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http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/331360392b81ee94ce9b62b6f366e7eb/compdetails]
During the recent 1% Club Event which was simulcast live between NBO-AMS-DLA (Nairobi-Amsterdam-Douala) I happened to have been part of the co-creation team that deliberated on the subject of Micro-Justice or, approaches on how to offer legal services to the poor in a more sustainable and cost-effective manner.
The discussions centered on the following:
- How to involve or integrate the Tech and Legal Community
- How we can leverage on the power and reach of Mobile Technology
- Which outreach activities to engage in
- Improvement on an existing website
For more on the discussion please go through the presentation below:
Title: Mobile Monday Kenya Chapter
Location: iHub Nairobi
Description: Mobile Monday guest speakers will be from Samsung Kenya, and it will be all about Developer and Monetization Opportunities. Bring a friend or two as you come to listen about how you can make an extra buck from the opportunity.
Want to know more about Mobile Monday? Visit http://mobilemonday.co.ke/ or follow us on twitter @MobileMondayKe. If you are on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3503680
Start Time: 18-00
Date: 2010-10-18
End Time: 20-00
Hosting prices have dropped a lot in the recent years and the cost of hosting your website should be minor to development costs. There are still a lot of things to consider as the quality of hosting is diverse. If you pay more than 10,000KES a year for your hosting services you are probably being ripped off.
Being a user of hosting services since 1996 these are my recommendations:
- Keep services separated. Domain hosting, Internet access and web/ email hosting are different services. A general advice is to get each service from different providers. Use your Internet Service Provider for Internet services and don’t do any hosting with them as it will complicate things if you want to change ISP.
- Also keep domain and web/ email hosting separate. This makes it possible for you to do changes to your domain if you are having troubles with your web/ email host and vice versa.
- Make sure you have full control over and access to DNS with your host so that you can do emergency changes yourself without having to email someone and wait for a reply. All serious domain hosts offer this service and a few of the combined domain/web/email hosts as well.
- If you are even considering creating a second website in the future get a web hosting account that allows more than one domain as this will save you a lot in of money the end.
- If you will do anything out of the ordinary like Ruby or Python make sure your web host supports this. The most common hosting platforms cPanel and Plesk do not support anything but the basics (PHP or other static file based hosting). The most flexible control panels are the ones developed by the web host to support their specific hosting platform.
- SSH access to your hosting account is also a must if you want to do anything out of the ordinary like installing custom components.
- Don’t be fooled by the word unlimited. If bandwidth or disk space is advertised as unlimited make sure to read the fine print carefully as all web hosts offering this usually have something like “unless misused or interferes with our services” in their terms and conditions and they decide when you misuse their services.
For domain hosting of .com there are a number of companies. GoDaddy (don’t do web hosting with them!), Joker.com, Network Solutions etc
For .co.ke the cheapest one where you have total control over your domain is http://www.eacdirectory.com/ for 2,340KES a year.
For dynamic web applications and websites the best one I know of is http://www.webfaction.com/. They offer 10GB space and SSH access (you can even install your own web server if you want to). You can host as many domains as you want. The main limit is 80MB memory for your Apache processes but if you just run PHP apps you can probably host 20 sites. With Django I found that 5-6 still works. All for 102USD a year … they don’t do domain hosting – another sign of quality
Disclaimer: Both the EACDirectory and Webfaction links above have referrals but they are the services I use and it will not affect your price if signing up with them.
Jonas is an IT Consultant working at Lamu Software in Nairobi. Lamu Software specialises in web applications and websites using the Python based Django web framework.
Web by .
This past Saturday I attended a very interesting workshop facilitated by Niti Bhan of Aalto University Design Factory on Innovating Mobile Services for the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BoP). This was more or less a continuation of a similar discussion we had the day before with Russell Southwood CEO of Balancing Act, a consulting firm.
In a nutshell she outlined the following as some of the characteristics of the BoP:
- Irregular and unpredictable income streams
- Planning is a challenge
- Infrastructure is a challenge
- High volume and low margins should be consideration when modeling any service or product
- Micro- based- Micro-Payments; Micro-Insurance etc
- It’s predominantly cash-based
- Prepaid model which has worked so in most of the BoP should be used as an inspiration on the way forward
- Dignity should be at the centre of it all
- This is a sachet economy (or as we call it here in Kenya –the Ka ndogo economy); small units; again the high volume; low margin
There after she took us through some probable user groups/customers, their attributes and where gaps and/or opportunities exist for innovation in developing relevant services for them.
Finally the discussion came down to a call to action: Opportunities and gaps exist. Nairobi being the birthplace of some the greatest innovations of our time, i.e. M-Pesa, Ushahidi all centered around the mobile device, has the great privilege and challenge to develop relevant and appropriate solutions for the BoP and more specifically around the mobile device or other appropriate technologies.
Nairobi has been touted in some quarters as ‘the creative city of Africa’, ‘one of the main hubs in Africa for Innovation’, ‘a city with the right mix- a critical mass of creatives, software developers, money, academia, private sector participation and more’ to come up with credible inventions and innovations to address the issues that confront our generation.
And to do this we need to unlearn most of what we’ve learnt and have a complete paradigm shift because the BoP demands that. It challenges long held assumptions and questions some the established ways of business modeling but also offers a great opportunity to address some of the long standing issues that have plagued our societies. With market-based approaches that are socially and environmentally sensitive will move forward with solutions and services that will result in economic development and social transformation for the billions in the BoP market.
Let’s realize that we’re referring to people here, not just some fancy terms – the BoP, the 3rd World, and Informal- that look good in our literature. These are a people that have been relegated to unimaginable conditions (inhuman conditions) all because of a system that doesn’t serve them or understand their unique nuances and behavioral patterns.
This is a call for us to innovate and make a difference in the world and more specifically to lives of these people.
Let go out there and make it happen…
Further reading:
The Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid By C.K.Prahald
Group to Join:
Through a group (the League of Young Professionals Kenya) that I’m part of I was privileged to attend a talk by Dr. Julius Kipng’etich, the Director of Kenya Wildlife Services.
The talk, in a nutshell, broke down the Kenya Vision 2030 in a very succinct way and I wish to share the highlights of it. Briefly:
- The aim of Kenya Vision 2030 is “A globally competitive and prosperous country with a high quality of life by 2030.”
- The Vision is anchored on three key pillars: Political; Economic; and Social
In a little more detail for better understanding:
Pillar 1: Political
Under this pillar one of the main objectives is instituting a New Constitution.
Thankfully, we just promulgated the New Constitution. We now have the onerous task of seeing its full implementation, in both the spirit and letter.
Secondly, the biggest challenge we need to contend with over and above the establishment of the New Constitution is tribalism.
“Our politics is a roll call of tribes; Political Power is structured around tribal arithmetic”- Dr. Kipng’etich
To confront this demon requires a mindset change. This, as we all know, is never an overnight process.
Pillar 2: Social
In this pillar he outlined the following:
- Education- Increase investments in education to ensure a highly skilled, literate populace
- Health- Have a universal health care scheme to ensure a healthy population
- Environmental- Currently much of the arable land of Kenya is under human settlement NOT in productive use. If Environmental issues are NOT addressed there will be competition (might escalate to resource-based conflicts) for food, water and energy.
- Security- Small arms proliferation, conflict-ridden neighbors all this pose a danger to our security.
- Justice System- Have an effective rule of law. Change the belief “Why hire a lawyer when you can buy a Judge”
Pillar 3: Economic
Briefly the objectives under this pillar:
- Have a growth rate of 10%
- Have a National Savings Rate of 25%
- Have Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)of 40% of the GDP
How do we achieve this? In this he spelt out the following as some of measures we could take:
- Tourism- Through attracting tourists to enjoy our near-perfect climate, teeming wildlife, pristine white sandy beaches and amazing landscapes
- Agriculture- Through value addition and this can be a simple as packaging and branding
- Manufacturing- Through reducing cost of production and take advantage of regional trade.
- Retail & Wholesale- Formalize our retail & wholesale trading
- Financial Services- This the whole breath of credit, banking, insurance, stock market, investment banking etc.
- BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) – This primarily in call centers and data processing activities for job creation and increased FDI
——–
Finally he cupped it off by giving us some great take-away:
- Show Leadership- Influence other people
- Strategic Thinking- Be Unique
- Guard your Reputation- Develop reputation capital by setting your own personal standards; Integrity
- Build Networks- Develop your own social capital by donating personal time, join a club etc
- Leverage on Technology- To multiple your efficiency
Recommended Readings
Let me point out that the entire series of articles is not intended as a study guide nor is it an in-depth look into the window 7 environment. Please check out many other resources on the internet and always consult with Microsoft sites should you want to seek any clarifications. I hope you enjoy reading the write-ups and that it may have guided you or enhanced your knowledge in some way.
With that out of the way, let us get started.
Where would we be without introductions?
My name is Aki and my background covers various ICT fields. I’m currently on a study path towards Microsoft Silverlight as I believe that convergence of both desktop and internet applications are the future of technology.
Let’s get started on our journey to discovery of Windows 7.
Introduction to windows 7:
Windows 7 is that latest client Operating System from Microsoft. A client operating system is intended for end users and has programs and applications catering for such needs. Most of your work is done locally on your computer such as word processing, spreadsheets, editing photos, saving files etc. These are some of the tasks that end users perform on their computers. An operating system, as you may have guessed, is foundation software running on your computer that manages its hardware and also provides common services for additional programs that provide the overall functionality to your computer.
Microsoft currently has six different versions of the Windows 7 operating system. They are:
- Windows 7 Starter
- Windows 7 Home Basic
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- Windows 7 Professional
- Windows 7 Enterprise
- Windows 7 Ultimate
You can find all the new features of Windows 7 here on http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features and may use this information to decide what version of the operating system best suits your needs.
Some improvements:
- A faster boot-up and shutdown time
- Easier to install and configure
- Windows 7 Taskbar: Allows a user to quickly access the programs they use most.
- Jump Lists: Allow a user to quickly access files that one is working on
- Windows Touch: Support for touch screen devices
- Windows XP Mode: For those users seeking to run older Windows XP applications.
- Simpler home networking: Using home groups makes simpler home networking
- View Available networks (VAN)
- Internet Explorer 8
I highlight as important for many who are not aware of the Windows XP mode and are on Windows XP but want to upgrade to Windows 7, here is some information about this very important feature.
So what is Windows XP Mode?
Windows XP Mode is a free downloadable add-on for Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise. It has two parts:
- The virtualization software itself
- A disk image containing pre-installed, activated, licensed copy of Windows XP Professional with SP3 pre-installed and Internet Explorer 6
Windows XP Mode uses virtualization technology to let applications running on a virtualized copy of Windows XP Pro show up in the Windows 7 start menu and on Windows 7 desktop.
What is important to know is that you would first want to determine if your computer hardware processor and bios support Virtualization Technology. Once you have determined these requirements, you can go to the Microsoft site and download the free add-on. In future articles, we will go a bit more into depth about this feature.
I hope this very basic introduction has created some awareness for you. In the next article to be posted, we will go over some 32/64bit architecture and also some more information about installation of Windows 7.
Please feel free to ask of questions or post comments that you may have concerning this write up.
I’ve been working on setting up a few presentations, thought it’d be good to get them rolling with Skunkworks. Anyone have particulars they’d like to get presented on?
The options i have at the moment are:
What’s new with Creative Suite 5
Adobe Photoshop CS5
Dreamweaver Cs5 round-tripping online
Indesign CS5. Where to publish?
Uncategorized by .
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing writeups on Windows 7. I hope the information provided will be helpful to you.
The following topics will be covered :
a) Introduction
b) Installation
c) Managing Disks and Windows 7 enviroment
d) Managing users, groups and security
e) Network Connecitivity
f) Maintaining Windows 7
g) Backups and Recovery
Title: MIGRATE TO AND PROTECT WINDOWS 7 WITH SYMANTEC
Location: Nairobi Serena Hotel
Description: https://symantecevents.verite.com/17905 – Register here, for Microsoft Customers/Resellers
Start Time: 0830
Date: 2010-08-17
End Time: 1100