sites and very difficult for African audiences to find. Buni TV editors will do the leg work for our audience and select only what is worth their time. Buni TV wants to become the number one destination to watch modern, creative African content online and on mobile,” said Marie Lora-Mungai, CEO of Buni Media.

Streaming videos on Buni TV will initially be free with advertising.  Buni TV will share the revenue made from advertising around their work with the filmmakers on a 50-50 basis. In the future, the platform will develop a subscription option to allow access to premium content.

Nokia Kenya is looking for Kenyans with fresh and disruptive ideas to participate on a global competition by Nokia, infoDev and Capgemini . The competition seeks societal, structural, financial and technological ideas that will help foster innovation leadership in Africa.

‘Ideas to Innovation’ is an open innovation challenge where anyone with an idea can participate. To submit an entry to the competition, interested Kenyans can log on to www.ideasproject.com/oias2 until 2nd May.

Creators of the 3 best ideas will be invited to the second Open Innovation Africa Summit 2012 (OIAS2) to be held in Nairobi from 28^th to 30^th May 2012 to share their thoughts with respected thought leaders.  All expenses for the trips will be covered by the sponsors.

After the deadline of 2nd May, 2012, the second stage of the competition will commence where the entries received from across the globe will undergo an initial screening and evaluation. The jury will consist of members from infoDev, Capgemini, Nokia and academia.

TEAMS is down yet again. According to Teams admin there is a cable cut in the submerged section of the TEAMS cable approximately 5.3 Km from Mombasa Landing Station. So Someone or something has cut the cable and as usual  it will take sometime before it is repaired. And here comes the time for excuses from ISPs..and pain for Kenyans. The better part of the day today, most Kenyans were left on the darkness without internet. The ISPs as usual promise what they can not deliver. Actually the excuse they have had for keeping the prices high is that they have invested heavily on the multiple cables and thus they need time recoup their investment. For a country with  four cables, and using only around  20 Gigabits per second (1Gbps),  there should never be an internet problem in Kenya even for  a minute

• TEAMS fiber optic cable has capacity of 1.28 Tb/s
• Seacom fiber optic cable has capacity of 1.28 Tb/s
• EASSy fiber optic cable has capacity of 4.72 Tb/s
• LION 2 has capacity of 1.28 Tb/s

Ok, let say that the minute I am talking about is too short.  For those in the know  how long does it take to switch to the alternative cable..or the so called redundancy capacity? Or  may be the right question I should be asking is did these ISPs really made the heavy investments on the different cables for redundancy capacity they keep on talking about?

According to Wikipedia ..

“In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe.

So it is simply like buying Orange and Safaricom data at the same time but using one and switching to the other one in case the one you are using has a problem.. How long does that take?

And Angry Birds Space is now available for PlayBook in BlackBerry® App World™.

FEATURES:

• 60 interstellar levels
• Regular free updates
• Brand new birds and new superpowers
•  Zero-gravity space adventures
•  Trick shots using planets’ gravity
•  And hidden bonus levels

 Cost: $4.99

Orange has made  its bundled offer Holla  a permanent tariff.  Holla a 24-hour. Rechargeable via a daily KSh10 subscription, the bundled tariff will allow Orange pre-paid customers to enjoy round-the-clock, on-net calls,  on-net SMSs, 20 off-net SMSs and 10 MB of mobile data daily. The Holla tariff will also allow for free and complete access to social networking site, Facebook.

To reward its loyal customers, Orange would enable all its active Orange mobile pre-paid customers to enjoy the benefits of Holla for free this Friday, April 27, 2012, through a free subscription for 24 hours.

Two years down the line since  Bharti Airtel acquired Zain and Re-branded it to Airtel and the company is still struggling to find its footing in Kenya. In that period  they have tried everything to gain significant following in Kenya but things are simply not working. Airtel fought hard for Number Portability when it came, nobody cared…Airtel reduced its prices to the bare minimum but Kenyans stuck with Safaricom which most of them consider expensive ..Airtel parted ways with Rene Meza to get a new person to be in charge but that too has  not worked so far..

Now there is a new CEO in Town.  Last week Airtel announced the appointment of Shivan Bhargava as Managing Director for its Kenyan operation. Shivan was earlier the Chief Operating Officer and in his new role he will be responsible for leading Airtel’s growth plans in Kenya.

Announcing the appointment, Mr.  Jayant Khosla, CEO (Airtel Africa Anglophone Region), said: “Kenya has always been a key market with great potential for growth within the region. Our leadership and management team in Kenya is made up of exceptionally talented, experienced, passionate and committed individuals. Shivan’s experience and qualifications will add value to the team and Airtel’s future plans to deliver innovative and best-in-class mobile services. I wish him success in his new assignment.”

Please let us all welcome Mr. Shivan to the hot seat. Unfortunately he comes in at a time when Airtel is gaining subscribers at a lower rate than the other network operators in Kenya

According to the latest stats by Communication Commission of Kenya ,by the end of the Quarter 2 of 2011/12 i.e. the period from 1st October to 31st December 2011, the four mobile operators experienced gains in subscriptions. In particular, Safaricom Ltd recorded the highest gains with 741,560 new subscriptions from 593,177 recorded in the previous period. Essar Telecom (yuMobile) followed with 600,285 new subscriptions up from 46,742 recorded during the previous period. Orange gained 144,208 new subscriptions from 16,686 from the previous period while Airtel Networks Ltd had 100,778 new subscriptions from 557,567 in the previous period.

So why is Airtel strategy not working? From where I sit, there are a number of reasons:

1. Crappy Customers Service. You can promise Kenyans the whole world, you can give them the cheapest rate possible but if crappy customer service then forget about them flocking to your network. Safaricom realized that and  now most people are happy with how they handle the customers. The same can’t be said of Airtel….

2. Lousy Social Media strategy: Social Media has become the central point where the young Kenyans express their views, satisfaction and disgust at everything under the sun. That include bashing companies like Airtel which simply don’t care about the Social Media. Yes I know Airtel has Facebook page and may be twitter account but that is not enough. Social media requires more than just creating an account and once in a while passing by to praise your product or service. Again they need to learn from Safaricom or Batakenya.

3. Ignoring Locals for the top positions. This a controversial topic to talk about, but the reality is , Kenyans understand their country better than any foreigner will.  But if you must bring someone from somewhere to run the company then he or she should not be an elitist that does not want to mingle and learn from Kenyans. Sorry we have to bring Safaricom here again..but look at Mr. Bob Collymore. He came, found a way to connect with people and settled in perfectly.  He once went to Dandora riding on a matatu to visit his clients accompanied by his rap fellow Juliani…that is learning

4. Not Getting involved with local initiatives: Apart from the BillBoards, I simply can’t feel Airtel presence on the ground..

5. Top down Approach as opposed to Bottom Up. Airtel has never found a way to get their customers to be their advocates. And yes, this is connected to the first point, customers do not feel cared for..

Note

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite blogs in Kenya on Bake Blog  Awards here

An Android application to enable user to view climate data in 3 dimension. In one map, you can be able to view the monthly and yearly rainfall and temperature. You just need to select the country or region and view the 3D graph.

Good stuff but it does not stop there. This app was  entered for the  world bank developer challenge. The competition is at voting stage to determine the most popular application by the public. The developer Mr. Gerald Kibugi at the moment needs your vote to propel the application to position 1 and put Kenya on the ICT map.

The voting requires just two steps that will take you less than 5 minutes. I\’ll be very greatful if you give me five stars.

Here are the steps:

First register  https://wbchallenge.imaginatik.com/wbchallengelogin.nsf/Registration?OpenForm

You will get a confirmation email sent to your inbox/bulk/junk to activate your registration. Click on the link that you will find in the email to activate your account and login.

Use the link below to vote for \’Third Dimension\’ application by Gerald M. Kibugi

https://wbchallenge.imaginatik.com/wbchallengeidc2.nsf/IdeaIDsOK/0.393148699168383USAA-8SFJMC?open&login

On the right side of the page, there is a section written \’Rate this submission\’ with five stars, click on the fifth star to vote.

You can view the application\’s video and download the application from the same page.

Note:

While still on the mood, head to  Bake blog awards voting page and vote for your favorite blog in Kenya. Thanks

Kenic has extended their 50% discount on .Ke domain names until May 19th 2012. Great stuff but I think Kenic should just reduce their prices permanently to enable many Kenyans brand themselves with .ke domain names. For now take advantage and get .ke domain names..

The number portability came, we all saw and it seems nobody liked it. Kenyans continue to carry multiple Sim cards. When you look at that, then you get the reason why Michael Joseph once said Kenyans have queer calling habit.

Well, in the last few days I have been trying out LG A290, the triple Sim card mobile phone. Yes, I am talking about the phone that let people have three phone numbers at ago. It means, at one go you can be on Safaricom, Orange and Airtel or you can hell with one of the three and pick Yu

Now this is a basic phone as seen from the specifications we posted here. But for those looking to take advantage of the latest offer by the mobile network operators here is a phone for you

Triple SIM

2G GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – GSM+GSM+GSM

Sound Alert
Vibration and MP3 ringtones

Memory
Internal 19 MB and expandable up to 4 GB by microSD Card

Data

GPRS
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
USB microUSB v2.0

Camera
Primary/Rear Camera of 1.3 MP, 1280 x 960 pixels

Video Recording
MP3, AAC+, WMA  Audio format supported
MP4/H.263 Video format supported

Others
Loudspeaker
Colors Gray
Standard Li-Ion 1500 mAh battery

The Lower Indian Ocean Network submarine cable (LION2) operated by Orange  Kenya went  live last week. The  cable is 2,700 km long and it is an extension of the initial Lower Indian Ocean Network that connects Madagascar to the rest of the world.  Lion2 has a maximum capacity of I.28 tbps and can be  increased without additional submarine work… LION2 has increased the capacity of submarine cables connecting Kenya to the outside world to 8.56TB/s.. Check more on that here

So the big question is, will Kenyans realize the long promised reduction on the internet prices, now that all the fiber cables are here?

Data data data..it is the buzz word this year..Whether it is open, closed or whatever, it is all about data. The Government is trying hard and shouting at the rooftop about their open data initiative and the need for Kenyans to use it.  The World Bank is on the mix of anything named open data or initiative to do with open data.   So the next question is, what amount of data is enough for individual, be it voice, video, text or images? And how should it be fairly priced to enable the larger Kenyan population to access it?  In the same line how can it be done without the people selling it going at a loss?

According to safaricom COE Mr. Bob Collymore, they are seeing abuse of unlimited  internet data package by a few individuals. Mr. Collymore said this week on twitter that they are seeing a situation whereby 1% of the unlimited internet data package users using 70% of the resources. Meaning the remaining 99% are only using 30% or less of the resources . Fair enough for Mr Collymore’s claim but as a customer, what I am expected to do after paying the amount required to get the unlimited data package for a certain duration?   Let say for example I pay Ksh.1000 to access unlimited data for 7 days, what does  Safaricom expect me to do..sit back and not use it?

Some people believe that heavy users of the data, the 1% consumers  are using the unlimited internet data to download porn videos. Personally I have no problem with what an individual does with his/her internet, that is a personal choice. For me as long as they have paid for the internet, they should do whatever they want online. Ok, let do some number game here.  Safaricom Unlimited data is throttled at 512Kbps..but the reality is, when downloading you can only get between 1 to 50kpbs depending on where you are.  In Town or somewhere in Westlands and Upper Hill, it is possible to get average speed of between 40 to 50Kbps. Anywhere else, you will be lucky to get anything above 20Kbps with the Unlimited Data package. I think most people download whatever they download at home, and so we are talking about an average speed of between 10Kbps and 15Kbps unless you stay at the data belt areas.. If we take Unlimited package for 1 week at Ksh.1000. Going with the average download speed of 15Kbps for example, and assuming that the somebody would connect his/her computer for 7 days nonstop. Let see how much data can such  a person download or abuse according to Mr.Bob Collymore…

7days*24hours*60minutes*60seconds *15kbps= 9072000KiloBytes

So roughly the Ninja will get 9GB of data, in one week. So, is  that too much? Can that make unlimited data package be  unprofitable?  In other news, that amount of data can be downloaded in one hour when using fiber connection…..

Let’s move to usage pattern and the behavior of most Kenyan internet users. I know many people who buy unlimited or other bundles but don’t use them in any meaningful way at all.. Well, let say they use it  to check emails, and that is all..Practically, if you look at that they are  not using even 0.1 percent of the resources.. From Safaricom point of view , I guess that should be an idle resource they would love to sell to somebody else.. Unfortunately, the Unlimited  1%  heavy users would come in and take that up .  And may be that is where the problem is coming from. Again my question is , does that make unlimited data package unprofitable? I don’t think so!!

There is talk of fair access policy by both Orange and Safaricom.. I am not sure of what would  be fair for each individual in a world where in a daily basis we collectively we produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data.  My view is, if Safaricom think that the amount they charge for unlimited for a certain period is less, then they should increase it but once I buy the unlimited, I should be allowed to use the promised capacity the way I want.

When Fiber cables Landed in Kenya, the whole world promised us that practically every Kenyan would be able to afford to access the  internet. I mean proper getting online, and not just a glimpse of being online. In the real sense of doing whatever one  wants to do online,  be it watching videos, downloading stuff , doing research work, calling, or just browsing for the fun of it..

The following  is the the clear illustration that Kenyans should be able to that..

• TEAMS fiber optic cable has capacity of 1.28 Tb/s
• Seacom fiber optic cable has capacity of 1.28 Tb/s
• EASSy fiber optic cable has capacity of 4.72 Tb/s
• And the new baby on the block, LION 2 has capacity of 1.28 Tb/s

That is a shaking total capacity of 7.28TB/s excluding LION2……..

At the moment , it is estimated that data usage in Kenya stands at about 20 Gigabits per second (1Gbps). Take for example  the capacity of TEAMS only, and you get  around 1280 Gbps. The country is using only 0.01 of the TEAMS ‘s Capacity at any second…

Yeah yeah I know the last mile thing and the problem of the spectrum and the base station bla bla bla but……!!!!!!???

Pivot East has announced the Top fifty shortlisted Apps for this Pivot East Competition to take in early June this year. The Top Fifty applicants will pitch against each other for a spot in the top twenty five finalists. The top twenty five have a chance to win takeaway prize of 50,000USD spread to equivalent amounts in all the five categories, resulting in category prize of 10,000USD. This year category prize is a scale up from last year’s editions cap of 5,000USD.

In Alphabetic order, The Top Fifty applications are: (Ten per category)

Financial Services category

• Chamapro
• Changamka
• Future Magnets
• Kwachu Tiko
• mCollector
• MobiKash
• mPermit
• M-Tafiti
• Pay4Us
• QuickElec

Business and Resource Management Category

• AFRILANCE
• Art Pakacha
• Dairy Sacco App
• Easy Order
• Get-it! app
• MyBusiness App
• PROCUMENT OFFICE
• SMS Based Health Insurance Members Verification
• SMS Offline and Online virtual  Market place
• Wakili

Entertainment Category

• Andromaid
• AngryKenyans
• KenyanEnt
• Ma3racer
• Mag Preview
• Magaziine
• Mingle
• Run For Afrika
• Tough Jungle
• TUBET

 Mobile Society Category

• eLimu
• FarmPal
• FISHMATE
• Gorecycler
• GreenhousePro
• mpoultry
• MPrep
• Mtu wa Job
• SARURA
• StorySpaces

Utilities category

• 6ix degrees
• Crowdpesa
• I travel
• Mafuta Go
• Mare-Mare
• Migwa
• mTracker
• m-verified
• Smart Drive 360
• Tell-a-Friend

This is a re-post of an article that I had the honor of writing in www.cio.co.ke in response to Sunny Bindra’s article within the same publication.

As a follow up to our exclusive interview with Sunny Bindra titled Social Media: Should enterprises pay heed to #TwitterBigStick?, Dennis Mbuvi talked to Muthoni Maingi, who disagrees with some of the view’s in the interview with Bindra.

Muthoni Maingi, a Brand Strategist and Director at Deviate Brand Strategy, Management and Media . She also owns two online magazines, a digital signage property and sits on the board of an upcoming women’s information technology and creativity hub. She is currently also co-organizing a web and app business competition this year. You can follow her on Twitter @NonieMG.

She believes that brand reputation is broader than social media, or even a few Twitter hashtags. Here is what she has to say on the matter.

Many Kenyan companies are looking into how better to manage their online brand reputations. Out of this, the idea of tagging sentiments, positive or negative, to hash tags was born from some notable Kenyans. However, the online world in Kenya is not limited to Twitter. In fact, it is a small fragment of the Kenyan online scene falling at number 8 – in a study carried out in 2011- in terms of popular sites visited by Kenyans.

What you need to be asking yourself as a brand manager is whether manpower should be dedicated to monitor a hash tag, which is popularly used on the eighth most popular platform. That has brought about complaints that vary from overlapping drivers to bad customer service in restaurants, especially if you manage, let’s say a paint company.

“I disagree with those seeking to push hash tag monitoring as key aspect of online positive and/or negative sentiments. Let’s begin with the idea that people had no voice and were not able to complain and be heard before a hash tag existed. This is false, people have been complaining and giving thumbs up in droves in the online space from its existence. They have been doing it in forums, corporate Facebook pages, and their personal blogs and on Twitter way before the hash tag came along. The problem, however, is that most companies were not employing tools that allowed them to listen to collective online complaints and praise.

This is where one could say a hash tag that curates complaints and praise collectively comes in, right? No. For a brand to manage itself efficiently and to provide better CRM, it should not dedicate effort to monitor a hash tag which essentially is noise. It’s not every day that someone will complain about you; why follow noise on other brands and misbehaving drivers that have no relation whatsoever to your paint company?

But this is looking at it from the business side of things. What if you were a consumer that wished to voice your complaint? In all honesty if a brand is not online and not bothered with managing their online reputation, well they won’t get to know about your complaint and address your issue.

It is understandable that with the rise of social media such as blogs and social networks-which are more than Twitter and Facebook- there is fueled interest in sentiment analysis for brands, as it has allowed consumers to voice their opinions at a fast and, sometimes, viral rate. However, monitoring all online space is better done with sentiment engines, as any reputable online brand manager will tell you.

A sentiment engine aims to determine the attitude of a speaker or a writer with respect to some topic or the overall contextual polarity of a document. The attitude may be his or her judgment or evaluation, affective state (that is to say, the emotional state of the author when writing), or the intended emotional communication (that is to say, the emotional effect the author wishes to have on the reader). The beauty of a sentiment engine is that it can be trained to monitor words that may escape it as well. For example, if you are a snack company, you can have it tag obvious related words such as crisps, Nairobi, Kenya, as well as those that are indirectly related e.g. fry, frying, potatoes, macripo (sheng) etc. Another key point that all brand managers will appreciate in terms of efficiency is that sentiment engines sweep the entire Internet, and are not limited to a particular site. They also help you cut through the noise directed at other brands, or if you wish they can monitor complaints and praise of your competitors too. And yes they will pick up online comments made on hash tags on Twitter.

With regards to better service for consumers, your best bet is to make as much positive or negative noise on the brand, on whatever online forum. If they are online and listening, they will see it and if they’re good at brand management, they will respond accordingly. However, the key is in getting more businesses online and allowing them the tools to serve you better. If they are too busy monitoring a hash tag, they’ll miss out on your complaint in your blog for example.

As businesses look to automate the process of filtering out the noise, understanding the conversations, identifying the relevant content and appropriately putting it into action, it is a great option for them to look into the field of sentiment analysis. A lot of these tools can be found online and the beauty of it is that there are a large variety of them, which are free and would work amazingly well for small businesses; such as Social Mention, Google Alerts, BoardReader and Viral Heat. However, if you do have the budget, getting a tailor made one/ or a paid model one for you is a good idea. One can look at companies such as Open Calais, Lexalytics, Text Analytics, and Rapide UK for this.”

Nokia announced  Office Mobile apps from Microsoft for the Nokia Belle . The Office Mobile apps include Word mobile, PowerPoint mobile and Excel mobile – which are  immediately available via Software Update* for the Nokia 701, Nokia 700, Nokia 603, Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C7, Nokia Oro, and Nokia C6-01.

Office Mobile completes the suite of Microsoft productivity applications for Symbian smartphones with Nokia Belle, including OneNote mobile, Document Connection, Lync 2010 mobile and PowerPoint Broadcast.

•  Office Mobile apps will be available from Nokia Store in early May 2012.

• The full suite of Microsoft productivity applications for Nokia N8, Nokia E6 and Nokia 500 will be available at a later date, and also for the Nokia 808 PureView when it begins selling in the second quarter of 2012.

More information on Mobile Office apps or the full suite of Microsoft productivity applications can be found from the Nokia for Business site.

Unbelievable Cool 1 Billion US$  for a company that doesn’t make money yet and has not shown any plan for doing so in the near future. Facebook has acquired Instagram for $1 billion. No joke, Instagram was valued at 500million US$ a few weeks ago, meaning Mark Zuckerber and Co. paid double the actual price.

So was Facebook  scared of Instagram? I think so based on that amount. Clearly Facebook had a real competitor which had hit the right nerve, “photo sharing on mobile”. Facebook on its pure form is a desktop centered company, but the future is about the mobile. The sharing in any form is taking place on mobile phones and hence Facebook could easily be irrelevant in the near future without a clear cut photo sharing mobile platform. And as we seen in many occasion in  the tech world , the best way to deal with emerging  future focused competitors, is to eat them for lunch.

Now the immediate question is , will Facebook kill Instagram?  The same  fate which fell the likes of Gowalla, Beluga, Hot Potato, Drop.io, Snaptu, Digital Staircase and others.   Marke Zuckerberg says they will keep Instagram:

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

But for now I don’t think the folks behind Instagram will mind that much about what  Facebook want to do with the app. I think they are busy celebrating nonstop.  According to the Wired

CEO Systrom owns 40 percent of Instagram, according to a source close to the company, who provided Wired with figures from 2011. That will net Systrom $400 million to take home as a result of the deal. Co-founder Mike Krieger holds about a 10 percent stake, and will net around $100 million. Benchmark Capital, the venture capital firm which led Instagram’s Series A funding round in 2011, has about an 18 percent stake, netting roughly $180 million from the deal. Andreessen Horowitz and Baseline Ventures, two investment firms backing Instagram, each have about a 10 percent stake, netting just under $100 million apiece.

The rest of the company’s 13 full-time employees will each get a portion of a nearly $100 million pool, with specific amounts awarded by how long the employee has worked at Instagram.

During the Mobile East Africa Conference 2012 there was a time slot  for the app developer contest sponsored by InMobi and BlackBerry. There were five developers who  pitched their Apps to a judging panel(MWEA2012 Audience), who had the very difficult task of picking a winner.

A brief overview of the five applications:

1. Verified 100%: an app that allows users to verify education certificates and title deeds to ensure authenticity.
2. Hewa: an online mobile music marketing and distribution platform for Kenyan local artists and record labels.
3. Eat Out Kenya: a contemporary restaurant guide focused on Kenya.
4. mPayer: a cash and mobile money payment management app
5. eLimu: an interactive, engaging and fun app for children in the Kenyan Primary School eduction system to learn and revise for exams.

At the end eLimu emerged the winner of the contest.

Nivi Mukherjee, the Founder of eLimu

The founder Nivi Mukherjee says “eLimu hopes to make a significant and positive long term impact on the Kenyan youth by improving their: test scores, cognitive thinking skills, social/environmental consciousness and IT literacy.”

Part of the prize that eLimu was awarded is $1500 worth of advertising on the InMobi network. Moses Kemibaro, Africa Sales Director for InMobi says “we hope this prize will assist in growing the eLimu app, and as a result furthering education in Kenya”.

I was among the people who voted for eLimu but we had a heated debate before and after the voting  with people on my table. We had all agreed that eLimu will win the contest even before voting took place because of the simple reason of being an Education app.  And it has to be said that it was not because it was the well pitched app nor was it the best technically designed app. But because it is one of the apps that touch on what Kenya as a country needs most at the moment to move forward.

Human Capital development vs Tech City

eLimu app goes in the heart of  everything the country needs in terms of human capital development. And the debate we had on my table was about which is which at this moment, between the Human Capital training and the tech city infrastructure? Should the money and the effort being used to build a tech city be used for the human capital training instead? Much like egg and hen debate on  which came first.

Konza City is a brilliant idea, which should be replicated everywhere in Kenya.  All Kenyan towns or cities should be planned but the Government selling it as Tech City is a bit misplaced. The Silicon valley where everyone around here seems to be obsessed with happened by accident and not through Government planning. Already we have Ngong Road developing as a tech lane in Kenya. If anyone is dreaming of having a version of Silicon Valley in Kenya then we already have a baby like Silicon Valley in the name of Ngong Road. The Government should now move in and ensure the road network around the area is great. At the moment moving along  Ngong Road whether through personal car or public vehicle is a nightmare. The Government should move in and expand Ngong Road to make doing business around there easier and smoother.

Konza City vision is amazing when you listen to Dr. Ndemo or Prof. Kiamba but ignoring Nairobi then thinking that Konza city will make all the difference is highly misguided. Good life at Konza City will attract all sorts of people, and with no time it will be another congested city.

Yeah yeah I hear you, the voices who talk about Kenyans thinking big, but thinking big when you can  not do simple basic things is a pipe dream.

All in all I like Konza City Idea, but I only think that it is an idea which should be pursued by the Ministry of Planning and Development, while the people in technology should concentrate on human capital development. The Konza idea should go beyond one City and should involve all the existing cities and towns across the country. Making one city a paradise surrounded by filthy congested towns or cities is not going to help anything.

Saaricom will next week launch HSPA+ network giving the subscribers a speed of 42 Mbps. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said initial roll-out will covers  Data Belt within the Central Business District (CBD), Kileleshwa, Kilimani and Westlands. The Data Belt forms an area which has high Internet usage.

HSPA+  is a mainstream mobile technology and is quickly expanding. According to GSA A total of 241 operators have committed to HSPA+ network deployments Worldwide, representing an increase of over 62% in the past year. HSPA+ networks are being deployed in 106 countries, 39 countries more than a year ago. 187 HSPA+ systems have been commercially launched in 96 countries, confirming that over 41% of HSPA operators have introduced HSPA+ on their networks.

Safaricom has been using Huawei Modem and if that continues then expect the following details on the new modem:

• DC-HSPA+ downlink up to 42 Mbps, uplink up to 5.76 Mbps
•  Quad-band Dual-Cell HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
•  Quad-band EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• MicroSD Card Slot (up to 32 GB)

Ok, that is ideal world or text book speed, what should Kenyans expect on their modems after the launch? If you are within the so called data Belt then expect some high speed but not close to what I have described above. I will do the speed test once the modems  are available in the market after the next week’s launch.

Meanwhile it is time for Safaricom to increase the speed of the unlimited internet speed from 512 Kbps to something meaningful

@kachwanya Boss, gimme password to ‘Kachwanya’ wifi.

— Murage Gichobi (@Juuchini) March 29, 2012

 

Free capturing and creation

Here is something special for the Kenyan artists- the S pen.The ability to freely capture and create ideas anywhere and everywhere. The S Pen is combined with the full touch screen to create a best-in-class mobile input experience. Great but I have to warn you that you have to be very good at this.  Check below the sample art work of   Samsung lady at Juction Mall Premium shop

With the S Pen, you can easily sketch drawings or write notes with increased accuracy and ease. Also, the S Pen functionality is deeply integrated into the GALAXY Note’s native applications to provide a richer interactive experience.

 Taking Notes

For those used to carrying notebooks for the business meetings, you don’t need them with Galaxy Note. With galaxy Note..Sit back, take the S pen and start writing, awesome.

Pictures

Here are some of the pics taken from the Galaxy Note camera….tell me what you think?

At the Launch of Intel Ultrabook

Aitec Team with one Lucky winner of iPad during Aitec Conference in Nairobi

Nivi Mukherjee, the Founder of eLimu during MWEA2012

Video

Again, here is one sample video taken and edited by Galaxy Note, during the mLab Wireless Wednesday.

Samsung Kies

Kies is a free feature of the Samsung Galaxy Note and S2 which allows the users to send data back and forth without the use of USB. Perfect way to  connect the Note to any browser-equipped device on the same Wi-Fi network, with a web interface providing access to your media, contacts, messages, calls, and bookmarks.

 Battery

Most smartphone batteris suck..Ok.. Note lasts multiple days if kept mostly idling, but strenuous activity limits it to just a few hours. I normally gets around 6 hours when fully charged and under constant use

Price

Ksh.70k from the Fonexpress

Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy Note is a great business phone..and I approve this message. Awesome, buy it if you can.

Bharti Airtel today  launched  its operation in Rwanda. With that, Airtel now covers 17 African countries. Airtel  is ready to  invest over USD 100 million in its operations over the next three years.

Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel said:

“We are delighted to launch our operations and bring Airtel to the people of Rwanda. We believe that Rwanda is an extremely promising market and this launch further strengthens our footprint in eastern Africa. It will be our endeavour to bring world-class and affordable services to our customers in Rwanda and add value to the economy. We would like to thank the Rwandan government for giving us this opportunity, and we are committed to contributing to their aim of bridging the digital divide in the country.”

Rwanda is among the fastest growing telecom markets in Africa and, according to the National Statistics Institute of Rwanda, mobile penetration in the country was at 38.4 per cent as of July 2011. Airtel was awarded the license by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) last year to operate 2G and 3G GSM mobile services.

You call yourself Social Media Guru, expert or wehatever? Here is your chance..  MamaMikes is looking for a person to help them with Social Media.On their own words:

We are looking for a dynamic person who has a strong passion for social media

We are looking for someone:

1. Who knows how to connect the dots between social media and the business bottom line
2. Who loves photography and design
3. Who can creatively write for retail, focusing on our offers
4. Who can create short videos for youtube
5. Works well with freelancers
6. Knows how to measure their impact using web metrics and business goals

Responsibilities:

1. Maintain a consistent look and feel throughout all our social media outlets
2. Create social media content in line with our promotional plans
3. Oversee freelancers: video makers & photographers
4. Keep current with emerging web technologies through relevant blogs, listservs, and events
5. Write a minimum of 2-3 blog posts per day for posting as guest posts on our site and other websites.
6. Tweet often and socialize on facebook regularly.
7. Develop relationships with key target bloggers, website owners and journalists

Required Skills:

1. Exceptional communication and organizational skills
2. Good knowledge of HTML and experience with social media tools, specifically: twitter, facebook, wordpress, pinterest, youtube and posterous
3. Basic Adobe Photoshop skills (preferred)
4. Passionate about blogging and writing
5. Friendly and conversational
6. Technologically savvy
7. Team player

In addition the skills you will need are:

1. Knowledge on SEO
2. Business sense on budgets and setting targets
3. Experience in running competitions, giveaways, promotions and events is a bonus but not essential
4. The right candidate will have a passion for all things digital and have an active digital life through different social media platforms.
5. Experience or demonstrate knowledge working in at least one or more of the following areas:

1. Social Media (video platforms, social networks, blogs or community management)
2. SEO (can demonstrate content-driven strategies to promote client websites)

6. A basic understanding of SEO and the role of link building in website promotion will also be beneficial
7. Fast Learner

Are you interested?  Send us an email to : work@mamamikes.com introducing yourself and telling us why you are the right person for Job. Your application should include:

1. Demonstrate your success in social media
2. writing sample
3. Attach your C.V

E-Tourism East Africa conference opens in Nairobi this morning.  This is the third international online tourism conference for East Africa.  This year’s conference brought together some of the world’s leading experts on online tourism including Trip Advisor, Expedia and Facebook developers.  Visa, KCB and the Intercontinental Hotel Nairobi are the lead sponsors for the conference.

The two day conference will focus strongly on the use of social media to leverage online bookings. With online tourism sales set to double to over US $300 billion by the end of the year and Facebook to have one billion users in 2012, it is critical that tourism players in the sector make better use of the internet and social media to market and manage their destinations and businesses

More Updates coming up or follow @kachwanya twitter

There are only three days remaining before the deadline for apps submission for the Pivot East. Pivot East which started as Pivot 25 will be held on 5th and 6th June 2012. The shortlisted apps  will do their pitching during the 2 days conference. It is an mlab East Africa  initiative to bring focus on the Mobile developer and entrepreneur community in East Africa.

This year’s theme is Innovation and Enterprise.The following fireside chats will be used to build on the theme;

•      Opportunities of entrepreneurship in the East Africa Region
•      Financing challenges in the regional technological scene
•      Role of corporates in stimulating innovation
•      Social impact and the Social enterprise
•      Role of innovation in driving the regional economy

There are a couple of ways to get involved with PivotEast;

• Enter your application
• Sponsor the event
• Register to attend

If you have anything to say on any subject, mail us mail@kachwanya.com

Review of the Zune Market

This is getting a bit more scbteujive, but I much prefer the Zune Marketplace. The interface is colorful, has more flair, and some cool features like  Mixview’ that let you quickly see related albums, songs, or other users related to what you’re listening to. Clicking on one of those will center on that item, and another set of  neighbors  will come into view, allowing you to navigate around exploring by similar artists, songs, or users.

Speaking of users, the Zune  Social  is also great fun, letting you find others with shared tastes and becoming friends with them. You then can listen to a playlist created based on an amalgamation of what all your friends are listening to, which is also enjoyable. Those concerned with privacy will be relieved to know you can prevent the public from seeing your personal listening habits if you so choose.

from Senthil

The telecommunications industry regulator, CCK, is in a mission, an evil mission to read Kenyans emails.  According to the story on Businessdaily, CCK, is setting up a system to spy on private emails, citing a rise in cyber security threats since the landing of fiber cables in Kenya three years ago. It is shocking that CCK is out to spend  36.2 million to install Internet traffic monitoring equipment known as the Network Early Warning System (NEWS) to spy on people’s emails.

How is spying on people’s emails going to deal with hacking or other cyber threats in Kenya is beyond my pay grade. Ok, last year  there were  at least 2000 local Web sites hacked or defaced,  including government websites, so people at CCK think that the best people to go after are innocent Kenyan cyber users! SMH

First, I would like to know where the Kenyan networks and ISPs stand on this, after the reported letters from  CCK demanding their co-operation in the installation of the so called NEWS.  According to Lawyer Paul Muite quoted on BusinessDaily, any spying on people’s mails that is not backed by a specific court order will be in violation of Articles 31 and 34 of the Constitution

This is unwarranted interference with the citizens’ right to freely communicate which is highly irregular as it amounts to spying on people without having to account for their actions

When Kenyan Prime Bank, Development Bank and CFC Stanbic Bank Websites were hacked, they were hacked by somebody from Rwanda. Majority of Kenyans knew of the hacking after it was posted in one of the Rwandan’s blogs,  so how is Spying on Kenyans emails going to help Government catch the Rwandese hacker?

Unfortunately,  ITU will fund  30 per cent of the cost of installing the monitoring system…. for heaven sake ,ITU should stop helping  the CCK in their evil mission of  intruding on People’s privacy

And by the way, what  is next after the emails, will the Government go snooping on people’s DMs on Twitter in the name of Cyber Security?

STOPCCK

Is there a problem with  Kenic Management structure?  Wanjiku’s take on the problem is here . That a side,  I had a chat with one of the managers of  the leading .Ke domains Registrar EacDirectory.co.ke . Victor Onyango is the Team leader Marketing at EAcDirectory.co.ke:

Kachwanya: Let start with the story of  your Company. What is the story behind  eacdirectory.co.ke/?

Victor :  EACdirectory is an IT firm founded in 2005, 100% Kenyan . Originally started as an Online business directory organization. Model did not work. We had to change tact fast.

We are Google apps Authorized resellers, Kenic accredited registrars, and also a partner with Google on the Getting business online initiative – (kbo.co.ke)

Kachwanya : I understand that EacDirectory  is the biggest Registrar of local .Ke domains names, can you give us the numbers or the stats?

Victor : Indeed, EACdirectory is the largest .ke registrar. We have over 10 % market share in the .ke domain name space
We have been the registrar of the month for 4 months consecutively

Kachwanya: What are some of the competitive advantages that EacDirectory has over the other Registrars?

Victor : -Customer focus
-Full automation of dns, whois . This gives the customers FULL control over nameserver changes, changes on personal contacts, emails e,t,c
-FULL automation for payment using MPESA paybill. Make payment, key in the Transaction code and domain registered instantly. A favourite for Kenyans
-Full automation for payment using Credit Card/Debit. A favourite for the international clients

Kachwanya:  In Your understanding why do Kenyans shy away from registering .co.ke or other local domain extensions?

Victor : When anybody wants a domain name, they want it NOW. They are passionate about their chosen name and cannot give room for someone taking it.
-Time it takes to register domains. Some registrars take more that 24 hours
-Fear of someone grabbing their name of choise.
-No control over their domains (WHOIS, nameserver e.t.c)

Kachwanya: Is the Government doing enough to promote .co.ke domains?

Victor: It should be a policy that all government agencies / institutions / parastatals / local authorities should have a .ke domain. Many government institutions /agencies still use TLD (.com, .org etc) e.g. www.magicagicalkenya.com

- The official travel and tourism guide by the Kenya Tourist Board www.kws.org

-Kenya Wildlife Service www.kenyamuseumsociety.org

- Kenya Museum Society

Members of parliament and even presidential candidates use .com

Kachwanya:  What is the future of the co.ke with light of new changes made by ICCAN , based on the fact that there are going to be other extensions like .Africa  .Nike, may be .Safaricom ?

Victor : The money and technical expertise required to secure the extension and deploy it does not make it attractive for most organizations.

Kachwanya:  What development, event, or new understanding since EacDirectory started that has had the most impact on the original plan?  How has the plan changed in response?

Victor : The development of MPESA has made business easier than ever. This has enabled us to FULLY automate our process and hence reduce our prices. We have consistently charged prices that match Kenic’s rate

Kachwanya:  According to you what would be the key tech trends in Kenya, and Africa in general in the next five to ten years?

Victor-Adoption of Mobile payment as the de-facto payment system
-Conversion of websites into Mobile ready ones

Sevenseas Technologies has won a Sh464.8 million tender to upgrade ICT  systems for the Zesco.  Zesco is a Zambian power supply company. The upgrade will include among others billing system, data center storage and ERP.

Sevenseas Technologies  will work in partnership with Compsource International, a Zambian IT firm. Congrats to  Sevenseas Technologies

Apple has announced that it has sold three million new iPads since the  launch on Friday, March 16.

“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold?the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday”.

The new iPad features

• Retina display
• A5X chip with quad-core graphics
• a 5 megapixel camera
• 1080p HD video
• 10 hour battery life
• iPad Wi-Fi + 4G  and supports 4G LTE networks

Kenic announced  a month long promotion of dot co.ke domain extensions starting today. Kenic will be selling the .ke domains to registrars at Kes 1000/= . From there expects them to sell the domains to the public between Ksh.1400 to Ksh.2000

According to Kenic the following Registrars have been committed to sell .co.ke, or.ke, .ne.ke domains at a cost of not more than Kes. 1500/= exclusive of VAT.

1.  EACdirectory
2. Afriregister Limited
3. Almond Communications
4. Blueprint Technologies
5. Bunia.net LTD
6. Computer Doctors
7. Converged Media Solutions
8. Creative Edge Ltd
9. Cyberworld Internet Solution Providers
10. Datapath Technologies Limited
11. Digital Horizons Ltd.
12. Domain Masters Ltd
13. Domains Kenya Ltd.
14. Abba Networks
15. GEDA Limited
16. get2net
17. Gempack Dot Net Enterprises
18. Get Online Hosts
19. Greenbell Communications Limited
20. Globefinity Systems Ltd
21. HostYetu.com
22. ICT Consultants Limited
23. Intrepid Data Systems
24. JBA Advertising
25. Kemnet Technologies
26. Kenya Website Experts
27. Kenya Webhosting
28. Kenyaweb Hostmaster
29. Kenyasoftnet LTD
30. Logic Outsource Limited
31. Loksons Designs
32. Newsline Media Productions
33. Nick Creations Ltd
34. MyISP Ltd
35. Packet Central Technologies Ltd
36. Palm Online Systems
37. Peak and Dale Solutions Ltd
38. Samnet Africa Ltd
39. SasaHivi Media Ltd
40. Sasahost Limited
41. SawaSawa.com
42. Secunets Technologies
43. Sisi Communications Ltd
44. Software Application Architects Limited
45. Starnet Solutions
46. Stratech Office Systems
47. Swiftweb Technologies Ltd
48. Twenty Four Interactive
49. Visual Pixel Systems
50. Way Forward Technologies
51. Web Host Africa ltd
52. Webhost kenya Ltd
53. Xtranet Communications Ltd

It would be unfortunate for a man who lives in a thatched house to play a game with fire. Just as it would be unfortunate for people in our country Kenya to throw around utterances without thinking of the aftermath. We have barely recovered from 2007/08 PEV. Maybe we underestimate the ripple effect of a tribal tweet. Maybe we have forgotten that somewhere in an open field, people are still sleeping under tattered tents because they lost all they had.

Yesterday, a football match at the Nyayo Stadium turned chaotic. A few minutes into twitter reports, it had already morphed into a tribal slur, and people were already hauling around venomous attacks on the timeline. This I assume they did sitting comfortably in their houses, probably watching the Wedding Show or something fancier. Just carelessly tweeting away. It is just a tweet after all. In these tweets were the tribal undertones, the stereotypes that are our cancer. Two of them read like this:

“@Danmwaks: Circumcision brings maturity in a man..don’t ask me why if ur arnd Nyayo Stadia:”

 ”@fellytyzo: If this is happening in football…what if @raila_odinga looses the elections?”

People had already made their deductions and formed their prejudices. One of them tried to explain that they said that because a bigger number of supporters for that particular football team comes from a particular tribe. What this person forgot was that it is never about what you say, or why you say it but what the message does once it hits the ground. There is never a time to explain what you meant when people subscribe to your intolerant ideologies, then grab pangas to slash some sense into ‘the others’.

It is a shame to see this kind of hate on social media where you expect people to be a bit more educated, and to be the ambassadors who are preaching peace to the rest of the country. If you are old enough to open and register a twitter account under your name, it means that you are old enough to understand the politics of this country, and how tribal it gets, and how these tribal inclinations are our disease. Make no mistake; the people who are going to tear this country apart if we are not careful are not the uneducated idlers sitting in the market. They are not the ones the politicians are going to hand pangas to go and fight. It is going to be you, the elite! Your tweet and your blog is where these politicians will camp first. But why do we even bring the politicians to this story. We are the ones responsible for our utterances.

We talk about a twitter revolution in Kenya every day, political activism and what not. But how can this happen when we are so careless with the things we say, and when a football match easily becomes an ethno-political argument on twitter? How can this happen when we are not even able to agree to disagree, and when a twitter discussion easily turns into a twitter mob? This culture of ‘the otherness’ stamped on our minds, the ‘us-then-them’, will it ever stop? Your tweet is your weapon. The hate in this tweet could easily slide off the screen into real life. It is always that serious!

Or are we lusting for another 2007/2008?

Maybe we should just go back to sharing funny tweets and copy pasting quotes from famous authors. We are safer that way.

Mista Mixtapes is an Andoid app that allows the users to get the best of the best Dj Music Mixes going back over a decade. The app offers users different flavours and genres of music from a few Kenyan djs. It should be noted that the developer of the app has the express permission from the featured DJs to use their mixes.

Simple and easy,  by one click and you get access to over a hundred Dj mixtapes . Name it, the app has a little  bit of everything, from Soul/ New jack to Reggae, Dance, Hip Hop and RnB, Afican, Carribean, Dancehall, Old school to New School.  All mixes are at least 45 minutes long.

Mixtapes have been grouped in different genres of music to make it easy to locate what users want to listen to. With the 3G connection, be assured to get the best steaming results.

The app was created from the popularity of the website naientertainment.com, where it all began.

Samsung Electronics East Africa On Friday unveiled its first premium brand shop in Kenya situated at the Junction Mall Supermarket, Ngong Road.

The most striking aspect of the shop is the  product experience zone.  On show are the Samsung Smart phones, Tablets, Note, Visual Display, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Digital Appliances, Mobile Communications, laptops and other accessories -

Mr Manoj Changarampat, Business Leader, SEEA said:

This Samsung brand shop is offering our customers the full Samsung premium experience across our smart phones category and digital appliances. The shop, which will be a showcase in the latest technology, will be manned by fully trained and experienced Samsung staff that will able to take our customers through the whole Samsung experience

Mr Manoj  also noted that Samsung had expanded its customer care centers in Kenya, namely 5 in Nairobi, 1 in Kisumu, 1 in Eldoret and 1 in Mombasa, all geared to meet the needs of consumers.

Nokia yesterday announced the immediate availability of the Nokia Asha range in Kenya. The Nokia Asha 200, Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 302 and Nokia Asha 303.  The launch Event marked what Nokia refers to as The QWERTY Movement,  with Nokia Asha 200, 201 and 302 having QWERTY keypad while Nokia Asha 303 has QWERTY and touch experience

According to Angela Githuthu, Marketing Activation Manager, Nokia East Africa:

Consumers are calling out for the right mix of style and substance. We want to deliver phones that look great, but also give the richest possible experience in calling, texting or browsing the Web. We believe that ‘QWERTY’ is not just a feature, but a movement of expression that opens up communications in different communities, and that is why we are calling on consumers to  join ‘The QWERTY Movement.’”

Nokia Web Browser and Apps

Nokia Asha mobile phones make use of the new Nokia Web browser for Series 40 with up to 90% data compression. The compression means smaller downloads, lower data charges, pages that load fast.

Nokia has incorporated locally relevant apps available with the Asha range of devices including Matatu Mania, Around Me, Nation and the Kenyan Flag 3D Theme.

Estimated retail pricing including local taxes:

Nokia Asha 200:  KES 7,300

Nokia Asha 201: KES 7,300

Nokia Asha 302: KES 10,000

Nokia Asha 303: KES13, 730

The Nokia Asha 303  has 2.6” capacitive touch screen with a high quality QWERTY keypad. The device comes with 1 GHz processor, 3G and WLAN.

Social networks, email and instant messaging are easily accessible from the home screen.  Angry Birds Lite comes preinstalled on the phone.

The estimated retail price of the Nokia Asha 303 is KES 13,730.