Let us first dissect this photograph, this amazing piece of artistry that one Sven Torfinn perfected. Somebody said a picture speaks a thousand words. (S)he must have seen this photo to so exude those witty remarks because the breath-taking beauty of the scenery is simply awesome. The photo also has splashes of our National Flag colours, the greatest of our National Heritage.
The article centered on Pivot25, a conference on mobile phone applications that was held last month. It has been noted that mobile-phone use in Africa is one of the biggest activity and soon, major and minor activities will be through these gadgets. The blue-chip companies investment on mobile phone apps in Africa is insurmountable.
Safaricom set a trend when it enrolled M-PESA service, and since, thousands of applications have been 'invented' here in Kenya. A great institution that has to be applauded has to be Strathmore University, as it has proved to be a techno-savvy platform for major inventions. Kamal Budhabhatti's Craft Silicon has enrolled it's latest product, Elma, which virtually does any business or financial transaction hence eradicating the need of credit-card uses and the likes. To him it is a digital wallet.
It is estimated that that there are half-a-billion mobile-phones in African, hence averaging 1 for every 2 Africans according to Industrial Analyst, Informa Telcoms and Media. Over the past four years, this trend has seen Africa's internet capacity soaring from 340 gigabits to a whooping 34000gigabits according to Tim Parsonson, the CEO of Teraco African Data, and the cost of internet to its Service Provider reducing from $4000 to $200 per month for a megabit/second. This has seen internet in Africa among the fastest growing in Africa.
Kenya, the Silicon Savanna, leads Africa when it comes to embracing technology with abandon. That is why it is not strange that Google decided Nairobi to be its regional base, and not the 'developed' cities of South Africa or Nigeria. And the list for companies rooted here, to say the least, is listless. This is one thing that will surely put this country at par with other developed nations, not the habitual plight of hunger, corruption, poverty, nepotism and other discrepancies largely associated with third-world countries.
The government is about to construct a $7 billion Konza Technological City near Machakos which will be an African pride. This will be a replica to the Silicon Valley in America that hosts world's largest technology corporations such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft. Also, earlier this month, it released it's information online, making it the only country in African, and one of the first in the world, to do so. According to Bitange Ndemo, who is the PS in Information and Technology, this will create transparency in how the government transacts its business, and the public can track cases of corruption and raise them.
This is a great leap into the future, and if there be a reason to be proud as a Kenyan, it has to be now. As the mobile applications are being generated at an amazing pace, we can only hope the consious attributions on development, economy and recognition worldwide, as according to Ushahidi co-founder Erik Hersman, "Any of these apps can go global. They work on any phone anywhere. ...If it works here for the guy on his Nokia 1100, it'll work for anyone"
No comments:
Post a Comment