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e-business Open Source Software May Be the Key to Spreading Information Technology in Africa
"With control comes power," says OSS provider Red Hat. But is this power right for Africa? Microsoft may rule the world, but Windows isn't the only game in town. In the opinion of some African technology experts, it may not be the best option for the developing state of information technology on the continent. Open source software (OSS)—computer software in which the source code is open to the consumer so that she may modify it—may be better suited to African economic concerns and the continent's disparate cultures, says Alastir Otter of Tectonic, an online news source for open-source software.
Bridges is in the middle of a two-year study evaluating the use of OSS "in the African context." The study will "evaluate the implications of choosing either open source or proprietary software" in order to provide the decisionmakers with an unbiased look at the benefits and drawbacks of each alternative so they are able to make the best choices. OSS gives Africans “control over their software destiny,” Otter says. “As OSS adoption matures in Africa, we are starting to see more and more users understanding how OSS costs less, and potentially could become a key driver in promoting the development of local ICT industry that benefits the local economy.” In addition, OSS gives the developing continent the ability to utilize information-technology without the high licensing costs of proprietary software and without being obligated to commit to a single software provider, says Otter. OSS initiatives spreading IT in Africa have their work cut out for them. OSS or not, the expansion of information technology and computer literacy will provide a crucial education and communication outlet for the developing continent. "Typically, with proprietary software, the money spent on licensing is paid over to foriegn corporations and the money is removed from the local economy," explains Otter. "A services-based software/support industry built on OSS is expected to [allow Africans] to retain much of this expenditure." Not only is the way information-technology is purchased and distributed different, Africans use of the Internet is also structured around the continent's close-knit culture, explains John Perry Barlow, the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has traveled extensively in Africa since his first visit in 1998. In contrast to the developed world, where people sit alone at their PC's alone, in their offices, “Africans don’t believe everyone has to have their own computer," says Barlow. In Africa, says Barlow, Internet centers form village wells for meeting and communicating. According to Barlow, the Internet café model is popular, which means two or three PC's powered by a generator, often in a hair salon. The "highly networked social culture in Africa" makes the Web a natural outlet for Africans to tap into the Western economy, he adds. There are a lot of "perfectly functioning human brains waiting to get hooked up to the economic opportunities the Internet offers," says Barlow. “Even rudimentary positions such as data entry, translation, and scanning the world’s knowledge onto the Web would be welcomed by these people.” The potential of technology in Africa is not being overlooked by the government. In South Africa, the most developed country in Africa, the government is exploring possibilities that will make technology accessible to more of its citizens. In recent years, the government has shown an interest in expanding the use of OSS. In January 2003, the Government Information Office Council of South Africa released a statement noting the “economic, educational, and local benefits that OSS can offer more systematically by both using available OSS and contributing to further OSS development.” The government's OSS strategy, Using Open Source Software in the South African Government, specifies that the “Government Information Officers' Council (GITOC) has concluded that the role of open source software (OSS) should be explicitly recognized in e-government policy.” Using Open Source Software in the South African Government proposes that OSS should be chosen over proprietary software unless there are strong economic and implementation-capacity reasons against it. The South African Government is pushing Linux, says Barlow, because of the low-cost of OSS coupled with the growing pool of programming talent in Africa, could prove attractive to outside investors or contractors. The economical potential of Africans with widespread access to modern technology is incredible, suggests Barlow, based on what he has seen Africans doing with primitive systems. On a 2002 visit to Kampala, Uganda he saw people running a website written in DOS, he says adding, “if you can run a Web server from a floppy disc drive and 640K of memory, you are doing something right.“ International organizations, such as MIT-AITI and local organizations, such as SchoolNet Africa and Direqlearn, are working to break down the comprehension barriers standing between Africans and open source use. Organizations such as Translate are translating OSS into local languages to make it user=friendly to more people, and as a result, foster its development. “The cost reduction of open source makes it affordable for African students," says Eston Kamini, the President of MIT’s MIT Africa Internet Technology Initiative. MIT-AITI is a student-run program which uses free open-source systems to introduce African students to computers and the Internet. Since MIT-AITI launched in 2000, the club traveled to Africa each year to teach African students how to use OSS systems such as Linux through workshops and classes conducted at MIT centers in Africa. However, in 2004 the club’s trip to Kenya was canceled due to post 9/11 U.S. State Department travel advisories. Alternatively, MIT-AITI decided to begin offering online instruction using African MIT-Open Courseware. African students can access open courseware through the MIT-OCW website and take classes independently. Students in Africa send their questions and concerns to MIT-AITI members, who respond and grade their work, monitoring their progress, Kimani says. Schoolnet Africa, like MIT-AITI, is working to improve OSS literacy in Africa. Members find “the greatest challenge to the effective use of open source software in Africa is the lack of capacity and the need to build support structures all over the continent.” SNA is collaborating with Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) to initiate a number of training projects to improve upon the current low level of support for open source software users in Africa. SNA feels that open source will be an optimal choice in furthering their vision to create affordable and sustainable ICT access to African schools in a non-restrictive technology environment. Linux’s popularity in Africa has led Microsoft into a commercial turf war, wooing Africa’s educational systems with free software packages. But Microsoft hasn’t been one hundred-percent successful. According to the ZDNEt UK News, “SchoolNet Namibia, an organization providing computing resources to the million-person nation, rejected Microsoft’s offer to put Windows operating systems in schools and decided to keep its existing open-source Linux systems.” Microsoft isn't giving up that easily. In 2003, the software giant offered South African schools more than 30,000 software licenses to Windows, which was better-received than the prior offer of free Windows software, but did not reverse the administrator’s position on open-source infrastructure of the school systems, according to the ZDNet article. OSS initiatives spreading IT in Africa have their work cut out for them, it seems. Yet whether the continent embraces OSS as its default operating system or not, the expansion of information technology and computer literacy will likely provide crucial tools for education and communication in the developing continent. RELATED LINKS: Schoolnet Africa Supports Fossfa’s Capacity Building Initiatives Africa Rising Open Source Initiative Information Technology Centre for Africa Bridging the Digital Divide in Africa Melissa Davison is an undergraduate journalism major at New York University and the business editor of ReadMe. She is interested in magazine writing on and off the Web. |
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