ICTworks by Inveneo

Computer lab deployment at Luteete Secondary School in Wobulenzi, Uganda

Being the first to do anything is tough. It is filled with challenges and unknowns. Thankfully, you don't have to be the first to deploy ICT in East Africa. In fact, you'll follow in a long line of others who have tried - some with failure others with success.

I'd like to help you be the latter group. So here are a few hard lessons-learned from deploying new technology for youth in East Africa. It is written in hopes that you will find it useful when planning your first deployment of development-focused technologies.

1. Never expect people to do what they say they will.

• Test the technology yourself in the conditions it will be deployed. Do not operate under the assumption that the company that produced it has done so already. If you are going to put your name, or the name of your organization, behind a new technology, do some checks and tests yourself over an extended period before committing.
• Make a detailed written agreement with all stakeholders about who is expected to do what and provide what. Include clauses for negative eventualities, such as recourse when one or both parties fail to meet commitments, or the procedures for dissolution of the partnership. It is best that this is in a written, legally binding form.
• Make sure the company selling the hardware and software have fulfilled or made arrangements to fulfill its commitments before the project is deployed. Here are some guiding questions:
1. Has the company selling the hardware fulfilling the promises they made in marketing?
2. Am I getting a new, untested technology?
3. Have all of the proper licenses needed to run whatever software is on the system been bought?
4. Am I getting new parts in this technology, or is some of it recycled when it should not have been, and therefore may cause erosion issues sooner than expected?
5. Does the final package have all of the parts advertised?

2. Keep everyone on the same page.

• Make sure your implementers fully understand what they are getting into. If it is a pilot, tell them it is a pilot. If it is expected to be fully operational (i.e., not a pilot), tell them what you expect. If you're not sure, it is up to your discretion to tell or not to tell your people on the ground, but, as your grandmother may have told you, honesty is the best policy.
• Communicate what is going on in the head office to your people on the ground. It creates a feeling of control even if there is no real transfer of power.

3. Make sure your hands are never tied.

• Part and parcel to never expecting people will do what they say they will do, expect that you are going to have to negotiate and make compromises with various stakeholders. Make sure that you have ground on the negotiations when/if they do occur.
• Retain your bargaining power by building mechanisms that allow you to have equal footing into your written agreements. Pay special attention to the following stakeholders:
  1. The technology providers
  2. Your implementers on the ground
  3. Technical support

4. Build in accountability tools

• If you are working with private contractors, make sure that they know their requirements up front, and that you have that you have recourse when they do not fulfill their requirements.
• If you want regular reporting from anyone involved, make sure there is some sort of punishment for failing to report.

5. Get regular reporting

• Especially during a pilot, reporting is key. Knowledge of what is going wrong and right on the ground can be used to improve future deployments.
• Regular reporting may include a lot of expenditure on your part, but if you really want to know what's going on, you may have to spend the money to call your people on the ground.

Building on last month's amazing Skype Chat on Nigerian Internet Business Opportunities we're now going to look beyond any one country, and investigate business opportunity in East and West Africa:

1. How might Internet business opportunity and entrepreneurship be different in East Africa versus West Africa?
2. What could each region learn from the other?
3. And what can we do now to improve cross-Africa collaboration?

These are the questions we'll discuss in the next ICTworks Twitter Chat - a freewheeling conversation around our central questions on the Twitter platform.

We'll start at 14:00 GMT (your timezone) on April 22nd with introductions, then move into the discussion, using the #ICT4D hashtag in Twitter. Be sure to RSVP here.

You may want to use TweetChat as your Twitter client for this chat - we've found it to be worthy.

Our hope is to learn from each other and find ways we can increase Internet business opportunity and entrepreneurship across Africa.

Be sure to follow ICTworks on Twitter and RSVP today!

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Last month, we had an amazing Skype Chat on Nigerian Internet Business Opportunities - over 40 entrepreneurs and netcitizens joined in a lively debate on new business models and enabling factors to bring Nigeria to the forefront of online business innovation.

But what about East Africa? Kenya surely has the same level of Internet-based buzz as Nigeria. And Uganda isn't far behind. So this brings forth a few questions we should examine:

1. How might Internet business opportunity and entrepreneurship be different in East Africa versus West Africa?
2. What could each region learn from the other?
3. And what can we do now to improve cross-Africa collaboration?

These are the questions we'll discuss in the next ICTworks Twitter Chat - a freewheeling conversation around our central questions on the Twitter platform.

We'll start at 14:00 GMT (your timezone) on April 22nd with introductions, then move into the discussion, using the #ICT4D hashtag in Twitter. Be sure to RSVP here.

• Handy Re-Tweet
  :Internet Business: East + West Africa -
  #ICT4D Tweet Chat 4/22 @ 14:00GMT -
  RSVP: http://bit.ly/april-chat

Our hope is to learn from each other and find ways we can increase Internet business opportunity and entrepreneurship across Africa.

Be sure to follow ICTworks on Twitter and RSVP today!

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"The East African blogosphere has thousands of active bloggers who cover almost every conceivable topic within a local content context. "

This is the declaration by Moses Kemibaro in his East African Standard article, We have the demand for local content, why not upload it? I think I have to disagree.

There may be thousands of bloggers, but most are writing about personal events only interesting to them, or sports events that excite football followers. I don't see our hear that many East Africans writing about the intersection of ICT and business.

Where are the voices on technology? The commentary on its business impact? Who is an expert in ICT4D? These are the bloggers I am looking for and I've only found a few in East Africa.

1. Appfrica
2. White African
3. Wanjiku's Take
4. Kenya Entrepreneur
5. Moses Kemibaro

Now according to Moses, there must be more bloggers than this in East Africa - I sure hope so as well. Who are they?

East Africa’s enterprises and innovators have a unique opportunity on their doorsteps to learn new techniques in web content development at the East African Local Content Innovation Summit to be held in Nairobi over 7-8 August.

The Summit is being hosted by Ignite Consulting and AITEC Africa in response to the urgent need for development of locally relevant content that is responsive to the interests and needs within the region about to link to the world via undersea fibre cables that will deliver much faster and cheaper Internet connections.

http://www.aitecafrica.com/news/view/86