Goodbye laptops, hello i-things

And I mean that literally. Here is my own real life example: After a long planning session for issue 5 of the magazine, I packed up my red Dell XPS and resolved not to open it again that day. (It has really become tedious for me to gather up all the cables; first you remove the mouse cable-oh the wireless mice i've used are horrendous and always jerk; then you remove the AC adapter, then you unplug your modem then you pack everything into your laptop bag.)

You get in the car and then remember that you must place the laptop bag somewhere clearly out of sight otherwise you'll become a sitting duck for the laptop thugs that can break into your car and be off with the laptop in under a minute.

Now having successfully managed to go through the evening without touching the laptop (I'd been enjoying the Dixie Chicks Landslide album on the iPod) I remembered that I had to urgently reply a writer who was submitting an article for the magazine. Drat drat...but wait, I have an Orange wireless modem and hey my iPod...Eureka!

Connecting...logged in to my gmail and even with the small pesky keys (Where's the stylus when you need it) I was able to write a decent email to the potential contributor and check my other mail--all in a day's work.

Now, if only I can get my hands on the even more resourceful iPad, why would I ever consider buying a laptop? It is sad, but the way I see it, smaller (read i-things-pod, pad, ped etc) computing gadgets are way more convenient and accessible and are definitely the next big thing. Impromptu board meetings, brainstorming sessions, away from office and need to keep in the loop--small is easy to brandish.

Goodbye laptops, hello i-things.

Give us this day our daily fraud

When IDC and BSA (South Africa) start making up statistics to sway policy, http://techdirt.com/articles/20100719/00264510262.shtml , I begin to wonder what exactly is sparking off this trend in research houses considering that access to their reports (beyond the enticing table of contents) costs several thousands of dollars. Has the recession bitten research houses too?

There are many ironies in this skewed picture:
1. Emerging markets (where a lot of the research is being done in recognition of the fact that developed countries are getting saturated) have millions of idle people who would willingly collect data for a dollar a day to feed the research agencies. Why don't they put these idle people to good use?

2. Why are the reports so damn expensive when the usually quoted (and now suspect) statistic (Africans live on less than a dollar a day) suggests they cannot afford these reports that are targeting their countries?

3. Whatever happened to using simple logic to debate and persuade rather than statistics that no one can prove or disprove.

I've always wondered why whenever there are surveys in Kampala I never get interviewed- neither does my social or professional circle. Where do these statistics (especially the ones about ICT usage) come from? Now I know...

Give me Linux (With empirical evidence!)

Every month the Linux argument is resurrected on I-Network Uganda (http://d2.dgroups.org/iicd/i-network/) ; should we migrate to Linux or shouldn't we? The debate is usually sparked by a less than savvy technology practitioner asking for a solution to wipe off the latest virus disabling her network. The reply will be as follows:
1. Try anti-virus...2. Wipe your machine 3. Use linux because its more secure, less virus prone...etc a whole paragraph long.

The distressed technology practitioner will then reply and say : "Yeah I've heard of Linux but isn't too difficult to use etc?"

The Linux proponent will then provide a whole range of users and address all the problems, and then a couple of other timid proponents will throw in a word or two.

In the Jan/Feb issue of Enterprise Technology magazine, Simon Vass closes his discussion on Ubuntu with great insight by highlighting a variety of Linux support organizations in Uganda.

The problem is not that Linux is not good enough--the biggest problem with the Linux community in East Africa is that they don't blow their Vuvuzelas enough (publishing case studies online, getting covered in mainstream media, marketing, advertising as one body) to the people who would actually use the software. They preach to the converted in monthly Linux meetings and when opportunity arises to pitch to a potential convert, they spew knowledge and fall short on giving empirical evidence in well designed attractive marketing collateral or setting up a no obligations consultation with the customer. Give me Linux any day, but come with testimonials I can relate to, not geek speak.

Plenty of white elephants in East Africa

The word "nfunirawa" comes from Luganda, a popular dialect spoken in the East African country of Uganda, and is loosely translated to mean "What's in it for me?". Companies that try to sell technology solutions and services in East Africa will often find this word used in the upper echelons where you are expected to 'line' the pockets of the technology decision maker who is already earning a salary that allows him to travel abroad on holiday more than once a year- in comparison to the rank and file who foot daily to work.

Because technology vendors are not selected on suitability or practicality but for the ability to line the pockets of the final decision maker(and sometimes his underlings) technologies implemented do not solve the problem for which they were implemented or 'almost' which as we know, does not count.

As a result, we find plenty of white elephants--technology projects that have only taken off theoretically(national ID project); technology projects that have died in infancy(rural internet projects); technology projects that do not factor in pressing issues like power availability, maintenance cost, local ownership (one-laptop per child); technology projects that do not include lowly stakeholders who unfortunately will be the major users of the technology-secretaries, assistants(consequently pcs gather dust or are used only to check personal email); the list of failed projects is long enough, unfortunately so is the list of donations for the ICT sector , whose donors will be satisfied with reports stating minimal results or a poorly crafted website.

We need to ask why with all the technology available in East Africa, the best ranked company in East Africa is KENOLKOBIL (EX-KENYA OIL CO.) at 79 out of 500 according to the The Africa Report http://www.theafricareport.com/rankings/top-500-companies.html. At a distant 139 is Safaricom then a distance off at 176 is Total Kenya. In other words, even though East Africa has 'invested' heavily in technology, the region's businesses do not seem to be earning as much as their West African or North African counterparts which have made similar investments in technology.

Must you push boxes?

A month ago I had a brief but revealing conversation with a brilliant technology salesman. He had just quit his job in a leading technology vendor (because they were fidgeting with his commission) and had landed a better salary paying job which was being frustrated by the lack of tact of the 'boss'. This brilliant salesman said to me:
"Some companies think it's useless to sell boxes--pcs, laptops, printers. If you look at if face value, it does look so but in my previous company where we used to sell boxes, we got high value business out of customers who after buying boxes would ask us for high end solutions-license maintenance, data centre set up, network management and so forth."

I say: "Go on."

"In this new company, the MD says he does not want to push boxes because the margins are too low--but he does not even have operating capital and he is not bringing in new customers because he only markets the company as a services vendor- not boxes."

I say: "If you've got it flaunt it! Give customers a reason to step into your shop."