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Latest Post - Category: Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
The price of ignorance is more than mere slavery, it includes money
11 days ago
I wrote this about three years ago. Oddly, this week, I was in a computer store buying a laptop because I needed on in a hurry. I saw two people buying the same deliberately disabled versions of proprietary software, spending money on ignorance.
Last week I was in Incredible Connection (a local computer chain store for those outside SA) to purchase an analogue video capture device so I could build a simple system for archiving really old video material using Free Software. As I was standing at the till, I happened to glance at the person in front of me. He was buying a piece of proprietary software for R1600, and he was visibly upset by the price, but clearly he believed he needed it. It was a stripped down version of Microsoft Office, I forget the name because I don't generally pay any attention to Microsoft products.
In South Africa, R1600 is a lot of money, a monthly salary for many people, more for some. I suggested that he might put it back and download Open Office for free, and he would have better functionality at no cost.
"No, I, I don't pirate software," he said, looking shocked that I would even suggest it.
"Its free software, not pirate software," I said.
"There is no such thing," says he. "People don't make products for free."
Shame, poor guy, he paid R1600 for a product rendered defective by deliberate design, when he could have enjoyed greater freedom and saved R1600. Does his ignorance make it OK for him to be a digital slave? Implicitly, it is so.
Thankfully, I live mostly in digital freedom. A side benefit of this is that I almost never have to pay for software, and the software that I use is by-and-large of superior quality. I know this because I used to be a slave.
If you have the time, give Eben Moglen a listen, on the subject of software freedom.
I like his statement - "Software is what the 21st Century is made of"
free software
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The challenge of critical mass in South African ICT innovation
12 days ago
It could be argued that one of the defining features of the late 20th and early 21st Century is that it has been a time of rapid innovation. The opportunities for technology-based entrepreneurship are unparalleled in history, yet South Africa and the rest of the African continent have largely been relegated to the role of consumers of innovations produced elsewhere, or at best have done innovation around the periphery and in a few areas that are the exception. One such exception to this trend might be the cellular phone industry although it might be argued that we have have gotten behind in that space too.
The raw material for innovation, potentially creative young minds, is being wasted even as we languish as consumers of technology and process innovation done elsewhere. In recent years there has been a substantial increase in opportunities for youth to study at higher and further education levels. The number of places at universities and colleges increased, and financial access has been improved by the expansion of the funds provided the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). Yet despite this, youth unemployment is rife, and there are substantially more young people qualifying to enter higher education than there are places available.
The squandering of our youth is evident in some recent statistics. Approximately 680 000 school leavers wrote matric examinations at the end of 2010, but only about 230 000 qualified for university studies at a minimal level. South African public universities only have the capacity to accommodate 130 000 first year students, leaving about 100 000 young people – who could be contributing to the economy and society and building the next generation of business – without university places. Getting into university is no guarantee. Up to 30 percent of university students are unable to find jobs after they graduate resulting in high numbers of unemployed graduates. Graduates are the fastest growing group contributing to the increasing numbers of unemployed. The entrepreneurial sector is not growing fast enough to make a high enough contribution to economic development.
Given the low production of high-level skills, all technology-based industries face a critical shortage of highly skilled graduates, and the pace of creation of new businesses is low compared to many other countries. Even if our existing institutions were to improve on their poor throughput rates, and take on the maximum number of students that they could, we would still substantially lack critical mass.
The output of universities in areas of technology that could provide opportunities for innovation is well below what we may call critical mass – the input of talented educators and researchers and the output of talented graduates required to foster innovation and the significant creation of new businesses. Salaries in technology fields are very attractive for graduates, with the result that movement from undergraduate to postgraduate programmes of study is low. The unemployment of graduates generally, and the low rate of production of high-level, technology and entrepreneurship skills are related. They take place within the same ecosystem, and this is a key limiting factor in the knowledge economy and the knowledge ecosystem that supports it.
To make a serious difference, we need 5 000 to 10 000 new PhD's and 100 000 to 200 000 new graduates from the programmes they create. Instead, we are tinkering around the margins and doing incremental things. And of course talking. It is easier to talk, and to tinker incrementally than it is to make a difference. Meanwhile, as a nation, we are wasting our youth.
education
The new dkeats.com
13 days ago
Welcome to the new dkeats.com. I have moved this application onto a new cloud server located at Digital Ocean in New York City. This is just the default install until I get the dkeats.com theme uploaded and installed. I will be rebuilding the site, and I may or may not bring back the old data.
welcome
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