FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Monday, July 25, 2011

Kenya's government opens its robes and the State Dept shows up

Ushahidi welcomes Kenya Open Data Initiative
In case you didn't know, Ushahidi (meaning 'testimony' in Swahili) is the company behind all those cool crowd-sourcing maps that pop up on the news whenever the latest crisis occurs (a VERY simplified explanation).   Spend some time on their website and you will get a glimpse of what the future will look like.

Africa: East Africa Cyber Workshop to Address Cyber Security 

July 22, 2011

State Department Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Chris Painter, will be traveling to Kenya for the East Africa Workshop on Cyberspace Security, to be held in Nairobi July 25 to July 27. Coordinator Painter will be leading the U.S. Interagency Delegation and will provide keynote remarks. Kenyan Minister of Communications, Samuel L. Poghisio, and U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, Scott Gration, will also provide keynote remarks.

As the internet, networked systems, and the use of mobile phones expand throughout sub-Saharan Africa, nations are grappling with multiplying cyber threats ranging from transnational crime groups to terrorists. This workshop, a partnership between the U.S. and Kenyan governments, will address broad issues on cyber crime and cyber security while focusing discussions on issues of specific interest to East Africa, such as mobile cellular security and the development of national computer emergency response teams or CERTs.

The conference will be attended by government officials from the five East African Community states: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. U.S. and African private sector and academic experts will also contribute their thoughts and insights to the discussion.
























LINKS:

http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2011/07/12/ushahidi-welcomes-kenya-open-data-initiative/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ushahidi+%28Ushahidi.com%29

http://opendata.go.ke/



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1 comment:

  1. Jonathan MarksJuly 27, 2011 at 3:26 AM

    I hope the conference will look a bit broader than outlined in the press release. I get the impression that the State Department still thinks of the Internet, Mobile and Broadcast as very distinctive and separate platforms. Convergence is bringing them together and there is an increasing trend to store data/media assets in the cloud. Clinton, in her testimony back on March 2nd (http://criticaldistance.blogspot.com/2011/07/are-technoexperts-replacing-broadcast.html) said that China was the biggest competitor to the US in many markets. That would appear to be in the case in East Africa. http://tinyurl.com/3lpgrbu though some other countries appear to be waking up. http://tinyurl.com/3zsqomc

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