Keynote presentation at Software Freedom Day by Raindolf Owusu at Accra, AITI-KACE. REF: Guido Sohne - Silicon Savannah

1. AFRICA AS AN OPEN SOURCE
COMMUNITY
Presented by Raindolf Owusu

2. Developers in a
typical African
country
Developers in a
typical African
country
Developers in a
typical African
country
All working independently,
employed in companies or
working as freelance or
contract developers

3. Isolated Pockets of Expertise
• Typically operating without
significant cooperation
• Unable to scale to work on
larger, more profitable
projects
• Unable to effectively market
themselves
• Competing, rather than
cooperating
• Leads to a low level of
developer income
• Keeps the market wide open
to organized foreign teams
Lucas Victor
Raindolf
Ghana

4. Better, Stronger, Bigger
• Teamwork is essential to breaking
down the barriers inhibiting the
software developers of Africa
• Integrating FOSS developers with
proprietary developers is necessary
(not enough developers to play
around with politics!)
• Why do we need bigger, more
experienced teams?

5. Inefficient Software Development
• Without robust, multi-talented teams composed
of
– Business Development People
– Project Managers
– Core Developers (advanced)
– Supporting Developers (intermediate)
– Artwork & Documentation
• Reduced client confidence, leading to lost
business opportunities

6. The Big Picture
Nigeria
Cameroon
Zimbabwe
Namibia Kenya
Uganda
Ghana
Senegal
South Africa
Africa as
an open
source
community
• How can we
get there from
here?
• What
obstacles will
we face?
• What form
should this
effort take?

7. The Road Ahead
• We can (and should) organize ourselves
• We should operate as a professional
services team, not as a fragmented set of
people
• We need a plan
• We need direction and leadership

8. When did you last
contribute code to an African
open source project? eg.

9. We enjoy FOSS so why
not contribute to make it better
here?
– Ruby on rails , django , python flask,
– Mysql , Postgresql , node.js , nosql
– Github, Bootstrap , java
– Clojure , coffee script
– Drupal , wordpress , Ubuntu , Fedora etc

10. Why contribute code?
• Better Technology
• Cost Reduction
• Multiple Suppliers/Sources
• Technology Transfer
• Access to ‘Intellectual Property’
• Development of Indigenous Solutions
• Employment

11. Thank You
www.oasiswebsoft.com
Raindolf Owusu
Founder of Oasis WebSoft / Software Developer @ Thoughtworks Inc