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Linux Advocacy in Ethiopia: A Traveller's Journal
Jutta Horstmann writes "At the Horn of Africa, little is known about Open Source. To change this, Jan Muehlig and Jutta Horstmann (relevantive AG, authors of last year's Linux Usability Report) set out to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Read their traveller's journal and get more information on Linux and Open Source in Ethiopia at relevantive.de/ethiopia." Their travel report is the most interesting section.
Not sure Open Source is terribly high on the list of priorities for a country like Ethiopia, but the concepts involved - such as the value of sharing exceeding the value of the material shared - are certainly important ones and would go a long way to combat the dangers of corruption and greed.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Not to troll or anything, but what good is open source and computers if the people don't even have food and aren't exactly the most... advanced people around?
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Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
Forget open source; what about Open Plumbing?
"Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
hmm i think that spreading linux/oss to other countries, particularly poverty stricken ones, is very important. it allows them to get software that they might otherwise be unable to afford. HOWEVER, im pretty sure that the hiarchy of needs comes into play here. that is, i dont think that most of these people could care less if you gave them a new decked out 'nix box or not. why? because they have to worry about stuff like food, clothing, shelter, and safety. satisfy those and THEN maybe these people will start to care about sharing of information...
Matt
You have 1 Moderator Point! Use it or lose it! Is that a threat? -vapid
Despite the fact that this may not be exactly what Ethiopia needs right now, it could help. If they could get computers and have some form internet access it would be a good way to spread modern farming pratices (if not equipment) to Ethiopia, which could improve hunger and poverty. That and outsourced tech jobs.
_____
Thank you.
Okay, I could be wrong, but it is only on Slashdot that I believe I could find an article trying to sell a free OS to a populace that's known for its poverty and starvation levels. The religious parallels are pretty plain here, I think, where we've got Linux zealots, like Christians of the nineteenth century, going to "save those poor souls" from the damnation of proprietary software. This reminds me of the Richard Stallman dreck that began, "Well, it's free software, so it's ethical ..."
Now let's all cross ourselves and chant "Hail Stallman."
On Thursday, 1st of April, we first met the head of the School of Information System Technology of AAU. He showed no interest in the possibilities of Open Source Software regarding especially developing countries. Nevertheless he was using Linux as a tool for teaching special features of Operating Systems in his lecture on this topic.
Could it be that he showed no interest because he's grown up in a country where people die of malnutrition and corrupt leaders reserve aid money for their own consumption? But in the face of that he's got some quasi-religious technodipwad pointing out the oh-so-bitter ironies of how open source is viewed in this the-most-needful of nations.
God. It makes me want to go and do an install of Windows XP.
Chr0m0Dr0m!C
There is no expressed or implied Linux trolling in this post. However, the obstacles facing anyone trying to bring Linux to Ethiopia are huge. My father taught me to fish where I knew there was fish. To me this is a project a decade too soon, clearly iceboxes to Eskimos.
Oddly though, I think Eskimos do need refrigerators to keep foods at an even temperature :P
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
There is not yet a single post here which does NOT say something along the lines of "who cares about software, these people need to eat/drink/quit starving to death". Screw your thinking caps on, people.
I'd like to remind everyone that legitimate copies of Windows and Office cost real money, in addition to money that must be spent on the HARDWARE used to educate Ethiopian IT students.
Cutting proprietary software out of the equation means IT workers in developing countries can spend LESS money on software and MORE money on hardware, which increases the availability of hands-on learning tools for these people.
My old vice-principal from High School (like, 13 years ago) is from Nigeria. He visits regularly. He lamented the fact that everyone seems to think everyone in Ethiopia is dying of starvation and suffers from famine. The reality is, yes, there are areas of Ethiopia that are hard hit with famine and starvation. However, the vast majority of the population lives in what we'd call "modern cities". They may not have the same living standards that Americans do (who does? We're the land of the obese), but they make do and some make better.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
"but what good is open source and computers if the people don't even have food and aren't exactly the most... advanced people around?"
Food is for their bodies.
Linux and computers are for their minds.
Both need to be fed if a society is to grow.
At least Bill Gates and his "foundation" do donate money to the poor and hungry. Sure, its a much (or more) of a PR stunt that actual morality, but it beats a couple of Linux zealots pestering people who are more concerned about living long enough to have children, let alone save $199 by using Open Source.
How many slashes would a slashdot dot, if a slashdot could dot slashes?
Just for the record, child poverty in the US is close to 25%. Yet the government does other things than just fight porverty.
Not every resource on Earth is spent trying to cure cancer and solve poverty. Lots of resources are spent making designer clothes, perfums, etc. Humanity does lots of things and it's the sum (or actually the process) that's good.
Besides, out of hundreds of thousands (or more) of people wordwide helping Ethiopia, 2 are trying to bring Linux and related computer skills. So it seems to be acceptable to me and about where it should be.
As someone else pointed out, Ethiopian's have been Christian a lot longer than the English. The country is predomintly Eastern Orthodox Christian and has been since the fall of the Roman Empire. My family was stationed there during the early sixties when I was very young and my parents have a lot of Eastern Orthodox Ethiopian friends still to this day.
I think that anything that makes access to technologies like the Internet easier can help underdeveloped countries tremendously. The internet for example can provide information on agricultural technology, medical technology, etc. Food security is only one readily apparent aspect of a multi-faceted problem. A sound technolgical/educational base can help provide the necessary support for the development of infrastructure. In many cases, third world economies when making the transition from subsistence farming, experience terrible difficulties because of companies like Microsoft. Their fragile developing economy becomes enmeshed with explotive super-capitalists like Microsoft, which leaves them dependant on overpriced monopoly products that they can ill afford. The alternative is usually then software piracy, which in turn creates "special interest groups" that are essentially paid mouth pieces for these companys to enforce their monopoly by means of getting the country's courts and jails to be tied up punishing their citizens for hardly important crime. Microsoft are doing this all over Asia as we speak. They fund companies that lobby for increased jail time and harsher penalties etc, etc to make sure that the country's laws wield a big stick ensure their markets. In between discounting and free samples, just like a drug pusher really. What these people appear to be doing is not at all trivial or irrelevant. It's big picture stuff, and to me that's what the Internet and Open Source is really all about. It's really not so simple as mere food subsistence.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
When you clear 990$ a year (per capita), Linux makes alot of sense.
. pd f
http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GNIPC
"Buy Win Xp? Eat? Buy Win Xp?... Eat."
They might not know about open source in Ethiopia, but I'll bet you the shirt off my back they all know about 'free software' ;-)
Piracy is actually a legitimate reason why open source isn't as easy to spread in poorer countries. People in poorer countries tend to pirate and not have the threat of any punishment hanging over their heads. Of course, I salute the march of open source software the world over, but it won't be until these countries fully step up onto the world stage that they'll get a significant advantage out of it over using pirated stuff.
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