ICTworks by Inveneo

On Wednesday 11th May at the iHub in Nairobi, there is a free workshop to introduce Salesforce Cloud CRM for nonprofits and non-governmental organizations. Salesforce donates its cutting-edge technology to nonprofits and over 10,000 NGOs in 75 countries are using Salesforce (including Inveneo!) to manage their fundraising, donors, volunteers, project management and more.

Salesforce can give you the most usable CRM and cloud development platform available, so that you can focus on your mission, not on your technology. See how "Send a Cow" are using Salesforce in Africa:

Better yet, go to their meeting to see what Cloud Computing can do for you:

Salesforce for Nonprofits workshop
Wednesday 11th May
9.30am - 3:30pm
iHub Nairobi
Upper Hill Estate,
4th Floor, Bishop Magua Centre
George Padmore Lane
Nairobi, Kenya
RSVP today to reserve your place.

Joe Mucheru works for Google in sub-Saharan Africa and posted the The 10 top trends in ICT in New Year in the Daily Nation:

In light of the mushrooming ICT evolution and innovation experienced in Kenya over the past two years, as the New Year rolls on, it is clear that 12 months of great possibility and opportunity lie ahead of us. Instead of trying to make precise predictions about our incredibly dynamic industry, I’ve listed my top 10 trends to watch during this year.

1. Betting on online

Kenya is picking up pace in terms of individuals and businesses moving online. The rate of adoption has increased in the last few years but 2011 is going to see the barriers falling away and many more Kenyans go online. As this consumer shift happens, more businesses will look to retain their previously offline customers and reach this bigger market. Businesses both large and small will turn to search marketing to drive new traffic to their websites, as online advertising becomes the lifeblood of those trying to get ahead.

2. Offline events will drive online search

Advertisers will take advantage of the direct link between offline events and the subsequent surge in online search. People immediately search the internet for news, insights and videos relating to major offline events.

From sports to politics and natural disasters, offline events provide savvy and fast-acting advertisers a chance to make the most out of rising online search on each event. The reverse is also true: If customers can’t find you online to make an evaluation then you’re missing a substantial portion of the market straight away.

3. Data beats opinion

Every day, hundreds of millions of people search on Google - we are able to see trends emerge in real time. Access to search trend data is available to everyone. This year we expect to see an increase in the use of search trend data in structuring online marketing campaigns.

This new level of insight will empower advertisers to move away from relative guesswork and work from an informed point of reference. Marketing and brand managers are also able to make comparisons with their competitors using Google Insights for Search

4. Websites get better and better

More web users are starting to make use of the readily available free and easy-to-use tools to improve the usability and functionality of their websites. You can use advanced tools to turn your website into a more effective sales tool by understanding how visitors use it.

For example, Google Analytics allows you to track user browsing behaviour on your site (which pages they visit, what point they leave the site, how much time they spend) and Google Website Optimizer can suggest ways to improve the layout and format of your website to make it more user friendly.

5. Video will take centre stage

Online video viewing is becoming increasingly popular. Last year more than 13 million hours of video (approximately 1,500 years) were uploaded to YouTube globally.

In Kenya, Makmende, a fictional Kenyan superhero character has enjoyed a popular resurgence after an adaptation by Kenya’s musical group Jus- A-Band in the music video for their song Ha-He.

The video became the first viral internet sensation originating from Kenya. While online video’s growth last year was astronomical, 2011 will see not only a continued growth, but an explosion in innovative uses of video within marketing campaigns.

6.  Going mobile, going big

More than 80 per cent of Google’s mobile search queries come from outside the US with Kenya showing a dramatic growth in mobile search traffic. More people do business on their mobile phones than on their laptops because mobile search gives users instant, contextually relevant access to information anytime, anywhere.

Kenya’s mobile penetration massively exceeds the broadband penetration, and even with the expected rise in broadband access in 2011, it isn’t going to catch mobile just yet. So, it is important for Kenya’s advertisers to think mobile.

7. Telemedicine

Increased mobile penetration means better access to cutting-edge health technology, potentially improving the health and welfare of people across Africa and further afield. For example, in November last year, Google worked with Internews, Health Map and FrontlineSMS: Medic to develop an 18-month pilot project in Nairobi’s Korogocho area to provide timely health information to and from the community in an effort to address current health issues and improve public health.

The project will ultimately ensure that citizens are informed faster about disease outbreaks and emerging health trends, becoming empowered with information to take preventative and curative action. The project will capitalize on the rapid growth of the use of mobile communication technologies and social media in responding to public health needs. We expect to see more of these innovations in 2011.

8.  The internet is social

The social media landscape will continue to evolve at a break-neck pace and many companies will launch marketing campaigns within the social media space to take advantage of the massive power of social networks.

From the video of an aspiring rock band on YouTube, to on-the-ground footage of the turmoil in Kenya; from one person’s political Twitter stream, to a sophisticated multi-party political blog portal, the internet is providing greater transparency into what is happening in the world, and in the process widening our perspective.

9.  Cloud computing is in your future

Cloud computing moves all of our computer-based activities - searching, emailing, watching videos, creating documents, and more - to a virtual space referred to as ‘the cloud’.

By keeping and accessing the information that’s important to us online, or in the cloud, we’re bringing an unprecedented level of flexibility and accessibility to our lives. Infrastructure investments will increase the availability of access; thereby driving mobile web adoption, new cloud computing services, and in turn, demands for media and advertising.

10. High-tech cross-cultural communication

Developments in translation, voice search and text-to-speech technology will empower people to more easily communicate across languages; thereby breaking down cultural barriers and increasing cross-continental trade. 

Recently, Google hosted G-Uganda developer days in Kampala to great success. Just listen to the outcomes:

The hundreds of assembled Ugandan developers showed remarkable enthusiasm. In three hours after being challenged to write creative code in Python to run on Google App Engine, the finalists at our G-Uganda hackathon stood center stage, demonstrating their creations. Many of the ideas used not just App Engine, but also integrated with Google Maps, Translate and Calendar.

Daniel Okalang did a demo of a guest book, with authentication and a privacy filter; Samuel Mugisha created a guest book with public and private messages and Joseph Kaizzi transformed the guest book concept into a full-fledged phone book, allowing users to email or phone contacts. Marc Charles Wanume and Eric Lwanga implemented a bilingual version of the guestbook, supporting English and Swahili interfaces.

The audience selected two winners among nine finalists: an app that searches recent Twitter posts, per-user or anonymously; and a new microblog app where you can delete your posts. The winners received a new Android-powered Nexus One phone – and hopefully, the encouragement to develop many more exciting apps.

Thank you Google for recognizing that there are talented software programmers in Uganda.

Recently the East African undersea cables SEACOM and TEAMS experienced a major Internet outage when the cable they connect to, the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable, was damaged on the Mediterranean sea bed.

As Moses Kemibaro explains, the outage was a shock to those now used to speedy Internet access and he calls for cloud computing redundancy:

The outage required Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telcos to re-route their bandwidth via expensive satellite connections so as to maintain some semblance of connectivity – this tended from very bad to quite slow depending on your choice of service provider. It is for this very reason why we urgently need to have local clouds that function even when international bandwidth and cloud are not available. This way, essential cloud-based services will continue to function locally.

I'd like to take his idea one step father - we need offline cloud computing redundancy, not just local-to-Kenya redundancy. While I can appreciate that Nairobi Internet users would want to still reach servers in Westlands if SEACOm or TEAMS were down, those in Kisumu or Eldoret want their cloud services if the link to Nairobi goes down. And as well Kakamega or Siaya if their links to larger cities go down.

So this means re-thinking cloud computing from a central server farm in the USA or even in Nairobi, to many smaller server gardens in many local locations. Redundancy that can ensure connectivity to your apps, no matter which link goes down. A redundancy kinda like the Internet itself.

That's why I say that with cloud computing, all weather is local.

Like this? Then friend us on Facebook

This Saturday, March 27th, the Nairobi Google Tools User Group is meeting at Nairobi Institute of Technology from 10:30am – 1:00pm.

The Nairobi GTUG holds regular meetings to keep you updated on Google technologies and how potential they can be for your Internet enabled application or even enterprise.

During the meetups, GTUG members share resources, skills & knowledge about Google technology & services, spreading dirty little tricks about Google's technologies, or simply chat with each other talking about all of Google's tools.

To stay updated, please join the mailing list at: http://groups.google.com/group/nairobigtug/

.