John Wesonga Articles

Guest post by: John Wesonga
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Preparing for 2008

I haven't coded or blogged as much as I'd like to over the past few weeks because I've been working on ou strategy for 2008. I never really new hwo difficult or demanding it would be until when I decided to sit down and really assess when,how,why, and what I'm going to do for the next 12 months. The key resounding themes in everything I'm doing are:

Enhanced Google Maps for East Africa

On tuesday I had the rare opportunity courtesy of Chris Kiagiri, Technical Lead at Google Kenya to have a sneak peek at the upcoming enhanced google mpas for east africa and let me say it was truly awesome. The amount of detail in this new version is quite amazing, a quick look at the nairobi map goes as far down as streets, buildings (building name and icon) and even adds information to indicate if the street is one way or two way. The enhanced maps currently cover major cities and towns in East Africa including Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Dar es Salaam.

Facing and addressing the challenges as an SME in Kenya

The recent political and social skirmishes in Kenya have added an extra layer of challenges to the Kenyan business community, the SME sector being one of the worst affected. The reason I say this is unlike big business that have cash reserves that help them weather the storm, the SME sector commonly operates on working capital and day-to-day cash, the reserve that is there is primarily used to pay bills and source for new business.

ICT Peace Initiative

On monday I had the opportunity to be part of a discussion that was convened by ICT leaders, in attendance were 4 key players in the ICT industry. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how the ICt community can use their infrastructure to push out a positive message about Kenya at a time when all the messages being broadcasted are negative.

Google cocktail- interesting and informative

On thursday evening I attended a small cocktail hosted by the head of google kenya, Joe Mucheru, and by extension the google head office. The cocktail proved to be quite interesting and informative, the attendance was diverse with people from different fields, google was represented by several key people including the Technical Lead in the kenyan office who is 100% kenyan although he did work at the googleplex in mountain view, california.

SME Financing

On friday I had an interesting meeting with Mr.James Kachangati of FSDKenya, James is the head of GrowthFin and had been informed about TIDE from one of our partners, which aroused some interest from him. The meeting was to start at noon but I arrived at about half past after getting lost on my way there, nevertheless James was welcomed me and proceeded to brief me on what FSDKenya does.

The importance of networking

This morning at 7.30am the Kenya ICT Board (www.ict.go.ke) held an open forum for the Kenya BPO & Contact Centre Society an umbrella organisation for all things outsourcing. I was to make a short presentation on some of the work we are doing on their portal, but I arrived a few minutes late so I wasn't slotted in, even though I was disappointed having worked on the powerpoint the previous night I opted to stay and hear what was to be said.

3rd TIDE Innovation Series

The 3rd TIDE Innovation Series is slated for the 22nd of November 2007 at the Grand Regency from 5pm-7pm.

Kenya, the land of the pyramids

Over the past few months, there has been an increasing number of pyramid schemes mushrooming all over the country. All promise amazing returns with zero risk, they lure hard working kenyans ( a large number of civil servants) into the setup and after some time they close shop.

Africa needs a technology bubble

According to the WSJ, silicon valley is on the brink of another technology bubble bust like what was witnessed in 1999. According to the article the emergence of "strange" website names such as Orgoo and businesses whose sole purpose is to sell t-shirts bearing the logos of internet companies(check out Startup Schwag) is evidence of a bubble and its eminent bust. I cannot even pretend to understand the dynamics of silicon valley, so I won't even argue with the writer of the article, but I'm left wondering when will Africa expereience it's own technology bubble?

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About the Author: John Wesonga

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Born in Nairobi, Kenya, John Wesonga is a partner and the Technology Director of Multiple Choices, a communications company that builds web 2.0 applications for the Internet and provides strategic advice on Online Brands. His interests include: web development, blogging, mobile technology, Africa, and Kenya. His blog, Afropreneur, is one of the most popular online resources for news regarding business and technology in Africa. He is also currently a student at Strathmore University, where he is pursuing a degree in Business Information Technology.
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