africa undersea cables map

by Steve Song
]]> http://africantech.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/africa-underseas-internet-cables/feed/ 0 africantech africa-undersea-cables-map http://africantech.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/marketing-in-africa/ http://africantech.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/marketing-in-africa/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:10:06 +0000 africantech http://africantech.wordpress.com/?p=90 ]]> An interesting topic from whiteafrican about interactive marketing in Africa. 

Marketing strategies which are becominng obsolete in the old continent are still working in Africa.

But the poor quality of the bandwidth is obstructing the population to acces the internet.

How many african touristic place get an websites?

and those which get one don’t invest in the quality of the services their online plattform.  It’s tricky for tourists to take a trip to somewhere they don’t know how it coud look like.

The policies to access the new tech in our continent should be reformed/renewed. 

Not only touristic institutions are concerned by this marketing strategies. It’s exactly the same when you’re looking for videos or music your favored singer or for the african diaspora when it’s need informations from their homeland.

I think it’s a good stuff…but i have to say it would be cooler if one can send the sms with the mobile phone.  Something like send sms to doomedo and doomedo send it to your contacts where ever it is.

Ok..Ok but how much would pay the users for this service. Because I think if someone buy an hour for internet connection to 300 F CFA. Buy SMS is an additional costs. How is he ready pay to send a SMS to his contacts worldwide. And How much would he pay to text from his mobile phone?

Some people would argue the connection’s time remains for a later use and it have not so much to do with the Doomedo service. But without the Internet cafe the user can’t use Doomedo.

The others would say send sms is interactive thing and should’nt be involve Internetcafe usage. But for we the BIG question is how much the users are ready to pay for this interactivity?

I don’t know what the business model for Doomedo is, it’s would be interesting to know how Ti Aya want to manage that.

The Hi-Tech Battle For Africa

Microsoft has defended itself against criticism over aggressive marketing techniques in Africa to win people over to its software.

“Despite the wealth of information that gets around, it’s sad that sometimes reality has a hard time catching up with perception,” said Dr Cheikh Modibo Diarra, chairman of Microsoft in Africa.

“I think that that perception comes from the fact that we are very successful because wherever we are, we are competing respectfully and openly; you can verify that everywhere,” he told the BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme. more…

Last week the BBC interviewed Dr. Diarra, the chairman of Microsoft in Africa. One of his quotes was memorable:

“Africa is really the last frontier in not only developing technology that is specific to people’s needs, but eventually even developing new business models that will enable the emergence of local software industries, such as young people who have the skills to be able to write their own applications for their own community,”

I agree with the first part of that statement, it’s the second part that I find alarming. Coming from Microsoft, how can young people build the skills to write code when they can’t even pay for the closed software needed to run it? It’s not free, and if access (which he states earlier) is the biggest issue facing African technologists – then how does closed software fit into the equation? more

An article from the NYT about the non-profit from web company in developing countries

Open Solutions Cameroun

I read for the first time about Open Solutions Cameroun by the nino’s blog.

A company which promotes and markets it’s Know-how in Open Solutions in Cameroon. For months ago i read that more than 80 percent of Software used in Cameroon’s administration offices and institutions are not used with the appropriate licenses or are cracked and i always wonder if people don’t know what open solutions are.

Since 2001 started the French gendamerie the switch over to Open-Source-Desktop and save only in 2008 more than 70 Millions euros. This year the license’s expenses will be cut down to 70%.

May be people don’t notice it but i think the open source solutions like Ubuntu and others are the future and these solutions are making a very interesting breakthrough by the user’s community.

Personally I’m using exclusively Kubuntu for 8-9 months and I’m so impressed for what you can get for free.

As African we should turn to these solutions because it’s free
and you can adapt it to your own needs.

and i hope this company will success and meet his goals.

Below two case studies (in pdf) from the European information service OSOR(Open Source Observatory and Repository) of the Swiss federal court and the French Gendarmerie about the migration to open source of this Europeans institutions .

Open source on the desktops of the Swiss Federal Court and Federal Administrative Court

Towards the freedom of the operating system: the French Gendarmerie goes for Ubuntu

INFRASTRUCTURES

Le gouvernement camerounais a donné quitus pour la mise en place d’un point d’échange Internet. Une solution technique permettant de gagner en temps, en coûts, en sécurité et en autonomie

Les ministères et autres institutions de la République du Cameroun sont sur Internet. Il y est désormais possible d’obtenir des formulaires et autres renseignement depuis un domicile, un bureau ou un cybercafé. Si l’opération semble relativement facile et rapide, elle est plus lente et plus chère d’un point de vue comparatif. Et pour cause, lorsque l’internaute basé à Yaoundé sollicité un document dans un ministère à côté, sa requête va d’abord passer par un point de connexion international. C’est depuis ce point que son ordinateur et le serveur qu’il sollicite seront connectés. Un peu comme à l’époque où de Yaoundé, il fallait appeler Paris pour obtenir un correspondant à Douala par téléphone. A ce propos, l’Union internationale des Télécommunications affirme qu’en « Afrique, 7 connexions sur 10 transitent par l’Europe ou les Etats-Unis ».

suite…