The weakness of the �Content is King’ theory is that it overlooks the importance of interaction.

Content is only as strong as the context or environment is interactive.

Remember the saying behind every successful man is a strong woman…? Behind every successful website/online environment is strong interaction.

How relevant the content is, how much it generates feedback, and sustains communication is what makes the internet the fabulous tool that it is.

Mr. William Stucke, Chairman of AfrISPA in expressing AfrISPA’s interest in identifying other mechanism for stimulating Internet growth challeneged AfriSPA members and ISPs to provide free websites to their clients(AfrISPA's call can be found here). Having worked in the web design industry in Kenya for serveral years I’d say that providing companies with free websites will not make THE difference. One of my biggest disappointments as a young, passionate web developer was building brochure website. Who We Are/What We Do static websites that are visited once and rarely again.

But the local companies that paid for websites did not have the resources or the understanding to source for relevant content. They did not trust users enough to provide them with user-generated content. They did not grasp the importance of interaction.

Yes, I’d like all the shops and services in my area to be online. But the killer website will be the one that places a human being at the other end of my online experience so that I am accessing data mediated by the network - only mediated. An important step is finding information, but my final stop is not static information.

The small business owner in a semi rural area in Africa may be asking, as Mr. Muriuki Mureithi of Summit Strategies discovered in his report, “would I find relevant material on the Internet which would aid the growth of my business?� In the same way their potential supplier or customer is asking “ is there a company I can work with in this area?� Both parties provide the content. The virtual space or point at which they meet and exchange information is where interaction occurs and the sought after �relevance’ is found.

I welcome AfrISPA’s call for ISPs to provide free websites and blog based spaces online. However, we must look beyond brick and motor business to enhance the interaction on local networks. We must turn to end users and empower them to generate content as well. Blog based technology and online interactive communities are perfectly suited for this.

I look forward to the day I search for 'mechanic' on google.co.ke and get 'Otieno’s Garage behind Yaya (4 out of 5 stars - 10 reviews)' at the top of my results!