world view - Al Kags — Strategist, Social Entrepreneur, Writer

June 29, 2014

Marketing Ability: It’s time we repackaged the cause of the disabled

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to hang out with Arizona State Representative, Stephanie Mach, in a session where she talked about herself and her life's work as a State Rep for District 10. She took time off her re-election campaigns to come ...

June 16, 2014

Essential Question: Can Open Government Really Change the World?

I have just started the six-week academic sessions of the Washington Fellowship at the Arizona State University. During this time, I shall spend my time learning and considering many aspects of civic leadership and most of all, I shall be considering an essential question, which is ...

May 16, 2014

Will the Kenyan Jack Bauer get cracking – and keep me out of it?

Today, I was accosted at my gate by some government officials, who said that they were from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development. They explained that while I have usually seen them around the neighbourhood under the auspices the polio campaign, which is ...

December 31, 2013

Why I end 2013 with an endorsement for Google and a demerit for Microsoft

The end of 2013 has come and this is among my very last blogposts of the year 2013. I find that I must end it with an endorsement for Google - specifically Google Apps for Business and an unfortunate demerit for Microsoft's cloud based outlook.com ...

December 5, 2013

Announcing Open2063: A civil Society network

Today, I was excited to be part of the launch of the Open2063 initiative, which is a network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that care about transparency, accountability and citizen participation. The initiative's purpose is to build this network of CSOs to contribute to Africa2063, ...

July 24, 2013

Can we “soup up” the National Anthem?

This article was published this past Sunday in the Daily Nation (Kenya). Last week I attended the admission into the roll of advocates of 72 new lawyers presided over by the Chief Justice of Kenya Dr Willy Mutunga. At the colourful ceremony, I noticed two important things. ...

March 1, 2013

Lessons from KODI: Completing the Job

My friend, Alex Howard from O'Reilly Radar, asked me a question in September last year that I have wrestled with since: "What are the lessons learnt from the Kenya Open Data Initiative experience?" I have wrestled with this question all of this time because I don't take "Lessons Learnt"questions ...

March 1, 2013

‘The Failure of Satire in Campaign-period Kenya’

My friend Stephen Derwent Partington asked me to post this on my blog (Squatting has taken on a new meaning I think - you heard it coined here first: Blog-Squatting) and since he's so smart and I have to increase the intellectual value of this blog, ...

December 2, 2012

Tech2Shags goes live in Malindi!

A few weeks ago, I wondered on this blog why it is that the Kenyan ICT industry, advanced as it is, is based in the city of Nairobi. I suggested an initiative to begin to develop ICT communities in other parts of Kenya – so ...

November 1, 2012

Poor, Poor Silvio!

Contrition Personified. Silvio, looking very sorry for his deeds. Silvio Berlusconi is back in Malindi, after being sentenced to four years in Prison. He is sure to rue the day he was born now...! The Huffington post reports that it is merely a "Healthy retreat" because he is ...

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