As the global digital content is set to grow at a rate of between 6 and 10 percent by the end of this year, the Kenya ICT Board is set to announce on Wednesday the launch of its Sh 320 Million grant to promote the development of relevant digital content and software.
» Read more: Kenya: $4Million Grant for Local Content Development
Posts Tagged ‘Internet’
Kenya: $4Million Grant for Local Content Development
June 1st, 2010New media: There is power in citizen journalism
March 16th, 2010Citizen journalism is the next frontier to watch. Speaking at an International conferencein Berlin, Germany, this new media guru bared it all.
see full story here
Domain names take centre stage as ICANN meeting hits homestretch
March 12th, 2010Cost of registering new Internet top level domains, trademark protection and cyber security will today dominate a final meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board, which climaxes at KICC in Nairobi. At a public forum on Thursday, country representatives argued that trademark protection and high cost of accrediting new domains would derail the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), as they urged ICANN board to strengthen policies on the accreditation and registration process to avert wrangles. Generic top-level domains include .com, .net and .biz, and geographical top level domains include .asia and .eu (for European Union) and .au (for African union).
In his final address on the resolutions reached by the ICANN board (watch video below) Rod said registration of new generic top level domains will be effected once the community reach a consensus on how they want the process done.
Applicants are seeking proper mechanisms to be used in registering new geographical top level domains, like dot africa and expand gTLDs to include city names such as dot Nairobi (.nairobi), dot Kampala (.kampala) and dot Lagos (.lagos).
Read more here
The ICANN president also warned that Kenya would be faced with increased cyber crime activities following her sophisticated infrastructure triggered by the landing of under sea optic cables. See story here.
But what kind of domain names must Africa embrace
African organisations and companies were advised to use their country’s code name while registering businesses on the Internet.
According to participants attending the just ended 37th ICANN meeting in Nairobi, this approach would enable entities get specific correspondents across borders.
“Organisations should change from using generic names like the dot.com or dot.org and adopt a country name such as dot.ke or a dot.ug, to enhance visibility online and retain their identity,” explained the ICANN CEO, Mr Rod Beckstrom.
He said this would also help boost governments’ marketing efforts.
“Governments spend a lot of money annually in exhibition and road shows. This method of marketing is expensive and has less impact. Registering entities with a country’s name would not only help in marketing an individual firm, but also the nation,” said Muriuki Murithi, the CEO of Summit Strategies, in an interview with Kenyan journalists. » Read more: Domain names take centre stage as ICANN meeting hits homestretch
ORANGE LAUNCHES WORLD MOBILE PORTAL
June 30th, 2009BY JAMES RATEMO
Telkom Kenya has launched A WAP (wireless application protocol) portal that will enable Orange Mobile subscribers a speedier Internet access today by.
Orange World, the fastest WAP portal in the local market is an online gateway offering subscribers news, sports, games, listings, travel information and entertainment while on the move. Telkom Kenya confirmed that for the next one month, Orange Mobile subscribers will access the service for free with no price increase on a user’s monthly tariff. After this period Orange will determine price levels from customer usage patterns with added value being some free content.
With this new offering Telkom Kenya which is the first truly integrated operator in the country providing innovative and affordable products and services in the telecommunication industry,has proven its intent to ensure that these services are accessible to a wider network of subscribers through affordable pricing.
Jean-Michel Chanut, Head of Marketing and Strategy is confident that WAP-enabled phone handsets will usurp current handsets as must-have gadgets: “This will probably even be the next must-have playground accessory. Our service will be affordable and phone handset prices will probably experience a substantial price drop in the next few months.”
To connect to Orange World, a user requires a WAP or internet enabled phone with an Orange RUIM card. The user then launches the browser application and selects home which then enables them to surf all available content as they normaly would on the web. Orange World content is categorized as follows: Info categories for news, sports and economy; fun categories for ring tones, wallpapers & animations, videos, Java games, love test matches, horoscopes, jokes, weather; tools categories for pharmacies, administration, embassies, airlines companies, hotels, banks, pray hours, travel agencies, car rental, emergencies, car rental, emergency numbers, hospitals and my page categories; for price for various contents.
Commenting on the revolutionary initiative, Telkom Kenya CEO, Mickael Ghossein said:
‘This new service falls in line with our strategy for the next three or four years, where we are looking at being the leader in the areas we are strong and that includes broadband services.”
With the arrival of undersea cable technological boom awaits Kenya.
June 14th, 2009By James Ratemo in Nairobi, Kenya
With the under sea fibre Optic cable officially touching ground and commissioned in Mombasa on Friday, Kenya has been heralded into technological prosperity. » Read more: With the arrival of undersea cable technological boom awaits Kenya.
