CONCEPT NOTE GROWING THE RWANDAN INTERNET CONTENT HOSTED IN RWANDA (1K WEBSITES) RICTA & PARTNERS. A Project/Initiative by

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1 CONCEPT NOTE GROWING THE RWANDAN INTERNET CONTENT HOSTED IN RWANDA (1K WEBSITES) A Project/Initiative by & PARTNERS Page 1 / 7

2 AUTHOR (S) REVISION DATE VERSION Ltd. January 8, 2015 Draft.0 Ltd. January 23, 2015 Version.0.1 Page 2 / 7

3 TABLE OF CONTENT Concept Note TABLE OF CONTENT 3 BACKGROUND 4 INTRODUCTION 4 PURPOSE NEED RATIONALE 4 PROJECT DESCRIPTION 5 PROJECT GOAL (S) AND OBJECTIVES 5 PROJECT ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY & TIMING 6 THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS 7 RESULTS & ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES & BENEFITS 7 PROJECT MANAGEMENT & MONITORING AND EVALUATION 7 SUPPORT & BUDGET 7 CONTACT PERSON 7 Page 3 / 7

4 BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION The Rwanda Information and Communication technology association is a not-for profit organization with a vision to enable the local Internet. mission is to promote and manage key Internet resources optimally to benefit the community. runs and manages the RW country code top-level domain name registry and the Rwanda Internet Exchange (RINEX): both projects are managed within a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) framework that was officially established and signed between the Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Authority ( RURA ) and. During the last quarter of 2014, the Internet Society ( ISOC ), from a request initiated by the Rwanda Ministry of Youth and ICT, conducted a study/research on the promotion of local content hosting visà-vis the development of the Internet ecosystem. A copy of the final report (as published) is contained in the annexure (Annex #1 Promoting Local Content Hosting to develop the Internet Ecosystem by Internet Society) The study clearly shows that most of the Rwandan websites (i.e. websites owned by Rwandans) are hosted outside of the country, mainly on servers in USA and Europe, because it is affordable: this is due to the fact that USA and Europe are advanced markets where competition has driven down the cost of hosting. The outcome of the study strongly suggests that, even though hosting in USA and Europe is affordable for the hosting provider (and ultimately for the end-user: the website owner), it is expensive to the viewers to access that content outside of the country, yet it is local content. Further findings and insights can be found in the attached report from Internet Society. The Internet Society reports suggests numerous recommendations, among which, the development of local hosting infrastructure, which this concept note focuses on. On another hand, the conclusions and recommendations of the Rwanda Internet Governance Forum (Rw-IGF) 2014 edition clearly highlighted the importance of local Internet content development. It was during the concluding remarks of the Rw-IGF meeting that it was proposed that spearhead a pilot project aiming at developing local hosting infrastructure. A report of the Rwanda Internet Governance Forum is available at this following URL: Internet-57 PURPOSE NEED RATIONALE The 1K WEBSITES project aims at promoting Local Content Hosting in Rwanda. As the name of the project suggests, the target number of websites is one (1) thousand. This includes the Rwandan websites with a.com or/and.rw domain name extensions. The overall goal of the project is to host the Rwandan websites in Rwanda, which will subsequently, in the future, reduce the direct costs associated with bandwidth costs paid by Telecom operators and Internet service providers to access that local content hosted outside of Rwanda. Once the Telecom operators and Internet service providers realize that cost cut/saving, it is believed that the overall user experience will be improved, which will lead increased consumption of local content from the end-users, which will increase sales volumes for the Telecom operators and Internet service providers. shall measure the impact of this project on the national Internet ecosystem, and subsequently publish the findings. The key indicators to measure shall include (but not limited to): the number of websites relocated to Rwanda, the number of new websites, which have joined the project, and the estimated international traffic volume saved (for Telecom operators and Internet service providers). Additionally, should measure if any of the hosted websites have upgraded from an informational to a transactional status (i.e. a transactional status is defined as a status whereby a website is processing customer requests (financial and/or non-financial) as a result of it being hosted locally in Rwanda. Page 4 / 7

5 PROJECT DESCRIPTION The 1K WEBSITES consists, and shall involve, the following key stakeholders: 1., as the project manager (and in charge of the coordination of the entire project); 2. Telecom operators and Internet service providers (sponsors and/or beneficiaries); 3. The top 5 web hosting service providers (to be selected by through a selection process); 4. The websites owners (beneficiaries) 5. The end-users (beneficiaries) responsibilities should consist of the following activities and tasks: 1. Coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the entire project; 2. Raising the financial and non-financial resources required to run the project; 3. Measurement & study of impacts; 4. Publication of findings; 5. Awareness and advertisements. PROJECT GOAL (S) AND OBJECTIVES The ultimate goal of this project is develop the local hosting infrastructure while relocating Rwandan Internet content back to Rwanda: near the majority of its local viewers. Here below is a diagram describing the goals and objectives: GOAL To promote local content hosting in Rwanda OBJECTIVES To host one (1) thousand Rwandan websites. The target websites should be those that attract heavy traffic, the most visited and popular ones. GOAL (FUTURE) To develop the business of content hosting in Rwanda. Page 5 / 7

6 X X X X JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Concept Note PROJECT ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY & TIMING This project consists of several activities. Here below is a brief summary table of the key activities be executed with corresponding timing: ACTIVITIES PROPOSED TIMING (Completion) RESPONSIBLE ENTITY/PERSON Elaboration of project documents Consultation meeting (Awareness + Project kick-off meeting + call for sponsorship) Call for proposals to data center service providers to host the system platform Call for application from hosting service providers for the 1K WEBSITES project Evaluation of proposals + selection of the Infrastructure service providers + signing of the MoU/Contract Selection of the top 5 hosting service providers + Signing of MoU/Contract Monitoring and Evaluation Project Y2015-Review All stakeholders /Infrastructure service provider/top 5 hosting service providers & Partners (sponsoring organizations/institutions) NB: shall NOT operate the infrastructure platform by itself: the management of the infrastructure shall be outsourced to the infrastructure service provider (the Datacenter service provider). shall retain its oversight and overall coordination roles. Page 6 / 7

7 THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS The following are the technical aspects of the project. Most of the dimensioning was drawn from the study conducted by Internet Society in their recent research. 1. shall select the top five (5) web hosting service providers. Each web hosting service provider has a target of hosting at least 200 websites (hence the name of the project); 2. Each web hosting service provider is to be allocated at least 200 GB of storage space, 4GB of RAM and 2 CPU; 3. The hosting platform will be virtual machines (VM), and should allow image level + file system + database level backup. 4. shall oversee the management of the infrastructure though the day-to-day management shall be outsourced to a datacentre service provider. RESULTS & ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES & BENEFITS The 1K WEBSITES project is anticipated to draw the following outcomes and benefits: 1. Better end-user experience (with fast content loading on any platforms: phones/tablets/pc) 2. Reduced direct costs associated with accessing Rwandan local content outside of the country. This shall ensure an efficient utilization of international Internet links by all the local Internet service providers 3. Increased revenues for Telecom operators and Internet service providers: It is anticipated that this initiative shall increase traffic volumes hence the increase in revenues for the service providers. 4. The improvement of end-user experience shall fuel the demand for local hosting service. 5. The development and/or improvement of local hosting service shall enable the development of additional online services such as E-Commerce: there shall no longer be network link delays between local websites and services such as Mobile Money/payment systems, and integration shall be eased. PROJECT MANAGEMENT & MONITORING AND EVALUATION shall manage the entire project from inception to review. Monitoring and evaluation shall be performed regularly to assess if the project is on the right track, and mid-term objectives and/or milestones are attained or achieved. The monitoring and evaluation shall be done in collaboration with all key stakeholders. SUPPORT & BUDGET estimates that the project will cost 32,500,000 Rwandan francs for two (2) years. This cost shall entirely pay for the infrastructure hosting service. shall absorb the management costs associated with the project. shall invite sponsors to support the initiative. The sponsorship can be in kind or in monies. CONTACT PERSON Contacts: NKERAMUGABA Ghislain Chief Executive Officer Ltd. [email protected] Mob: SUGIRA Claudine PR/Communication/Marketing Manager Ltd. [email protected] Mob: Page 7 / 7