At the Crossroads

‘In early discussions with prospective publishers for this book, the talks often veered to the unpopularity and the narrowness of the subject matter. The representatives of the publishers were understandably looking way ahead, to the sales figures of the book and generally came to the same conclusion, that a book on policy making, and ICT policy making in particular, would certainly not become a best seller. They had a point.’ These are the opening words of At the Crossroads: ICT policy making in East Africa, and the prospective publishers did have good reason for reservations in providing over 300 pages on the IDRC Kenya ICT policy mainstreaming project. It is one that both IDRC-employed editors are compelled to deal with however, since one of the objectives of the project was to document and share the experience of working with the Government of Kenya and other stakeholders in developing the country's ICT policy. Kenya takes up some thirteen chapters, with only three chapters from the other East African countries of Uganda and Tanzania (two and one, respectively). The book may have more accurately been titled ICT Policy Making in Kenya, but the publishers probably realized that this would have restricted their potential readership even more.

Government (linguistics) · Information and Communications Technology · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tanzania · ICT Impact and Policies · Law