By Solomon Omondi
Africa is yet again at crossroads. This time around the dilemma is not whether or not to support the war on terrorism but how to deal with emerging issues at technological level.
African governments are now coming under immense pressure on policies regarding technology.
The benefits of information and communication technology have revolutionized activities around the world.
However, these benefits do not seem to have spread evenly around the globe to benefit everybody. Africa is a region where people are yet to reap the benefits that comes along with technolo
Until recently the debate on the potential economic benefits of embracing information and communication technologies (ICTs) by African countries,if they were to leapfrog development stages has mainly been at the infrastructural level, that is, the cost of hardware needed to access this technology at the expense of the intelligibility of the content of this technology to the user.
It has been argued that ICTs in themselves do not necessarily translate into development since the focus is on the technology rather than people. For example, how do rural women benefit from information on the Internet when they cannot read and understand what is on the computer screen?
Traditionally, computer software and hardware have been closed-source, controlled by a few large corporate organizations.
For instance, most of the common software applications are Microsoft based and these are closed-source, implying that their source code is not available to the general public.
Consequently, this software is shrouded in secrecy through stringent copyright protection to protect and maintain their privileged place in the global market.
More and more people are opting for open source software (OSS). OSS refers to software that is developed, tested, or improved through public collaboration and distributed with the idea that they must be shared with others, ensuring an open future collaboration. The best known example is the operating system Linux, which could be a possible threat to Microsoft’s Windows.
The majority of those who have adopted OSS cite their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Open source essentially refers to freedom to access the principles and methodology to promote open access to production and design of goods, products and resources.
The term has mostly been used to refer to computer software generally availed to the public with either relaxed or non-existent Intellectual Property rights. These include operating systems like Linux and Mozilla among others.
Other benefits associated with OSS according to the proponents include the absence of defects and in case any are detected, these can be rectified with ease and as soon as they are detected since the source code is usually available to both the users and developers.
Given the fact that proprietary software is closed-source and therefore cannot be easily modified to be user and regional specific, this has in essence limited the extent to which these technologies can be used to empower the poor, particularly in developing countries.
While most African governments are currently rushing to embrace e-government to improve service delivery, they are also spending huge amounts of money to purchase operating systems software for their computers.
The scenario has drawn sharp reactions from critics who claim this is tantamount to global technological imperialism. At the heart of the debate is the prohibitive cost of software that has ensured most Africans effectively remain on the other side of the digital divide. For instance, the cost of proprietary software, mainly distributed by Microsoft remains the most prohibitive.
For instance, at the recently concluded World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi, technology was once again on the spot with activists bashing the continued capitalistic trends by a few software companies to lock out a big chunk of the world’s poor with intellectual property rights protocols.
“The challenges we are facing today is not just fascism, Nazism or terrorism but more increasingly global technological capitalism,” says Christophe Aguiton of France Telecom Orange recently during the WSF.
According to Christophe, it is time to challenge the established system of the world by fighting against the metaphor of methodology through which technological capitalism has been created to exploit the poor.
This sentiment was echoed by Alan Story, a senior lecturer in intellectual property law at the University of KentUK. He argues that “millions of people especially in developing countries have been forced to become ‘pirates’ because of the copyright laws imposed on them by a few monopolies in the West.” in
“If it wasn’t for the issue of copyrights, Bill Gates would be selling pencils in the streets of New York,” quips Story.
In large parts of Africa, the high cost of proprietor software is often higher than the per-capita income of these countries. This forces ordinary citizens into becoming “software pirates”. Interestingly, most of them are not even aware that they are operating copies of pirated software.
Indeed, it is the case that most people in developing world have found themselves operating pirated copies of Microsoft software without their knowledge. Recently , a Reuters article illustrated the story of a Russian teacher in a remote village who was charged with pirated software in the classroom. Led by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, appeals have been made to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the release of the teacher arguing that he was unaware that he was violating Microsoft’s intellectual property rights.
Proponents of OSS have argued that such incidents need not happen if the world embraced OSS since it would cost far much less.
Kenya is currently implementing an e-government project that is supposed to make delivery of government information and services to the public efficient and promote citizens participation in government.
While this is a noble initiative, it has been argued that since most of the government run services on e-government initiative are still based on proprietary software applications, the government is forced to unnecessarily spend huge sums of money to purchase these. It would be wiser if the government adopted open source software.
Furthermore, not only are these commercial software packages costly, but they also do not come in local languages and neither can they be shared or adapted to meet local needs.
Critics have also argued that continued control of the software industry by a few global corporations is tantamount to stifling democracy and violation of consumer rights. By denying them the right to alternatives.
According to Anoop Sukumaran, an activist based in Indonesia working against proprietary software controlled by global monopolies, the right to information is not a privilege but a basic human right and taking away these rights is tantamount to killing democracy.
Anoop says: “Democracy is about alternatives. If there are no alternatives, then you cannot claim to be participating in a democracy.”
Currently, most African governments, including Kenya are still bound by stringent licensing obligations by the big software companies The question remains; are African governments ready to breach these licensing obligations and adopt open source software?
ENDS
