Essay: Perspectives of African FOSS developers

philipp_at_bridges_dot_org writes "Bridges.org has just released an essay about FOSS issues in Africa, Straight from the Source: Perspectives from the African Free and Open Source Software Movement. It highlights a perspective that is often overlooked in the discussion of how FOSS can benefit developing countries: that of software developers themselves. The essay describes the conditions African FOSS developers work in and the difficulties they face, mostly letting quotes and personal impressions speak for themselves. The issues are very different from what I am reading in the typical slashdot discussions. It maybe an interesting perspective for your audience to see what others, who share the believe in freedom of source code are struggling with - hopefully to encourage thinking around solutions for these problems."

Comments

Zimbabwe

[crossconnects]

I have a friend in Zimbabwe who does web development, but has to pay for internet access by the minute, partly because he has to pay for phone service by the minute.

Slashdot needs more articles like this

[fiannaFailMan]

The last time the IT business in Africa was mentioned, this place was bombarded by ignorant and short-sighted comments about how sustenance was a more pressing priority and that the west should concentrate on sending food aid rather than stimulating growth in industries like this. A bit like the clueless anti-globalisation protestors:

Members of Jubilee 2000 burned a laptop computer on a beach here in Okinawa to show their disappointment with G8's failure to fulfill last year's promise to cancel up to $100 billion in Third World debt. So far, just nine countries have qualified for debt relief of up to $15 billion. Jubilee 2000 says debt relief is the first step to ending the cycle of poverty, since poor countries are spend- ing more money to pay back debt than on basic needs. "You can't eat a laptop," said Barrett. "It's a crisis, it's an emergency, and it's something that they've failed to deal with this weekend."

Don't get me wrong, canceling debt can be a good thing, but it's good that African economies can develop intellectual property for export if natural resources are not abundant.

Re:Zimbabwe/Uganda

[Anonymous Coward]

That is also true for Uganda, but in its case, the ISP over there dedicated a special number to use in connecting to the Internet at a special low rate. When I was there, I setup a wireless Internet service for some government organization with a Red Hat box acting as a gateway/mail server. To my surprise, the service provider charged US$275 (yes, two hundred seventy-five US dollars) for a dedicated 4K bandwidth! His reasoning was that he has to sign an agreement with a provider from whom he buys the bandwidth, that he has to purchase a certain amount no matter what conditions the market dictates. Here in Canada, I pay US$32 for a 1Mb which sometimes could shoot up to 3Mb/s. Africans are being screwed. I must admit though, that most of the leaders I met did not even understand what the Internet can do for them. One official who had been attacked by a virus told me "Officer, my computer now does not have Microsoft!". It took me long to understand what he meant. Do not get me wrong....the technology is there but it's very expensive for most individuals. As an example, a tea girl at that organization was being paid a salary of US$80 per month and the System Admin's salary was US$420.

Cb..