For class discussion, Feb. 17, 2009, two articles about Africa.


- african hacker.htm
  "The African Hacker"
  IEEE Spectrum, Aug. 2005

1.  Were there any  technical terms in the article that you were 
not originally familiar with?

2.  In general, how is the software industry different in Africa versus 
the West?  If you wanted to start an IT company in Africa, what choices 
do you need to make?

3.  How does Soft Tribe adapt to the infrastructure, poverty and piracy in Ghana?

4.  What are the main lessons we can learn about selling software for Africa?
What can help the IT industry there?

5.  What is the state of CS education in Ghana?  Where do the programmers
come from?  What sort of training is desired for success?


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- liberia.pdf
  "Post-Conflict Communications:  The Case of Liberia"
  Communications of the ACM, Oct. 2007, pp. 33-39

6.  What is President Johnson-Sirleaf's agenda for IT in Liberia?
How realistic is it?

7.  The article discusses a way to evaluate Liberia's Internet and mobile
readiness.  How does it work?  Do you agree with the criteria?

8.  How would you summarize the current state of Internet & mobile access 
in Liberia?  What are the main obstacles?

9.  Which of the article's conclusions do you think deserves the most
urgent attention?