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[November 20, 2009]

New Initiative Seeks to Widen Internet Usage by Kenyans

Nairobi, Nov 20, 2009 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Kenya is among the first beneficiaries of a project to increase internet usage courtesy of the World Wide Web investor Sir Tim Berners Lee.

The World Wide Web Foundation launched in Nairobi on Thursday will help to bridge the 'digital divide' in internet use through training opportunities for locals and technology transfer.

Web contentOnly about 25 per cent of the world population uses the web today. However, over 70 per cent of the people have access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying web content.

Already, the foundation is helping create real change and some Kenyan youth have been given global positioning software handsets to map the Kibera Slum, in Nairobi.

According to Sir Berners-Lee, the gap in internet usage is partly attributable to the lack of accessible or relatable content and the lack of training on how to use the web to its full potential.

During his four day visit to Kenya, Sir Berners-Lee is meeting with government leaders, development workers and educators to help support local web initiatives such as improving health and education.

This comes at a time when, Kenya is set to host the 37th Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) conference in March next year.

The local internet industry plans to start writing the web using local languages. Over the last five years, ICANN has come under sustained pressure to move away from the use of web addresses written only in the Roman alphabet so that users around the world can write them in their own languages and scripts.

"Kenya will have a chance to market its ICT industry as a viable Business Processing Outsourcing centre. Most of all, Kenya will be marketed as a key tourism destination in Africa," said Dr Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary Ministry of Information and Communication during a media briefing in Nairobi on Thursday.

Nairobi won the bid to host the meeting last year but the post-election violence forced ICANN to change the venue to Cairo, Egypt. Kenya had campaigned for two years to host the parley.

ICANN holds three meetings annually in different parts of the world. They are an essential part of its global consensus-building and outreach efforts.

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