What Will Widespread Broadband Mean To The Average Kenyan ?

1. Math whiz college graduate in Ukwala can tutor a high school kid in Highland Park, Dallas (think Muthaiga, Lavington, Karen – US version) in real time. Parents in this stratosphere will do anything to make their kids excel. Indians are cashing in on this right now.

2. A musician in Nairobi can conduct a studio session with en ex-band member based in Brussels and another ex-band member in Boston, USA and produce a “re-union” album without unnecessary travel or meeting face-to-face.

3. Choice. Kenyans in Kenya want to know what Kenyans in other parts of the world are doing and vice versa. The big media houses better get their houses in order quick by improving the quality of their online editions and doing away with the “Premium Content” crap.

The kenyan blogosphere is a hidden gem just waiting for the big time. Kenyans are spread all over the world. That means you can read about life in Adelaide from a Kenyan just like you or find out what life is really like in Montreal in the middle of winter or even read from a Kenyan struggling through law school and get some insight because you have been thinking of studying law.

If some entrepreneur or a group of bloggers finally figure out how to monetize what most are doing on their own time right now and manage to package the content to make it easily available to the masses that are expected to be online in the coming years, it will be tough to beat.

4. A doctor at Centennial medical center in Frisco, TX downloads X-RAY data to a special website at the end of the day. That night, morning in Kenya, a medical technician in Nairobi logs into the website, analyzes the X-Rays and relays his or her findings back to the website at the end of his day.The results will be ready when the medical team in Texas reports to work in the morning.

5. A video production house in Los Angeles needs hours of footage color-corrected so they download it into a Final Cut Pro (Apple/Mac video editing software) expert’s FTP site in Nairobi.

When the rough-cut is ready, both teams can use collaboration tools like WebEx to iron out the kinks. When the final quality is achieved, the LA team downloads the footage and continues on with their work.

6. The scenario: You live in Ottawa, Canada. You have a project in Kitutu East. You are building your retirement home or summer home or just a nicer house for the old folks. But you have to work and cannot take off for 5 months to do this yet you want to be updated on a constant basis to hopefully get the best value for your money.

You want to make sure kazi inaenelea sawa sawa (all is going well). Well, all you have to do is call “Site Services” (fictitious company, these actually exist here in the US).

“Site Services” will place a camera tower housed in a bomb-proof housing with a 4-ton cement base and a Wireless video transmitter that is transmitting to a fixed router located not far from the building site.

A bunch of other hidden fail-over cameras can also be installed and can take over the monitoring when the main camera fails or is tampered with. You can log in at any time to view the progress of your work through a streaming video website set up by “Site Services”.

7. You are a dentist down at the coast. You have been looking for an auto clave (sterilizer) but the prices you’ve been quoted by local distributors and middle-men have so far been ridiculous.

A friend in Singapore has just sent you an IM with a link to a Pelton & Crane autoclave at a surplus auction in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The auction is closing in 2 days. You register for the auction and keep an eye for it. The current price is less than a tenth of what you can get it for anywhere in Kenya.

There is a chance the auction will end at a decent price and you can finally get your own auto clave. This could be a really good deal. It is critical to be be able to place your bid at the last minute. You stay logged in an hour early before the auction ends and hope for the best. You know people in Oklahoma and Texas, so getting the autoclave paid for, picked up and shipped to you will not be a problem.

8. You publish a successful blog but now you are at a crossroads. You have to begin your undergraduate studies in India in a couple of months. You have been the go-to person for the goings on in your industry in Kenya. Your blog has actually started making you some money.

You know you have to keep it going but you also need to go and get your education. You call “Nairobi Media Services” (fictitious company). They specialize in fact-checking, stock photography, event photography and time-consuming google research among other things.

They can help you get your content fact-checked, provide relevant pictures for your articles, for a small fee. All you have to do is let the ideas roll.

9. You have always wanted to to run a call centre but thought the barrier to entry into this industry was quite high. You hire “Nairobi IP Telecom” to come up with a viable solution.

They tell you that you can route all your calls via a T1 line from your business location for a reasonable monthly fee and can customize an Asterisk phone system that can handle 2,000 calls a day for a reasonable fee as well.You will only be limited by how many people you can hire to take calls.

10. Grandma simply wants to see her grand-daughter so you bring her to a digital village at the Nyandarua town centre. She sits down next to a computer with a web cam attached and a web call is made.

Her grand-daughter answers and immediately, her picture pops up on the screen. Grandma cannot believe it. She asks, “Is this really you”?”Yes”, the grand-daughter replies with joy and anxiety.

“My grand-daughter, now that I am with you, please tell me, when am I going to see my grandchildren?”

“You know my time is running out and that is the only thing I would like to see before I go.

“Unfortunately, no technology in the world can solve that problem.