BarCamp Kenya: Links, a Video and the Halfway Proposition

Afromusing has a list of “Blogs to Watch” for the Barcamp Kenya event that is happening right now. I’m looking forward to reading some of the blog reviews when they get a chance to update. In the meantime, you can catch a lot of the updates and pictures on the Skunkworks Blog run by the organizers.

Here is a video of Dr. Kamau Gachigi speaking about “Equal Opportunity Manufacturing” at BarCamp Kenya (thanks Riyaz).

Riyaz Bachani presented a paper (originally by Richard Bell, 2002) called the Halfway Proposition that talks about the need for greater connectivity in Africa, and a plan to do it. (Download the PDF) An excerpt:

The Halfway Proposition is a strategy that borrows the experience of Asia and adapts it into a realistic strategy for Africa. The strategy is driven by two underlying philosophies: –

1. The need for Traffic Aggregation. IBSs have no interest in creating National or Regional IP networks in Africa. The size of our individual markets is too small to provide them with any real commercial incentives to do so. Indeed our aim is to strengthen AISPs and build our own infrastructure, not to encourage multinationals to gobble them up. Conversely what would attract IBPs is the ability to establish PoPs at “Key Traffic Aggregation Points” so that they can improve the quality of connectivity between their networks and Africa as a whole.
2. The need to create Digital Arteries. Africa requires massive investment into creating fibre optic digital infrastructure to carry traffic cost effectively;

As suspected, there are some top-notch thinkers at this event, and I’m sure we’ll see a number of actionable results.