BLACK AMPHI

BlACKAMPHI PRESENTS NDZULO TUECHE

Mambe Nanje — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:04:40 +0000

Today I present to the world my Cameroonian brother now living and working in Ivory Coast. We first met in Buea, Cameroon in 2007 at a cyber cafe where I was doing some flash animations and it caught his attention and we have been sharing ideas on Information and Communication Technology and its usage in Africa as a means of alleviating poverty till date.

He is an entrepreneur at heart and he is a strong member of Junior Chamber International. Lets move on with Joe….

What are your names ?
NDZULO TUECHE but I’m a.k.a Joe! Some call me “Zu-Prod”, which is in fact my business name.

Where do you live and work?
I live in Abengourou, less than 300Km from Abidjan in the east of Cote d’Ivoire and freelance as a trainer instructing and coaching people to the use of PCs in general and the internet in particular. In addition, I blog at www.joendzulo.tk

What are the tools you use in your daily activities?
They are of two types:
Hard tools (unavoidable): A couple of networked PCs connected to the internet, a white board and markers.
Soft tools: Windows and Ubuntu, Microsoft Office 2003/2007, Mozilla & Google Chrome, Hootsuite, twhirl, a wide range of Google services, online tools like backupify without omitting Skype to chat and talk with cool guys like you!

Can you give examples of projects you have been a part of ?
I’m currently involved with the project dubbed “IndéniéBlog”, which is a community of bloggers (in the making) in Abengourou. The aim is to promote citizen journalism in particular and the internet in general as great tools of sustainable development. You could get echoes via Africamp [http://africamp.com] while the site is under construction.

In association with Roland Kwemain(JCI President) [http://www.rolandkwemain.com], I had the great pleasure to lead a team of dynamic volunteers from 5 African countries (online) in a project to design, edit, publish and promote the “2009 JCI Africa & Middle East Newsletter”. The 3 releases can be read online or downloaded here [http://tndzulo.blogspot.com/search/label/AMN09].

Are you more into web ventures, desktop software, other technology or general consultancy and services?
I’m essentially into general consultancy and services. However, there’s a web venture project, coming up.

How difficult is it to get capital/investment for your ventures in Africa?
Well, I think the difficulty lies in convincing capital holders. If it takes more than two serious meetings and consequent capital on your part for the venture to be funded, then that venture is not convincing enough. Know the SWOT of the venture and plan to get the funds.

Its known that most IT professionals in africa change jobs at a very rapid rate, what do you think could be the cause ?
In my opinion, Man’s desire for faster and better technology to innovate and make life easier is the cause. IT evolves very fast and apparently faster than before. This creates new jobs and buries obsolete ones everyday.

What word do you have for other aspiring entrepreneurs in Africa?
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Start by having a dream that makes sense for you and could have sense for your community. Share the dream and have the desire to make it come true. Take the decision to begin the journey to make the dream real. Be determined to stop only when your goal is achieved. Discipline your self because in the process of making the dream true, you might have to sleep fewer hours per day, eat less, abstain from one or two usual activities etc etc. An entrepreneur (I’ll precise “responsible entrepreneur”) is a person with a number of habits which when combined, creates success for himself and the community.

How can people interested in socialising and working with/for you get to contact you?
Social neworks & bookmarks:
Facebook [http://profile.to/joendzulo]
Twitter [http://twitter.com/tndzulo]
Gatorpeeps [http://gatrpeeps.com/ndzulo
Delicious: [http://delicious.com/tndzulo]

Other modes of contact include
Via the contact page of my blog here [http://tndzulo.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-post_7551.html].
Via email : me [at] joendzulo [dot] tk
Via phone: +225 44 35 86 57 (best for MTNers) or +225 03 29 43 84 (best for MOOVers)

I still receive snail mails at this address:
NDZULO TUECHE Joe
BP 276 Abengourou, Cote d’Ivoire

Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words
My closing words are: keep the Black Amphi alive. It’s a place worth to visit, while waiting on “Camerborn” and clapping at Naijaborn’s evolution.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about myself.

BLACKAMPHI Back To Life With Theresa Ann Carpenter

Mambe Nanje — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:33:02 +0000

Welcome back to blackamphi, your online home to everything software, web and entrepreneurship in Africa. We were down due to server issues and we are back along with Therese Carpenter…She is a business lady a.k.a entrepreneur living and doing business in Benin, West Africa.

What are your names?

My name is Theresa Ann Carpenter ep. Sondjo.

Where do you live and work ?

I live in Cotonou, Benin. My husband and I run People Online (http://www.ongpeopleonline.org/ ), a web development and IT consulting shop.

How did you get the skills as a business man (university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)?

Business woman. As an entrepreneur, you either learn how to make money, or you fail and get a job working for someone else.

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows/Mac/linux, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, twitter, salesforce, facebook, etc)?

I work on an Ubuntu box. I’m not committed to F/OSS as an ideology, but running a Linux box has a lot of advantages: low cost, less problems with viruses, easier to lock down individual machines, etc. We use Google Apps because it makes business sense. We work with our freelancers and interns online, and it’s a lot easier to manage schedules and share documents using Google than by emailing Microsoft files back and forth.

The non-programming side of the office uses Windows. Everybody’s got WAMP (or LAMP) stacks installed, because everybody’s got to get their hands dirty once in a while.

You can follow me on Twitter: @theresac.

How long have you been doing business in Africa?

I’ve been in Africa for almost 5 years. People Online has been active for about 3.

Can you give some examples of products you have launched to the market or you have been a part of?

Recently, we’ve been pusing to get Beninese newspapers online as cheaply as possible. We provide cheap hosting and customize WordPress themes for the journals, then train them to update their sites themselves.

L’Evenement Precis (http://levementprecis.com)

Le Pays Emergent (http://lepaysemergent.com)

La Presse du Jour (http://lapressedujour.net)

Le Municipal (http://lemunicipal.org)

Lately, we’ve been doing a lot more IT consulting type projets: trainings, intranets, SMS, etc. although obviously they don’t have public URLs.

Are you more into web ventures, desktop software or general consultancy and services?

We started out as a strictly web shop, but recently our customers have been coming back asking for more. Who are we to refuse? As I said in my last answer, we’ve been designing and implementing intranets for local businesses too. This week, actually, we soft-launched a micro-finance system to track loans and investments.

Intranets, SMS products, consultancy … it call comes with the terrotiry. You can’t stay a market leader if you’re not willing to take risks and try new things.

What do you use for your accounting (eg frontaccounting, webERP, excel. google docs, etc)?

Quicken. It’s the only reason my computer dual-boots to Vista. I’ve yet to find something better for Linux (GNUCash is a crazy-insane-unusable nightmare).

What do you use to manage you team, staff, or contract workers (collabtive, unfudle, basecamp, etc)?

Email, Google Spreadsheets and Calendar, and big pieces of paper taped up on my office wall. We’ve tried everything else, but there are two problems:

1) We work on dozens of projects at once, in a dozens of different states of completion. Migration is a time consuming hassle.

2) Bandwidth in Cotonou sucks. If my team can’t login to a project management app, it’s worthless to us.

What quality assurance mechanisms have you put in place to ensure that your products are top notch?

We pay attention to details, and we’re willing to fix things when we make mistakes. Nothing more complicated than that.

Can you tell us some of the business strategies you employ for competition and what results you have been getting ?

Almost all of the projects that we started in 2009 were from client referrals. For 2010, 100% so far. It’s because our first priority is client satisfaction. Mostly, we don’t worry about the anyone else. Our competition is going to do what they’re going to do, no matter what. Far better to concetrate on making People Online the absolute best we can be. Strange as it might be to hear, we pioneered honesty and good customer service in our sector.

What are the difficulties you face with the government and tax systems in Africa?

Hah. HAH! Taxes are high. Paperwork takes too long. Bureaucracies are bureauracracies.

How difficult is it to get capital/investment for your ventures in Africa ? Do you use kiva or veecu or other online microfinance systems to raise funds ? How do you get capital for your ventures (VC, family, loans, etc)?

If we wanted to raise funds, we could do it in a heartbeat from friends, families, and satisfied clients. We’re in an unusual position because we’ve worked very very hard to earn a reputation for quality and reliability. That said, we’re wary of accepting money from anyone. People Online is 100% bootstrapped, and that’s the way we like it. We’re beholden to no one but ourselves.

For younger, less experienced entrepeneurs, raising funds is almost impossible. Founders are afraid to share their idea with businessman because they’re afraid that the businessmen will just steal it. Businessmen are afraid to share their money with founders because they’re afraid that the founders will just steal it. There’s no working justice system here, and so no way to enforce contracts gone bad.

We see idea after idea fail because the founders can’t even find enough money to put a website together. We’re working on a project to do something about that, especially as far as young technical entrepreneurs are concerned, but it’s slow going.

What is the criteria and tools you use to employ your staff ?

Can you code? Can you design? Are you reliable? Yes? Great. We don’t worry about anything else. Certificates and diplomas aren’t worth the ink it took to print them in this business.

Its known that most IT professionals in Africa change jobs at a very rapid rate, what do you think could be the cause ?

Do you have any research to back this up? Because I’m not convinced it’s true. Quality people are always looking for new, interesting, better paying projects. That’s normal, and it’s not limited to Africa. I see a lot of technicians quit jobs where they’re treated poorly to start their own business, but a lot of medicore IT professionals find a gig that pays the bills, and spend 10 years in the same place, stagnating. Again, not limited to Africa. Treat your quality workers like gold, and they won’t leave you.

How do you ensure that you retain the best talents or always have the talents in place to do the job?

We pay our freelancers well and we treat them with respect. I was suprised to find that the latter is relatively unusual in Benin. We also recently launched an internship program to train college graduates because we were having trouble finding the specific we need. That said, I’m always on the look out for fresh talent. Send CVs, rates, and links to sites you’ve worked on to jobs@ongpeopleonline.org. Right now, I’m specifically looking for Flash/ActionScript, and Python (bonus for Django and/or RapidSMS experience), but designers, PHP gurus, WordPress experts, and others are always welcome.

What is the minimum educational level you consider in the people you employ ?

Do not care. Do not care. Do not care. Let me repeat that one more time. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR EDUCATION IF YOU CAN CODE.

What are some of the challenges you face as a business man in Africa ?

First, I’m not a businessman, I’m a businesswoman. Sexism and even misogeny are both a real problem for me. Also, I’m foreign, which can make financial transactions delicate. Luckily, my partner is Beninese and male, so we balance each other out.

For People Online, the lack of cheap bandwidth is a real challenge, as is how hard it is to find people who can really code.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges ?

Cheap bandwidth is coming. Slowly. Very slowly. We have multiple connections at the house (WiMax and GSM), so when one conks out, we switch to the other one. We also do a lot of work between midnight and 8am. With regards to quality technicians and designers, it’s really a question of training. Progammers need to learn real skills in school, not just theory. How can someone spend three years getting a diploma, and not produce a single working application?

But we’re not sitting around waiting for anyone to get rid of these challenges. We knew that operating a business in Benin would be hard. Our job is not to see challenges, but rather to look for new and better ways to make money.

What word do you have for other aspiring entrepreneurs in Africa ?

It’s worth every moment of blood, sweat, and tears. If you put out a quality product and pay attention to customer service, you’ll come out on top eventually. Don’t take no for answer, adapt quickly, and pay attention to the market. It changes so fast here, you can miss amazing opportunities by blinking your eyes.

How can people interested in working with you or for you get to contact you ?

As I mentioned earlier, I’m on Twitter (@theresac) and I blog at SubjectVerbObject. Anyone can email me at theresac@gmail.com. And of course, People Online has a website: http://ongpeopleonline.org.

Thank you so very much Therese, I know its not easy for taking off time from coding to answer these questions…but I bet you this interview will be helpful to alot of people out there who are doing business in Africa or who plan to do business in Africa

Merci

FOUBA IZANE Gaétan a Camerborn Software Developer

Mambe Nanje — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:42:13 +0000

what are your names

FOUBA IZANE Gaétan aka (IzaneFG on Twitter)

where do you live and work ?

I’m working and live Everywhere but now I’m working for www.ingenieris.net

how did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)

Le développement… je l’ai appris à la maison dans un premier temps ensuite je me suis juste perfectionné dans une école de formation professionnelle Africaine ayant une représentation au Cameroun. Mais je me perfectionne tous les jours en me documentant et en développant des petits modules qui me serviront surement plus tard.

what are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)

Windows? Non, je ne l’utilise pas sauf quand je travaille pour une société qui l’exige et pour des tests d’applications multiplate-forme. Mon environnement est Linux Ubuntu ou Débian et mes applications de développement sont Aptana Studio pour le JavaScript, Amaya, CodeBlocks pour le C/C++, BlueFish pour le html/php, eclipse pour Java, TheGimp pour le Webdesign.

how long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development

Je développe depuis la classe de 4e où j’ai écris mon premier programme de résolution d’équation avec l’aide de mon grand frère. Donc disons, depuis 9 ans et l’ordinateur je l’utilise depuis que je fais CE2 ce n’était pas encore donné à tout le monde d’en avoir un.

can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development.

www.ingenieris.net, www.era-cameroun.com, www.projet-aqua.org, www.golfe-cardsystem.com les autres sont à venir ne vous en faites pas

are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.

Oriented Programming

while developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more ??

KISS

what are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)

MVC coded from scratch

what software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)

hein???

do you find design patterns usefull and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze

I think it helful for team work.

can you tell us about any computerscience theories you have applied before ( Bayesian Theory, parallel computing, Bigtable, Mapreduce, Active Records, etc)

je fait du Parallel computing juste pour des raisons d’école, mais je me sens bien avec toutes ces théories

do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)

Pour le moment je n’utilise pas d’outils collaboratif mais je pense en adopter un et je pense à Git mais il faut d’abord que j’analyse bien toutes les autres solutions.

how important are deadlines in your work?

Les deadlines me permettent de pouvoir livrer mes travaux à temps. Lorsqu’ils me sont donnés par mon employeur, je les respecte toujours avec une marge. Les deadlines permettent de me motiver

are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans

what do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks

Je pense que les frameworks doivent être utilisé à bon essient et pas juste pour dire qu’on utilise tel ou tel autre framework. Il ne sert à rien d’utiliser un framework complet, lourd pour faire tout simplement des affichages basiques. Il faudrait le choisir en fonction du cahier des charges fonctionnel qui nous ai donné.

do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises?

Oui, je le pense. Mais comme je le dis, il faut être prudent avec les Framework

which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc

php

what do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies

ceci est une discution sans fin, je pense que ces deux types de technonogies se valent et doivent être utilisées selon les besoins. Mais moi je suis plus tourné vers l’open source.

what are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa ?

Les travaux ne sont pas souvent reconnu par les clients et vous sous payent. D’autres se disent que vous ne pouvez pas faire le travail parce que vous êtes très jeunes.

what do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges ?

Juste que les esprits changent mais pour ça il faut du temps

what word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa ?

Le développement est un domaine grandissant et très porteur en Afrique mais il faudrait refléchir pour faire des solutions de qualités, adaptées et croire en ses projets.

how can people interested in working with you get to contact you ?

izanefg[at]yahoo[dot]fr

[if you got any of your own questions add here and provide your answers lol. thanks]

thanks for your time and please give us some closing words

For Nothing.

Today we will bring a Cameroonian top web and software developer to the blackamphi stage. He is a french speaking Cameroonian so put on your french hats . Below is his picture, while we have him right here, lets get everything from the horse’s mouth.

What are your names

FOUBA IZANE Gaétan aka (IzaneFG on Twitter)

Where do you live and work

I’m working and live Everywhere but now I’m working for www.ingenieris.net

How did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)

How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development

Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development.

www.ingenieris.net, www.era-cameroun.com, www.projet-aqua.org, www.golfe-cardsystem.com les autres sont à venir ne vous en faites pas

Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.

Oriented Programming

While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more

KISS

What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)

MVC coded from scratch

What software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)

hein???

Do you find design patterns usefull and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze

I think it helful for team work.

Can you tell us about any computerscience theories you have applied before ( Bayesian Theory, parallel computing, Bigtable, Mapreduce, Active Records, etc)

je fait du Parallel computing juste pour des raisons d’école, mais je me sens bien avec toutes ces théories

Do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)

Pour le moment je n’utilise pas d’outils collaboratif mais je pense en adopter un et je pense à Git mais il faut d’abord que j’analyse bien toutes les autres solutions.

How important are deadlines in your work

Les deadlines me permettent de pouvoir livrer mes travaux à temps. Lorsqu’ils me sont donnés par mon employeur, je les respecte toujours avec une marge. Les deadlines permettent de me motiver

What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks

Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises

Oui, je le pense. Mais comme je le dis, il faut être prudent avec les Framework

Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc

php

What do you think about open source vs proprietary technologies

ceci est une discution sans fin, je pense que ces deux types de technonogies se valent et doivent être utilisées selon les besoins. Mais moi je suis plus tourné vers l’open source.

What are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa

Les travaux ne sont pas souvent reconnu par les clients et vous sous payent. D’autres se disent que vous ne pouvez pas faire le travail parce que vous êtes très jeunes.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges

Juste que les esprits changent mais pour ça il faut du temps

What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa

Le développement est un domaine grandissant et très porteur en Afrique mais il faudrait refléchir pour faire des solutions de qualités, adaptées et croire en ses projets.

How can people interested in working with you get to contact you

izanefg[at]yahoo[dot]fr

Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words

For Nothing.

Introduction to Kohana PHP Framework

Mambe Nanje — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:30:24 +0000

I personally use PHP Frameworks like Codeigniter, Kohana PHP, CakePHP, and co. I am a great advocate of such frameworks and I have built a couple of applications faster and more secure with one or more of these frameworks. Usually with these frameworks, you can develop a working prototype of your startup/project idea within 3days. I also believe African web developers should employ these frameworks just to get to know some computer science theories embeded in them even if you dont like using frameworks, take some time, study the frameworks and employ the magical ideas like “Convention over Configuration”, MVC, ORM, front controller, libraries and helpers into your own development process. For a Framework like Codeigniter, its extensive user guide, flexible standards and friendly developer community online can help a new developer get up to speed within a couple of days. Frameworks will help the average African developer become a world class web developer this is my believe.

Enough of the Framework talks, I wrote this article for PacktPub in UK about the Kohana PHP Framework. I was contacted to produce an article within a couple of days and this is what I came up with.

Overview

Kohana PHP Framework is an open source PHP software development framework that helps php developers to build web applications faster, and also, more effectively by providing them with a set of built-in objects/classes. It also enforces highly organized coding standards.

The Kohana PHP Framework is just like Ruby on Rails; it implements the well known software engineering design pattern—Model View Controller(MVC). The Model View Controller software design pattern guides engineers to design their software codes into three separate parts which includes:

Models: The objects that manipulate data sources and data stores.

Views: The html and css files with inline php codes that present the user interface and controls to the application users.

Controllers: Objects in charge of the business logic, displaying the page(views), and routing the click actions from the views to the model and back to the views.

Kohana was originally based upon the well documented codeigniter php framework, but it stands out due to its strict use of OOP best practices and standards.

read more on the packtpub.com website link: http://www.packtpub.com/article/introduction-to-kohana-php-framework

Introducing Ebot Tabi, a Cameroonian Software Developer

Mambe Nanje — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:35:17 +0000

send us like an attachment. every review or article on blackamphi must show a picture of you.

it must not be at work. it could even be in a club lol]

what are your names

Ebot Tabi

where do you live and work ?

Buea, Cameroon

how did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)

Self tutoring and learning from others

what are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)

Windows/Linux OS, netbeans, Dreamweaver, XAMP/LAMP, eclipse

how long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development

2 years

can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development

Naijaborn.com, currently thinking on a location based directory service for some african countries for sometime in futur.

are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.

Object Oriented programming

while developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more ??

KISS

what are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)

MVC

what software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)

Agile

do you find design patterns usefull and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze

Yes

can you tell us about any computerscience theories you have applied before ( Bayesian Theory, parallel computing, Bigtable, Mapreduce, Active Records, etc)

Active Records

do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)

SVN

how important are deadlines in your work?

too important

are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans

It is helping nations such: India, so i think it can also help us here in Africa

what do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks

They all have their place, and are very important when i comes to speed development and code maintainance

do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises?

yes

which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc

Java

what do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies

Open source

what are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa ?

The software market and VC funds

what do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges ?

Funding > Bootstrap

what word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa ?

Africa still need solution, everyone should go for it.

how can people interested in working with you get to contact you ?

info@ebotttabi.com, ebot.tabi@gmail.coO

Once again here we are on the black amphitheater, but this time around I will be talking about my own colleague and I remember a few years back when I met him and he was very much eager to get into software and web development and wanted to immidiately start coding on www.ubstudents.com also remember instructing his men Ebot Ndip www.ebotndip.com to take him through the java drills….

Enough of my talking lets get to know Ebot Tabi from the picture below and the question and answer session that follows.

What are your names

Ebot Tabi

Where do you live and work

Buea, Cameroon

How did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)

Self tutoring and learning from others

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)

Windows/Linux OS, netbeans, Dreamweaver, XAMP/LAMP, eclipse

How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development

2 years

Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development

Naijaborn.com, currently thinking on a location based directory service for some african countries for sometime in future.

Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.

Object Oriented programming

While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more

KISS

What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)

MVC

What software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)

Agile

Do you find design patterns usefull and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze

Yes

Can you tell us about any computerscience theories you have applied before ( Bayesian Theory, parallel computing, Bigtable, Mapreduce, Active Records, etc)

Active Records

Do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)

SVN

How important are deadlines in your work

too important

Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans

It is helping other nations e.g India, so I think it can also help us here in Africa

What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks

They all have their place, and are very important when it comes to speed of development and code maintainance

Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises

yes

Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc

Java

What do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies

Open source

What are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa

The software market and VC funds

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges

Funding > Bootstrap

What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa

Africa still need solution, everyone should go for it.

How can people interested in working with you get to contact you

info@ebotttabi.com, ebot.tabi@gmail.com

Ekwoge Fritz a.k.a FEE From Cameroon

Mambe Nanje — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:09:12 +0000

Ladies and Gentlement lets all listen to Ekwoge Fritz tell us about the secret to his success as an African Software/Web professional and business man.

Ekwoge Fritz is the developer behind the widely popular African classifieds website www.kerawa.com and recently he is coming up with the GSM accessible mobile phone directory hosted on IYAM.MOBI.

While we have him on the blackamphi why dont we all hear from the GURU.

- What are your names
Fritz Ekwoge Ekwoge aka Fee.

- Where do you live and work
Douala, Cameroon

- How did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)
Got lucky

- What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)
firefox ; notepad++

- How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development
Ever since I discovered the “PROG” button on the TI80 graphic calculator in High School.

- Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development
http://www.kerawa.com, http://iYam.mobi

- Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.
Any of the above. Depends on the job.

- What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)
All of the above mentioned.

- What software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)
All of the above mentioned.

- Do you find design patterns usefull and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze
Yes.

- Can you tell us about any computerscience theories you have applied before ( Bayesian Theory, parallel computing, Bigtable, Mapreduce, Active Records, etc)
All of the above mentioned
Nah , that’s not true.
I’ve come accross the Bayesian Theory and Active Records in a distant past.

- Do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)
GMail

- How important are deadlines in your work
Not that important, for now.

- Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans
It helped India’s economy. Could also help ours.

- What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks
They all have their place in this diverse world of ours.

- Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises?
They will help African developers adhere to the framework’s concept and implementation of best practices.

- Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc
Morse

- What do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies
They each have their place in this diverse world of ours.

- What are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa
Funding
Young market

- What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges
Funding > Bootstrap
Young market > Build the market

- What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa
This is for the nobodies: “Go for it”.

- How can people interested in working with you get to contact you
ekwogefee at gmail dot com

-While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more
Believing is an understatement. I swear by those.

- What popular principle did you use to respond to this interview
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Less is More

-Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words.
There is no excuse in life.

Enstine Muki Musaga from Cameroon Stays Focused

Mambe Nanje — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:15:04 +0000

Hey people!

We’re back again to Africa in Miniature. This time around, we are neither near Mount Fako nor on the grasslands but somewhere around the coast, in the economic capital. While all commands come from Yaounde, I guess Douala is where all the money gets printed . Not really! But it is obvious that Business on this highly populated and busy town is at its peak. Talking of business, you know, of course, we can’t leave software and the web development out of the ring. Who are we “investigating” now? There is a php/MySQL guru on the line.

Hello….. Anybody there?….. Echo…

Oh, here he comes. The first to be interviewed by us in his Region. As usual, per our tradition, we let him express himself because no one can possibly talk about him more than his very self.

What are your names?
My names are Enstine Muki Musaga.

Where do you live and work ?
Douala, Littoral Region of Cameroon

How did you get the skills in software development(university, professional school, online certifications, study from home, internet)?

I got into the digital world with screw-drivers lol … Well I got my first training as PC Technician far back in 2001 and my trip to software (web apps) sprung from an annoying experience I had while serving as computer operator in one construction company in Douala, 2003. My boss asked me to get someone to setup a website for the company so I called this guy who came and tabled a bill of 300,000fcfa and said he was to deliver in 2 weeks. Oh God! I said this guy’s slapping my face. He can not just come here and walk away with such a juicy sum so I told my boss I was going to do it (good enough he was not ready to pay that kind of money ‘just for a website’). Holy Cow! I was enraged and determined to break the hard wall so I laid my hands on html and put up my first website on geocities later in 2003 (about 2 weeks later). So by mid 2004, I was ‘eating’ html and could do some pretty good designs with fireworks 3. Not long, I picked up a piece of design job with a group of PHP developers in California USA and requested for PHP training as pay package. So these guys took me through online (principally using yahoo messenger, email and urls)

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)?

My major tools are Internet, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. There are a couple of others but with these, I often produce satisfactory results and of course Windows OS and WAMP

How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development?

You can count the years from late 2004 lol

Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development?

I have quite a good number of works…but let me just highlight the most recent, most active and possibly most used…

CredFollow: Do you tweet? Well if you said yes, you should know what it means to get Twitter followers. I just put up CredFollow (http://credfollow.com) a twitter site aimed at bringing targeted twitter followers to its members. Based on Twitter’s Oauth API, authentication is 100% safe. No auto tweet in it please lol. so if you believe in the Twitter marketplace, hurry and grab your FREE account before I change my mind

NjangiHost: I am a co-founder Njangihost.com Feb 2008 and it’s today the No. 1 web hosting institution in Cameroon. Check it here [http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/Country/CM]

NoStress CMS: Have you ever heard of “NoStress CMS”? I started that far back in 2006 and it’s running on many sites already. Though I dropped it for other projects, it’s not dead. Watch for its return. It’s going to be open source

Some other web applications include:
Gesforet: A complete ajaxified application for companies doing forest exploitation… Ref: Cameroon United Forest (CUF) http://cufcm.com

CyberCash: Web based money transfer application plus instant SMS alert
Ref: UNICS http://unicspeedycash.com
TRANSAFREX: http://transafrex.com,

OPENSMS: A web based sms application with reseller account management. In fact, I give this to my clients under their brand name: ipwSMS, betaSMS, simpleSMS, njangiSMS

Some other sites include:

The first site to run NoStress SMS http://cameroon-business.com

http://cufcm.com

http://camarues.com

http://btp-djemo.com

http://cometal-superdoll.com

http://cemactours.com

http://carehealthprogram.org

http://gccint.org

http://neltatravel.com

Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc…?

Both are necessities depending on the weight of the project. For real projects, I do OOP but for some simple needs, structural programming will be quicker to implement.

While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS (Keep It Simple…) and Less is more ?

Every software developer strives to make his/her products friendly. You know as I do that the more complex a system is, the more it needs to deploy. Simple and useful apps sell faster except simplicity means weakness.

What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)?

MVC is what I have used and I like its implementation in CodeIgniter (CI) www.codeigniter.com

Do you find design patterns useful and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze?

I think most development framework are based on these patterns. That further goes to project its importance. If I do a project using CI (MVC) any other developer using CI will go through the code crossing his legs

Do you work in a team environment? If so, what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)?

I do not work in a team environment for now. May be for future projects

How important are deadlines in your work?

Holy Cow! They are as important as the check. You don’t deliver your projects on time and if you are the cause of the delay, know that you are drifting far off your next projects.

Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans?

If Africans can deliver critical projects, they may grab projects from Indian developers. There are lots of projects in the market. Whether they are given us or sent to India depends on results. The best developers eat the fattest bones.

What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks?

There is no doubt that frameworks go a long way to enhance team work, facilitate the development process and of course step up productivity. These are all great tools depending on the choice of technology.

Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practices?

African developers should adhere to these best practices whether on frameworks or not

Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc?

I do not do other languages apart from PHP so I prefer what I know to what I do not

What do you think about open source vs proprietary technologies?

I think the Internet is growing this fast thanks to Open Source technology which has a bigger community. In the Open Source kingdom, there is more room for scalability as every user is free to contribute to its growth. In a nutshell, I think the Open Source tech offers more to users.

what are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa ?

The main challenge here is the client. Most of the people don’t know what they want. Sometimes, they want everything for free or little pay. A lot is still to be done.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges ?

Nothing other than information! Information on how things should be done should be circulated. In short, Training is the right word.

What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa?

All I have for them is that everything there need is available on the Internet ( Professional training, study materials, certification, fame, jobs,etc). All they need is Internet signal and probably some guiding steps. In addition, there is a big virgin market.

How can people interested in working with you get to contact you?

All my contacts are available on http://enstine.net though I need to update it…
You can also follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/enstine
If you use CredFollow, watch out for updates: http://twitter.com/credfollow

Thanks for your time, Mr Enstine Muki. I equally thank all those watching out for what we have to offer. Black Amphi is always at your service.

Mbugua Njihia from Kenya Steps Forward

Mambe Nanje — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:58:25 +0000

BlackAmphi’s tour continues. I am now on the Eastern part of the AfroLand, heading to the world’s forty-seventh largest country. I heard it is very beautiful there. I can’t wait to visit the numerous national parks and game reserves and make friends with the lions, leopards, buffalos, rhinoceroses and elephants. Eh! Almost forgot why I am going there in the first place! Being a tech inclined guy, I equally can’t wait to pay a visit to some of the outstanding start-ups and meet some top entrepreneurs and software developers. Who should I start with? Oh! I got just the right person to lead the way. He is right here and I can feel my mic urging me to move her close to his mouth. Let’s all listen to a highly profiled techpreneur and a reputable mobile business guru.

What are your names?

Mbugua Njihia, 26 yr old Kenyan techpreneur

Where do you live and work?

I live and work in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya the emerging techhub of East, Central and Northern Africa.

How did you get the skills as a business man (university, professional school, online certifications, study from home, internet)?

A unique mix of book smarts and street smarts. A lot of the programming and creative stuff is self taught. I studied Management Information Systems in my 5th and 6th years of high school and International Business Administration at Uni. In my 5th and 6th year of high school we had access to a dialup connection and unlimited hours in the lab. That is where the foundations were laid, where theory met practice and experimentation and where on a little red book the vision of what is coming together as Symbiotic was born. As a 2 week old freshman at the United States International University, I won the inaugural Students in Free Enterprise Business plan competition beating even 4th year students. That validated my business plan, as one of the judges said “Mbugua…this is explosive and cutting edge”. The journey began…

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (Windows/Mac/Linux, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, twitter, Salesforce, facebook, etc)?

Tools….My cellphone, Outlook, Ms Office, Adobe CS4 suite, Quickbooks, Zunguka and increasingly Twitter and Facebook to push out services as well as share the knowledge and insights that I have gathered on my journey.

How long have you been doing business in Africa?

5 years

Can you give some examples of products (name+description+web link) you have launched to the market or you have been a part of (urls, screen shots if offline)?

Zunguka.com – Zunguka is hand-built, line by line, to be African Mobile and Web Social Network. We aim to revolutionize the way you work and lead your day-to-day activities.

Zunguka is aimed at enhancing your social and professional lives as by enabling you discover new ways to improve your efficiency and interaction

TumaSMS.com – TumaSMS is a communication service that will allow registered users to send SMS cheaply from their Web Browser or phone. It is simple in it’s workings but gives additional value add to advertisers who will get to better target their customers.

Sembuse – www.sembuse.com / s.zunguka.com / wap.zunguka.com A nifty mobile application that makes it easy and so damn cheap for Africans in Africa and around the world to communicate as well as create value for them and the advertisers who support us. With Sembuse you can say a simple habari (hello!) or tell the details of your weekend without thinking of the limiting constraints of regular sms at 160 characters or without having to result to cryptic SMS jargon that would leave the reader dumbfounded. Through strategic long-term partnerships, Sembuse tables its premium offerings such as getting stock market advice, sports videos and other niche content that would not be regularly found in the open market. We operate our own online credit system the Zunguka Credo (Cr), which helps us to deliver better value across the globe by creating a medium of exchange that users the world over can identify with. 1 Cr = KSHS 0.5 (UScts 0.6) The business, personal, social and professional benefits of Sembuse are all out of this world.

Tarazaki – www.tumasms.com, get your free account and click on the Tarazaki tab Our Sync service is a tried and tested system that enables you backup contacts and calendar events from your cellphones and other hand-held devices your online Zunguka account.

In case you ever lose your phone or device, all your data is safe with us and can be retrieved by sending a simple SMS and syncing to your newly acquired device(s). With versions to cater for individuals and corporate needs you will never have to worry about losing your contacts or missing a meeting.

Royal Media Services – www.royalmediaservices.co.ke Home of Kenya’s largest media house with a Tv station and 13 radio stations And many more products and services from years past

Are you more into web ventures, desktop software or general consultancy and services?

Web and mobile development is my focus though we still get to do some odd desktop app development jobs. Consultancy comes with the turf

What do you use to manage your team, staff or contract workers (collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp, etc)?

Weekly meetings, Email, private sync channel on Tarazaki, email – we run a distributed office setup.

Can you tell us some of the business strategies you employ for competition?

Small teams per project work best. Remain nimble and have your ear on the ground.

How difficult is it to get capital/investment for your ventures in Africa ?

Story of our start up life… for tech start-ups VC funding is virtually nonexistent and financing from banks etc is skewed to traditional industry. Still need land as collateral to buy servers. We are working on the Zunguka Foundation to provide support (financial, mentorship and business skills) to upcoming techpreneurs… we have been there and we know it sucks.

Do you use kiva or veecu or other online microfinance systems to raise funds?

Nope

How do you get capital for your ventures (VC, family, loans, etc)?

Personal savings and investing profits from work engagements

What is the criteria and tools you use to employ your staff?

Task driven interview process. Paper is good but we need to engage to judge for ourselves.

Its known that most IT professionals in Africa change jobs at a very rapid rate, what do you think could be the cause?

Some job descriptions fail to utilize a person’s full capabilities. My take is they feel wasted and want to move on to something different and more challenging. Good money is also a reason for the churn…if you’re good at what you do, the head hunters come calling.

What is the minimum educational level you consider in the people you employ?

I am a stickler for self certification. Sometimes paper qualifications don’t deliver true value. Our first criteria is a good head…someone who thinks out of the box and is willing to learn and adapt. As per educational level…if you can understand what our job ad and spec say and you can showcase your skills and ability to deliver, then you are sufficiently educated

What are some of the challenges you face as a business man in Africa?

Business networks are hard to break into at times. Deals are sealed at the golf course and not the office. Youth may not be your ally as the older generation may equate it to lack of experience or simply they don’t see how they do business with “their son”. The godfather syndrome is prevalent in some industries.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges?

Adapt or die…simple. Be more aggressive, prove your worth.

What word do you have for other aspiring entrepreneurs in Africa?

Stay away from VC funding for as long as you can and avoid it all the same if you can. Third party accountability that is pegged on money, shifts focus and stifles creativity. Have your products or services out to the public in the shortest time possible, and this will tell you if you have a winner or not. Use your growing customer vase to refine the product. Then look for other people’s money to grow and already qualified business that can go cash positive quickly. The fact is that in Africa we don’t have time or the resources to roll with beautiful services that are not generating revenues, always have a workable business model in mind and validate your idea. Lastly…two heads are better than one. Get a partner who shares in your vision and has passion. Those two things will take you a along long way when you’re starting out and no one wants to look at you.

How can people interested in working with you or for you get to contact you?

If you wish to engage on projects or consultation…

Email on Mbugua{at}symbiotic.co.ke.

Twitter – @mbuguanjihia

Linkedin – http://www.linkedin.com/in/creativemind

My personal blog – http://www.mbuguanjihia.com

Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words.

I believe there is sufficient knowledge and talent in Africa to create world-class home grown solutions. Build it and they will come.

Adesoji ‘JesusFreak’ Adegbulu Sees No Limit!!!

Mambe Nanje — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:14:43 +0000

We are not done with Hello Nigeria yet. As a matter of fact, I am not sure we will ever be able to get done with Nigeria or any other African country. Nigeria is fast patronising this Amphitheater. In just a short while we have met five Naija robots already(a.k.a naijaborns). Yeah, I call them robots because like me, I doubt if these guys do sleep at all. They work very hard to get software and web development running smoothly in Africa so that we don’t have to sit on our arms and wait for others to babysit us. There are many entrepreneurs in Africa who have vowed that in the nearest future, the West will have to outsource to Africa NOT only for cheap labor but also for bigger brains.

There is a freak, a freak for Jesus, I will want you to meet. As the curtains open, let’s put our hands together for… oh, let’s hear everything from the horse’s mouth.

What are your names?

I am named Adesoji Adegbulu. Some friends know me as JesusFreak and freeblogger.

Where do you live and work?

I live in Nigeria and work from home as a Consultant – Social Media and Web Technology. A Web Developer, Social Network Marketer, Entrepreneur, Coach and a Blogger

How did you get the skills in web development (university, professional school, online certifications, study from home, Internet)?

I will say it’s a combination of all. The reason is that, I studied Agricultural Engineering as a major in the university but did web development as a minor course. During most weekends and Academic union strikes, I either go to a professional school or study from home or study on the internet.

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (Windows, WAMP, Visual Studio, Dreamweaver, Netbeans, Eclipse, etc)?

The tools are very obvious. I use the internet as my first tool. I use that for reading and learning new things on web development. I also use windows (I’m considering using Mac), Dreamweaver, Photoshop, SwishMax, Corel Draw, Flash, FileZilla (FTP), Wordpress and other tools and websites I come across online.

How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of web development?

Though I started learning about it sparingly in 2002 but I started doing web development in 2007. And you know web development involves writing codes too.

Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development?

I have always developed websites as a team. You should know that it is the best thing we can do. Things are achieved more as a team. I have been part of the development of www.ccfnifes.org, www.getinspiredng.com and www.9jacorp.com (will be launched on November 6th, 2009).

Which part of web development are you more into?

I am more into building dynamic sites, web content management and web administration.

While developing, do you believe in KISS (Keep It Simple…) and Less is more?

Sure, I believe keeping things simple will make the web to be easily navigable. The website will be somewhat ‘user friendly’. The web users will be able to make good use of the website than one bulky site that gets web users confussed. Less is actually more, focused and direct to purpose. Anyway, keeping things simple does not mean neglecting the core stuffs that should be on the website.

Do you find design patterns useful and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze?

Yes. I consider design patterns as a foundation or a blueprint. Without them, working together as a team or working on the web in the future will be a hard task to come. It will be like reinventing the wheel over and over again.

How important are deadlines in your work?

Deadlines are very important. I hate being disappointed and I would not want to disappoint others. So what I do is to give my clients enough time. This is done at the start of the basic planning. If I’m going to complete a work in 4 weeks, I will add an extra 1 or 2 weeks. So, at the start, I will inform my client that I will deliver in the next 5 or 6 weeks.

Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc?

I prefer and use HTML, PHP, CSS and JAVASCRIPT. I’m learning to incorporate SQL, AJAX

What do you think about open source vs proprietary technologies?

I think both have their own advantages and disadvantages. I like open source for what it is – “OPEN” and also like proprietary technologies because it motivates developers to work and learn more. To me, there is nothing that cannot be learned and made better whether open source or proprietary.

What are some of the challenges you face as a web developer in Africa?

The major challenge is competition. There are lots of web developers and aspiring web developers in Africa. One other challenge is the image to which we see ourselves and which other nations of the world view Africans. The last challenge to web developers in Africa is limited access to Information and Internet Technologies and trends.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges?

To get your share means that you have to devise your own uniqueness. It is your uniqueness and excellent service that draws the market to you. Once this is done, the effect of competition will be minimized. On the image thing, without prejudice, we see ourselves and other nations see us mediocre not until we prove the stuff we are made of. They see our skins as black and thinks we are black within not until we show that we are not judge by the color of our skins but by the content of our minds. On the challenge of limited access to Information and Internet Technologies and trends, what we need do is to get out of our comfort zones and lay hold on the things we should have. So far that some people can have adequate access gives us leverage that we can attain the same. We should make good use of the internet to learn, relearn and unlearn some whacked ideas.

If you are “Jack”, too much work without leisure will obviously make you a dull boy LOL. What do you do when you are off the job?

It is either I sleep or watch movies or go to the cinema, play PC games, go and see friends or read a book at times I just listen to music.

What word do you have for other aspiring web developers in Africa?

I am still aspiring though but my word is simple – and telling myself too. We must keep learning, getting the required knowledge and wisely putting them into practice with our own specialty and uniqueness. I will also say that we should seek more of value, qualitative relationships and good networking with the made web developers and other aspiring web developers. We have a lot to learn and do as African web developers.

How can people interested in working with you get to contact you?

I live on the internet. I have houses on Facebook (www.facebook.com/adesojiadegbulu and www.facebook.com/freeblogger), on Twitter (www.twitter.com/adesojiadegbulu and www.twitter.com/9jacorp), on Naijapulse (www.naijapulse.com/adesojiadegbulu), on Twitternaija (www.twitternaija.com/adesojiadegbulu), on One Page (www.onepage.com/jesusfreak), on Naijaborn, 9jabook, Myspace, Linkedin etc

You can get in touch with me on any of these. You can also get in contact with me on
Phone: +2348059605025
Email: adesoji.adegbulu.com
Skype: adesojiadegbulu
Yahoo messenger: adesojiade
Google Talk: adesoji.adegbulu@gmail.com

Some final words.

I came to know Mambe as if i had known him before. Thank you for this opportunity to be featured on BlackAmphi.

God bless AfroVisioN Group, God bless BlackAmphi, God Bless Africa. We would make God and our continent proud!

Victor Asobo Taka from Bamenda Describes “His World”

Mambe Nanje — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:49:56 +0000

After hearing from Mambe Nanje Churchill and Minang Suh Franklin, we are back again on Hello Cameroon. This time, we shall be moving up North from Buea (the base of AfroVisioN Group) to Bamenda (Abakwa Town) to meet a software/web monster who has been breaking walls and creating highways for IT to flourish in the town and the country at large.

He has been an inspiration to many people around him and by this interview, we hope he gets to inspire and encourage more people. Here we go…

What are your names?
Victor Asobo Taka my friends call me toofinevicky [2 fine Vicky]

Where do you live and work?
Live in and work in Bamenda, NW Region of Cameroon.

How did you get the skills in software development
(University, professional school, online certifications, study from home, internet)?
I was introduced to turbo Pascal in High School [C.P.C Bali], this gave me the ability to try html from scratch, and did the rest at home.

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, Dreamweaver, Netbeans, eclipse, etc)?
Windows as my OS, WAMP, Dreamweaver, notepad, depending on the complexity of the job.

How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development?
I did my first coding with notepad in 2003

Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development?
www.flexcominstitute.com
www.aziccul.org
www.glomaships.com
www.bamendacitycouncil.com
www.directcameroon.com – Part of the Team
www.justiceandpeacebamenda.org
www.bamendauniversity.com – Part of the team

Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.?
Object Oriented Programming [OOP]

While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS (Keep It Simple…) and Less is more ?
Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated.
Beauty is the ultimate defence against complexity.
That’s why in my development, I try as much as possible to Keep it Simple.

What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)?
Separating the presentation logic from business logic is a more professional development pattern. This is efficient when I have multiple objects needed to coordinate actions across the system I’m developing else the singleton pattern is used.

What software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)?
Depending on the project at hand, and as a developer, I strive to implement the Agile Software development methods or cycles. Well… not like I’ve used all, I mostly use the XP (Extreme Programming). This gives room for a lot of checks and accuracy in coding,

Do you find design patterns useful and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze?
Definitely, I find patterns useful, we all need to be guided sometimes, it also depends on you ability and methodology, and yes design patterns can guide a team, if only you play by the rules.

Do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg Collabtive, unfuddle, Basecamp)?
Most often I work alone, I also have a small network with associate developers. We seldom use a collaborative software environment.

How important are deadlines in your work?
Deadlines are important as the air we breathe. Deadlines are what makes us popular. Deadlines are what keep clients coming back. Deadlines also makes our pockets swell… lol

Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans?
I believe so much in people. I believe that making people grow makes you grow indirectly. Outsourcing does not empower Africans, it makes then dependent to the west. With handwork and determination we will be able to develop our own stuffs depending solely on us Africans.

what do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks?
Personally, I think frameworks are a good idea, when it comes to complex applications. One of the most outstanding advantages is time; it gives room for rapid development. It also enhanced opportunities with a repository of reusable application code. Besides this it reduced risk and reduced cost of project deployment, also reduced cost by dramatically lowering the amount of low-level coding. I think they are a good support for us.

Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises?

Yes and no.
Development of PHP scripts without a preconceived plan to manage them is asking for a headache. The goal of a framework is to make the process of writing web-based applications simpler. A good framework is easy to learn, simple to use, intuitive to work with, easy to extend or to modify, rapid to build (maintain) applications with and of course stable.

Different framework have different coding convention, depending upon the framework, you’ll have to learn coding convention for the same framework which you want to follow, also while coding using these frameworks, sometime you’ll not find any library or helpers which might be useful for you. Also, frameworks are not for the small projects, because in a very simple project custom coding will work faster than setting up a framework, and our African market relies on small projects.

Therefore, on a personal note, frameworks have helped me very much to understand especially my elasticity in development. Any Developer who wants to go as far as possible will be advised to understand how frameworks work, who knows, one day the west will rely on us to deploy huge projects.

Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc?
php is my Joker

What do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies?
open source matters a lot for me. Not only does it make me satisfy my clientele, it’s really educative too. That’s why I am joining forces with one of my collaborators on the first open Source CMS Cameroon has never come across. Watch out for “ No Stress” CMS…

What are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa?
The Clients… They really don’t know what they want. They give you parameters to follow, and at the nuke of time, they change every thing. Client is King but that will not mean we are slaves.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges?
It’s like we need to sensitize the public about our profession.

What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa?
Dream, get a mentor, be crazy, and speak the truth… lol

How can people interested in working with you get to contact you?
on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/victor.taka
on Twitter: http://twitter.com/toofinevicky
Yahoo Mail: toofinevicky@yahoo.co.uk
Gmail: toofinevicky@gmail.com

Please can you tell us one thing you either love most or hate most about your job, clients or collaborators?
What I hate the most are clients or collaborators who don’t settle their bill appropriately.

Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words.
Thank you too, and thumbs up for the great job you are doing, peace & love to Africa.