Since I last blogged.. Great to be back

Its nice to be writing again. It is a relaxed Sunday. I would say that since my last blog update a year ago, so much has happened. North Africa and the Middle East have been through massive change. Europe’s debt crisis is now a much bigger subject of discussion than the US deficit. Social networks have become completely socially and politically mainstream. The major roadworks around Nairobi, especially Thika Road have greatly progressed. Steve Jobs has died. Amy Winehouse has died. Wangari Mathaai had died. Nick Ashford (Ashford and Simpson) has died. India is just today hosting its first Grand Prix Formula 1 (congrats India).

On the personal front, I have now completed my MBA (the graduate executive MBA, GEMBA from USIU in conjunction with Columbia Business School).

Forbes Africa in its first edition had an article titled “the Tandaa Generation” where they quoted extensively from this blog. Asante sana.

After that period of time, I come out more convinced that nurturing, supporting the younger folk who want to start or have started companies is the best way to create real value in ICT.

One of my most significant moments this year was meeting up with Reid Hoffman co-founder of Linked In and partner at Greylock Partners a respected silicon valley venture capital firm. I met him in early October at a forum on digital diplomacy in Paris. His advise to the 20 odd participants at the forum, (who like everyone in tech around the world would always be interested in the success of the Silicon Valley) was its about people in informal communities creating ideas in an environment where you can. He also talked about the three things that can get VCs excited. Networks, Platforms and marketplaces.

On Friday I officiated at the graduation ceremony for Pasha digital centre Managers. Just before they graduated they had to present business plans. The presentations took place in groups. I was made aware that they had worked very hard the night before. I was amazed at the quality of the presentations. There were 30 odd participants from all over Kenya who were at the training as the initial recipients of the Kenya ICT Board facilitated loan scheme through family bank. My take was that training and capacity building are important ways of the government creating jobs. especially in a country where there are many unmet needs and a shortage of certain skills to bridge that need. Ideas ranged from how to administer pensions via pasha centres in rural areas to how to start community banking projects, how to train people in creative arts and multimedia in rural communities. Ideas came from the participants themselves based on their local needs. Thank you to CISCO East Africa and Appleseeds for the training course.

During the recent Dimension Data ITEX on Thursday last week, I spoke to the participants about the need for large corporates to start developing entreprise grade solutions for SMEs. Supply chain systems that could be used by retailers in rural areas. Systems to help a posho miller expand and own ten posho mills for example. My view is that the organizations that gets into this space properly in Kenya will benefit commercially.

Lastly, I congratulate Safaricom and partners (Seven Seas, EMC, CISCO) on the launch of the Safaricom Cloud. An example of bringing large scale technology for application to common businesses. In coming days there will be alot of discussion around the cloud and everyone is encouraged to dig in to understand it.

Now off to watch some weekend TV. I am hoping India F1 is not over yet.