Transcript Free Software In Africa

Free Software In Africa
Wizards of OS 3
Guido Sohne <[email protected]>
Organizations & People
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Pan African (FOSSFA)
Governments (CSIR, South Africa)
Non profits (translate.org.za)
Educational (SchoolNet Namibia, NetDay,
DireqLearn, wizzy digital courier)
• Corporate (linuxsolutions; Obsidian)
• Individuals (Uwe Thiem, Neil BlakeleyMilner, Dwayne Bailey)
Why Free Software?
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Better Technology
Cost Reduction
Multiple Suppliers/Sources
Technology Transfer
Access to ‘Intellectual Property’
Development of Indigenous Solutions
Employment
Better Technology
• Largest adoption of free software is driven by a few
applications in particular domains
• Sendmail / qmail / postfix: cheap and reliable mail
servers (ISPs)
• MySQL: cheap, reliable database server (web
developers, software developers, ISPs)
• BIND: standard for domain name resolution (ISPs)
• Apache: cheap, reliable, ubiquitous web server (ISPs,
web developers)
• PHP: simple, low barrier to entry scripting (ISPs, web
developers)
Better Technology
• Most use of free software is solely on servers.
• Windows servers / development machines are
preferred by most developers. MySQL, PHP,
Apache are most often run on Windows.
• Build on Windows. Deploy on Linux.
• Linux on the desktop is relatively rare, even
amongst developers.
• Application advantages and availability drive
choice (people use what gets the job done
easiest and fastest)
Cost Reduction
• Source: License Fees and GDP/capita, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh
• Ghana
$269 GDP/capita
$73,442 effective price (Windows/Office XP)
24.98 months of GDP/capita
• South Africa
$2620 GDP/capita
$7,541 effective price (Windows/Office XP)
2.57 months of GDP/capita
• From the above data, it would seem obvious that free software has
enormous benefits and advantages when compared to proprietary
software.
Cost Reduction
• Effective price of proprietary software == 0
• Given high and unrealistic prices for software, illegal
copying becomes part of the culture of computing.
• Sharing of software (but the software is not free)
• GPL like behavior on non-GPL software
• All web developers have Dreamweaver, Fireworks,
Photoshop, MySQL, PHP, Apache
• Less than 1% have paid for the proprietary bits
• It therefore becomes clear that both proprietary and free
software have equivalent cost reduction characteristics!
Multiple Suppliers & Sources
• A touted advantage of free software is the
availability of a multitude of suppliers and
sources that reduce or avoid vendor lock in.
• Distributions like RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake,
Debian, Gentoo each build on common ground
yet find ways to differentiate their offerings.
• On the other hand, companies like Microsoft,
Oracle, Sun, SAP etc each build a different
product that has little in common with the
competing products. The best scenario is that
data import/export from one product to another
is possible.
Multiple Suppliers & Sources
• The situation in Africa?
• “Technology is something that comes in a box, not
something that you build yourself”
• Little to no presence of the Linux/OSS companies and
distributors in sub-Saharan Africa
• Many companies sell the same proprietary products
• Antivirus software is especially popular. The market
clearly sees the demand for such software, though this is
again, massively copied.
• For the average, under-informed and budget-challenged
decision maker, it appears that proprietary software has
more suppliers and more choice than free software.
Technology Transfer
• Free software can help African developers
learn faster and better.
• Challenges: Bandwidth, cost of computing
devices and peripherals, availability of
books and learning materials
• Problems: Very few African developers,
whether free or proprietary; generally low
level of skill due to environmental
challenges
Challenges
• Bandwidth costs a lot. $400/month to share 32k
pipe with four other people. $0.66 per hour for
café access.
• Hardware markup is typically 100%-200%. What
costs 500 euro here costs 1000 euro there.
• No credit card. No Amazon. No books.
• Due to credit card fraud, sellers won’t ship to the
sub-region.
• Learning and technology transfer are impeded.
Problems
• Poor educational base: University of Ghana has 6 PCs
for 300 computer science students. 100 PCs for 12,000
students.
• 40% literacy rate. For basic literacy. This is not advanced
literacy.
• By the time most people reach the age of 14, more than
half of the potential developer pool has been lost – poor
teaching and education, drop outs to sell dog chains by
the traffic light, etc.
• The few who reach university (total intake of 15,000 per
year max out of population of 20 million) get to face the
computers in universities problem.
Those Who Make It
• The few who manage to learn how to write software are
marked more by the fact that they survived the system
than anything else.
• It is a miracle that they exist. They are not supposed to
exist?
• Few job choices. Exploitative employers. Low salaries
(save 100% salary for fifteen years and you can afford to
buy a car. House? 100 years)
• African developers are extremely busy trying to make a
living. They have no free time and no wish to share
code, however are willing to ‘steal’ code.
• Deep seated need to make money and proprietary
software development is the only way now.
Economic Freedom
• Can one be said to be free if 100% of the time, one is
concerned about survival?
• Freedom is on different levels: political freedom,
economic freedom, intellectual freedom.
• Africa gained political freedom starting from 1957
(Ghana).
• Within 25 years, export commodity prices dropped from
around 2000 GBP per tonne to 800 GBP per tonne
• Within this same time, the population grew by 25%
• Within this same time, five military governments violently
overthrew the previous government
• Africa keeps getting poorer and poorer
Roots of Poverty
• Where does this poverty come from?
• Near factors: Instability, poor governance,
disease, war, famine
• Far factors: Legacy bequeathed by
Western intervention, greed and sheer
callousness
• Story starts with the exploration of Africa
by Europe
First Encounters
• When Europe first encountered Africa, there were
institutions of learning, renowned in those days such as
Timbuktu
• In order to trade, a game was played. You versus your
enemies, we help you, you help us.
• Seeds of internal conflict. Seeds of current wars and
ethnic divisions.
• Some collaborators made war on others, and sold these
others into slavery.
• Africa lost the best and the strongest, those who went to
defend their people.
• Today, America has some of the world best athletes. The
best and strongest bred true.
People To Resources
• Somewhere in the 1800s?, not far from here,
Europe met to decide how to share the
resources of Africa.
• The Partitioning of Africa
• Africa was of course not consulted to determine
what her voice would be.
• Today, we have the G8. Africa is still not
consulted though her leaders go to beg for
money or negotiate for better terms.
• Fundamentally, there is no negotiation going on.
Use of Resources
• Primary goods only bought from Africa.
• Raw materials. Unprocessed agricultural
goods. Crude oil. Tree trunks.
• Taken to feed the industries and factories
of Europe
• Converted into finished goods.
• Exported to the rest of the world.
• Some material returns to Africa. 100%
markup by local merchants added.
Division of People
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Result of partitioning of Africa and colonialism?
Language barriers and language divides
Several small, borderline viable countries.
Few large countries, wracked by war for
resources.
• Most importantly, natural forces keep these
nations from ever joining together.
• France does not favor collaboration within West
Africa, since this would dilute its power.
• Unspoken but this is a reality.
Result?
• Poverty. Lack of resources. Struggling to
survive. 1000 PCs for 12,000 students.
• Political freedom but no economic freedom.
• No time to think. No time to relax and debate.
• No social security. No health insurance. No
safety net.
• No Free Software.
• The wealth and success of the West is
inextricably linked to the poverty and failure of
Africa.
What Can Be Done?
• Long term: Redistribute wealth and
opportunity more fairly. Be fair and not
greedy.
• Medium term: Free software, representing
the force for change for the better, the
force removing the unreasonable greed,
must win its struggle.
• Short term: Developer by developer, we
grow the community one at a time.
Programmers Without Frontiers
• This was an idea that was proposed
earlier at the WSIS proceedings.
• Needs support, funding, membership and
energy of lots of developers.
• Should mentor young African developers,
help them improve skills
• Help them learn the right path, the free
path, the only path where they may have a
future chance of prosperity.
AfricanIntelligence
• This was proposed at the first ever African developers
meeting.
• Aims to find the African developers and network them.
• Aims to improve their quality of life and income by
building the El-Dorado – the Project Pipeline
• Needs formal support, needs to gain developer interest.
• We have a vision.
• We have the desire to increase developer numbers and
skills
• We want to enhance employment and employability.
• We also have a logo. And not much else …