Things We Will Do After Our Careers Disappear

I recently read Tope Fasua's latest book titled "Things To Do Before Career Disappears". The book called the readers' attention to the fast paced change in technology and how it affects everything we do and how ultimately it will take many of us out of our current jobs. It also advised that individuals now need to be multi talented and be able to adapt fast or else they become dinosaurs.
As a software developer, I know I am one of the people that push changes that automate things that normally would require manual labor, so it got me thinking into how the world would look like when the innovations mentioned in the book become part of our everyday lives. The following are some scenarios I imagine when technology becomes even more pervasive in our daily lives.

Old Methods Turn To Art Or Novelty Instead Of Dying

First of all, though I know new technology almost always brings about some kind of disruption, it doesn't always kill previous technology.  For example, in the past people go to theaters for entertainment then the cinemas came into being and then the television. The cinema and the television didn't kill the theater but turned it into some kind of art. Broadway still thrives despite Hollywood and the TV industry but it's seen more as some kind of novelty than everyday cheap entertainment. And if we compare the ticket price of a movie in a cinema and that of a play in a theater we will find that the play costs much higher. This is because people are paying for the art and not just everyday utility.

The same goes for the cellular and fixed line telephones. Though in much of Africa we have little or no fixed lines compared to the millions of cellular lines, it's largely because fixed lines are yet to gain a good spread when the cellular technology emerged. So Africa leapfrogged and largely skipped the fixed line era. The western world in comparison still makes extensive use of fixed lines especially in offices and other business environments. This despite the super smart multi function cellular phones.

Also, though it has been predicted that the smart phones will eventually replace the PC, serious work is still being done on laptop and desktop computers. Most of the information being consumed on smart mobile devices are still created and developed on laptops and desktop computers.

3D printing. This both excites and scares me. If people can print real objects from design just like they can print on paper from an electronic document then the disruption will be beyond our imagination. But then, let's look into the recent past to try to predict the future. Printing used to be exclusively the preserve of the printing press, then the desktop printer was invented. Now we have desktop printers in our homes but that did not render the printing press extinct. It only cut down the printing industry to size. In the near future, we may have 3D printers in our homes and offices but it will not take manufacturers out of business. Because even if one has a 3D printer he/she must be very good with Computer Aided Design and must be a critical thinker in order to print anything useful enough to disrupt the manufacturing industry. I think 3D printing will only lower the bar for entering the manufacturing business by making it very cheap to make prototypes. But regular manufacturing will still be needed for mass production just like printing presses are needed for large scale printing today.

A new industry of manufacturing, repairing and maintaining 3D printers may also emerge creating opportunities for those who prepare themselves for the future. Another scenario might be as follows. With the lower entry bar into manufacturing, big corporations may focus only on innovation and then be outsourcing their manufacturing job to smaller businesses that may be using high efficient 3D printers.

Genetically Modified Food. GM Food may end up disrupting the last resort of poor people  and countries for survival; Agriculture. As the book said, there are now experiments to grow different fruits like mango, orange and apple all in one tree. GM food will take the most innovative companies and countries far ahead in food production. But I think that the spread of GM food will make organic unaltered food a highly sought after commodity which may end up playing to the advantage of the small scale organic food grower. The same way a shoe or a bag made from natural leather is more expensive and sought after than one made from synthetic material, organic food will be more expensive and sought after than GM food. And when the poor cannot afford organic food, they may go full cycle back to subsistence agriculture to grow what they will eat. This may hit back on the patent holding GM food growers.

Tools Don't Make People Creative, They Only Aid Creative People.

In general when one looks at the trend of technological innovation we discover that usually it makes it easier to access the tools that were previously exclusive to only a few producers of goods and services. Things like the 3D printer, the smart phone, the DSLR camera are simply tools that enable us accomplish tasks that were previously only available to large organizations. But access to tools doesn't automatically translate to creativity just like access to pen and paper doesn't automatically turns one into a great writer. But absence of a pen and paper will leave many talented potential writers undiscovered. So in the future it is the people that learn to creatively use the tools available to them that will float to the top of the food chain.

When We Pay For Services, We Are Either Paying For Our Time Or Ignorance

Another thing to note is that even if you make the tools available most people will prefer not to use them but just hire someone else, either because they lack the skills or the time to do it. This is the reason we hire a carpenter for minor repairs even though we may have a hammer, saw and nails in our homes. The same reason we go to restaurants to eat food we can prepare ourselves and pay even higher than what it would cost us to prepare it at home.

Bottom line, most humans don't want to learn how to fish. They just want the fish. Many will also prefer not to fish even if they have the tools and skills because they don't have the time. The future will be ruled by the few that go out of their way to learn to fish and actually go out to fish.

Drupal Translation Management

I recently found myself using the translation management module of Drupal. Unfortunately the module raises a few warnings like the following.

Warning: Parameter 1 to icl_content_node_prepare() expected to be a reference, value given in module_invoke_all()

Notice: Undefined index: method in drupal_prepare_form()

After some googling I was able to figure out where the problems are and even found some patches. After modifying the files concerned I thought my modified copy may save somebody some time and effort. So if you are using the translation management module with Drupal 7 and getting warnings like the ones above, you can download my modified version of the module below

http://ubuntuone.com/1vtOad8Eu0RuYXIbDxNa8j

Compile To Web

One of the problems I have always had with web development is the looseness of the different technologies used to deliver a good result to your end user. For any body that has developed software using compiled languages like C/C++, Java and C# combining things like HTML, PHP and Javascript in the same source files feels so dirty and inelegant. Though there are various methods of seperating the different layers of web applications, I personally feel they are still not as efficient as what you get in non-web programming.
Luckily, my sentiment seem to be shared by the majority in the software development world and as expected better methods of developing web applications are emerging. Most of these solutions allow you to develop using compiled languages but your source code is translated into web languages like HTML and Javascript instead of the expected binary code that is generated by those languages. Here are three of such technologies I find most interesting.

Google Web Toolkit : This is developed by Google and basically let you develop your program using Java but generates Javascript application as the output. Just like most Google tools, Google Web Toolkit is free of charge.

VisualWebGui : This is an open-source tool but also seems to have a commercial version. It integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio and let's you convert a .NET programs to a web application.

JSIL : This is an open-source tool in development. It takes code in native .NET executable format (CIL) and converts it Javascript ready to run in a browser.

There may be others that I am yet to discover but this trend is good news for people like me that want to get desktop development experience in web development.

I Want To Touch My Money

I couldn't help but keep thinking on the way the Central Bank Of Nigeria is pushing hard for the adoption of electronic money in Nigeria. I mean, why the relentless push? First of all, I am not trying to resist change, being a software developer, I should be in support of innovative use of technology but my view is that it shouldn't be pushed down people's throats.

When ATMs were introduced, the CBN never forced people to start using it. ATM got traction because it's value is obvious. It saves you a lot of time you would have spent on a queue in a banking halls. It also lets you withdraw cash anytime of the day.

So I was thinking, is the CBN pushing us to the right direction with it's cashless policy? To answer that we have to consider the qualities needed for something to qualify as good money. Apart from the well known qualities of money like acceptability, portability, durability and homogeneity, modern money should be easily transfered from the physical form to electronic form and back to the physical form. This is not magic or science fiction, we have been doing it for some time now. When we put physical cash in a bank account we are in essence transforming it to electronic form. We can electronically transfer that money to somebody else's bank account and the receiver can cash it, or in order words transform it back to physical money.

The ATMs were successful because they allow us to get money in it's physical form that we can see and touch. People don't want their money to be kept simply as records on some server.

This is me, a person with a fair understanding of electronics and computers being uncomfortable with the cashless policy, how about the local cattle dealer in Maiduguri that transacts in millions and takes his money to the bank in grain bags?

I think what the CBN should do is to make the cashless thing so attractive that people will opt in on their own. And I don't think they can do that by eliminating cash.

The bottom line is, my money should be available whether their is a functioning Internet access or not, whether there is electricity or not. As far as I know now, that can only be in physical cash.

Please tell me if I'm wrong.

On Moving To The Web, Again.

Yes I'm back on the same topic again, whether we are moving to the web or not. To make things simple, I think most software have already moved to the web but the web advocates didn't even notice. I use the desktop version of Ubuntu Linux on my personal computer and I realize that many of the programs I use are already web enabled. For example I use a program called Empathy for facebook. I use Ubuntu One which is integrated to my file browser for cloud storage. I also use Tomboy for note taking which I synchronize with my Ubuntu One account. Other web enabled applications on the Ubuntu desktop include the default text-editor which allows on-line collaboration. And there is the good old Mozilla Thunderbird which allows me to download mails from my various e-mail accounts to my local desktop.

All those programs are web enabled but the advocates of moving to the web do not notice it. Why? maybe because they are unknowingly just advocating for a move to the browser. I personally do not believe that applications will all move to the browser. To me, the web is more about the protocols and not necessarily about HTML. Those desktop applications I listed above are already taking full advantage of protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, OAuth etc. So in essence, the move to the web has been made but the advocates simply did not notice.

If you are still waiting for the move into the browser, then I believe you have a long long wait ahead of you. People simply prefer to use thick client applications of popular web services than using the browser interface. That's why twitter and facebook desktop clients are very popular. Just think of it, even though modern smartphone browsers are very mature, most users prefer to use native apps on their phone that connect to web platforms whenever possible.

Google started the Chrome OS claiming that the days of the native desktop are over. But each iteration of Chrome OS seems to be moving closer and closer to the traditional desktop. The latest version so far has a wallpaper, a taskbar and a launchpad.

I know many people are excited about the web and what we can do in browsers using things likeHTML5, JavaScript and CSS3, but if you are still waiting for the move to the web, then you have been left behind. We are already far into the future, at least judging from the standpoint of the pro browser advocates.

SOPA, PIPA and the Dying Hollywood

If you are in the tech business and didn't know about SOPA or PIPA yet then something must be really wrong with you. For the non-geeks SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA(Protect Ip Act) are two legislations proposed by the United States congress and senate to give government the right to seize domain names of companies or individuals they feel are aiding the piracy of American intellectual property.
The idea naturally didn't go down well with people in the tech industry and people stood up against it. Major websites even blacked out for hours to register their protest against governments attempt to take over the Internet. In the end, the idea is suspended.

Naturally the lobby group pushing for the adaptation of the legislation are the ones representing big hollywood studios. This lead me to the realization that hollywood is dying. SOPA and PIPA is a desperate attempt by a sinking hollywood to grab anything they believe can keep them afloat for any time longer.

This point of view is even more aptly articulated by the folks at Y-Combinator. They did not only stop atacknowledging that hollywood is dying, they went as far as offering to fund a good startup idea that will accelerate that death. If you wonder why they are taking such a stand, then know that hollywood will not die a natural death with fighting back and in the process causing many casualties. The faster the demise, the less casualties they cause.

The following is from Y-Combinator's page requesting for startup ideas

"Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise. "

Read the whole article here

iTribute

For most techies Steve Jobs is either a hero or a villain. Personally I consider him both a hero and a villain. In terms of innovation Steve Jobs has literally brought computing to it's current state. From the proliferation of the graphical user interface to the current rage of tablet computers.

On the other hand, I think Steve's business style is ruthless, he is an absolute dictator on how you use his company's products. Though that ruthlessness has paid off considering the fact that apple is now the biggest company in the world in terms of market value. 

I have never met or dreamed of meeting Steve, but now that he is gone. It just dawned on me that we really need people people like Steve to be pushing the limits of technology.

I made an impulsive tribute to Steve Jobs on facebook when I heard about his demise. I am reprinting that Tribute below because I felt that it expressed my true sentiments towards Steve Jobs.

I have never been a fan of Steve Jobs, but I have always respected him for defying the norms and pushing the limits of technology. He was ruthlessly efficient and has became a legend in technology spheres. He has left a vacuum that will take teams and not an individual to fill.
Bye Steve Jobs
You will be missed.

This is not just a tribute, it's an iTribute.

New Players In Space

China seems to be completing the takeover from U.S.A as the world leading country. There are many factors that made me think so, but the most interesting to me is space technology.
China successfully put man in space for the first time in 2003.  After that they had several manned space expeditions and also had their first spacewalk. Today China successfully launched it's first space laboratory Tiangong-1 into orbit. They plan to launch Senzhou-8 soon and will couple with Tiangong-1 to mark the first steps into building their space station which they hope to complete by 2015.

In contrast the U.S.A is retiring it's space shuttle program for good. In the future, U.S.A will have to rely on Russia to convey it's astronauts to space. They are however hoping that American private companies will rise up and fill that gap left in conveying astronauts to space. This will cost the American government about $50 million dollars per astronaut.

Other countries that may be playing greater roles space technology in the near future may include Turkey and Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria. Nigeria has recently lauched it's second and third earth observation satellites namely NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X. NigeriaSat-X signifies major progress for Nigerian space ambitions because it is built entirely by Nigerian engineers.

Many Nigerians argue that Nigeria should suspend it's space program
because it has no impact on the ordinary man's life. I think that is not true, the average Nigerian simply doesn't know the impact of our satellite on his life.  NigeriaSat-1 has immensely helped in getting early warning signs of floods but I must admit the relevant government agencies failed to act on the information.

Others argue that we shouldn't worry about space technology when we have things like good health care delivery and stable electricity to worry about. But just because the ministries of health and power are not meeting the expectations of Nigerians doesn't mean that the science and technology ministry should stay back and wait for them. It's like telling a person not to buy a TV or electric iron until we have stable power supply. Developing the various sectors of our national life should be carried out in parallel. Moreover Nigeria spent less on it's space program than it has spent in hosting football tournaments.

I am of the view that Nigeria can leapfrog into the space technology field like China did. All that is needed is a lot of discipline and optimism. A Chinese scientist recently said that three decades ago, the thought of China going into space will sound like science fiction. I hope a few years from now, a Nigerian scientist can look back and say the same.

The Black PC Inventor

As a software developer, I've always wondered why there are almost no famous black people in computer and ICT field. Was it that black people were never interested in that field or were they denied opportunities during the early days of the computers.
Actually none of the above was the case. Actually some black people have made their mark in the IT field but are just never celebrated.

One very good example is Mark Dean, a vice president at IBM. Mark Dean literally invented the personal computer as we know it. He is the architect of the personal computer and holds three of the the original nine patents that all PCs are based upon.

Without Dean's work, people like Bill Gates and Michael Dell will never be where they are today. But yet, the 20th anniversary of the personal computer was celebrated without anybody mentioning his name.

Dr Mark Dean later made history again by leading the team that created the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.

Dr Dean made my past assumption that black people never participated in the computer revolution wrong. In fact it is not wrong to say that he brought about the revolution itself.

Ubuntu Nigeria

When I started using Linux around the year 2002, I felt like I belong to an elite group of computer users. Back then I believe there were less than 10 of us in Maiduguri. But apart from feeling important, I also felt a little bit odd, because it's always difficult to tell an average Windows user why I run Linux. Not everybody understands the excitement of exploring something new, different and flexible as Linux. I think it was RedHat 8.0. But 8 years later, now the situation is different, it's not uncommon to see, everyday computer users including elderly people now running Linux. And this is all thanks to Ubuntu. As it's slogan goes "Linux For Human Beings", Ubuntu has brought Linux to the non-techies without taking the flexibility away. Though without concrete data, I believe Ubuntu has seen a great increase in users not only in Maiduguri but across Nigeria. A testimony to that is the Ubuntu Nigeria blog

Dealing With Piracy

I was reading an article about Selling Software In China and came across the following statement under the topic "Dealing With Piracy";

"Actually “Dealing with piracy” is a misleading title, because in reality there is no way to deal with piracy. People will crack, copy and use your software as they wish, and they will not even feel guilty about it. Again, let’s not judge, but accept the fact that piracy is simply part of the culture (for some it is piracy, for others it is just sharing) Instead of talking about code scramblers and licensing keys, let me offer here a contrarian (perhaps even controversial) point of view, in the wisdom of “if you can’t fight them, join them”. You should consider yourself lucky if your software gets pirated, because that means that it got traction. For every pirated software there is always a happy user behind it (after all, they chose to pirate your software, and not your competitor’s), and if this user convinces their employer to use your software, then there is a good chance that these companies will be your future clients."

This statement makes a lot of sense to me. Instead of looking at piracy from the constant negative point of view why don't we try to be innovative and tactically deal with, and profit from it. For example, companies like Oracle and Microsoft have made some money in Nigeria because of piracy. The easy availability of pirated copies of their software gets a lot of users for them and these users end up paying for the certifications offered by these companies. Imagine a piracy free Nigeria where users only have access to legitimate copies of these software, definitely there will be very little or no users and almost zero dollars generated from the certifications.

I am not saying piracy is good, but if you can't get through it why not get around it.

Webification Part 2

By now it is obvious that the web 2.0 revolution will be hinged on some particular technologies. The most important of which are JavaScript and HTML5. These technologies are all available today in most modern browsers and have started to prove that we can build desktop like applications in the browsers. But there is a flip side to the in-browser web 2.0 revolution, what happens if these technologies were made available outside the browser. What happens if modern desktop environments support JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 out of the box? What happens if web 2.0 is brought out of the browser unto the desktop instead of squeezing the desktop into the browser.

Imagine designing your desktop application GUI with HTML and CSS and getting your desktop OS to interpret JavaScript outside the browser. That way web applications can run directly on the desktop. That way all web developers automatically become desktop developers without requiring any additional skills. That way, the line between desktop application development and web application development disappears. The same can also be done on mobile operating systems. Then the dream of write once run everywhere will finally be achieved and above all it will be achieved on open standards.

Imagine having a desktop shortcut that downloads and starts a JavaScript application and runs it natively without requiring any changes. That is the future of software I envisage. The good news is that future doesn't seems to be very far away.

GNOME 3 desktop has a built-in JavaScript interpreter and also supports theming with CSS. The default text editor GEdit allows on-line real time collaboration. The default note taking application let's you drop notes into the instant messaging application allowing easy note sharing.

That may not exactly be the future I imagine, but it's a huge step in the right direction. The future will be such that you can't draw a clear line separating web, desktop and mobile applications.

And that future is almost here.

Webification Part 1

I've blogged before about my view on the future of software development. I argued that there will be a blurring of the line dividing web application development and native/desktop application development. I clearly disagreed with the argument that everything is going to move to the web. One of my key arguments was that the web was originally a presentation or publishing platform, so hacking it into a processing platform just won't be enough.

But a lot has been happening in the web space. HTML5 looks like it's going to change the game and JavaScript just keeps getting faster in all major browsers. Tools like GWT make it easy to write client side web applications using Java and VisualWebGui allows you to do the same with .NET languages.

Clearly Google is one company that is really pushing for the migration to the web. They have created a market place for web applications and have supported HTML5 on their chrome browser and on android. Given the financial and cerebral power of Google, you can bet they have the capacity to make a huge impact.

So is it time for the Webification of all applications? My guess is still no. Google itself is still actively writing desktop applications like Google desktop search and Google earth desktop client. This is because they know that an all out migration to web still doesn't look feasible.

Obviously there will be more and more web applications written than before, but that doesn't mean all applications will be moved to the web. Google knows that and that is why applications targeting android are written with Java to target the android virtual machine without any JavaScript getting involved.

Nigerian Internet Revolutionaries

By Internet revolutionaries I am not referring to those people that brought about the Internet revolution but to those people that think they can bring a revolution using the Internet. Many times you come across them in forums or see their comments on blogs and news sites. They talk about how bad things are in Nigeria and how frustrated they are and how very soon those on top will pay for everything they owe.

The ones I am very familiar with are typically found on the political section of Nairaland or commenting to articles on 234next.

First of all, I disagree with their idea of a violent revolution being the solution to our problems in Nigeria. The solution should be built from the ground up and not the other way round.
The solution starts from you, what have you done lately to make things better. Have you stopped shunting in queues? Have you managed to fill that pot hole on the road in your neighborhood? Have you stopped that guy dumping refuse by the roadside. No I don't think so, because all those things happen in the real world and not in cyberspace. To get to the real world, you have to leave the coziness of your room or office and get out to make a change.

But I forgot, just getting outside is not enough because the greater number of the revolutionaries have left the country and plan to come back only when things get better.

Definitely the revolution will come, it will not involve shedding blood but individual efforts coming together to build a better system. But the Internet revolutionaries are going to miss it. They will miss it because it will not be fun as they imagined. They will miss it because they can't risk leaving facebook , twitter or Nairaland for so long as five minutes.

But they will read about the revolution, in fact, they have been reading about it because the real revolutionaries also use technology, but they don't call for bloodshed. They use technology to create positive change. And after adventures in the real world, some come to cyberspace and tell their stories in blogs and forums. They just know that you don't tweet a revolution.

So. What have you done for Nigeria lately?

10 Myths About Linux

I have been using Linux alongside Windows as a dual boot setup before deciding to migrate fully to Linux. This decision was prompted not only by the fact that I got tired of managing viruses but also because Linux has evolved to be an easier platform to use. Now the problem I face is when Windows users see me using Linux as my main OS. To my surprise some of them feel offended and often ask why I chose to use an OS that is not user friendly. The interesting thing is that most of them are people that have never used any non-Microsoft operating system. My question is, if you've never tasted a fruit how would you know whether it's sweet, sour or bitter? In reality most of these people have believed and often propagated myths they have heard and believed about Linux. I list ten of such myths and answers for those that believe them.

1- On Linux, you have to use the command line: Nope, you don't have to. Linux have several mature graphical environments that have been found to be more usable than the Windows desktop. Ever heard of GNOME or K.D.E ?

2- Linux is strictly for geeks: The One Laptop Per Child project uses Linux and targets kids and not geeks. Most of the target children have never used a computer before in their lives.

3- It's only good for servers: No, there are many distributions for desktops. One of the most popular is Ubuntu.

4- Linux is safe and virus free because it's not widely used: It's safe because it's well designed and viruses will find it difficult to cause much harm.

5- Hardware support is poor: Every printer I have plugged into my Linux system has worked right away without requiring any driver installation. The only time I installed a driver is to get a certain scanner working.

6- It's Insecure because the source code is available: This argument is caused by ignorance of software building process. Some people think that the Linux source code is available in it's raw form on every Linux system and mistakingly changing a line or a dot will render the system useless. Wrong, the code is built into a binary form for it to run.

7- Free means bad for business: It has fetched RedHat $653 million in 2009. It provides your business good software at no monetary cost.

8- Few applications are available for Linux: Thousands of software are available and a great number of them free of charge.

9- Poor support, hackers and hobbyist are in charge: If you want paid support, then companies like RedHat, Canonical, Novell, Oracle and many more are there for you. Those names don't sound like hobbyists' names.

10- Poor quality because it's developed by amateurs and hackers working across the globe: The open and distributed nature of Linux development means more eyes are there to spot problems and more brains are there to contribute great ideas.

So, don't make any assumption on any software whether proprietary or open source. Get a first hand experience with it first instead of just believing the myths.

Does a Startup Have To Be a DotCom ?

I find it really interesting to watch the activities of several technology startup companies across Africa through many blogs that pay attention to such companies. One trend I notice is that almost everyone talking about startups in Africa is basically talking about on-line businesses. The moment you hear "startup" it's almost certain you will hear "web 2.0" or "dotcom" in the same discussion. I think there is more to tech startups than just web based businesses. Some of the technology businesses that changed the course of history were not web oriented. Agreed Google is a glaring example of an excellent web oriented business but how many Googles do we plan to create locally? Microsoft which is the largest software company in the world is still trying to get it's web strategy right. I am not saying that web startups shouldn't be encouraged but let us not forget that startups do not really have to be dotcoms. In fact very few dotcoms are able to solve real world business challenges in Africa. Let us promote the idea of tech startups in general and not limit ourselves to dotcoms.

Tech Parks And Forced Innovation

The Nigerian government at the all tiers must be commended for their awakening to the importance of information technology in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. Despite the fact that it is easy to point out where things are being done wrong, I am inclined to believe that the mistakes are a result of ignorance of both ICT and entrepreneurship. Another factor is the text-book approach the governments are applying to the whole process.
One particular trend that caught my attention is the love for technology parks by governments. Kano state for example has reached advanced stages of setting up their proposed IT park. I also know that Lagos state has a similar project and the FCT has a plan for a technology park. Other states like Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom have similar projects. These are all steps in the right direction but are not a guarantee of creating innovation and entrepreneurship.
Innovation and entrepreneurship can only be encouraged but not forced. This is because innovators and entrepreneurs move naturally to the best place that favor their growth and that place doesn't have to be a government built tech park. A perfect example is the Ikeja computer village which is the largest IT market in Africa. This market didn't come to existence through conscious government effort but grew naturally because of several factors that favoured it's growth.
So what should the government do?, I say give us stable electricity and broadband Internet across the country and we'll take it from there.

Nigerian Online Payment Systems

For some time we've been looking for an on-line payment gateway to integrate to a web project we are developing. So I embarked on a search for a good one that meets our requirements. The most important requirement is that it has to be Nigerian, one might say "Why?". Well, we trust Nigerian because unlike foreign companies we believe they won't freeze our account simply because we are Nigerians.


My search led me to discover some payment systems which I list below.

SurePay from a company called websoft. SurePay is a service which I cannot tell weather I like or not because it is so shrouded in secrecy. The website tells me that as a merchant I can accept interswitch, visa, Mastercard and Etranzact cards payment but refused to show me how. I couldn't get access to their API. They say I need some kind of certification to integrate it to my site and that costs N75,000 plus an activation fee of N50,000. A total of N125,000 before I can integrate or even see the API. So what happens if after paying I discovered that the API is crap ? Moreover both interswitch and Etranzact web payment service costs roughly N150,000 each. I'd rather go for one them since they provide a full online merchant account. So I moved on passing SurePay.

PayLive365 from iDevWorks: I had a lot of hope on this service because I've seen like two products from iDevWorks that impressed me. It's like the engineers over there know their onions. But the problem is that the service is still in Beta and I couldn't even create an account. So I came back after a few days and it's still in Beta, then a few weeks, then a few months and still Beta. The last time I checked, their ssl certificate has expired.

NetNaira from goattale: The first time I came across NetNaira, I fell in love with it, I checked out their API and loved it. This is despite the fact that my customers need a NetNaira account to pay me. So I registered a merchant account and started integration work on our site. They even have a sandbox url that you can use for development and testing. So everything was Ok and we were ready to go live. Suddenly we discovered that you have to pay N10,000 to get activated. Well, that's not too bad we thought. But there is a new rule on NetNaira, you can't have a transaction that's worth more than N40,000. Too bad what we want to sell costs a bit more than that. I still couldn't understand the logic behind that restriction. Netnaira charges commissions per transaction, I'll expect them to welcome high value transactions because it will lead to bigger commissions. Well, maybe it's not for me to understand. So I left Netnaira with a broken heart. We could have had a great relationship.

SoftPurse from SoftCom: The first impression SoftPurse gave was of a service that is well designed and developed. There website design was also cool. Though a merchant only get paid by a client with a SoftPurse account, they allow clients to fund accounts with Interswitch or Etranzact cards. There API is available once you register a merchant account which is free. My only reservation is their choice of API design. They used XML webservices. I personally prefer an API that's based on HTTP POST parameters. That way integration will be a matter minutes instead of days. We went ahead and tried integrating with the existing API but not without some hitches. But we are not giving up on SoftPurse so I got in touch with their lead engineer, Ezra Olubi. Ezra is a great guy that seems to be receptive to ideas. He even accepted our input and made a correction on their integration example. We have now postponed integrating softpurse but we did not shelve it. I think Ezra is one of the reasons why we are carrying on with SoftPurse.

CashEnvoy: I am not going to waste too much time on them cos they've hidden all integration info and require me to send them an e-mail to get it. Sometimes it's annoying how companies scare away potential customers by being unnecessarily secretive.

FasteCash by TechClick Limited: This is also an e-wallet. Meaning customers need to have an account before they can pay merchants. FasteCash seems to be at lost about their actual business model, one minute you get the impression they are an online payment system and the next minute they are a bulk sms service. if you don't believe me, go through their FAQ. But the real problem here is that you need some kind of scratch card to load your account. All the scratch card resellers are either in Lagos, Port-Harcourt or Warri and our lab is in Maiduguri. If you don't understand my point then I suggest you get a map of Nigeria and check the distance between Maiduguri and any of the three cities I mentioned. I know Maiduguri is far but at least get a reseller in Abuja. I have more reasons to go to Abuja than to go to Warri. Though one can load via bank payment, I still say no thanks. We don't want to put our customers through that trouble. We can as well collect bank payments directly. On a positive note, I like the design of their homepage and they have quite a number of resellers but none across the Niger.

ChezolaPay : This is one payment system that got my attention because it got some reviews from blogs that I respect; Timbuktu Chronicles and White African. But the last time I checked, their site has vanished.

NairaPro: I am going to keep it short. No FAQ or API info. Maybe I'll have to register to get them. But at least give me a FAQ.

VTN from LFR Communications: Virtual Terminal Network has all the problems you can get in all the payment systems we passed on. They also have the additional disadvantage of not accepting any of the popular payment cards used in Nigeria. To fund your account you have to load via their bank account. VTN has everything to scare us away, but we are not running, we are planning to integrate VTN as an option. This is for some reasons we took into consideration. VTN already has up to 3000 merchants, a hunch tells us that there are even more non-merchant accounts than that. So there maybe potential customers that already have VTN accounts. Secondly VTN seems to be a mature payment platform judging by the company's experience in online payment even before creating VTN. The same company owns GraphCard. Thirdly, their API is not secret and you do not pay anything for a merchant account.


There are other payment systems I came across during my search but I believe only the ones above deserve any mention. Many are just crap some of the sites are filled with broken links, while some don't seem to understand what a payment system is suppose to be.
I think I must make it clear that the above review was largely based on my personal opinion and the opinion of my team members. So don't just take my word, go check out their sites and judge for yourself.

Future Of Software Development

Quite often, one gets the feeling that software development is changing from what you know it to be, to something completely different. This is especially when one considers opinions that are daily expressed on the web via blogs, forums, reviews e.t.c

The opinions that I consider strong in many quarters is that of everything moving to the web. Software will in the future live in the browser and the desktop concept will become obsolete. The proponents of that opinion have some good reasons to think in that direction. For example many technologies have turned the browser into a powerful platform and bandwidth is becoming more available and cheaper by the day.

Another school of thought is that of people who think hand-held devices will eventually replace the traditional computer be it a PC or a mac. This group also have some valid points considering the fact that the phone I use today has processor that is faster than that of my desktop 8 years ago.

I do not completely agree with both views, what I think is going to happen is sort of convergence. The line between the different platforms keeps blurring each day. We are now reaching a point that one doesn't care much about which platform one uses but the tasks one is able to accomplish.

Software development will continue to involve the code-compile-run cycles. This is not going away anytime soon. Great software are still being developed with C, C++ e.t.c. And some tasks can not be performed efficiently without going back to those languages.

My problem with the "moving to the web" idea is that I am yet to see any great innovation in the web space. All I can find are multitudes of social networks (facebook, twitter e.t.c) and resource sharing portals like picassa, flickr, youtube e.t.c. Agreed that HTML5 has brought in some new things to the HTML standard but those are not new things to web. It covers some things like video playback that were previously achieved by plug-ins.

Google which is arguably the most successful company on the web is developing more and more desktop applications like Google desktop search and Google earth. This is a clear indication that google has realized that we are not going to have a web only or a desktop only future but a mixture of both and more.

The mobile platform is really a force to reckon with but it can never replace the traditional computer because one needs a normal computer to fully use whatever powerful mobile device one is using. For example you need a PC or mac to synchronize your apple iphone. Moreover, you do not expect programmers to use those devices to develop software even if they are targeting the same devices. Businesses are also not going to replace that computer on the secretary's desk with an iPhone or a Nokia N900 simply because they think those devices are powerful.

So if you are a software developer that develops only desktop software, I say go and learn PHP or ASP.NET now and if you are a web only developer I say go and learn C# or Java now. In the near future only those that know the desktop, the mobile and the web terrain are going to make any considerable impact.

If E-mail is yet to replace snail mail and E-books are yet to replace paper books I do not think the web or mobile platform will replace the desktop in the foreseeable future.

African News More Independent Than America's ?

Ethan Zuckerman when asked about his thoughts on the impact of blogging in Africa gave the following reply

"I don’t think blogging in Africa has had the same huge effect as it has in say North America yet. The reason for this is that in North America, blogging has largly been a response to the lack of good independent news sources. In Africa I believe this is less of an issue as there is less corporate ownership of news media."

The full interview is here