Developing Local Internet Content Summit

Posted by Staff Writer on Friday, August 7, 2009 at 1:00am.

The East African Region is on the brink of access to plentiful, low-cost broadband. News of the undersea cable-laying progress reaches us on a daily basis. The arrival of this dramatically increased capacity will change the way that East Africans access and use the Internet.

And riding this wave of dramatic expansion in infrastructure, the ICT sector must now address the challenge of locally developed content that is relevant to local interests and needs. Who is going to develop this new content? What will it look like? Who will use it, and how? What opportunities are there to enhance community development and stimulate business? How will entrepreneurs capture the value of the new possibilities?

Ignite Consulting, in conjunction with AITEC East Africa, is pleased to host an exciting event that will help answer some of these questions. The event, a highly participatory “Summit” focusing on local content innovation, will engage participants in dialogue and action planning.

In this Summit, participants will:

* Engage in high-level dialogue with their peers on innovation.
* Explore and understand the web content needs of business and local communities throughout Kenya.
* Discover the common positive themes that drive the need for local content.
* Collaboratively discuss actionable ideas to serve local content needs.
* Design plans for implementation and follow-through.

Thought-leaders, community leaders and entrepreneurs, business leaders, ICT specialists, development partners, social change professionals, youth and rural leaders are invited to participate, contribute and learn from the interactive sessions over two days.