Macro

AOk. Google chose Nairobi for its African regional base because the Kenyan government embraced the Internet

This excerpt from the TIMES article repasted below explains that Nairobi was seen as attractive for American technology company, Google, to set up a regional office because of government support...Read more

META: What discourses shape the way people in this setting talk about and conceptualize qualitative data infrastructure and capacity, right-to-know, freedom of information, the potential of expanded public participation, and so on?

Perry, A. (2011, June 30). Silicon Savanna: Mobile Phones Transform Africa. Time.

Analytics Across Scales and Systems: Qualitative Data Capacity

What motivates this research? How are economic or other interests are mentioned in research/data/data sharing?

Kenya ICT Authority. 2014. “The Kenya National ICT Masterplan.”

AO: This five year ICT Masterplan was released by the Ministry of Information in 2014.Read more

2019 Kenya National ICT Policy

AO: This is the latest publicly published Kenya National ICT policy which was a revision of the 2016 policy (which followed the first policy published in...Read more

Mwangi, E. (2010). Between imagination and delusion: Cosmopolitan postcolonial critique in Ken Walibora’s Ndoto ya Amerika [The American Dream]. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46(2), 125–137.

AO: This article by Mwangi analyses the late Ken Walibora's "Ndoto ya Amerika", arguing that it promotes “rooted cosmopolitanism” as a framework for literary and political development.Read more

2016 Kenya National ICT Policy

AO: This is the second publicly published national ICT policy which was a review of the 2006 policy. This document has been revised by the 2019 iteration.Read more

Republic of Kenya. 2020. Kenya Gazette Supplement: The Startup Bill. 163.

AO: The Senate on 14 September 2020 proposed the Start-up Bill, ostensibly to help support start-ups. However, the current draft appears to only add to the myriad of complications currently faced by start-ups operating in Kenya.Read more

Ushahidi's principles of "witness, respond, act"

In this post, Ory articulates Ushahidi's founding principles of "Witness, Respond, Act" to argue that the same principles need to be applied to a situation...Read more

MACRO: What laws and economic drivers produce (or undercut) qualitative data infrastructure, access, work and capacity in this setting?

Okolloh, O. (2017, July 11). No Sacred Cows. Medium.

Analytics Across Scales and Systems: Qualitative Data Capacity

2006 Kenya National ICT Policy

AO: This is the first publicly published national ICT policy (although there was one drafted in 1997 that was never followed through). This was published in 2006. It was followed by another iteration in 2016...Read more

Amrute, S. (2020). Bored Techies Being Casually Racist: Race as Algorithm. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 45(5), 903–933.

AO: This paper seems relevant to read in preparation for our macro chapter as it focuses on the racialization of Indian software engineers in the US and Germany. Does Amrute's concept of "race-as-algorithm" hold in the Nairobi context and help to explain the digitcal economy in Nai? What is...Read more

Zachary, G. P. (2008, July 20). Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto? The New York Times.

This article written in July 2008 is particularly interesting to me because of when it was written. It predates the slew of international media coverage on tech development in Nairobi (most of which was written in 2010 - 2012) and the article also touches on some of the cultural orientations...Read more

Strachan Matranga, H., Bhattacharyya, B., & Baird, R. (2017). Breaking the Pattern: Getting Digital Financial Services Entrepreneurs to Scale in India and East Africa. Village Capital.

AO: This 2017 report has been particularly influential in the Kenyan technology space and continues to be cited in conversations regarding race, tech capital and privilege. The key finding that created a big buzz and is primarily what is referred to when people mention "The Village Capital...Read more

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