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What An African Woman Thinks

• November 16, 2008
• When the Cable Comes...

  Posted: November 16th, 2008, 9:50am CST

  1.2 Terrabytes are coming to Kenya, riding on a much-anticipated fibre optic highway.
  
  The infrastructure is coming, what do we do when the infrastructure comes?
  
  So, I and circa 300 Kenyans attended Tandaa ’08, the Kenya Content Conference, which, according to Paul Kukubo of the ICT board, was about getting the conversation on content going.
  There were some interesting speakers on the programme.
  
  Ken Njoroge of Cellulant is a particular favourite of mine. As usual, he threw a spanner in the works first by not having an elaborate powerpoint presentation prepared as did most of the other speakers, and second, by wondering what we’re on about, waiting for the Cable(s) to come when the mobile phone is the new revolutionary platform and it is here with us. (somebody ring a bell, already.)
  
  Paul Kukubo gave what I thought was a good pep talk as well and it was interesting to hear Ian Fernandes speak about the Nation Media Group’s new media strategy, although I don’t think the new, recently revamped site in any way communicates that they understand how news delivered online differs from news in print.
  
  Anyhoo. Maybe they’re going to get there.
  
  Someday.
  
  In the not so distant future.
  
  Interesting remark Ian made, by the way, about how the Daily Nation editors use their online pages to test which stories are resonating with their readers and consequently to decide which ones to give pride of place on their pages the next day. Or something like it.
  
  Oh, and an honourable mention to Aly Khan Satchu. He scratched where my itch was, that one.
  
  But what about the bloggers, where were the bloggers? Multiple speakers acknowledged the important role Kenyan bloggers now play in generating and distributing Kenyan content. One of them,(I think it was Ian Fernandes) even suggested that Kenyan bloggers have become as important as mainstream media in projecting Kenya's image to the world. This was never more true than during the Post Election Violence at the beginning of the year.
  
  I would have thought, then, that the organisers of Tandaa '08 would have invited someone like Bankelele who I think has been one of the most successful Kenyan bloggers in terms of identifying a niche and narrowcasting relevant and compelling content to speak about his experience.
  
  No?
  
  There were some umm.. let's call them... hiccups. Inadequate power cabling for starters, which created challenges for the laptop-carrying brigade of maybe-perhaps-couldbe bloggers, all ready to cover the conference in realtime. Also, the wireless internet connection was on again off again and decidedly dodgy all day.
  
  But hey. We. Made. Do. (As Kenyans often have to. )
  
  Update: I hear that, after I’d left, Kenyan Poet who was slated for a performance gave a blogging-related talk. Sounds to me rather like last minute improvisation. My sentiments as expressed above remain.It's my window, but I don't own the view.