Bridging this gap is important and critical because of another buzzword - transparency. I am sure that Bill and Melinda Gates want to know where thier money is going, as I am sure that most people want to know how the money that their governments give to 3rd world countries is spent. With billions being spent on AID - there is only one-way to keep track - computers. Without the knowledge being in the country then Expat Experts are needed to be imported so you get the Kafka situation of a Sys Admin being paid a factor 10 times more than the president.
Another Example I know about is a small micro bank ( a bank that lends from $50 to $1,000 USD) that has over a million customers - at the moment it is using Excel to keep the records! Wouldn't they be better served by a proper banking system - the problem is that a banking system from the West would cost about 10 times their yearly administrative costs. And the Western System would not fit the local requirements.
The Internet has already changed life in the developing world. Friends of mine, who only earn $100 per month who live in Ghana often, email me. The cost of an hour at an Internet Café is a $1.00. A cost of a one-minute phone call to the UK or the US is $1.00. Before the Internet they had no way of communicating except through snail mail.
Another case in point the only way that Foreign Journalists could work out what the Oppositions requirements where in the Ivory Coast Conflict was through the Oppositions web site. The phones had been cut off!
This happened to me. What I would recommend anybody in a similar situation is to read Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. The book is advice to Princes of small states in Italy in how they should keep control of their states. It was written 500 years ago - but equally applies to Software Start-ups. It is most famous for the quote the "The end justifies the means".
Any venture capital company should read the chapter "On Troops and Mercenaries" - substitute - Mercenary for Hired Gun Management. Machiavelli say's "Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous" - further on he says "they [Mercenaries] are brave among friends [read the board and head-hunters]; among enemies they are cowards......... they keep no faith with men; and your downfall is deferred only so long as the attack is deferred; and in peace you are plundered by them, in war by your enemies."
Basically what Machiavelli goes on to say is that troops don't really fight for money, but for vision and belief in the Prince. If an employee does not believe that the CEO is in for the long haul why should he be?
I did OK money wise, but this did not stop me going into massive depression for about a year after I was replaced. It feels like somebody messing up your toys....
In Ghana there are two local phone companies - one Ghanain Ghana Telecom and the other American Westel. Westel is next to useless - modems will not even work over it.
Everything is being privatized including Well Water - thanks to the US crtl World Bank and the IFC.
Farmers in Ghana pay more in taxes than they get back unlike US farmers.
And all tarifs are lower than 20%. Unlike the US.
Three points of intrest - Out of all of ACS (Aetna) - Ghana has the lowest error rate of workers.
The police man would also recive Facilitaion Fee's from the general population.
Also the opperations like ACS draw good workers that the country needs to do data processing!!! It is rumared that a couple of PHD's are working there.
In his article G. Pascal Zachary got quite a few of the facts are wrong, and he totally misses the point. Far more important than an American Insurance company having people type for them is the fact that Unileaver, Guinness, Mobil, Total, and most of the other Global Companies that operate in Ghana - use software that has been written and developed in Ghana.
Where the figure of only 50 coders in Ghana comes from is a wrong - I personally know more programmers than that are based in Ghana. Some are good - some are bad and some are brilliant - in fact two of them are some of the best in world that I have ever worked with. In fact one education faculty produces about 2000 graduates a year in IT related fields.
I have no idea where he came up with the price of $1,000 to install a phone line - when I was last in Ghana at the start of this month - Ghana Telecoms where not charging for installation.
While mobile phone calls are unreliable they are not 10 times more expensive than the US - they are in fact about 1 cent more per minute than what I am paying in the UK.
The high costs are there for international calls- a minute from Ghana to the US will cost you 80 cents - from the UK to the US 3 cents. This makes it very difficult for the local software houses to get business from abroad.
Yes power is a problem (But is that much different for California)and that is why myself and a group of other African programmers (Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, and South Africa) are starting a new standard called Tropical Tolerance. This is to set a standard for Software and Hardware that will work under poor power - it useless having a large database if it takes 9 hours to recover from a shutdown - do not try sending multi-media files over the network, or any form of software that relies on a WAN - make it easy to use.
In the whole this article reinforce the concept that Africa is just a black hole.
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Bridging this gap is important and critical because of another buzzword - transparency. I am sure that Bill and Melinda Gates want to know where thier money is going, as I am sure that most people want to know how the money that their governments give to 3rd world countries is spent. With billions being spent on AID - there is only one-way to keep track - computers. Without the knowledge being in the country then Expat Experts are needed to be imported so you get the Kafka situation of a Sys Admin being paid a factor 10 times more than the president. Another Example I know about is a small micro bank ( a bank that lends from $50 to $1,000 USD) that has over a million customers - at the moment it is using Excel to keep the records! Wouldn't they be better served by a proper banking system - the problem is that a banking system from the West would cost about 10 times their yearly administrative costs. And the Western System would not fit the local requirements. The Internet has already changed life in the developing world. Friends of mine, who only earn $100 per month who live in Ghana often, email me. The cost of an hour at an Internet Café is a $1.00. A cost of a one-minute phone call to the UK or the US is $1.00. Before the Internet they had no way of communicating except through snail mail. Another case in point the only way that Foreign Journalists could work out what the Oppositions requirements where in the Ivory Coast Conflict was through the Oppositions web site. The phones had been cut off!
This happened to me. What I would recommend anybody in a similar situation is to read Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince. The book is advice to Princes of small states in Italy in how they should keep control of their states. It was written 500 years ago - but equally applies to Software Start-ups. It is most famous for the quote the "The end justifies the means".
......... they keep no faith with men; and your downfall is deferred only so long as the attack is deferred; and in peace you are plundered by them, in war by your enemies."
Any venture capital company should read the chapter "On Troops and Mercenaries" - substitute - Mercenary for Hired Gun Management. Machiavelli say's "Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous" - further on he says "they [Mercenaries] are brave among friends [read the board and head-hunters]; among enemies they are cowards
Basically what Machiavelli goes on to say is that troops don't really fight for money, but for vision and belief in the Prince. If an employee does not believe that the CEO is in for the long haul why should he be?
I did OK money wise, but this did not stop me going into massive depression for about a year after I was replaced. It feels like somebody messing up your toys....
In Ghana there are two local phone companies - one Ghanain Ghana Telecom and the other American Westel. Westel is next to useless - modems will not even work over it. Everything is being privatized including Well Water - thanks to the US crtl World Bank and the IFC. Farmers in Ghana pay more in taxes than they get back unlike US farmers. And all tarifs are lower than 20%. Unlike the US.
Then sadley the factor would be 87 not 10. The average American Earns $35,000 The average Ghanaian Earns $400
Three points of intrest - Out of all of ACS (Aetna) - Ghana has the lowest error rate of workers. The police man would also recive Facilitaion Fee's from the general population. Also the opperations like ACS draw good workers that the country needs to do data processing!!! It is rumared that a couple of PHD's are working there.
In his article G. Pascal Zachary got quite a few of the facts are wrong, and he totally misses the point. Far more important than an American Insurance company having people type for them is the fact that Unileaver, Guinness, Mobil, Total, and most of the other Global Companies that operate in Ghana - use software that has been written and developed in Ghana.
Where the figure of only 50 coders in Ghana comes from is a wrong - I personally know more programmers than that are based in Ghana. Some are good - some are bad and some are brilliant - in fact two of them are some of the best in world that I have ever worked with. In fact one education faculty produces about 2000 graduates a year in IT related fields.
I have no idea where he came up with the price of $1,000 to install a phone line - when I was last in Ghana at the start of this month - Ghana Telecoms where not charging for installation.
While mobile phone calls are unreliable they are not 10 times more expensive than the US - they are in fact about 1 cent more per minute than what I am paying in the UK.
The high costs are there for international calls- a minute from Ghana to the US will cost you 80 cents - from the UK to the US 3 cents. This makes it very difficult for the local software houses to get business from abroad.
Yes power is a problem (But is that much different for California)and that is why myself and a group of other African programmers (Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, and South Africa) are starting a new standard called Tropical Tolerance. This is to set a standard for Software and Hardware that will work under poor power - it useless having a large database if it takes 9 hours to recover from a shutdown - do not try sending multi-media files over the network, or any form of software that relies on a WAN - make it easy to use.
In the whole this article reinforce the concept that Africa is just a black hole.