The African Information Technology Manifesto

So I finally decided to follow Hugh‘s meme and throw together a short manifesto of my own that means something to me, and I’m sure many readers will relate.

So here is “The African Information Technology Manifesto”:

If you think bandwidth speeds are going to increase and that the cost thereof will reduce dramatically, forget about it. Telecoms is a monopolistic, expensive privilege. They don’t call this the Dark Continent for nothing.

If you can afford the $250,000 server, you probably don’t need it. If you can’t afford it, you probably need it.

Open source and free software works and will save you millions. Use it.

Open source and free software works and will save you millions. Use it.

Never expect uptimes. Never guarantee uptimes. The electricity will fail.

“One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) will probably end up being “One Horribly Broken Laptop Per Child”. Yes, we need laptops, but we really need jobs, food, water, electricity and housing, and we need to be taught and motivated to create these things for ourselves.

Black Empowerment should start from the bottom up, but if you start from the top down you’ll get lucrative government business a lot quicker. Bribery may help.

Anytime you allow government involvement expect a 99% drop in productivity. This will prevent disappointment.

Host internationally.

Pray for Google to buy African dark fibre and liberate the continent. Having faith feels good.

Web 2.0 don’t live here. Web 1.0 is “under constructionâ€?.

The digital divide looks is much bigger when you’re on the wrong side.

Markets are not conversations, markets are places to buy fly-infested meat and dodgy fruit and veg.

Tags: manifesto, gapingvoid, HughMacleod, africa, IT