{UAH} Does Uganda Really Lack Local Content?
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Does Uganda Really Lack Local Content?
Jul 8 2014 10:22AM
By James Wire Lunghabo
Whenever I sit down to discuss IT issues with my professional peers, one of the things that keeps cropping up is the lack of Local Content. Some people believe that Uganda lacks local content and we need to do something about it.
This urged me to sit back and ask myself what represents local content. Could it be that we seem to use the same word while having different interpretations in mind?
Local Content is loosely defined as the expression and communication of a community's locally generated, owned and adapted knowledge and experience that is relevant to their situation. Going by this definition, Uganda has a lot of local content. Start from our folk stories, songs to cooking recipés and even construction techniques. All that and much more can be classified as local content. The issue then should be, how do we get that local content onto the internet cloud in order to have it shared around openly and in a manner that enriches those that access it?
The discussion needs to change from the lack of Local Content to the lack of Local Digital Content. For starters, I believe the local digital content is growing by the day in Uganda. Through the spread of social media and the low cost internet access data bundles on the Ugandan market, many Ugandans are now using Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter among others to communicate and share information. A closer look at the communication patterns reveals that they tend to patronise groupings that one would deem local. Take the case of Whatsapp users, most have lists that are either composed of family Members, Old Boys & Old Girls, work mates or professional colleagues. On Facebook, most Ugandans tend to be part of groups that have a local theme e.g. Ugandans at Heart, District or tribal groups, Old School groups, Radio & TV Station fan pages among others.
So, why this pattern? Being from a society that has and values closely knit relations, Ugandans are predisposed to value information from within their community and they will always want to know one thing or the other about what is going on either within their locality or network of friends, relatives and Old School mates spread all over the world. The information generated as a result is already Local Digital Content. We may be using services hosted out of our boundaries as a nation but inherently, the content is local. I once was at Jinja Road Police station and was impressed to see Police Officers using Whatsapp to communicate among each other. This is when I learnt that Whatsapp has to an extent replaced the use of the cumbersome Walkie Talkies among these custodians of the law.
As the fibre network spreads all over the country creating a wide network of broadband availability, and the digital access hardware costs drop as well as becoming easier to use, the country shall experience an upward surge in data demand which will drive content generators to produce more. For the purists, this will be a good opportunity to set up locally based services to rival the current Social Media darlings in the form of Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook.
The challenge towards generating Local Digital Content however lies upon every user of online services. Some of the ways we can create it are by;
• Micro Blogging using twitter
• Participating in debates on Facebook
• Posting pictures online
• Writing blogs
• Sharing information like food recipes, child raising tips among others
• Use of Email
• Sharing our study or research papers online using the likes of Scribd
All this and much more can see us register a rapid rise in local digital content availability.
As an eternal optimist, I believe while we still fall short currently, all is not lost. Borrowing from the Broadcasting world, when Fm stations started in Uganda during the 1990's over 90% of the content was foreign. Music played was from European, American and the occasional Zairois music. The major significant local content was to be found in the news casts. However the presence of privately run and easily accessed airwaves led to a rebirth in our music industry with Pastor Sematimba, Shanks Vivi Dee, Menton Summer (R.I.P), Ragga Dee among others beginning to utilise this opportunity to rock the airwaves. Fast forward to the 21st Century and when you tune most of the radio stations, one can hardly play more than three songs without featuring a locally produced song. Infact some stations like Bukedde FM could even be at the 80% mark of local content.
I predict that the digital world we are in today is likely to take a similar trend and before long, we shall be spoilt for choice with Local Digital Content online.
@wirejames
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/343-blogger-does-uganda-really-lack-local-content.aspx
--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.
Jul 8 2014 10:22AM
By James Wire Lunghabo
Whenever I sit down to discuss IT issues with my professional peers, one of the things that keeps cropping up is the lack of Local Content. Some people believe that Uganda lacks local content and we need to do something about it.
This urged me to sit back and ask myself what represents local content. Could it be that we seem to use the same word while having different interpretations in mind?
Local Content is loosely defined as the expression and communication of a community's locally generated, owned and adapted knowledge and experience that is relevant to their situation. Going by this definition, Uganda has a lot of local content. Start from our folk stories, songs to cooking recipés and even construction techniques. All that and much more can be classified as local content. The issue then should be, how do we get that local content onto the internet cloud in order to have it shared around openly and in a manner that enriches those that access it?
The discussion needs to change from the lack of Local Content to the lack of Local Digital Content. For starters, I believe the local digital content is growing by the day in Uganda. Through the spread of social media and the low cost internet access data bundles on the Ugandan market, many Ugandans are now using Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter among others to communicate and share information. A closer look at the communication patterns reveals that they tend to patronise groupings that one would deem local. Take the case of Whatsapp users, most have lists that are either composed of family Members, Old Boys & Old Girls, work mates or professional colleagues. On Facebook, most Ugandans tend to be part of groups that have a local theme e.g. Ugandans at Heart, District or tribal groups, Old School groups, Radio & TV Station fan pages among others.
So, why this pattern? Being from a society that has and values closely knit relations, Ugandans are predisposed to value information from within their community and they will always want to know one thing or the other about what is going on either within their locality or network of friends, relatives and Old School mates spread all over the world. The information generated as a result is already Local Digital Content. We may be using services hosted out of our boundaries as a nation but inherently, the content is local. I once was at Jinja Road Police station and was impressed to see Police Officers using Whatsapp to communicate among each other. This is when I learnt that Whatsapp has to an extent replaced the use of the cumbersome Walkie Talkies among these custodians of the law.
As the fibre network spreads all over the country creating a wide network of broadband availability, and the digital access hardware costs drop as well as becoming easier to use, the country shall experience an upward surge in data demand which will drive content generators to produce more. For the purists, this will be a good opportunity to set up locally based services to rival the current Social Media darlings in the form of Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook.
The challenge towards generating Local Digital Content however lies upon every user of online services. Some of the ways we can create it are by;
• Micro Blogging using twitter
• Participating in debates on Facebook
• Posting pictures online
• Writing blogs
• Sharing information like food recipes, child raising tips among others
• Use of Email
• Sharing our study or research papers online using the likes of Scribd
All this and much more can see us register a rapid rise in local digital content availability.
As an eternal optimist, I believe while we still fall short currently, all is not lost. Borrowing from the Broadcasting world, when Fm stations started in Uganda during the 1990's over 90% of the content was foreign. Music played was from European, American and the occasional Zairois music. The major significant local content was to be found in the news casts. However the presence of privately run and easily accessed airwaves led to a rebirth in our music industry with Pastor Sematimba, Shanks Vivi Dee, Menton Summer (R.I.P), Ragga Dee among others beginning to utilise this opportunity to rock the airwaves. Fast forward to the 21st Century and when you tune most of the radio stations, one can hardly play more than three songs without featuring a locally produced song. Infact some stations like Bukedde FM could even be at the 80% mark of local content.
I predict that the digital world we are in today is likely to take a similar trend and before long, we shall be spoilt for choice with Local Digital Content online.
@wirejames
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/343-blogger-does-uganda-really-lack-local-content.aspx
--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.
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