tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25033014298068694362024-03-17T02:21:05.737-07:00Hacker LabA Hacker is someone who thinks outside the box. Someone who discards conventional wisdom, and does something
else instead. Someone who looks at the edge & wonders what's beyond.Someone who sees a set of rules & wonders what happens
if you dont follow them." - Bruce SchneierUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-82524030241806315312016-10-03T18:24:00.001-07:002016-10-03T18:24:31.000-07:00Elon Musk and Mars colonization...I rarely write articles these days because of my hectic <a href="http://www.bisaapp.com/">work</a> and travel schedule but I hope next year I will be able to share my experiences as a technology entrepreneur from Ghana and my hope to solve Africa's problem with technology. I am currently in Berlin for the next few weeks !<br />
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I posted this article originally on my facebook wall.<br />
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A few months ago I spoke to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWsb-zNiI-4">Brian Lim</a> a technologist who has founded several startups in the <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFbqDCr7TD21-QcTUxk6l7roWJgwwimx3Y9ALVp8F3LddIEBMxofWtUne7IXlu65P9SEbuRlAaQrvuOmUNj_2bv4LyaqjHWaRhlnZd54cTdLTpmEwJMQqHV_bmpiY-ipstYsPrNBTuQs1i/s1600/wfp7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFbqDCr7TD21-QcTUxk6l7roWJgwwimx3Y9ALVp8F3LddIEBMxofWtUne7IXlu65P9SEbuRlAaQrvuOmUNj_2bv4LyaqjHWaRhlnZd54cTdLTpmEwJMQqHV_bmpiY-ipstYsPrNBTuQs1i/s320/wfp7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
satellite & aerospace industry in the last decade and asked him about his thoughts on Elon Musk's SpaceX projects. In his view there hasn't been much innovation in the aerospace industry since humans went to space in the 1960's and Elon Musk is a genius who is disrupting and making it faster , less expensive and convenient for aerospace travels.<br />
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I watched Elon Musk's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Uyfqi_TE8">keynote </a>on making Humans a multiplanetary species and you can see below ( video ) a simulation of how humans will be transported to Mars at a cost of $ 10 Billion per person and the first flight might take off in 2022. This is simply amazing and some of us are seeing our childhood dreams come to life. The cost is very high just like every other technology ( computers, printers , mobile phones ) in the beginning but im sure it might go as low as $100 k per person in the next 30 - 50 years. Elon who is a South African born entrepreneur is building the future with science and technology.<br />
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I cant wait to see what the trials , pilot and further simulations will look like in the next few years. In the end I believe humans will give the instructions and machines will carry out the action. I salute and i'm inspired by Elon Musk !<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-28386029785559806152016-02-01T17:59:00.000-08:002016-01-31T18:10:12.997-08:00Developing Bisa, your ultimate Health app...It's 2016 and I am still very busy but productive as usual. I get about 2 - 3 hours sleep a day (around 4 - 6/7am). I am working on really exciting projects and my business is doing so well. Our core focus at my company <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/">Oasis Websoft </a>apart from delivering quality software solutions to clients is to research and develop technology solutions that can impact society positively.<br />
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We deployed <a href="http://bisaapp.com/" target="_blank">Bisa</a> in the last quarter of 2015. Bisa means “ask” in the Ghanaian twi language. Bisa is a mobile application that allows users with an android or windows phone to interact directly with medical practitioners without having physical contact; an advantage to people who have health concerns but are shy to talk to a doctor face to face about.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0y0iPnOCevp9pRuHnYRn2TjTkSzxe1O2XMaqFy5M2cRg8rLoGnoF8FGM9RKxQXW8Cin-jx2uZ9OlCI8OZ1sBdYM2uv7NgGzmLgLo5Jvp8dsEtoAMg8v_VjUKDfE2upOIYSw2h43FKQ2GT/s1600/all2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0y0iPnOCevp9pRuHnYRn2TjTkSzxe1O2XMaqFy5M2cRg8rLoGnoF8FGM9RKxQXW8Cin-jx2uZ9OlCI8OZ1sBdYM2uv7NgGzmLgLo5Jvp8dsEtoAMg8v_VjUKDfE2upOIYSw2h43FKQ2GT/s320/all2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Based on our research we came to the understanding that most people do not like to visit hospital for check up for various reasons. Some of these reasons include the long queue system at the hospitals. Also for the fear of stigmatization, most people especially those who suffer symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) scarcely visit the hospital. The act of self medication among Ghanaians have become a serious threat to our existence especially the use and abuse of painkillers, antibiotics and aphrodisiac products. The phenomenon is thriving due to the busy nature of the working class and general poverty among the people, especially those in the deprived areas, making it impossible for a number of them to visit the hospital for medical care.<br />
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Bisa is available on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=oasis.bisa" target="_blank">android play store</a> , <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gh/app/bisa/id1067158970?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4" target="_blank">apple app store</a> and also <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/bisa/9nblgggzl1dp" target="_blank">windows phone store</a>. A feature is also available in the application that allows users to ask a doctor a question. Users can also attach or take a photo of any part of their body they are concerned about. Our doctors will then review these questions and respond within twenty four hours.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlH_XismVsUtbQwxJ8p1AnXrdM1r573v6UOuUb5_DQTbdcExPqsrGkyj9Q-R-etNHXjJwD4svLP1qZ2TzogLIZTdpG-xp5z83u1e7LltPTwtpBwC5EiyguNIeF1uPETDdthFjx0GmVUZX/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-02-01+at+1.54.29+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlH_XismVsUtbQwxJ8p1AnXrdM1r573v6UOuUb5_DQTbdcExPqsrGkyj9Q-R-etNHXjJwD4svLP1qZ2TzogLIZTdpG-xp5z83u1e7LltPTwtpBwC5EiyguNIeF1uPETDdthFjx0GmVUZX/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-02-01+at+1.54.29+AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Stats on installs of Bisa for Android by Country (Total 2,024)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We have six official doctors. Over two thousand , five hundred people have downloaded Bisa on their smart phones. Our doctors have answered over one thousand questions from individuals who are curious about various health conditions that they are facing. Questions range from simple everyday health myth to serious health challenges including respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive and psychological health problems they are facing. Response rate is hundred percent and usually within a twenty four hour period. So far, 60% of Bisa users who have had their queries answered by our doctors have given us good feedback. They were generally very appreciative and will recommend Bisa to their friends to utilize the platform.<br />
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We now have a new arm of Oasis Websoft called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1cGZz8x0IkTcrAgtQvjKAw">Oasis Multimedia.</a> They are in charge of video productions, documentary and short films , <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGG613Lvrc8">drone projects</a> ,photography and graphic designing. They recently produced a short interview with Dr Dennis Addo, Co-founder & Chief Medical Officer of Bisa.<br />
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We have a very vibrant facebook page with over 4,000 likes. Follow our page for updates - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Bisaapp/" target="_blank">Bisa Facebook</a>. We believe we have started a health revolution in Ghana that will grow and make a greater impact. You can support this revolution by reaching out to us <a href="mailto:info@bisaapp.com">info@bisaapp.com</a> Your support will be crucial to the success of this health revolution. Payment modules may be introduced in the future but we believe if we can get your support, we can keep most aspects of the app free and make a big impact. Learn more about Bisa here <a href="http://www.bisaapp.com/">www.bisaapp.com</a> </div>
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I will be publishing more blog articles this year about my work , future projects and many more exciting things. I might share a few tips from my entrepreneurial journey as well. Happy new year !!</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-14230255200404437432015-03-10T08:59:00.001-07:002015-03-10T08:59:29.636-07:00Why Paypal ignored Ghana ?<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
the early 2000's in most west African countries including Ghana,
Nigeria and Senegal when the internet cafe was a new phenomenon, many
youngsters spent most of their time at the cyber cafe surfing the
internet. There was however a worrying trend that began to take wave
in most of these internet cafes. The young men found darknet websites
that gave them unlimited access to credit and mastercard details of
people in Europe and America. They used this details to shop for
clothing , gadgets from ecommerce websites like Ebay and Amazon. When
shipping of the goods were not allowed directly to Africa the
fraudsters would use their family and friends abroad as middle men /
passage routes to receive the products and further ship it to them in
Ghana and their </span></span>respective<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
countries. Most of these poor and disadvantaged youth found a gold
mine in this trade and they spent almost 24 hours shopping and
fishing for credit card details to scam. Others went as far as using
the paypal accounts of vulnerable account holders to orchestrate this
dubious activity.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2x376LYd2jGlR_SZddK0SgUZujNyI3Hhi3Go0VGv4YZvXtFjmJt6H2y3hg_OQrlgYkghg1iJ7zjnIS7Zfgus29P7Iu1ANEe5e0Pb2BRUxYkJOQRr8CZy7cBiejX4dtXKblhyphenhyphenJv5ddwYo/s1600/paypal_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2x376LYd2jGlR_SZddK0SgUZujNyI3Hhi3Go0VGv4YZvXtFjmJt6H2y3hg_OQrlgYkghg1iJ7zjnIS7Zfgus29P7Iu1ANEe5e0Pb2BRUxYkJOQRr8CZy7cBiejX4dtXKblhyphenhyphenJv5ddwYo/s1600/paypal_logo.jpg" height="110" width="320" /></a><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Somewhere
around 2004 after thousands of legitimate users of Paypal , amazon
and ebay complained about unusual purchases and huge sums of money
were getting lost in their accounts. These technology giants decided
it was time to curb this fraudulent activity of credit card fraud.
They simultaneously decided to blacklist so many West African
countries from using the platform for their illicit activities. Some
of the countries that were blacklisted included Ghana , Nigeria and
many other African countries. Over the next decade that followed it
was impossible for people resident in Ghana and the other blacklisted
to make or receive payments on the PayPal platform. With many online
merchants using PayPal, sometimes exclusively, to receive payments
for products and services, Ghana's 24 million people, like many more
in other blacklisted countries, were unable to transact business.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
you are wondering what Paypal is , paypal according to their official
website was founded in 1998, they continue to be at the forefront of
the digital payments revolution, processing almost 11.5 million
payments for their customers per day. PayPal gives people better ways
to connect to their money and to each other, helping them send money
without sharing financial information and with the flexibility to pay
using their PayPal account balances, bank accounts, PayPal Credit and
credit cards. With about 162 million active digital wallets, they
have created an open and secure payments ecosystem people and
businesses choose to securely transact with each other online, in
stores and on mobile devices. PayPal is a truly global payments
platform that is available to people in 203 markets, allowing
customers to get paid in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds to
their bank accounts in 57 currencies and hold balances in their
PayPal accounts in 26 currencies. </span></span>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fast
forward to 2015, the year of the digital revolution where smart
phones are not seen by many Ghanaians as a luxury but instead a
necessity. You should by now understand the immense role paypal would
play in our cashless society. We live in a time that many Ghanaian
entrepreneurs with innovative products and services would offer real
value to buyers around the world and contribute to economic
development locally, are now been cut off from much of the world
where PayPal is a major platform for receiving payments. This is
anti-business. Similarly, there are lots of social enterprises and
charities that are working to improve lives and communities in Ghana
and around Africa that are unable to accept donations via PayPal. All
over world, online donations have powered a variety of social
innovations and charity projects. Being blacklisted means many
innovative social enterprises and charities in Ghana are deprived
access to potential donors. This isn't progressive. This are the
words of Samuel Darko, a District Rotaract Representative.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
2013 many African youth decided to use social media and other mediums
to gain the attention of Paypal. I will name two of the notable
campaigns whose aim was for paypal to be brought to their respective
countries. One of them is the outspoken change maker Samuel Darko
whom I mentioned earlier on. He started an online petition here
</span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/rupert-keeley-enable-paypal-in-ghana"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">https://www.change.org/p/rupert-keeley-enable-paypal-in-ghana</span></span></a></span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
to make it impossible for people resident in Ghana to make or receive
payments on the PayPal platform. His target was 5,000 signatures and
was able to get about 2,486 signatures and a lot of social media
buzz. The second campaign was started by a Nigerian company called
Creativity Kills , founded by Neo Ighodaro and they were also able to
gain 597 supporters. These initiatives were very essential proving
that the new African is able to take the necessary steps for them to
be heard. </span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhN_gMi1tg5sbCNIcNTFP1qZEccZXRivq6-oDyp0-gHfZtVOpUMonfNodcOykxsTiiLEQAaj2PdPyUu7nZExilUgBVEZW1JA-nCnZwadiIQiVM1Mzj2hpF9bzdL2t5kgf74JDgtArWPn4/s1600/photo+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhN_gMi1tg5sbCNIcNTFP1qZEccZXRivq6-oDyp0-gHfZtVOpUMonfNodcOykxsTiiLEQAaj2PdPyUu7nZExilUgBVEZW1JA-nCnZwadiIQiVM1Mzj2hpF9bzdL2t5kgf74JDgtArWPn4/s1600/photo+(1).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>These
campaigns gained a lot of recognition but paypal was unresponsive for
a long while until they finally decided to hear the plea of certain
countries. According to Rupert Keeley, the executive in charge of
the EMEA region of PayPal, as at Tuesday 17th of June, 2014 users
from Nigeria and other countries from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern
Europe and Latin America were finally given access to be able to use
the online payment platform. That meant that PayPal now is been used
in 203 countries.</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
came as a shock to the Ghanaian technology community since we also
petitioned and were blacklisted along with Nigeria but they were
given access to the platform but not us. It made a little sense since
Nigeria now has the fastest economy in Africa and as well one of
Africa biggest country with a population of 173.6 million as of 2013.
Ghana on the other have a lesser population of about 25 million. </span></span>
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In
my humble opinion the reason paypal ignored us was that we made a lot
of noise internally on only our social networks especially our social circles about the petition and as a result the message did not get to the right
desk at the Paypal offices. We should have instead made good use of
institutions like the Ministry of foreign affairs to intervene on our
behalf and as well went further on to get the message out there to
the our networks in the Diaspora about the rise of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs who
paypal will further enhance their work on a global platform.</div>
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FYI:A representative of Paypal, last week revealed that, apart from South Africa, Nigeria is the second largest market for their payment solution, followed by Kenya.</div>
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“We are happy to see that PayPal has been widely welcomed by Nigerians since the launch of the service in the country last year,” the Head of Business Development Sub-Saharan Africa, Malvina Goldfeld said. </div>
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Till
then some of us will use resources available to us to bring paypal
back to Ghana.</div>
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This story appeared on yesterday's edition of the General Telegraph. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com238tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-13797370359217115312014-12-09T01:55:00.002-08:002015-02-07T15:01:15.334-08:00INTRA - AFRICAN TECHNOLOGY TRADEMost African countries and emerging economies over the last decade have used Information<br />
Technology to transform their economies. A typical example is Kenya, Kenya in Africa is<br />
leading the world in mobile money via M-Pesa. M-Pesa (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for<br />
money) is a mobile-phone based money transfer and microfinancing service, launched in<br />
2007 by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom, the largest mobile network operators in<br />
Kenya and Tanzania. ( Wikipedia ) One study found that in rural Kenyan households that<br />
adopted M-PESA, incomes increased by 5-30%. In addition, the availability of a reliable<br />
mobile-payments platform has spawned a host of technology start-ups in Nairobi that is<br />
creating jobs for the youth, whose business models build on M-PESA’s foundations.<br />
Information Technology alone cannot be used on it's own to solve our problems but it can be<br />
integrated into other sectors like health, transportation and education to build solutions.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4wLcKKK5ZwpJjl2YtkzMTvsfYaIbkWk_ZjJkFi4Cpw38FhMzS7vcpj1I31V2NOXYwifZVeTLDoQ9iKcoIQIuwLRBXRlir0tB8i2_4mmB7SCh5o2SQOFHt6uozU3WCovorkGqld4nLJAaY/s1600/youth-technology-att-world-bank_700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4wLcKKK5ZwpJjl2YtkzMTvsfYaIbkWk_ZjJkFi4Cpw38FhMzS7vcpj1I31V2NOXYwifZVeTLDoQ9iKcoIQIuwLRBXRlir0tB8i2_4mmB7SCh5o2SQOFHt6uozU3WCovorkGqld4nLJAaY/s1600/youth-technology-att-world-bank_700.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></a></div>
As a matter of fact African states have to critically look inward to bring down all barriers that in<br />
one way or another hinder intra-Africa trade, before development can be achieved for the<br />
continent. We need not herein reiterate that the activities of exploitative foreign companies<br />
have rendered Africa poor and underdeveloped. In the greedy hunt for our resources, these<br />
companies exploit our labour, our land and our minds. Most African governments spend<br />
millions of dollars importing software and technologies for their ministries and other sectors<br />
whereas if they gave the same opportunity to budding local firms , they will be able to build<br />
and customize the system to suit their specifications at a cheaper cost. It is very important for<br />
Africans to build technological solutions to solve our own problems.<br />
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We should embrace technology and new media as a way to preserve our rich heritage and<br />
tell the African story our way. We are tired of Africa being labeled as a continent of war, AIDS<br />
and now Ebola. Technology has the capacity to transform our story on the open web.<br />
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Africa has the youngest population in the world. The current trend indicates that this figure will<br />
double by 2045, according to the 2012 African Economic Outlook report prepared by experts<br />
from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the<br />
UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the industrialized countries’ Organization for<br />
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among others. We should not neglect the<br />
work of young entrepreneurs and small and medium scale enterprise (SME's) using<br />
technologies like mobile phones and SMS/USSD to solve key problems. I want to highlight on<br />
the work of some of these companies in Africa. Ushahidi is is a non-profit software company<br />
that develops free and open-source software (LGPL) for information collection, visualization,<br />
and interactive mapping. Ushahidi (Swahili for "testimony" or "witness") created a website in<br />
the aftermath of Kenya's disputed 2007 presidential election that collected eyewitness reports<br />
of violence reported by email and text message and placed them on a Google Maps map.<br />
iROKOtv is a web platform that provides free and paid-for Nigerian films on-demand. It is one<br />
of Africa’s first mainstream online movie steaming websites, giving free and instant access to<br />
over 5,000 Nollywood film titles. Farmerline is a Ghanaian technology product company that<br />
builds supply chain and value chain solutions to integrate agricultural outputs of rural farmers<br />
in Africa/emerging markets. Mpedigree's Goldkeys brings a set of mobile and web tools<br />
together in one platform to provide brand owners with complete, real-time, control of key<br />
events in their supply chain, therefore shutting out counterfeiters, fakers, pilferers, thieves,<br />
and leaches of all kind, seeking to prey on your brand equity and investments in developing a<br />
channel to reach your customers. Finally AnansiPedia a Ghanaian innovation by Oasis<br />
Websoft. Anansipedia is an educative platform that allows the seamless sharing of<br />
educational resources to help less privileged students in environments with little Information<br />
Technology infrastructure to have ubiquitous access to better quality academic content. This<br />
will help students in remote areas in one part of the world meet or get free<br />
access to an article written by another student/researcher/tutor in Harvard to enhance<br />
their learning process.<br />
<br />
African leaders should start investing in locally made software and technology because it is our terrain and we know the best way to innovate frugally. Intra-African trade can offer real opportunities to improve the quality of life in Africa. It is also<br />
important to deepen our level of reflection on community dynamics and on the constraints<br />
encountered when introducing and using Information Technology for development.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-33296487729351423252014-11-24T05:40:00.001-08:002014-11-24T05:40:40.001-08:00Do Africans Dream about electric sheep ? <div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-decoration: none;">
Over the last decade successful technology brands have transformed
businesses and industries. It has also created wealth for its shareholders, employees and founders. The two of the world's most valuable
brands are both Information technology companies namely Apple and
Microsoft with their brand revenues at 170.9 billion US Dollars and
86.7 billion US Dollars respectively according to Forbes. Many would
attribute their success to their demographics, location , environment
, government and other factors but the truth is both companies
started out in a garage and they worked their way right from the
bottom to the top.
</div>
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</div>
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Let me cast your minds back to when you were in Primary class four or
five, a teacher walks up into the class and inquires from each and
everyone to tell the class who they want to be in future. About 70 –
80 % will mention they want to be doctors, lawyers, judges, pilot ,
business men and women, you will rarely hear anyone say they want to
be an astronaut, computer scientist or a neuroscientist. As
youngsters our teachers and the elderly who society claim shape our
culture and up-bring seldom introduce us to the possibilities of
dreaming big and thinking outside the box. They believe this kinds of
job description exist in Europe and the western world. You can't
think of what you can't imagine - our creativity on the individual
level is limited by the range of ideas we already have and
understand, the scope of different experiences, the ability to draw
on history to glean advice from dire times gone by. For societies
such as those we have here in Africa, there is still much to be done
to propagate knowledge and education, to fill the people's minds with
dreams to fire their imaginations. Dreams of an end to hunger, for
water and energy to be affordable and for the opportunity to live on
an honest day's work. Dreams of a manifest destiny.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRI-6OB8EPNluud4vAUjQcIunTCtRiBXMlo4A4bPDpteyofXBvS3VPdIxOv0O7LkSuQEJes-fXZnhYZU04LLehQGwElP2Ua__zovIYvNendfqhQMYzRaeSf-VfVmjMy_OO_lPSh0GGJPQi/s1600/Electric+sheep.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRI-6OB8EPNluud4vAUjQcIunTCtRiBXMlo4A4bPDpteyofXBvS3VPdIxOv0O7LkSuQEJes-fXZnhYZU04LLehQGwElP2Ua__zovIYvNendfqhQMYzRaeSf-VfVmjMy_OO_lPSh0GGJPQi/s1600/Electric+sheep.png" height="216" width="320" /></a></div>
Ancient Chinese scientists, mathematicians and doctors made
significant advances in science, technology, mathematics, and
astronomy. Traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and herbal
medicine were also developed through empirical observation and
scientific experimentation. Among the earliest Chinese inventions
were the abacus, the "shadow clock," and the first items
such as Kongming lanterns. The Four Great Inventions: the compass,
gunpowder, papermaking, and printing, were among the most important
technological advances, only known to Europe by the end of the Middle
Ages 1000 years later. The Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - 906) in particular,
was a time of great innovation. ( Wikipedia ) A good deal of
exchange occurred between Western and Chinese discoveries up to the
Qing Dynasty. There are few things we can learn from this Chinese
history here, one is that they started from inventing smaller things
and moved gradually until all the goods we now import into our dear
continent are fueled by them. They invested a lot into into science
and technology. Africa should encourage and find unprecedented ways
of teaching science and technology that the newer generation will
find much interest in it.
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<br />
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<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Societies
which were built on the results of the scientific revolution, where
the free and unfettered flow of information, publishing of results,
replication of results and the absence of the profit motive changed
the lives of billions, have now created obstacles to the flow and
ownership of </span></span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">knowledge.
</span></span>
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I have been in contact with a 16 year
old student in one of our senior high schools in Ghana. He sent me an
email expressing interest for me to be his mentor. He has managed to
teach himself computer programming. He has skills in website and
software development. I was surprised when he told me ICT is being
discourage in Senior High schools and it is an optional elective that
at the end of your three years SHS program does not fall part of the
WASSCE exams. Apparently most lecturers advice their students not to
take ICT because it will be a “waste of time” ( in terms of
learning ) that will not be a part of their final examination. I am
wondering if this so called teachers have email addresses or even
study online to find contemporary ways of impacting knowledge to the
student or if they understand the benefits of Google, wikipedia and
the internet an a whole.</div>
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<br />
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhug2U9Gs1jtHbounO6mW84UtTbxYW3prhgMplkjtLcF_KAkXHDam6VTcJl9Va0BlKgPABqIrVqqyB77Qg16y3m5n9L0btOAhFLuNnc6pCYx3jovqwGD7K4mtfv6Hmbi44CniKSOGCzkdTN/s1600/IMG_4696.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhug2U9Gs1jtHbounO6mW84UtTbxYW3prhgMplkjtLcF_KAkXHDam6VTcJl9Va0BlKgPABqIrVqqyB77Qg16y3m5n9L0btOAhFLuNnc6pCYx3jovqwGD7K4mtfv6Hmbi44CniKSOGCzkdTN/s1600/IMG_4696.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>This young man who contacted me comes
from the cheetah generation as Prof. George Ayittey a renowned
Ghanaian economist will call. A cheetah generation is the
fast-moving, entrepreneurial leaders and citizens who will rebuild
Africa in the next century. Every week I receive up to 3 emails from
different people who have amazing ideas but need a technical
person/company to bring their ideas to life. Imagine if all these
people had the logical skills to build the innovative ideas they
have: Ghana would change rapidly. After-all no body understands your
ideas like you do. I always say that if you want things to change,
you can’t just sit around and wait for things to happen by
themselves, you have to act. Computers don’t change human nature.
ICT can catalyze and amplify real world change. There are no career
paths in this world that doesn't have a tech back-end. Now kayaaye (
Street Hawkers ) use mobile phones. I am saddened technology is been
discourage in Senior High Schools by Teachers. I wonder where
Africa’s Gold is: In our earth or in our minds? This kind of
behavior is replicated in most African societies where people are
discourage to adopt technology. It is clear to me that there are
compelling reasons to use technology in the African context.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If you are still wondering what an
electric is ? An Electric Sheep is a distributed computing project
for animating and evolving fractal flames, which are in turn
distributed to the networked computers, which display them as a
screensaver.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
BY RAINDOLF OWUSU<br />FOUNDER OF
<a href="http://www.oasiswebsoft.com/">WWW.OASISWEBSOFT.COM</a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="mailto:IRAINDOLF@GMAIL.COM">IRAINDOLF@GMAIL.COM</a>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The above article was published today in the General telegraph newspaper - Monday the 24th of November. I am now a technology columnist with the General telegraph and my articles on technology are published every Monday. You can find my column on page 22. Dont forget to grab a copy each and every Monday from the nearest newspaper stand. Cheers. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
― Mark Twain</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-13437073103777748122014-10-14T05:18:00.001-07:002014-10-14T05:18:24.024-07:00Touching base.....<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">It's been a while since my last log post. I have been busy working on new projects like </span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><a href="http://www.anansipedia.co/" target="_blank">Anansipedia</a> is an educative platform that would bring students, scholars, lecturers and everyone who seeks education or information together, and also it allows the sharing of educational resources to help less privileged students around the world to also have access to world class educational resources. Go to <a href="http://www.anansipedia.com/">www.anansipedia.com</a> for more. I also joined fellow techies and health professionals to build and deploy <a href="http://ebolaghanaalert.org/" target="_blank">http://ebolaghanaalert.org/ </a> It's a platform that aims to provide people in Ghana with a reliable and easy-to-use application for the tracking, training and disseminating of information to the general public about the Ebola virus. Our official USSD dial for the Ebola Ghana Alert (EBA) has been set up:Kindly type *713*444# currently available on MTN and Airtel. Tentatively, there are three (3) live menus with content for quick facts, diagnosis, and daily updates. Go to <a href="http://ebolaghanaalert.org/">http://ebolaghanaalert.org/</a> for more or you can view the source code here <a href="https://github.com/egha">https://github.com/egha</a> </span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">.</span><br /><br />
<br /><br />
On the 8th of October was my birthday and I spent <span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">my birthday morning @ TV Africa on the Day Break tv show for an interview. I talked about technology adoption , </span><span style="color: #3b5998; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><a href="http://www.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">OasisWebSoft</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><a href="http://www.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank"> </a>, made in Ghana technology , ICT and many more. See below the interview. I spent the rest of the day with my family ! A big thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday via facebook , sms and email etc. Thanks for the continuous support !</span><br /><br />
<br /><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SmZ6D3e5EC0" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-37463722900694246402014-04-09T11:11:00.000-07:002014-04-09T19:13:53.139-07:00My article "AGONY OF AN AFRICAN PROGRAMMER" goes viral online. <span id="goog_1576570051"></span><span id="goog_1576570052"></span>In October 2012, I wrote an <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/10/agonies-of-african-programmer-part-2.html">article</a> about the challenges of most African coders which is loosely based on my own journey. Almost two years later a South African journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/TefoMohapi">Tefo Mohapi</a> chanced upon it and decided to repost it online. His <a href="http://www.iafrikan.com/2014/04/03/agony-of-an-african-programmer/">website </a>has received about 6,000 unique visitors. Now the article is out there and has been featured on the prestigious <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542865">Hacker News</a> and <a href="http://www.iafrikan.com/2014/04/03/agony-of-an-african-programmer/">iAfrican</a> , <a href="http://www.geektime.com/2014/04/06/agony-of-an-african-programmer/">Geek Time </a>, <a href="http://www.trending.co.ke/agony-of-an-african-programmer-501562806.html?xrs=RebelMouse_tw">Trending.co.ke </a> , <a href="http://www.thenewafrica.info/agony-african-programmer/">TheNewAfrica</a> , <a href="http://www.dailynewz.net/news/agony-of-an-african-programmer">Daily Newz</a> plus many <a href="https://www.google.com.gh/search?q=agony+of+an+african+programmer&oq=agony+of+an+african+programmer&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i60j69i61j69i60.2955j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=2&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8">more blogs</a> .<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
It has received both positive feedback and constructive criticisms.</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
There's a difference between winning technology awards & competitions versus winning in the marketplace. — <a href="http://t.co/bEre6rcMqz">http://t.co/bEre6rcMqz</a><br />
— Michael Buen (@iEnableMuch) <a href="https://twitter.com/iEnableMuch/statuses/453170176230322176">April 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Good read -- The agony of an African programmer <a href="http://t.co/8vChkIWsGD">http://t.co/8vChkIWsGD</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/raindolf">@raindolf</a><br />
— David Kobia (@dkobia) <a href="https://twitter.com/dkobia/statuses/453008860941271041">April 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Probably the best article of this kind that I've read in a while - Agony of an African Programmer <a href="http://t.co/zp71fcfDla">http://t.co/zp71fcfDla</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/raindolf">@raindolf</a>.<br />
— Lungi (@hellolungi) <a href="https://twitter.com/hellolungi/statuses/453045806669791232">April 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
"We need to visualize technology as a process and something we will build ourselves here in Africa." <a href="https://twitter.com/raindolf">@raindolf</a> <a href="http://t.co/menbXiJ9DH">http://t.co/menbXiJ9DH</a><br />
— Chris Ford (@ctford) <a href="https://twitter.com/ctford/statuses/452570785342050304">April 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Great piece by <a href="https://twitter.com/raindolf">@raindolf</a> on the difficulties of working as a programmer/dev in Africa <a href="http://t.co/fEP0mMjgMN">http://t.co/fEP0mMjgMN</a><br />
— Jack Riley (@_JackRiley) <a href="https://twitter.com/_JackRiley/statuses/452937197445185536">April 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Agony of an African programmer <a href="http://t.co/D4u3mM6kln">http://t.co/D4u3mM6kln</a> (<a href="http://t.co/t6VgP8tn7x">http://t.co/t6VgP8tn7x</a>)<br />
— Hacker News 20 (@newsyc20) <a href="https://twitter.com/newsyc20/statuses/453004248725192704">April 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/raindolf">@raindolf</a> has been featured on <a href="https://twitter.com/HackerNews">@HackerNews</a> YAY!!! Way to go ma guy. Nice writeup <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23morevim&src=hash">#morevim</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Ghana&src=hash">#Ghana</a><br />
— Robert Lamptey (@rlamptey) <a href="https://twitter.com/rlamptey/statuses/453135318095790080">April 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
The agony of being an independent mobile/web/software developer in Africa, as detailed by <a href="https://twitter.com/raindolf">@Raindolf</a> Owusu: <a href="http://t.co/5JxPDXOW1g">http://t.co/5JxPDXOW1g</a><br />
— Mobile Web Africa (@mwebafrica) <a href="https://twitter.com/mwebafrica/statuses/453788205490634752">April 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
Plus many <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=agony%20of%20an%20african%20programmer&src=typd&f=realtime">more tweets here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
I wrote this article in 2012 and would have loved to make so many changes to it, since I have learnt a lot through my entrepreneurial journey. The bottom line is as African coders we are faced with so many challenges from the onset but we must hunker down and build something awesome that will make sense to the users and solve key problems.<br />
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<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-24522636834023892142014-04-01T11:15:00.000-07:002014-04-01T11:21:25.809-07:00Stepping down from Oasis to join Microsoft on windows 9 project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDroo0IibfbxomnwaNOYWhl1ZiYXT32nzgvf2Shdz73BazSNR82dxihtUOVPGn84OjHYXZTHRgPlBz4f4iyX0KqxkBr5x5zR72JxVlZHX8qnwOdOjyR_5Rn4zBNG76CVirSDVqf6AZ0n1M/s3200/600-aprilfools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDroo0IibfbxomnwaNOYWhl1ZiYXT32nzgvf2Shdz73BazSNR82dxihtUOVPGn84OjHYXZTHRgPlBz4f4iyX0KqxkBr5x5zR72JxVlZHX8qnwOdOjyR_5Rn4zBNG76CVirSDVqf6AZ0n1M/s3200/600-aprilfools.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sorry guys I am still the founder of <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/">Oasis Websoft </a>and we turn 3 in July :) Add me up <a href="https://www.facebook.com/raindolf">here </a>and lets solve Africa's problem one byte at a time. </div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-52879723940347265792014-03-10T13:30:00.000-07:002014-03-10T16:27:59.573-07:00Ghana lags behind in Open Source DevelopmentUsage of Open Source software in Ghana, while growing constantly and rapidly, is still very much in its infancy. This is perfectly normal and characteristic of the adoption patterns of Open Source software all over the world. Open Source comes like a thief in the night and before you know it, it's all over the place. A typical example is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)" target="_blank">android</a> operating system. Isolated programmers and system administrators, small, medium and large companies as well as students and hobbyists are the primary users of Open Source software in Ghana.<br />
<div class="p1">
<br />
Ask the CEO of a large multinational organization in Ghana whether his company uses Open Source software and his answer will most likely be, No. Ask the techies at the same organization whether they use any Open Source software and from time to time, you'll hear, Yes!However, even though Ghana's usage of Open Source software follows the pattern that is seen in many other places there is a distinct lack of adoption of Open Source from within the developer community in Ghana. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoujGQ8rVpfjpvAtyJ8ERUbamu4t89lO5U4iptNwZXsGZ7WtTiSvAGIR9JGnNuUX6DRGZnmqtGsh-UA1eZJg9rm3mb3x8VcLuF-SpLdrSaSywct4zqM8f9ull0Q7UMgbKwey2qUisLqYwF/s1600/ABO_6522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoujGQ8rVpfjpvAtyJ8ERUbamu4t89lO5U4iptNwZXsGZ7WtTiSvAGIR9JGnNuUX6DRGZnmqtGsh-UA1eZJg9rm3mb3x8VcLuF-SpLdrSaSywct4zqM8f9ull0Q7UMgbKwey2qUisLqYwF/s1600/ABO_6522.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a>In February 2014, <a href="http://edemkumodzi.com/about/" target="_blank">Edem Kumodzi</a> and myself paired to give a presentation on Django Programming framework at Google Developer Day. The plan was to spend about 30 minutes on the slides talking about the advantages of django , features , popularity of python and a short demo on a <a href="http://raindolf.heroku.com/" target="_blank">site</a> I built with Django then spend the remaining one hour on a practical hands on session with the participants. Our first part of the presentation went really well but the practical session was an interesting one. Before getting our hands dirty with the <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/GdayDjangoDemos" target="_blank">codes</a>, we first had to make sure our participants had installed all the <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/GdayDjangoDemos" target="_blank">prerequisites</a> eg <a href="http://www.python.org/" target="_blank">python</a> and to our surprise about 85% of the developers were running windows operating system and the remaining 15% running linux ( eg Ubuntu , Fedora , MACOS ). We spent about 50 minutes of the one hour trying to set up the machines of the windows users for django development. As for the linux users it was quite easy since they had python pre-installed. This is normal i guess ? Yes it is normal for everybody else to use windows but for software developers it is not. Linux operating systems are the best when it comes to advanced web and software development. After the event i came to the realization that there is a big problem and we have to go back to the drawing board and get everyone interested in free software and open source development.<br />
<br />
<b> Why Open source ?</b><br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
The first benefit and the one that is most often cited, is that Open Source software is free. This follows from the fact that the software is freely distributable. Strangely enough, this has not prevented people from charging for free software and the ability to charge for free software is specifically allowed in the most common Open Source license, known as, the General Public License. This suggests that free software is free in the sense that there are no restrictions being imposed on it as opposed to the situation where no money is charged for the software.</div>
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Another benefit of Open Source is a side effect of the availability of the source code. Other people are free to improve the source code as they see fit. It has been empirically shown, with the Linux operating system source code, that the availability of source code leads to more rapid development, more robust source code that crashes less often, quicker turnaround time for fixing bugs, fewer security holes and vastly increased customizability. If, for example, the <b>Ghanaian government</b> wanted a standard word processor ( MS word widely used now) which could be used by all government officials that has been tailored for each government department, an Open Source word processor could be modified to suit the exact needs of the government. In fact, this is exactly what the German government has done with regard to a program that will replace Microsoft Outlook in the German government.</div>
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The particular reasoning behind the German government funding development of an Open Source project can be explained as follows: Open Source is a way of cutting costs from software licensing; a capacity-building strategy whereby the German software industry can grow, in terms of manpower and expertise; and lastly, a means to ensure national security by eliminating opportunities for foreign governments to introduce backdoors into software that will be used to conduct espionage. Munich says the move to open source has saved it more than <b>€10million Euros </b>and thats how they kicked microsoft out of the city. Read more <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-steve-ballmer-and-kicked-microsoft-out-of-the-city/" target="_blank">here</a> Now you can imagine the amount of money African governments will be saving if they choose to go open source.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3FSwe7-6wqe6an5Srj_w0OSZuivB3VxehoA1LxJRLzYSmhePpwiXdMJU1f5Rfn3WcHuViTxc-K4HbS_gBp_zbQl8Wk21Ok8AzwiVdB8OhBPzsVtOc5uQa2aJd7JX-BOzoJR2uoo1FZ4p/s1600/Raindolf+Owusu+and+Jon+Maddog+Hill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO3FSwe7-6wqe6an5Srj_w0OSZuivB3VxehoA1LxJRLzYSmhePpwiXdMJU1f5Rfn3WcHuViTxc-K4HbS_gBp_zbQl8Wk21Ok8AzwiVdB8OhBPzsVtOc5uQa2aJd7JX-BOzoJR2uoo1FZ4p/s1600/Raindolf+Owusu+and+Jon+Maddog+Hill.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Hall_(programmer)" target="_blank">Jon “Maddog” Hall</a> (In the picture on your left) Executive Director of Linux International also said there are many good reasons for governments to be running open source software, the primary reason being security. He cautioned, however, that “security is about more than just keeping secrets safe. We have to ask the question ‘can our government systems survive if our software systems collapse?’ If you’re depending on a particular company to run your government and you don’t have access to the source code you don’t have security.”</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWtfOUxFETXSp4V_JOplaUQvo9WtoBNdZBsaCaY7YCfW9arKTWIIoWaXE_0LpWtgCEuS-AIZFXT66IsaKcE9KadN67hYtpwbcpf4kuGujsGKQidXrlhqM3YjDiqdS0_261-W4YesW_XHi/s1600/Dr+Keats+and+Suleman+from+Zanziba.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWtfOUxFETXSp4V_JOplaUQvo9WtoBNdZBsaCaY7YCfW9arKTWIIoWaXE_0LpWtgCEuS-AIZFXT66IsaKcE9KadN67hYtpwbcpf4kuGujsGKQidXrlhqM3YjDiqdS0_261-W4YesW_XHi/s1600/Dr+Keats+and+Suleman+from+Zanziba.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>There have been major setbacks in the open source movement here in Africa , late last year South African Department of Basic Education banned Free and Open Source Software in SA Schools and mandates programming an ancient, moribund language in contradiction of government's own policy. A good friend and mentor of mine Derek Keats (On my left hand in the second picture) spoke out against it and you can read it <a href="http://dkeats.com/index.php?module=blog&postid=gen21srv8nme0_40332_1381256759&action=viewsingle&userid=7050120123" target="_blank">here </a> Two of the many interesting points he raised in his own words were "The decision to allow only a single office suite from a single license rental company (Microsoft) is anti-competitive, and denies school learners exposure to a variety of viable alternative office suites that could indeed run even on said operating system, and also denies other companies access to the school environment. " The directive locks school children to a particular company's product, hiding from them that there are viable alternatives that they can have full control over, and that does not lock them into being customers of a particular license rental company (indeed that do not extract rents from artificial scarcity at all and that respects their freedom). "</div>
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In Ghana's case it is even worse since we do not have any open source policy that I know of and also in schools students are introduced to Windows, Microsoft Suits and other proprietary systems. When it comes to programming Visual Basic , Microsoft dot net etc Most of the I.T lecturers themselves are running windows so I keep asking myself this question <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2013/03/where-is-ghanas-gold-in-our-earth-or-in.html" target="_blank">Where is Ghana’s Gold: In our earth or in our minds?</a> </div>
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Somewhere in July 2012 , as a move for me to get most people interested in linux here in Ghana. I was so ambitious to launch a linux based operating system in other words another linux distro called <a href="http://anansios.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Anansi OS</a>. The idea was for it to come pre-installed with the basic software we use in Africa like office , media players etc and in the future with the help of more code contributors add a bundle of educational tools targeting our educational system in Africa and possibly with a local language ( Swahili and twi etc. ) keyboard layout and localisation of some of these educational tools. This project was faced with a massive backlash from the Ghanaian developer community. People raised both constructive criticism and also others simply lambasted the project. It created one of the longest threads on our Ghanaian developer mailing lists people raised questions on the tools i chose , if it had any unique selling point etc I finally decided to put the source code on Git for other devs to contribute to make the software evolve and till date not a single developer has followed up on the project or contributed code as you can see here https://github.com/raindolf/Anansi This tells you the problem with the dev community. More talk and less action. There is no spirit of collaboration. As a result I hardly attend dev meetups and also opted out from the linux user group.<br />
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Open source development is limited in Ghana because programmers are too busy trying to earn a basic living than to donate their time to creating open source code. The main carriers of open source in Ghana will be senior devs like <a href="https://twitter.com/nukturnal" target="_blank">Alfred Rowe </a> ( Senior Ruby dev ) , Saya guys ( <a href="https://twitter.com/rlamptey" target="_blank">Robert </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/badu_bizzle" target="_blank">Badu</a> ) and many more starups building software on complete open source technology stack. The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE), Ghana's first Advanced Information Technology Institute is the only institute that runs open source operating systems completely ,from their administrator computer to the students and in this way they do microsoft a big disservice. </div>
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I continuously put my money where my mouth is. I have open sourced each and every <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">project I have worked on personally.</a> Open this <a href="https://github.com/raindolf?tab=repositories" target="_blank">link</a> to view my <a href="https://github.com/raindolf?tab=repositories" target="_blank">repositories</a>. My believe is that to get more people to adapt to open source we have to start from the grass roots. The absence of many viable community of FOSS developers in Africa is the biggest weakness of the FOSS movement in Africa. This is because the availability of a pool of developers, testers, documenters, translators etc is drawn from the community. I have also presented on how Africa can be an open source society. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/26414214" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="427"> </iframe> </div>
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<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/raindolf/africa-as-an-osc-by-raindolf-owusu" target="_blank" title="Africa as an Open source community. ">Africa as an Open source community. </a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/raindolf" target="_blank">Raindolf Owusu</a></strong> </div>
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Lets start from introducing the younger generation to open source and the benefits. I would finally want progressive people to join me to start a movement here in Ghana. Our mission will be at least once or twice every month we will choose and go to a random Junior High School or Senior high school and for about 3 hours on a saturday introduce them to the linux shell or open source programming. In the near future we will partner with major stakeholders to introduce open source policies into the Educational curriculum. Send me an email here iraindolf [ at ] gmail.com if you want to become a part of this new linux movement. </div>
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"We want knowledge, we want information, we want freedom. Hinder us not and aid us if you will. But dare not call yourselves civilized while we remain where we are." - <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/05/guido-sohne-is-my-role-model.html" target="_blank">Guido Sohne </a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-3250936440179168062013-12-23T09:33:00.002-08:002013-12-23T09:33:57.666-08:00Hey, I'm a Thoughtworker and #ComeHome !<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwOhdvRmI0EbYlGdbW5yXN0u97KZ5e-Bj85m6UlH3GakzIA48BUuJuZ4Bvkg2n7b-C2CqAOax0p6I_QbS6as816X4DFG1n0N3E-6N6z6tUklSw6gN_TU-DCZuaN1LhEIZ6wR6jVTVLN_8/s1600/20130828_103332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwOhdvRmI0EbYlGdbW5yXN0u97KZ5e-Bj85m6UlH3GakzIA48BUuJuZ4Bvkg2n7b-C2CqAOax0p6I_QbS6as816X4DFG1n0N3E-6N6z6tUklSw6gN_TU-DCZuaN1LhEIZ6wR6jVTVLN_8/s200/20130828_103332.jpg" width="200" /></a>During the last summer vacation from school , I got an offer to join <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ThoughtWorksPanAfrica" target="_blank">Thoughtworks Pan-Africa</a> in the Kampala, Uganda office. I was excited to receive such an opportunity to join this revolutionary tech company and also to travel to an East African country to learn their culture and meet new people.<br />
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Let me give you a gist about <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com/" target="_blank">Thoughtworks Inc</a>. Thoughtworks was founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Roy_Singham" target="_blank">Roy Singham</a> , we are a community of passionate individuals whose purpose is to revolutionize software design, creation and delivery, while advocating for positive social change. We have over 2500 employees, with 29 offices in 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, Germany, India, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You can learn more about us here <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com/about-us">http://www.thoughtworks.com/about-us</a> Thoughtworks is a leader in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development" target="_blank">Agile software development</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/ThoughtWorksPanAfrica" target="_blank">Thoughtworks Pan-Africa</a> is focused on hiring local talent to help in the design and creation of software. This is a game changer in technology here in Africa since most foreign technology companies set up marketing offices in Africa, in order to sell their products to the masses because they do not believe African techies are baked enough to help in the building of softwares. I was enthused over this and also happy to be a part of this new tech wave here.<br />
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Working at Thoughtworks was simply amazing and I will give you a feel of my experience. Prior to joining Thoughtworks, my technology stack was mostly .net framework , VB , java , C++ , php , mysql , html , javascript but after two months of working about two different social impacting projects my technology stack , programming patterns became more advanced and my github repository is prove of that <a href="https://github.com/raindolf?tab=repositories" target="_blank">https://github.com/raindolf?tab=repositories.</a> These are a few build tools and languages I was working with Python , Django , Ruby on rails and postgresql. TW programming patterns relies heavily on Agile and Object Oriented programming principles. This is a demo ruby OOP program i wrote with a colleague called <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Packing-lot" target="_blank">Parking Lot</a>. I had a feel of Agile practices like Pair programming and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development" target="_blank">Test driven development</a> which was a bit difficult at the beginning but adapted to it quickly. Open this <a href="http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-may-2013.pdf" target="_blank">link</a> to check out our <a href="http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-may-2013.pdf" target="_blank">Technology Radar</a> which includes our build tools , programming languages , techniques , platforms etc The team I worked with was patient and they made me feel at home. I miss them so much. See below a few pix from Kampala :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BjQnaRnTMFuO4xNNvAwTBxPOneUHAHl7Np-jJwgYVr3H7488N4qrK5IHhoRBBqV2GYgnxwu_vRODQMm8hm23mx_L1g2JrUPBI9XzSPo4s9JcB8kyqTTxFE6Ly2JZZcNnC25C4LYbl7x6/s1600/IMG-20130809-WA0016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7BjQnaRnTMFuO4xNNvAwTBxPOneUHAHl7Np-jJwgYVr3H7488N4qrK5IHhoRBBqV2GYgnxwu_vRODQMm8hm23mx_L1g2JrUPBI9XzSPo4s9JcB8kyqTTxFE6Ly2JZZcNnC25C4LYbl7x6/s200/IMG-20130809-WA0016.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2kNpY3D6SvGrUejnVWOnXU9Toab8aRtn-mSIDPsfhxAjbsk4KJGmGZM-hBtpxBZm2oGycYupHrhgzkyyBKX_Th9IjvqOI2x0aArA-muabtbiIdEVfh-UIHD34oNhoA8DDtTdj6yJTg8jW/s1600/IMG-20130809-WA0017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2kNpY3D6SvGrUejnVWOnXU9Toab8aRtn-mSIDPsfhxAjbsk4KJGmGZM-hBtpxBZm2oGycYupHrhgzkyyBKX_Th9IjvqOI2x0aArA-muabtbiIdEVfh-UIHD34oNhoA8DDtTdj6yJTg8jW/s200/IMG-20130809-WA0017.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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We have offices in Uganda and South Africa. The homeland of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah , <a href="http://jobs.thoughtworks.com/Ghana/JobDetail?id=1315" target="_blank">Ghana</a> is the next stop.......yaaaay! If you have a passion for technology and want to be a part of this revolution <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com/join" target="_blank">join us</a>.We encourage more women to apply, most of our great engineers and business analysts are women. Meet our awesome Regional Director of ThoughtWorks Pan Africa <a href="http://www.tech360ng.com/ladiesintechstories-meet-betty-enyonam-kumahor/" target="_blank">Enyonam Kumahor. </a> We already involved in the Ghanaian community , we sponsored <a href="http://www.woman21summit.org/woman-2-1-summit-2013-comes-october-18-19-accra/" target="_blank">Women 2.1 Summit</a> and the <a href="http://accra.startupweekend.org/" target="_blank">Start-up weekend Accra</a>. Okay I know i'm talking too much..Watch this awesome video and meet our awesome Pan-African team..<br />
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Finally we are inviting you to attend our #ComeHome cocktail this holiday season on Friday 27th December , 2013 @ <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=villa+monticello+accra&fb=1&hq=villa+monticello+accra" target="_blank">Villa Monticello</a> . Join <a href="https://twitter.com/enyok" target="_blank">Betty Enyonam Kumahor</a>, Regional Director of ThoughtWorks Pan Africa, to spend an evening exploring how Africans are returning home and contributing to Africa’s continued development using technology as their tool. Yours truly will be there with my fellow TWER's <a href="https://twitter.com/UchMok" target="_blank">Uchenna Moka </a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/edemkumodzi" target="_blank">Edem Kumodzi </a>. Join us @ ThoughtWorks Pan Africa and be a part of Africa's technology revolution <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com/events/thoughtworks-africa-comehome-cocktail-events" target="_blank">Register today for this event today</a>!<br />
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Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. - <a href="http://martinfowler.com/" target="_blank">Martin Fowler </a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-83174715500119632652013-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:002013-12-19T10:03:55.524-08:00Is it my time to dropout from the university ? <br />
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I don't
want to pretend that I am the only person to think of this, nor that
I will be the only person trying it - but there are both good and bad reasons why I contemplate on leaving school to pursue technology full time .Hearing of the success stories of Bill Gates , Steve Jobs , Zuck and other great entrepreneurs who dropped out of college to start their companies has been my number one motivation in technology. What I always keep in mind is we are from two different worlds and you cannot take approaches that work in the West and think it will work in Africa, there will be so many failures than you can imagine.</div>
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I'm currently in my final year in the University and the founder / lead developer of a two year old start-up company called <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis Websoft</a> plus I double as an application developer at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ThoughtWorksPanAfrica" target="_blank">Thoughtworks Pan - Africa</a> an agile software consultancy that aims to revolutionize the IT industry in Africa and create positive social change. </div>
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I lost interest in theoretical computer science as opposed to practical construction of software systems after my first year in the university. Since then I've managed to balance my work with my academic activities although the ratio between work and school is 70 : 30 . I love the education process but I think ours in Ghana has been put in place to kill creativity. Each month a horde of new programmers, freshly trained out of Universities and professional ICT institutions graduate with impressive looking syllabuses, certificates ,degrees etc. claiming skills in Java, C++, C, Php, JavaScript, COM, Oracle, SQL, HTML and MS Office. The problem is that, though the syllabus looks good and would be a good starting point for being a software and web developer, students do not spend time working on their personal projects like I do and instead code for a grade “A” in exams. </div>
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Bottom line: We students are less than half-baked and cannot do productive work.</div>
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Those who get jobs afterwards land more technical jobs like computer administrators, hardware jobs and so on. Instead of utilizing the methodologies we learnt in programming and so on. Companies who hire us in Ghana for such job do not realize that we can actually build software to make their work a lot easy. </div>
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I don't want to derail from the topic at hand. I spend late nights ( 11pm - 5:30am ) hiking on the internet and become oblivious of the fact that I have to be in school at 8:30am. I end up taking naps in school. Pictures of me has gone viral on campus so many times for sleeping in class. ( see below ) Just like most geeks , I hate sleeping , I feel we have slept all our life and this is the time for us to innovative and make a lot of mistakes. Is this good reason enough for me to put aside school and take on the world ? Technology waits for no man , I can't finish school before implementing all the crazy ideas I have in mind. In this context is school an obstacle ? Or should I finally dropout ?</div>
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Should I fulfil my mother's wish of graduating. If I do so , I will be the first and maybe the only son to graduate from the university in my family of eight with 6 siblings ( 3 boys & 3 girls ) Is this a good reason to stay in school this last year or just drop out once and for all ?<br />
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I come from a society where majority of the youth enroll in the university to gain authentication ( degree ) to secure jobs in the future. Do I need papers to authenticate myself or is it my works that will vindicate my talent in technology? I have all these question running in my mind but I guess at the end of the day I will just sail through.<br />
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The first semester of Level 400 is almost over and I think I have come a long way to just drop out. Dropping out is two things. It's either success or failure - Great entrepreneurs are risk takers who have all gotten over one very significant hurdle: they are not afraid of failure. That's not to say that they rush in with reckless abandon. In fact, entrepreneurs are often successful because they are calculating and able to make the best decisions in even the worst of cases.. The decision is yours ? To all the great men in Africa who made it without a degree Kudos to you and to those like me who are passing through the system to make things right more grease to our elbows :) At the end of the day i'm a Humble programmer with a big mouth :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTXAkLo-bqP0ZNywj3SblbqJJPlkxwoCWPR_U28EEO6iBUjt5ka-4HFpOcDlVbRJ2k6txlfkbKy1ujTGlMU4CxW8Qy26N06aIZFWkn6e9BgHDPoKU9OnkxCNTsXrcubKvkZs-u8H3ID_a-/s1600/Raindolf+Owusu+In+school+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTXAkLo-bqP0ZNywj3SblbqJJPlkxwoCWPR_U28EEO6iBUjt5ka-4HFpOcDlVbRJ2k6txlfkbKy1ujTGlMU4CxW8Qy26N06aIZFWkn6e9BgHDPoKU9OnkxCNTsXrcubKvkZs-u8H3ID_a-/s400/Raindolf+Owusu+In+school+.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Thats me in the blue African print in school this semester sharing Ideas during a class seminar. </div>
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At large <a href="http://raindolf.com/" target="_blank">www.raindolf.com </a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-28998762807429178302013-07-11T08:47:00.001-07:002013-07-11T08:47:59.453-07:00Oasis @ 2 : The journey thus far.I launched <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis Websoft</a> on 11th, July 2011. Last year in July, we celebrated our first year of hard work , dedication and this is a blog post I wrote to tell our story<a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/07/oasis-websoft-1.html" target="_blank"> Oasis WebSoft @ 1</a>.<br />
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Time flies so fast and it's now been two years since we set out to create advanced software by providing superior solutions for web applications, web sites and traditional GUI/console open source software. We are committed in building infrastructure that will ensure that the West African sub-region is not left behind in the continuous evolution of information technology.<br />
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This past year has not been an easy one but despite a lot of <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/10/agonies-of-african-programmer-part-2.html" target="_blank">challenges</a> we have kept our eyes on the bigger picture. I hope this blog post will give you a deeper understanding on what goes on in our technology camp and will hopefully answer a lot of your questions.<br />
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Over the last year we have worked on a lot of projects spanning from building web solutions for companies in the fashion space like <a href="http://frozenjungle.com/" target="_blank">Frozen Jungle Clothing</a> , Agriculture: <a href="http://avicolafarms.com/" target="_blank">Avicola Farms</a> ,<a href="http://transfarm-africa.com/" target="_blank">Transfarm Africa </a> , <a href="http://mvphair.com/" target="_blank">MVP Hair</a> and technology: <a href="http://intelligenttelemetry.com/" target="_blank">Intelligent telemetry </a> .<br />
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In the open source and software field we have built <a href="http://diabetes.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Dr Diabetes </a> : A web application that allows you to know your diabetes status. We have open sourced it so you can contribute code or build codes on top of it here <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Diabetes-Webapp" target="_blank">Diabetes - Webapp </a>.We joined forces with other African developers to develop <a href="http://africapp.com/" target="_blank">Africapp </a>: Africapp is a cross platform and multicultural African App offering service. To serve the growing need of mobile users in Africa and diaspora, this service is aimed at making the developers ecosystem more viable and providing registered developers a renowned platform to showcase their apps and get paid. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9T3bEUrczDiyc_CVnJwbI4wuh9bFKyZIacah9xz_q5f77itLRgLNlGJCfW42pyAHnnubTKJRmeTA1JBFeYeZwWIqqs3tigGBwhiH7DJrWZAy11Z8K_Pn3NOzcnviyYggifwbKansxmoiH/s1600/27223_DSC_0837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9T3bEUrczDiyc_CVnJwbI4wuh9bFKyZIacah9xz_q5f77itLRgLNlGJCfW42pyAHnnubTKJRmeTA1JBFeYeZwWIqqs3tigGBwhiH7DJrWZAy11Z8K_Pn3NOzcnviyYggifwbKansxmoiH/s320/27223_DSC_0837.jpg" width="320" /></a>Our other open source projects include <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/African-Grading-Program-GUI" target="_blank">African Grading Program</a> ,<a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Dollar-2-Cedis-Currency-Converter" target="_blank"> Dollar to Cedis Converter </a> ,<a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Stack-Demo" target="_blank"> Java Stack Demo </a> and <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Options-script" target="_blank">Linux option scripts </a> The reason we invest our time and resources in open source is because: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people fix bugs.<br />
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In April of this year I was invited to Germany by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) the Development Policy Forum of GIZ ( Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit ) where I met with Gudrun Kopp, Parliamentarian State Secretary,Federal Ministry for economic cooperation and development, Germany.I also promoted my work via presentations , interviews ,met other techies and hubs etc. Other photos from my trip can be found here <a href="http://www.facebook.com/raindolf/media_set?set=a.10201173956015675.1073741826.1373486896&type=3" target="_blank">Ich Liebe Berlin</a><br />
Our work at <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis WebSoft </a> was presented at Re:publica Conference in Berlin , Germany. Fast forward the video below to the 20th minute for the awesome presentation on Oasis WebSoft !<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/NPJRK8UUFBg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Being the founder & CEO of this awesome software company has not been an easy ride since I'm still in the university. I founded this company after my first year in the university and I almost dropped out because Oasis felt like the only thing that mattered in my life ( and still does..It is my first and true love ) but I did not because this is Africa. ( if you know what I mean ) I just completed my third year in the university and I'm happy to inform everyone that I have a year more to finish the university and spend more time in the advancement of technology in Africa. I must admit that school has become my biggest obstacle due to my lack of interest in theoretical computer science as opposed to practical construction of software systems. I've opted out of so many great opportunities due to the fact that I want to win in school as much as I'm winning as the founder of Oasis.<br />
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I want to thank God for directing my ways in the decision making and all of His mercies. We at Oasis websoft want to thank everyone for your continuous support and prayers. Keep recommending our work to your family and friends. We also promise to improve Africa through software technology. Shoot me an email here raindolf [at] oasiswebsoft.com if you want to collaborate , need our service or work with us. Cheers.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-87181745051174693182013-05-23T15:13:00.000-07:002013-05-23T15:13:00.517-07:00Launch of Guido Sohne's official postmortem website and my blog just turned 1 :) <br />
Last year in March I was awarded the Guido Sohne Fellowship by Free software and Open source foundation for Africa (FOSSFA ) in Abuja , Nigeria . Today marks the birthday of the Late Guido Sohne and as the reigning Guido Sohne fellow I have built a web platform http://guidosohne.net/ that is a hub for his documentaries , conference presentations , articles / blog posts , online photos , his open source code snippets and most of his digital contributions.<br />
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Kindly open this link to view the website http://guidosohne.net/ He continues to be an inspiration to myself and other budding young software developers hoping to solve everyday African problems with technology. Check out this website and be inspired and also a big thank you to the Sohne Family for providing me with the resources !!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxuN1zpSB2o4W569Ot6FqVjHR2yoPDF_9mvyHC2MqGMmNloKCq4dczuwcymBU-KcEFr8iIdQEmkuYRzJXk8rnm4LGIT_Fbo7MYZIgkhppqEQRdRPZ2UoVUzZ9X_cZE9NlH5uLyIJ3zIVS/s1600/hacker+lab.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="89" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxuN1zpSB2o4W569Ot6FqVjHR2yoPDF_9mvyHC2MqGMmNloKCq4dczuwcymBU-KcEFr8iIdQEmkuYRzJXk8rnm4LGIT_Fbo7MYZIgkhppqEQRdRPZ2UoVUzZ9X_cZE9NlH5uLyIJ3zIVS/s200/hacker+lab.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
I started blogging last year on the 23rd of May and this was my first blog post <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/05/guido-sohne-is-my-role-model.html" target="_blank">Guido Sohne is my Role model</a> It's amazing how fast time flies by and you don't even realize it. I've posted eleven blog posts and my favorite write up till date is <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/10/agonies-of-african-programmer-part-2.html" target="_blank">Agonies of an African Programmer: Part 2</a> Below is my reader statistics: My blog has received exactly 6610 unique page views over the last one year and also United States of America is my biggest audience with 1644 page views. A big thank you to all my readers and please subscribe to this blog in order to be the first to read my latest blog post. I hope to blog more about my technological visions and experiences.<br />
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People enjoy the interaction on the Internet, and the feeling of belonging to a group that does something interesting: that's how some software projects are born. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds" target="_blank">Linus Torvalds</a> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-6533542612124269312013-05-17T19:52:00.001-07:002013-05-17T19:52:31.849-07:00Infrastructure for E-Commerce in West AfricaIt's been almost a month since my last blog post , I left for <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201173956015675.1073741826.1373486896&type=1" target="_blank">Germany </a> and will post a blog soon about my trip in a few weeks. This was meant to be a facebook <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201215889383983&set=a.1058999599909.10171.1373486896&type=1&theater" target="_blank">post</a> and felt it was too long so i decided to keep it here in my weblog.<br />
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My quest to actually build an eCommerce infrastructure in the near future to solve online payments in Ghana has forced me to start learning about Internet protocols ( IPv4,IPv6 ) , DNS , Online Security and networking etc There are a few online payments in the tech eco-system but we will love to take a shot at <a href="http://www.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">OasisWebSoft</a> or might use it as my final year project in the university by building a similar solution..<br />
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Thanks to the poor and disadvantage youth who started credit card fraud and scams in the early 2000's , we ( West Africa ) have been blacklisted from online transactions. For the last three hours I've managed to configure eight virtual pc's , 5 switches with one router on Cisco Packet Tracer.. And the beauty of it was when I was able to successfully ping one of the pc's . Guess this is a good start.Will keep you updated on my progress and i'm open for collaboration. If you have any killer idea about this project , do shoot me a mail raindolf [at] oasiswebsoft.com<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghgGlK5nCYMyl2QLh5flqQefsE0FhdMVvRXxXUKuvO0mDLGSsEJrzVAOgxdXqly17kH8tFlLzwkN5tD-koX6BHOY-m3UIRVyCMOEkGC-oC_jC80tnCcUOi5Z0AMetbYhwFuozK-Qta8Baf/s1600/pingswitch.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghgGlK5nCYMyl2QLh5flqQefsE0FhdMVvRXxXUKuvO0mDLGSsEJrzVAOgxdXqly17kH8tFlLzwkN5tD-koX6BHOY-m3UIRVyCMOEkGC-oC_jC80tnCcUOi5Z0AMetbYhwFuozK-Qta8Baf/s320/pingswitch.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-87132879318573055352013-03-05T18:18:00.000-08:002014-03-19T15:34:26.680-07:00Mbali - Light off web project <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCflF6t9KFR8fosfFokQThzNCuWtAsTCI1Pnp9iwWFzNNxPbmClJuav2kA5lF5hn9KGrtBgZbUkOIr4xqfL83UfT2ttCCWRSZkl3mHzhlsUuRmKe_DwCaahH9MCzXO4A9tDKhl-nlAYU8e/s1600/light+off.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCflF6t9KFR8fosfFokQThzNCuWtAsTCI1Pnp9iwWFzNNxPbmClJuav2kA5lF5hn9KGrtBgZbUkOIr4xqfL83UfT2ttCCWRSZkl3mHzhlsUuRmKe_DwCaahH9MCzXO4A9tDKhl-nlAYU8e/s200/light+off.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>Today my beloved land of birth <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana" target="_blank">Ghana</a> marks it's 56th year anniversary after gaining independence and also it's the first African country to gain freedom from colonial rule.<br />
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Ghana is now going through a period known as load-shedding. This is when different electrical grids in the country are rationed with power. So one section of the country may have power from 6am-6pm, and another section from 6pm-6am. Nowadays things are much better - they just cut off electricity without any warning whatsoever or the power fluctuates crazily and the electricity corporation thinks that is entirely normal. I decided to make some technological sense from this historic moment and also hope to extract some valuable feed back/data from the citizens of Ghana through this process.Light off is a term coined by Ghanaians which means power outage.<br />
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I'm a big fan of open source technologies so i decided to back this idea with a strong tech core and the platform i chose for this project was built by Africans ( An African open source innovation ) and it's <a href="http://www.ushahidi.com/" target="_blank">Ushahidi</a>. It is a tool to easily crowdsource information using multiple channels, including SMS, email, Twitter and the web.<br />
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It took me about thirty minutes to set it up on my server and also about another hour to configure it to suite my needs in terms of the site info, hash tags , categories ,maps e.t.c . I must admit it felt great using a platform that was made in Africa.I call this web project >> Mbali ( Swahili word which means " off " ) . You can kindly open this link to view the project <a href="http://mbali.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">http://mbali.oasiswebsoft.com/</a><br />
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A few hours after i set it up online, I've received up to 600 reports from a staggering 439 unique reporters via the twitter hash tags #ECG #LightOff etc ( See the image below - My ushahidi report dashboard )<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrb4fIusSQe2E7RwIFqUmHhx7Pg73-omqrq56qG2DL7_1yK__td1kYaEt-t16J330KjgT8qt2tr6CSN8pUpf4AU_RrpH4h1HqIILIDblqgSIvco2ygpBxRAzu-U_hyQhU8rggiSNkFers/s1600/dashboard.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrb4fIusSQe2E7RwIFqUmHhx7Pg73-omqrq56qG2DL7_1yK__td1kYaEt-t16J330KjgT8qt2tr6CSN8pUpf4AU_RrpH4h1HqIILIDblqgSIvco2ygpBxRAzu-U_hyQhU8rggiSNkFers/s200/dashboard.PNG" height="129" width="200" /></a></div>
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This means that we can gather a lot of data from online users from this uncomfortable light situation and make some logical sense out of it. This is a simple crazy idea i have in mind , you can also add up to mine and make Mbali the next big thing. Send me a mail if you want to contribute or you can report any adverse effects of this "Light off" on the Mbali platform or the twitter hash tags. iraindolf[at]gmail.com Happy Independence !!!!!<br />
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We want knowledge, we want information, we want freedom. Hinder us not and aid us if you will. But dare not call yourselves civilized while we remain where we are. "Guido Sohne"<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-23450849645916554292013-03-02T19:32:00.000-08:002013-03-02T19:45:53.110-08:00Where is Ghana’s Gold: In our earth or in our minds?I've been in contact with a 16 year old student in Presec legon Senior High School who sent me a mail about a month ago that he wants to join my company <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">OasisWebSoft</a> as a software developer. He has taught himself css , java script ,php,c++ and game development. I was amazed when he told me that ICT is been discourage in Senior High schools and it is an optional elective that at the end is not a part of the WASSCE exams. Apparently most lecturers advice their students not to take ICT because it will be a waste of time ( in terms of learning ) that wont even be a part of their final results.I'm wondering if this so called teachers have emails and even understand the benefits of Google, wikipedia and the internet an a whole.<br />
Every week I receive up to 3 emails from different people who have amazing ideas but need a technical person/company to bring their ideas to life. Imagine if all these people had the skills to build the crazy ideas they have: Ghana would change rapidly technologically.Afterall no body understands your ideas like you..<br />
I always say that if you want things to change, you can’t just sit around and wait for things to happen by themselves, you have to act so I'm urging anyone reading this and is by any-means affiliated to GES or WAEC they should change or inquire why ICT is not a core subject.Computers don’t change human nature<br />
ICT can catalyze and amplify real world change. There is no career in this world that doesn't have a tech back-end.Even now Kayaaye ( Stree Hawkers ) use mobile phones.The video below is two decades ahead of Ghana and i'm so sad technology is been discourage in Senior High Schools by Teachers. I'm asking again where is Ghana’s Gold: In our earth or in our minds ?<br />
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I originally wanted this article to be a post on my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/raindolf" target="_blank">facebook</a> timeline but realized it was too long so I turned it into this blog post..<br />
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You are never given a wish without also being given the<br />
power to make it true. You may have to work for it,however.<br />
-- R. Bach, "Messiah's Handbook :Reminders for the Advanced Soul"<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-25643256855722268612013-02-16T14:48:00.001-08:002013-02-16T14:57:03.599-08:00Why I love linux system programming? <br />
Happy New Year to all my great readers and may this year bring us a lot of blessings. This is my first blog post for the year 2013 and also writing it a day after my end of semester exams. I am enthusiastic over this one month vacation I have at home , I hope to post a few more articles and see to it that we release a killer app <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">@ Oasiswebsoft</a> ( My software dev company ) before I resume school.<br />
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I took a break off application programming in November last year to perfect my skills in linux system programming. The main difference between the two is application programming aims to produce software which provides services to the user (e.g. <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/apps-and-softwares/" target="_blank">Anansi Calcpad</a>), whereas systems programming aims to produce software which provides services to the computer hardware (e.g. disk clean up).<br />
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Even if you think you're not a programmer, Linux has some features to make your life a bit easier. Any time you have a repetitive task that involves entering Linux commands or changing the contents of a file, you should think about automating it with a program in linux.I installed an old version of Ubuntu 11.10 ( It’s a linux distribution and a stable build ) and started playing around with the terminal ; doing some basic stuff like echoing the name of the terminal , writing simple addition programs , sleep , pwd and spent more time online reading about file permissions ( Read, Write , Execute ) , appending output file ,variables , shell scripting , process structure , for loops and many interesting stuffs.<br />
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The Bash shell is your main port of entry to Linux, since the shell interprets everything you enter on the command line before passing it along to the operating system for execution. I fell in love with shell scripting because unlike java you didn't need to assign data types ( Int , float , string , char ) when declaring a variable and you do not need a terminator (semi – colon ; ) in most instances.<br />
eg. In java :<br />
int $num1 = 70;<br />
in shell scripting :<br />
num1 = 20<br />
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Often, writing a shell script is much faster than writing the equivalent code in other programming languages like java and python. The many advantages include easy program or file selection, quick start, and interactive debugging. A shell script can be used to provide sequencing and decision-making linkage around existing programs, and for moderately-sized scripts the absence of a compilation step is an advantage. Interpretive running makes it easy to write debugging code into a script and rerun it to detect and fix bugs. Non-expert users can use scripting to tailor the behavior of programs, and shell scripting provides some limited scope for multiprocessing.<br />
We will write a simple script that will allow us to let the bash sleep for a while, delete all the files that is starts with KLM.<br />
STEP 1: Let’s create three files in the bash terminal<br />
touch klm1<br />
touch klm2<br />
touch klm3<br />
STEP 2: Let’s give all the three files all permissions rights for the user, group and others.<br />
Chmod 777 klm*<br />
NB: * stands for all files .<br />
To view all files with the date last edited or permission rights and details use this command ls –la (Long listing) and check if all files have all the rights.<br />
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We will now write a simple program in the VI Editor to sleep for 5 seconds and afterwards delete all files.<br />
echo “ Your text here “<br />
Sleep 5<br />
rm klm*<br />
Final step is to execute this program in the main shell. To execute it use this simple command bash and the name of the file in the VI Editor.eg bash killklm<br />
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You have now created a simple shell script that automates the process of putting the shell to sleep and deleting the files that start with the word KLM. With just these few lines of code you can easily build a simple program in Linux.These are screen grubs from the simple script we wrote above in the bash terminal and the VI Editor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvtXQjhOKBc-Chbgud6zegg6qZLnO9nbCqrhYeeb5tzxhbp6C2UC2VsGNuP-znRaiMwtLVekO7n_dNRyEnH7oIBFyfoaVTfpyELBNKqHi3mOfwM1aOMDpaunyo2cYppSiHRSaulfRqJa0/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvtXQjhOKBc-Chbgud6zegg6qZLnO9nbCqrhYeeb5tzxhbp6C2UC2VsGNuP-znRaiMwtLVekO7n_dNRyEnH7oIBFyfoaVTfpyELBNKqHi3mOfwM1aOMDpaunyo2cYppSiHRSaulfRqJa0/s200/1.png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBGqBKubPUE2ZgvBsnWvEFWZ15o2-7AEW-exO8WvpFj7zMBvaXtycjzFPIANKZexy_idvMYbRibTYNuyfmqJzQEKNTV1q_mEX3BPkq8SKAQXi6OPy_1SWSJDHmKKVTQlmDLc6k0g2xc5W7/s1600/Screenshot+at+2013-02-16+19_28_39.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBGqBKubPUE2ZgvBsnWvEFWZ15o2-7AEW-exO8WvpFj7zMBvaXtycjzFPIANKZexy_idvMYbRibTYNuyfmqJzQEKNTV1q_mEX3BPkq8SKAQXi6OPy_1SWSJDHmKKVTQlmDLc6k0g2xc5W7/s200/Screenshot+at+2013-02-16+19_28_39.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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Now let’s write a little complex program. This program that will have 5 options eg.<br />
echo "SELECT A NUMBER“<br />
(1 FOR LOVE (2 FOR DRUGS (3 FOR SPORTS (4 FOR HEALTH<br />
(5 EDUCATION <br />
Each option will contain a text eg. Love : feel tender affection for somebody so when a user choose is a number 1-5 it will display a text.<br />
In the bash terminal you use the cat syntax to input append a text into a file:<br />
Eg: cat > drugs<br />
You will find the complete source code to a dummy program I wrote here on my <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Options-script" target="_blank">github repository</a> it contains a for loop and CASE conditions. Unlike java I did not have to import any special packages to allow the user to input text. Enjoy!! <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Options-script" target="_blank">https://github.com/raindolf/Options-script </a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-pgRRAhukOwoSzYZh2OkEiQ9HyVXl3HtzkvtPNVtIpmydE1tCpz33jO00V_GcscS6_pIWODfECWz99WD3A3gZx_XuvZvy9x3y3IE8zeurV740hpfUD7LCoOvJrVM2kAZFRwZn3hIQ3yW/s1600/snapshot.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-pgRRAhukOwoSzYZh2OkEiQ9HyVXl3HtzkvtPNVtIpmydE1tCpz33jO00V_GcscS6_pIWODfECWz99WD3A3gZx_XuvZvy9x3y3IE8zeurV740hpfUD7LCoOvJrVM2kAZFRwZn3hIQ3yW/s200/snapshot.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
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If you've ever written a simple console program ,word processor macro or a spreadsheet formula, you're a programmer. By taking advantage of Linux's built-in programming features, you can automate repetitive tasks and build simple interactive applications without a degree in computer science.Send me a mail if you have any question or contribution iraindolf [at] gmail.com<br />
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"Software is like sex: it's better when it's free." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds" target="_blank">Linus Torvalds</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-79753913113215313972012-12-31T09:08:00.001-08:002012-12-31T09:08:22.815-08:002012 was simply amazing...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvH3k7CRENYTgwIzMJRd3f00zcHt4txpfykPpHXcqiZ5gwrq8QjgT7pY6pBbJ5jzRNqI7VPmsWHNRAu_eP6VybWXXLr0OhQmToJHYT7WhcmxE2CzqiRJraZHk5Y4ypsGfkslRwL_0CNVHz/s1600/DSC_0013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvH3k7CRENYTgwIzMJRd3f00zcHt4txpfykPpHXcqiZ5gwrq8QjgT7pY6pBbJ5jzRNqI7VPmsWHNRAu_eP6VybWXXLr0OhQmToJHYT7WhcmxE2CzqiRJraZHk5Y4ypsGfkslRwL_0CNVHz/s320/DSC_0013.jpg" width="320" /></a>I entered the year 2012 as a random web and software developer. As usual i was still struggling to blend my life as a second year student of Methodist University College Ghana and my life as the founder of a software development start-up <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis Websoft. </a> Oasis WebSoft was developed with the idea to provide web and software solutions here in Ghana and beyond. It was almost three months since I had left my job as the lead software developer @ 9ja Mini, a start-up by a good Nigerian friend of mine which aims to bring all social chat apps to one platform via a mobile and web app.This is a small documentary we shot during one of our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrRA0b_MRFQ" target="_blank">late night hackerthon at 9ja Mini - </a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrRA0b_MRFQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrRA0b_MRFQ</a> <br /> My year started off with the official launch of Anansi web browser which i developed with two of my good friends namely Aaron and Gyanta.The beta version of the Anansi web browser became a quick success and we have since had 3,678 downloads on <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Anansi-Browser.shtml" target="_blank">softpedia</a> In 2013 we will be releasing the full version with a <a href="http://code.google.com/p/chromium/" target="_blank">Chromium engine </a> The picture above is a picture of me (<span style="color: red;"> in red</span> ) Displaying Anansi web browser to my friends on my university campus and demonstrating how it works for the first time in November 2011.<br />
After the launch of the web browser i wrote a <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Java-Matrix-Library" target="_blank">Java Matrix Library</a> that includes calculation of determinants, matrix multiplication, addition, encoding ,decoding ,cipher ,Gauss Jordan and echelon of a matrix.I wrote it in the Java programming language and can be run on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.Our first method calculates the determinant of a two by two sized matrix.It was quickly adopted by Softpedia and added to their database of <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/Components-Libraries/Java-Matrix-Library.shtml" target="_blank">software programs</a> for the Windows operating system. I did this project as part of my contribution to the open source community.<br />
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In march I was awarded by the Free software and Open Source for Africa (FOSSFA) in Abuja Nigeria as a Guido Sohne fellow in recognition of my continuous use and support for open source technologies such as Linux,Fedora and Drupal, and for having a technological vision for Africa just like the late Guido Sohne. I posted a blog post about my award and the late Guido Sohne called <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/05/guido-sohne-is-my-role-model.html" target="_blank">Guido Sohne is my role model.</a></div>
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We also launched and deployed <a href="http://www.anansios.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Anansi Operating System ( Linux Distribution )</a> which we built with open source technologies like Suse and Kiwi. Currently we have released the complete source code here <a href="https://github.com/raindolf/Anansi" target="_blank">https://github.com/raindolf/Anansi </a> We have embeded all the basic softwares and system wares that will enhance your desktop connectivity examples are wine-devel package,apache2 package, audacity package,libreoffice-base package,anansi softwares,netbeans-javaparser package plus many more. With the help of more code contributors we hope to add a bundle of educational tools targeting our educational system in Africa and possibly with a local language ( Swahili and twi etc. ) keyboard layout and localisation of some of these educational tools. </div>
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Other software we also launched were <a href="http://diabetes.oasiswebsoft.com/index.php?step=1" target="_blank">Diabetes web app</a> (It is a simple web application that allows you to know your diabetes status. ) , <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Anansi-CalcPad.shtml" target="_blank">Anansi Calcpad</a> is a handy application we developed in tandem with Seafire Software that allows you to perform basic calculations in a familiar interface. The software also allows you to take notes in the Story Pad view.You can access Google Reader from the application’s menu (the News Aggregator View) in order to read news. We also deployed our first mobile app called Anansi app . It mobile app that is a social news blog that delivers latest news and information from CNN,TechCrunch and Oasis WebSoft plus you learn to also code via my you-tube channel. Download now from the <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c42d665-6013-4616-8dd0-3ee58016c34c" style="background-color: white; color: #7d181e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">Windows phone market place.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c42d665-6013-4616-8dd0-3ee58016c34c" style="background-color: white; color: #7d181e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;">http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c42d665-6013-4616-8dd0-3ee58016c34c</a></div>
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Finally my company joined forces with other African developers to develop and launch <a href="http://africapp.com/" target="_blank">Africapp</a>. A pan-African mobile application store that aims to serve the growing need of mobile users in Africa and Diaspora.</div>
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My company was nominated for the 2012 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (AAE) due to our exceptional entrepreneurial achievements. I am currently featured in the November issue of Forbes Africa Magazine dubbed “Mark Zuckerburg of Accra”. I was given an award by Methodist University's Student Representative Council for being the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3852505555812.168536.1373486896&type=3" target="_blank">University's Achiever of the Year 2012</a> and also featured in my school's home page <a href="http://www.mucg.edu.gh/">http://www.mucg.edu.gh/</a> I was also interviewed on Ghana's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXZ2E6OvD-8" target="_blank">E.tv The Be Bold show </a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXZ2E6OvD-8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXZ2E6OvD-8</a></div>
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I also did some key note presentations. My major one was at the first ever IT Leaders West Africa Summit held in Ghana. I spoke on engaging with mobile technology. I also did a presentation on Building the African Web for Mobile @ Mobile Monday. </div>
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My start up company grew from a small software company into providing web and software solutions to companies as well as individuals in Ghana and beyond. Some of our clients include <a href="http://mvphair.com/index/" target="_blank">MVP Hair </a> , <a href="http://odoomandassociates.com/" target="_blank">Odoom & Associates, LLC</a> ( USA ) and <a href="http://www.africanedp.com/" target="_blank">African Economic Development Plan ( USA ) </a></div>
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I concluded the year by helping the Barcamp Ghana team, Google Ghana and Ghana Think foundation organize Barcamp Accra in my university .Barcamp Accra assembled Accra stakeholders , mentors and youth together in one building. The theme was “Removing fear of failure as a start of success. Check our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200259717280278.194948.1373486896&type=3" target="_blank">photos</a> from the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200259717280278.194948.1373486896&type=3" target="_blank">ev</a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200259717280278.194948.1373486896&type=3" target="_blank">ent here >></a></div>
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My predictions for next year is to grow our revenues , expand our <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/apps-and-softwares/online-school/" target="_blank">online teaching school</a> , employ and train a few more people. We also hope to advocate the use of Free and Open source technologies to boost economic growth and reduce poverty through mobile, web and software solutions in Ghana and the rest of Africa.Hard work will always beat talent :) Although I do not expect to finish my work within this life time , i will do my best and let God handle the rest. I want to thank each and everyone who believes in my vision.God Bless you all and in 2013 we will continue our good work. Happy new year :) #TeamOasis </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-87306939185930444632012-12-11T18:05:00.001-08:002012-12-11T18:05:19.041-08:00My Guest blog post on Start Smart at Entrepreneur's Corner<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I like to describe myself as a technology enthusiast and aspiring entrepreneur. What I’m currently focusing on is the development of apps to help solve everyday problems in Africa. The apps I’ve developed thus far include mobile, software and web apps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">As an entrepreneur I think there a number of things that can determine whether you succeed or fail. For me, some of the things that have helped me along the way have been:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">My faith- The life of an entrepreneur can be particularly stressful, and I’ve found that my strong religious background has been a great source of support for me.</span></div>
<a href="" name="more" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></a><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">My mother- She’s been an amazing role model for me. Throughout her career she’s challenged herself and sought new opportunities. She’s also been extremely supportive of me and encourages me to be creative and optimistic about the work that I’m doing. As a software entrepreneur this has been extremely helpful, I’ve learned to become comfortable with experiential learning. I love trying out new technologies and learning new ways of doing things</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Welcoming failure and feedback- Failure is a part of every learning process and being an entrepreneur involves opening yourself up to learning all the time. Making mistakes pushes you to find ways to find the most appropriate solution. In addition to making and learning from mistakes feedback is very important. As entrepreneurs we often make the mistake of assuming that everyone around us, including our potential consumers will see our vision the way we see it. Remember the customer is always right so it’s important to gather feedback early on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Stay motivated and creative!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Raindolf </span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.startsmartgh.blogspot.com/2012/12/guest-blogger-raindolf-owusu.html </span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-2296371556197278812012-10-03T17:25:00.000-07:002012-10-03T17:56:01.844-07:00Agonies of an African Programmer: Part 2<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Working as
an independent mobile, web and software developer in Africa can be a trying
experience. Africa for so long has being
recognized by the world as an agricultural continent and for the past decade
many software developers ( African Code Kings )
are working tirelessly to prove that we are also a technological nation
by building great websites , mobile apps and softwares that aims to solve our
problems on the ground. This does not come at a cheap cost. We live in an
environment that tech equipment cost 2-4 times than what it does in Europe and
the USA, where technical books are almost nonexistent, where there are no
credit cards to purchase from Amazon.( We have been blacklisted from paypal ). </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
In Africa there is a problem, people still think Technology comes in a box like
a camcorder, computer, laptop, iPad and so on..Let's all visualize technology
as a process and something we are going to build ourselves here in Africa. I have
listed below a few of the agonies myself and most developers go through as
African Code Kings. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">LOAD-SHEDDING.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Infamous
"load-shedding" -- a practice of cutting off electricity to whole
sections of the city in order to conserve power in Ghana. They never mind that
you need electricity to work and you need to work to eat. Nowadays things are
much better - they just cut off electricity without any warning whatsoever or
the power fluctuates crazily and the electricity corporation thinks that is
entirely normal. With this load-shedding factor you should be rest assured that
most developers cannot meet their deadlines. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">High Internet Cost<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Internet
bandwidth has being my major problem since I decided probably six years ago to
venture into software and web development. Internet bandwidth in Africa is sold
exactly at the same rate as phone credit vouchers. It is so expensive. There is
no special package for developers who consume huge amount of data. This
telecommunication companies forget that the internet possess a huge amount of informative
data that can be used as a powerful tool for boosting economic growth and
poverty reduction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Investment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most
developers set up a tech start-up in search for investors to fund their
projects. In Africa, most people do not understand the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley" target="_blank">Silicon Valley</a> style of
Angel investment and funding, this so called investors perceive technology as
selling tomatoes in the market. When they fund a start-up they are looking for
the short term profit. For strong developers who do not need this kind of
funding they work their ass out trying to fund their personal projects. They
end up taking up so many odd web dev jobs that will in turn slow down their
personal projects / innovations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Salary factor <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It takes a
lot of guts and zeal for a good African developer to turn down job offers and
internships to pursue his passion. Once the money sets in, the developer tends
to slow down in his innovations and instead works hard to better the firm or
company his working in and to gain more promotions. A web and software developer
in Africa earns from $10,000 to $20,000 dollars per annum whereas their
colleagues in Europe and the US earns at least $100,000 dollars per year. You
could be working hard to build great technologies that can help you rack in
tons of thousands dollars when you are a tech-preneur. Next time if you want to
be comfortable with such a job, think again?
<br />
I personally turned down a lot of internship and job offers when I came home
for the long vacation and I have learnt so much and earned so much recognition
for a small I.T start-up <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis Websoft,</a> I created exactly a year ago. I am currently changing from being just a developer into a great business man. <br />
Every day I meet great techies who work for huge tech companies but they would
have being better off as entrepreneurs building great technologies for Africa.
You don’t have to blame them so much; this is Africa where women would hardly
marry guys who do not have financial security. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jack of all trades and master of
nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is
difficult to find a team who believes in the same vision for them join a
start-up in Africa. You will realize that there are so many developers and
startups building similar apps instead of coming together in the spirit of free
and open source development to build one great app.<br />
An African developer tries to play all the roles in a company from being the
CEO to the company’s publicist. Instead of focusing on one thing and mastering
the art. He spends his time mastering all the aspects of a company. It is
sometimes good but it comes with its own banes.<br />
It is also great for a developer to understand all the roles but it will be
best if he can focus on one lead role and be a master of it. So in one start up
we could have a developer, user interface designer, two top coders and one
marketing guy </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">School <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Each month a
horde of new programmers, freshly trained out of Universities and professional
ICT institutions graduate with impressive looking syllabuses, certificates ,degrees
etc. claiming skills in Java, C++, C, Php, JavaScript, COM, Oracle, SQL, HTML and MS Office. The
problem is that, though the syllabus looks good and would be a good starting
point for being a software and web developer, these students do not spend time
working on their personal projects and instead code for a grade “A” in exams. <br />
Bottom line: These guys are less than half-baked and cannot do productive work.<br />
Those who get jobs afterwards land more technical jobs like computer administrators,
hardware jobs and so on. Instead utilizing the methodologies they learnt in
programming and so on. Companies who hire them for such job do not realize that
these guys can actually build software to make their work a lot easy. It time
for Africans to believe that software is actually something we can create for
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Awards and Competitions. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There's a
difference between winning technology awards & competitions verses winning
in the marketplace. The sooner African developers and start-ups recognize this,
the better. <br />
It is great to participate in code competitions and hackerthons to test your
coding skills but it is a different ball game if you want to build kick-ass
technology to solve real life African problems and make money along the way. <br />
It is also high time our environment start to stand firmly behind young African
men and women developers who are always up at dawn working on something they
believe in. It is not enough to congratulate them vocally of their
achievements, it will be right if you can support them with your resources be
it financially, intellectually, skills set and much more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Moral Of The Story <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">System.out.println
(“ It's not easy being an African
software developer. Don't give up and always Ask God for directions. Use the
right technologies for the right tasks.
The future of the African software industry lies in enabling the
scattered bunches of individual hobbyist programmers. Those people who would be
coding even if it didn't pay because that is what they like doing. People like
that should be given a chance, should be given work to do, encouraged to stick
it out. When there are enough programmers around and working as a programmer is
a viable occupation that can buy a car and build a house, the industry will
have grown up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Until then,
it is dog eat dog -- monkey go work, baboon go chop...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“);<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Learn to
appreciate the rainbow after cursing the rain. It's just like loving again
after experiencing the pain!<br /> </ Raindolf ><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">References.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>So you want to be a
Web African programmer? - Guido Sohne (2003)<br />
The Agonies of an African Programmer – Gregg Pascal Zachary<o:p></o:p></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1544tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-69658124190609364592012-08-29T10:05:00.001-07:002012-08-29T10:12:11.525-07:00Oasis WebSoft Joins Open Invention Network<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaYujvW0j1nXq2iW9V1gvCW3xNZiRS2LlKA3BWaW-2opLYFFilHiNN9gNZAObtmDV_yE_H09Sr4FOjSr_YHI6Vm-Ec7H2kZiANhNaew6YMYvwES1_GG6w0kFCf8ovaNtfA77zZxP_jy4HG/s1600/oasis+websoft22.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaYujvW0j1nXq2iW9V1gvCW3xNZiRS2LlKA3BWaW-2opLYFFilHiNN9gNZAObtmDV_yE_H09Sr4FOjSr_YHI6Vm-Ec7H2kZiANhNaew6YMYvwES1_GG6w0kFCf8ovaNtfA77zZxP_jy4HG/s200/oasis+websoft22.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
Less than three months ago, I posted a blog on<br />
<a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-african-developers-need-to-take.html" target="_blank">Why African developers need to take software patenting seriously? My $2 Million Dollar idea was Stolen</a>. This week my start-up company <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis websoft</a> joined <a href="http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/" target="_blank">Open Invention Network</a> as a licensee. We are joining huge technology companies like Facebook INC , Mozilla , Google and GNOME .<br />OIN is an organization which helps protect the Linux ecosystem by building a variety of defenses against patent attacks. These defenses include both traditional mechanisms, like defensive patent pools, and more innovative approaches, like the Linux Defenders project, which uses a variety of methods to proactively prevent the publication of particularly egregious patents. As a licensee, we’ll have access to OIN resources in case we’re threatened by operating entities with patents, and over time we’ll likely become more involved in providing our own ideas and resources to OIN projects.<br />
<br />
<br />
Patents owned by Open Invention Network are available royalty-free to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux System. By joining, Oasis Websoft receives cross-licenses from other OIN licensees, but more importantly, for the long term, it affords us a chance to work with OIN in reducing IP threats to open source development and innovation. This may include a defensive publications program that would make it harder for others to patent work created by Oasis websoft contributors, sharing defensive tactics, and cooperation to minimize patent threats.<br />
<br />
This doesn’t mean we’re suddenly enthused about patents in any way, but OIN is doing some good work, and I believe that any protections that they afford Oasis Websoft are on the whole more positive, and outweigh reservations about the patent the system. We are number 283 on the licensees list. <a href="http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/licensees.php">http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/licensees.php</a> I built my company based on open source principles and we are happy to join a great open source movement like O.I.N.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA6tdH9lcwVQgZlPE2xrghjqOLF3sNmsr6Wjsb_LzzzGRlU9o9_dHzlO8m5Oem4T9lEDwguAN8lZ4OFYSsps1Rqmc6gIKLAzN80OL8G0CXSQ78EorNqRJ45omZ-FF9BQb5K6fXJFRWj5z/s1600/killler.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA6tdH9lcwVQgZlPE2xrghjqOLF3sNmsr6Wjsb_LzzzGRlU9o9_dHzlO8m5Oem4T9lEDwguAN8lZ4OFYSsps1Rqmc6gIKLAzN80OL8G0CXSQ78EorNqRJ45omZ-FF9BQb5K6fXJFRWj5z/s200/killler.PNG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-67434388581858420312012-07-11T01:54:00.000-07:002012-07-11T01:32:43.150-07:00Oasis WebSoft @ 1<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-yKRHcdJnUEV7tVGjp7jEr_enapb0ePVxHd6WI8f1Jygmy-ypWsddqFAG9z6o1dIR966hDiI4YWPwM_HVRTMykW2DcHnWt2mteSpNW2DlA16Jn7cLLeN-WM8wCPuyrLR7eoJjWmVgku3/s1600/OasisWeblogo+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu-yKRHcdJnUEV7tVGjp7jEr_enapb0ePVxHd6WI8f1Jygmy-ypWsddqFAG9z6o1dIR966hDiI4YWPwM_HVRTMykW2DcHnWt2mteSpNW2DlA16Jn7cLLeN-WM8wCPuyrLR7eoJjWmVgku3/s200/OasisWeblogo+(2).jpg" width="200" /></a>My name is <a href="http://www.facebook.com/raindolf" target="_blank">Raindolf Owusu</a> and I am the founder and C.E.O of <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis WebSoft</a> .I coined the name <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Oasis</a> which means fertile land in a desert because I felt it was taking Africa too long to be recognized on the world map as a technological nation besides the fact that we have been branded as an agricultural continent.WebSoft is self explanatory meaning I will engineer the web to work with software. I launched our official website in the early hours of July 11, 2011, exactly a year ago after spending a month developing the website in Html, CSS, FBML (Facebook mark-up language) and flash. This project got me so excited that I thought of nothing else but the fact that I was going to build major web and software projects. I have always been a big fan of console programs, so the first softwares that came with the website were raw C++ and Java codes that you had to compile on your machine to see its function. The website looked very simple but filled with great contents ranging from news to free learning PDF’s and a project I called the <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/about.html" target="_blank">Anansi (Anansi means spider in Twi dialect) Project.</a> The aim of this initiative is to help African Developers and internet users understand the concept of computer programming and also to help improve the standards of information technology education and adaptation in the African Setting.<br />
Since I was alone on the project, I decided to use social media to market my software and web projects. I had only 20 <a href="http://www.facebook.com/OasisWeb" target="_blank">fans on facebook</a> and a year later we have a staggering 550 active fans on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/OasisWeb" target="_blank">facebook</a> and almost a thousand followers on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/OasisWebSoft" target="_blank">twitter</a>. After each passing day I fell more in love with Oasis Websoft and always wanted to build a disruptive technology that will always put Oasis at the top of the web eco-system in Ghana. My first major software was a toolbar that was compatible with all the web browsers from Internet Explorer to Safari. The tool bar had a few downloads but I did not relent. I spent most of my time online learning new technologies and teaching myself programming from open source forums and groups. I have my own <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/iraindolf/videos" target="_blank">online school</a> that i teach web and software development as my contribution to the larger community and also created a <a href="https://github.com/raindolf" target="_blank">Github account</a> that I usually put my open source codes for contribution, learning and improvement from everyone.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieTNzePoXXh8gtiIxgxNGtLBIooHqcSnuq12BRangP5NpNs0U2bTcHY0LHSTrm1nrqQNDfyZV1s6c15-Gm_UVWrkG3sh_3knncvqDtnZpVU89R8l2UM7zZAFBSyaA6fsN6zogfveCQKSe4/s1600/Welcome+to+Oasis+WebSoft.com+--+Your+door+to+Web+2.0_1328208322069.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieTNzePoXXh8gtiIxgxNGtLBIooHqcSnuq12BRangP5NpNs0U2bTcHY0LHSTrm1nrqQNDfyZV1s6c15-Gm_UVWrkG3sh_3knncvqDtnZpVU89R8l2UM7zZAFBSyaA6fsN6zogfveCQKSe4/s200/Welcome+to+Oasis+WebSoft.com+--+Your+door+to+Web+2.0_1328208322069.png" width="200" /></a>I am strong advocate of free and open source softwares. I realized that proprietary softwares are being entrenched in our society. Companies and the government spend so much money on paying for licenses for these softwares whereas these monies can be used to improve other sectors like education. These proprietary softwares contain so many bugs and also can easily be attacked by viruses and malicious softwares. I believe that the way forward for advancement in technology is the collaborative use of open source technologies. Africa is on the move, and software and technologies are a powerful tool to boost economic growth and poverty reduction. Free software can help African developers learn faster and better and I am a typical example.<br />
Month after month I played around with a lot of Technologies,API’s ( Google and Wikipedia ) ,linux,drupal core,ubuntu,linux kernel,open suse and I built the following softwares and web apps with the help of open source communities; Findme Search engine, Anansi Browser, Anansi Calcpad and Wikipedia Search Engine.You can look up all these softwares here <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/products.html" style="background-color: white;">http://oasiswebsoft.com/products.html</a><span style="background-color: white;"> I redesigned our official website in a few months time in HTML5,CSS3,Jquery and javascript. I scaled my time between school and Oasis. My sleep was consequently affected by my time schedule. I sleep for only 2 to 4 hours.</span><br />
Since they say mobile is the future, I delved into mobile app development and built a mobile app that is a social news blog that delivers latest news and information from CNN,TechCrunch and Oasis WebSoft <span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">plus you learn to also code via my you-tube channel.</span><span style="background-color: white;">.It runs on </span><a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/anansi.apk" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">android</a><span style="background-color: white;"> and </span><a href="http://store.ovi.com/content/243058" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">symbian phones</a><span style="background-color: white;"> and it is available on </span><a href="http://store.ovi.com/content/243058" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">Nokia OVI Store</a>.<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"> I am launching the same Anansi app today on our first year anniversary for Windows phone 7 platform and it is currently in the new windows phone market place. I have ported the code to C# from JavaScript. I am one of the few lucky Africans developers to have my app published into the </span><a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c42d665-6013-4616-8dd0-3ee58016c34c" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">Windows phone market place.</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c42d665-6013-4616-8dd0-3ee58016c34c" style="background-color: white;">http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/6c42d665-6013-4616-8dd0-3ee58016c34c</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbs38MtCMaFDIFGieR107A6sgaYkVj830nfS3tqY9K_MjVlJGpcNTae-LIp_bzS6rgQEPL-lLCPEIwShUGnn_b7PscCGjUZGRoJYPrbFeIKknTIDRygNcU5kGxRkTmmFsO5wYRDiGDVpe/s1600/anansi+in+the+windows+market+place.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTbs38MtCMaFDIFGieR107A6sgaYkVj830nfS3tqY9K_MjVlJGpcNTae-LIp_bzS6rgQEPL-lLCPEIwShUGnn_b7PscCGjUZGRoJYPrbFeIKknTIDRygNcU5kGxRkTmmFsO5wYRDiGDVpe/s320/anansi+in+the+windows+market+place.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
I launched <a href="http://www.anansios.oasiswebsoft.com/" target="_blank">Anansi Operating system</a> (Linux distro)which is being proclaimed as Africa’s first operating system on the 29th of June and it is less than two weeks old on the internet and it has had over 2186 downloads on my server and the open source community around the world have created a torrent file for the OS http://torrentz.eu/an/anansi+os-q and it has been downloaded more 1577 times making a total of 3763 downloads and still counting. http://www.anansios.oasiswebsoft.com/ The OS is so far my most successful product.<br />
In just one year we have partnered and work alongside companies like <a href="http://www.startsmartgh.com/" target="_blank">StartsmartGH</a> , <a href="http://www.facebook.com/SeafireSoftware" target="_blank">Seafire Software ( USA )</a> , <a href="http://www.ghanawomenentrepreneurs.org/Home/" target="_blank">Ghana Association of women entrepreneurs</a> ,Ghana Center for Entrepreneurship, Employment and <a href="http://www.aimghana.com/" target="_blank">Accra International marathon</a> plus many more. Our team has also grown from only me to a team of three including myself,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/aaron.nii" target="_blank"> Aaron Nii Adom Nathan</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/jeffery.abas" target="_blank">Jeffery Aboagye-Asare</a><br />
I was awarded in march this year by the Free software and Open Source for Africa ( FOSSFA ) as a <a href="http://raindolf.blogspot.com/2012/05/guido-sohne-is-my-role-model.html" target="_blank">Guido Sohne fellow</a> for my continuous use and support for open source technologies like Linux and Drupal and also for having a technological vision for Africa like the late Guido Sohne ( He was one of the best computer programmers from Ghana and one of the founders of FOSSFA )<br />
<br />
Although all my apps are free to download, I managed to earn an annual income of $1 dollar. I am positioning my start-up company into a place where we can gain investment to continue to build free apps that are relevant to African. Our softwares are completely free to use. A big thank you to everyone who keeps praying for and supporting us. May God Bless you and your family. If you're using our softwares and feeling generous, consider a donation. All donations are sincerely appreciated. <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/" style="background-color: white;">http://oasiswebsoft.com/</a><span style="background-color: white;"> Thanks! </span><br />
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-28960817725146713042012-06-04T08:07:00.000-07:002012-06-04T08:07:19.216-07:00Why African developers need to take software patenting seriously? My $2 Million Dollar idea was Stolen.<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last year in June I realized so many people
where getting used to the concept of social networks and trusting these
networks with their data. I saw the need to tap into that great opportunity to
build something that would make their social life more interesting and engaging.
I made a research and understood that 65% of internet users had signed up to one
or more social networks (My space, Hi5, facebook, twitter, linkedin and Google
+).I knew Google were the best when it comes to searching for data on the
internet but it was crappy when It comes to searching for human names. Googlebot
will crawl and bring you so many articles that had similar names and it makes
your social search experience defective.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
had a believe that when you are searching for a person named Linda Dede,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the search engine should be smart enough to
know you are searching for a person and not a String of characters
[L][I][N][D][A] [D][E][D][E] I decided to build a prototype of a</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">large-scale social search engine which makes
heavy use of the structure of social networks. This was how it would work, when
you search for a name of a</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">person, it
would first rank social networks, then it ranks your geographic location and
before finally it would rank indexes of hundreds of millions web pages. I came
up with an algorithm that would make this social engine possible. Its social
search tree would take into account profiles, tags, comments, contacts, images
plus more social tools.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl02JJimujBLSTpEimUg1zob-WDHuziwkLUoNsyq-Bf7yBmvDkhxAu-R00UXJz95K6ZxR0ePl780TL5N49cRMayhctAN2OOs2wtkaE7RV3kaLS7ObGQ0HOzg2MO6oYno5hBRQI4BLqzfeZ/s1600/findme.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl02JJimujBLSTpEimUg1zob-WDHuziwkLUoNsyq-Bf7yBmvDkhxAu-R00UXJz95K6ZxR0ePl780TL5N49cRMayhctAN2OOs2wtkaE7RV3kaLS7ObGQ0HOzg2MO6oYno5hBRQI4BLqzfeZ/s320/findme.PNG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> To
engineer a search engine is a challenging task but I wrote basic codes for
it.My biggest constraint was the fact that I did not have anyone to help me in
terms of research and implementation. I failed with my beta tests so I decided
to go online for help, I found a couple of websites that could help you but
they were not good enough for the project so I decided to consult the most
successful and fastest search engine in the world for help Google. I found out
they had an open source tool called Google custom search that could help a
developer build a search engine with ease. I decided to delve into it. I easily
implemented 89% of my social search algorithm with it. Social networks will
always be ranked first for a result of a query. I named my search engine
"FindMe".Before your custom search engine is authorized by Google you
need to give it a brief description and this was the description I gave mine. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Find Me is
a custom Search engine we created to help you find and to stay connected with
old friends, acquaintances and lost family relations via Social networks.” As
you can see in the image below..I launched this engine in July, last year but it
did not gain much publicity because people didn’t see the essence in social
search in my zone but I believed in it. Also take a closer look at the last
time I updated code.It was in August,2011.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjznzHolD-c7LFdtELCBGAYu7ZoSLPkyCaro4Kn0U_7HpmM_fCOxa8dYdWJPpu48skXxt4BsUDHBMOpiYN9ANiB97Lh4Itao0DwMckCVD9yoP51QYv0otmw5S8m10zEBQM2l4H62KcOvYJz/s1600/findme+details.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjznzHolD-c7LFdtELCBGAYu7ZoSLPkyCaro4Kn0U_7HpmM_fCOxa8dYdWJPpu48skXxt4BsUDHBMOpiYN9ANiB97Lh4Itao0DwMckCVD9yoP51QYv0otmw5S8m10zEBQM2l4H62KcOvYJz/s320/findme+details.PNG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> In January
this year Google launched a product called "Search plus your world".
The feature, which is integrated into Google's regular search as an opt-out
feature, pulls references to results from Google+ profiles. What it means is
when a user types in a name it will rank its social network first for results.
This is where my hypothesis for social search comes in. When a user types in a
query for a person it should rank persons before anything else. And in my view
Google is not doing it right because they should give all social networks an
equal chance to be ranked at the top. They are violating their informal motto
"Dont be evil".<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> In march this year, Tech crunch posted
news about a Y- Combinator ( Silicon
Valley Incubator ) backed startup called Ark.com Ark lets you search through
public profiles and the private data of your friends across Facebook, Google,
LinkedIn and other networks. </span><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/25/ark-people-search/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/25/ark-people-search/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Kindly read the description of my search
engine and note the resemblance. This was an idea I pursued but as a friend of
mine will say in this technology world before you think somebody has already
thought. Nii Andrews.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> At Y Combinator’s Demo Day, a short Ark
pitch delivered in the midst of 64 other start-up presentations got the company
commitments for $2 million in funding in a single day. And more than 250,000
people have signed up for Ark beta invites. </span><a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120425/people-search-engine-ark-raises-biggest-y-combinator-seed-round-in-memory/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://allthingsd.com/20120425/people-search-engine-ark-raises-biggest-y-combinator-seed-round-in-memory/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Till date findme is my worst product
because its analytics proves that it has had only 390 page views since I
launched it in Accra, Ghana but its concept is worth more than 2 million dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> If I was backed by a strong team or
supported very much at the beginning I would have patented the idea of social search.
It is high time our environment start to stand firmly behind young African men
and women developers who are always up at dawn working on something they believe in. It
is not enough to congratulate them vocally of their achievements, it will be
right if you can support them with your resources be it financially,
intellectually, skills set and much more. Most African developers are so busy
struggling to make ends meet – in an environment where tech equipment costs
2-4x what it does in Europe and the US, where technical books are almost
nonexistent, where there are no credit cards to purchase from Amazon – that
they don’t have time to think of patenting their softwares and ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">NB:
Findme is still online you can search for your own name and see the social data
it will pull about you. There are a few constraints when you have a very
popular name like Micheal Jackson,It would be hard to bring you the results you
require. It will be best if you input a name that you use with two or three
social networks to see its effectiveness. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.findme.oasiswebsoft.com/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">www.findme.oasiswebsoft.com</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"> It is a prototype of the social search engine I
built with Google’s custom search builder.</span></span></div>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2503301429806869436.post-84628937787908379812012-05-23T20:17:00.000-07:002013-05-23T14:33:08.113-07:00Guido Sohne is my Role model.<br />
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No nation can produce all the technology that it needs for
social progress no matter the level of their civilization. Given this ground,
it then follows that the point of view, held by some scholars, that Africa is
nothing to write home about when it comes to technological innovation does not
hold sway. Guido Sohne dedicated his life to nothing less than transforming Africa
and writing software, that remains the great technology hope for Africa,
educated Africans agree. With only a cheap laptop and a Web connection, young
Africans can compete with the best of the rest in the world. With the press of
their keyboard, they can obliterate distance and deliver their code to
customers around the world. That vision captivates Sohne, who is a forceful
advocate for home-grown software. While his aspirations are typical, his story
is unusual. Raised in Accra, Ghana, Sohne excelled in school, won admittance as
an undergraduate to Princeton University and then showed his stubborn
rebellious streak. He dropped out and returned to Ghana.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96m5dQsylQMjoi4siuYd3dAhAiV9dJSSJmoly6GIXP9HyW0FB78WvVdR4ct6juJq9tqLZSo-lk0eK0c9bE-SFUB23WY6FH_KuAuRtFVCqXfknx7foVttFQ9x7kGPYtJiipu3YUa5Ay-ht/s1600/51026129_5ea64f54ca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96m5dQsylQMjoi4siuYd3dAhAiV9dJSSJmoly6GIXP9HyW0FB78WvVdR4ct6juJq9tqLZSo-lk0eK0c9bE-SFUB23WY6FH_KuAuRtFVCqXfknx7foVttFQ9x7kGPYtJiipu3YUa5Ay-ht/s200/51026129_5ea64f54ca.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Guido Sohne suggested a realistic approach. 'The most important
of which are avoiding dependence on technology single source by leveraging free
software and open standards coupled with finding ways to address the cost and
control of information pipes', said Guido. The basic idea behind open source is
very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source
code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people
fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace
of conventional software development seems astonishing." (Wong, Sayo,
2003). Guido Sohne believed that the way
forward for advancement in technology was the collaborative use of open source
technologies. Africa is on the move, and software and technologies are a
powerful tool to boost economic growth and poverty reduction. ICT increase
efficiency, provide access to new markets or services, create new opportunities
for income generation and improving governance and give poor people a voice.
Taking into account Africa’s complexity and diversity, specific interventions
are required. Sohne tried mightily to build open-source software organizations
in Ghana and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. He certainly raised awareness of
Linux and the importance of sharing code.</div>
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Guido was in management at a large software company, handling the company's Open Source and Linux strategy for 52 countries in Africa. He codes in over 20 computer languages and has previously been one of the founding members of the Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa, on the editorial board of the largest peer-reviewed journal on the Internet, FirstMonday, was responsible for the first Open Source project in West Africa (and possibly in sub-Saharan Africa as well) and won awards for creating two of Africa's top fifty websites. He has made minor contributions to OSS projects like the Linux Cross Reference tool, RedHat's Interchange e-commerce system, Ruby's Rannotate and JavaScript and Ruby implementations of a 2D barcode system, DataMatrix aka Semacode.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8OilyKi_CS3pG2zhWZLghCcOQenEvX4l8RZ0BaZkKqErjkqqwdQmULe5_bQsQRjaGxVsZN-TEtWLlYvo_WTThxsRnIpjzeR1qC4oIRYK5G3r4ZqufgmWvziO5ZdjBYh8lT3CR0q5BVGo3/s1600/newww111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8OilyKi_CS3pG2zhWZLghCcOQenEvX4l8RZ0BaZkKqErjkqqwdQmULe5_bQsQRjaGxVsZN-TEtWLlYvo_WTThxsRnIpjzeR1qC4oIRYK5G3r4ZqufgmWvziO5ZdjBYh8lT3CR0q5BVGo3/s200/newww111.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Guido Sohne died in Nairobi Kenya in May,2008. He was 35 years.I am posting this blog on his birth day 23rd May.My name is Raindolf Owusu.I was awarded in March this year by FOSSFA ( Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa ) as a Guido Sohne Fellow in Abuja,Nigeria.I am so glad to have received his Fellowship and I'm still working hard to bring to reality his technological visions. This is my website <a href="http://oasiswebsoft.com/">www.oasiswebsoft.com </a> I was blessed and humbled to meet his mother and father on his birthday today. Guido Sohne shall forever be a computer programming legend.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6EFhufsnfitleEGvU9YieGAvthWvHeOrkXoPoQr0lhaZJzdTT-C3IFo87nkh7Mrv87XtybVpAeYBXSszBv-95NUGtpvL1pOE9kOt0pEfPvehKsbh2TsxGHa2LDWIQLsUatACwNQqtq4uG/s1600/guido.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6EFhufsnfitleEGvU9YieGAvthWvHeOrkXoPoQr0lhaZJzdTT-C3IFo87nkh7Mrv87XtybVpAeYBXSszBv-95NUGtpvL1pOE9kOt0pEfPvehKsbh2TsxGHa2LDWIQLsUatACwNQqtq4uG/s320/guido.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">REFERENCES:</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><a href="http://macroscope.blogspot.com/2008/11/for-guido-or-requiem-for-true-tiger.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">http://macroscope.blogspot.com/2008/11/for-guido-or-requiem-for-true-tiger.html</span> </a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
http://www.eamonn.com/2003/08/guido_sohne_light_in_africa.htm<br />
http://archive.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/65291<br />
http://www.un.org/en/africarenewal/vol17no3/173tech.htm<br />
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/devices/the_agonies_of_an_african_prog</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8