His latest piece is an example of this.  Reading Clay’s article on the surface it seems well thought out and clear, but once one tries to understand what twitter actually is, his article loses meaning.

First one should bear in mind that twitter is not a newspaper/magazine nor is it radio station or television, it differes from these media in the way it is used.  Once someone signs up and decides that his/her timeline will consist of updates of his bowel movements they are free and in fact encouraged are by twitter to do so, seeing as the question is ‘What’s happening’?.  The fact that this might turn away any prospective followers is a choice he/she has to live with.  Following any user is a deliberate act actualized by you clicking the follow button, it is not forced.  Twitter does not and will never have caveats on what someone can tweet, save for legal remedial measures that any offended party may seek.  Something to note here is that using twitter to defame is not without punishment as courts in the UK and US have shown us.

I, myself have bored people who follow me with drunken tweets, offended them with derogatory statements and galled them with inanities and this has been rewarded with being unfollowed.  In many situations I have been schooled leading to retractions. Clay himself did this once.

What is I find interesting about the article is that Clay attempts to educate, through chastizing, twitter users of habits that he himself indulges in.  The whole issue of herd mentality which he talks about as he attempts to reply to tweets consequent to his article falls on its face due to the fact that he goes about re-tweeting others who are in agreement with his article, attempting to coalesce with these, but wants the subjects of his ridicule to suffer singly.  I write this not as a group but as an individual who has been using twitter for a while now, and mostly without any incidences of abuse or online fights.

Twitter can sometimes be bile inducing what with Trending Topics that dont make sense, hashtags that irritate and serial re-tweeters but such is the medium, you have to accept it warts and all.  The most important thing on twitter, I think, is that YOU the user are the filter, the unfollow button is your friend, use it!  Create lists and place your followers in them according to the importance of their tweets to you and your irritability levels will go down.

This is not not to say that Clay’s article is totally incorrect, he does raise important points about the Brand Kenya Board and many goings on wrong in our society.  Points that we would be follish to ignore.  Another issue the article and the subsequent debate raises though not directly is online bullying which though not exclusive to, is slowly rearing its ugly head on the Kenyan twitter-sphere.  He is absolutely correct in many matters in the article but with his assessment of twitter use in Kenya, I fear he is grossly misinformed.

I'm certainly not the first to delve into the subject of #KenyaFeb28. The lovely 3CB, who's also a writer on DR, touched on the subject on her blog. Another blogger Kachwanya eulogized the event weeks before its perceived death. Let me also clarify that though I am in support of #KenyaFeb28, I do not speak on behalf of the organizers. I just happen to a be a blogger and tweep (@Nittzsah) who doesn't mind singing the National Anthem, for the whole … Read More

via Diasporadical

To encourage the growth of impact investing in the ICT sector in East Africa and thus improve ICT services to the poor while also contributing to the growth of the financial market…

The taskforce with Richard Bell as the chairman undertook a three-phased research and will be launching their report on Thursday 24th February at the Nairobi Serena.

The taskforce’s major objecitves were:

• Identify the impediments to socially impactful technology investments in the region.
• Identify possible technology investments that could be attractive to Impact Investors
• Develop tangible recommendations on steps that could be taken to overcome the existing obstacles to successful impact investing and venture capital in the East African ICT sector.

The most important output of this report is the fact that actual and relevant data available to groups and individuals interested in investing in the ICT sector in the EA region.

Another issue I am most interested in is the recommendations from the taskforces on tax and legal requirements obtaining in the EA region. One thing to note is that in so much as the EA governements have tried to streamline tax and legal obligations to investment, they still are dissimilar, thus exposing investors to bottlenecks.

From the extensive expertise of the taskforce members, we expect a thorough and detailed report, I’ll be writing more on this once I after the launch..

Tech Industry Stuff:

• Will South Africa’s unbanked embrace M-PESA via memeburn
• Google Arrogance via TechCrunch

Some Politic:

• The Camerons thinking the unthinkable via Bagehot
• Pilot Paul Kagame via Texas in Africa

Creative:

• WonderBra goes 3D via Cherryflava

Other:

• Mark Zuckerberg opens up via New Yorker

Hope you enjoy.  Cheers.

I’ll also try an do website and blog reviews basically what I used to do at KenyaImagine.

First off a couple of links for today:

• Cellphones Registration and Con Week (from Diasporadical, the chaps over there never disappoint whenever I get onto the blog)
• New Chevrolet and Audi TT (From iMod – A Cape Town Blog by Chris M)
• Safaricom and Equity being sued for M-Kesho (from Nation)

Cheers.

Dear Victorious,

Vipi Boss, this me, you but from the future, it aint that confusing is it?  I have couple of things and I think you’ll be alright from now if you follow even two of them.

One, the fact that you are the tallest dude in class, does not mean that you are the strongest, know this and it’ll save you from the thrashing that is just about to come your way.  Eric the guy with the big ears, avoid him like plague he is itching to slap you…..

I know by now she has told you that she does not feel you, get over it mopping around wont change anything kwanza you’ll look like a fool and act like one.  I mean those flowers you plan to buy will be put on display for everyone to laugh at and the letter you plan to write will be chambuliwad by all the chicks in her class, its going to be a rough couple of weeks for you so chin up.  This is when you’ll decide to start writing poetry, a misadventure you should abandon as soon as possible, love poetry aint your thing.

When mum and dad tell you stuff, listen to them very carefully, they’ve got your back no matter what, you’ll find this out very soon.

Now this business of you wanting to be a lawyer forget about it, it’s overated and you and maths were never meant to be friends so the fact that you got a 48 in that last paper should  not worry you that much, what you’ll be doing later on wont involve the two.  That computer should be your friend, love it and yeah also embrace the fact that you are a news guy, watch the 1 o’clock, the 7 o’clock and the 9 o’clock, read newspapers, magazine, books and all of that, you’ll congratulate yourself later.  Another thing, next year’s KCPE, you will fail so look forward to high school it’ll be better.

You are going into high school after that and rugby is going be your life, it’ll come with many benefits so don’t even think of joining the choir, that girl you are following will be shouting your name during your first match.

Lastly keep away from cigarettes and alcohol, I know you think you look cool smoking that one you stole from Dad’s room, you dont!!  You’ll regret this!  Heed this last one and you are exempt from the others

I’ll make sure to do another letter when you are 18 and going to Uni..

Salut,

Victor from 2010

On this note I tag, Nziokxs, Muniu and Muendo my partners in crime..

So Firefox gets opened and before you know it you have like 24 tabs open and the other docs hovering on your taskbar, not to worry. You lie to yourself that you are reading cerebral intellectual stuff but the tabs that hogs your attention is the one with details of Lindsay Lohan and her new girlie and you wishing that they could maybe give you a call, you discuss a few matter of mutual importance . The NatGeo Page is languishing with no attention at all.

Nothing’s going well from the time not moving to you feeling hungry though you just had chapati mbili na ndegu. You brain is totally blank like a new foolscap. You are trying to look busy, kumbe you are dreaming of solitaire, thinking of spicing it up by playing spider solitaire that how rough it is.

You decide to go offline despite the fact that you are supposed to be working online in the first place, work on the documents before the boss figures out you are doing nothing.

I came back to Kenya after like 2 weeks in TZ, sadly thing did not work out there. Sustainable Harvest is a great company doing great stuff but sadly we did not agree on some matters. In other news I joined Pamoja Media as Account Manager, where I handle client accounts and company projects among other stuff, so I doing good right now. I am also working with The World Bank Institute on a new exciting that’ll be launched soon so expect more updates on this and more in the coming weeks.

Cheers.