Science & Technology

The recent FIFA 2010 World Cup held in South Africa not only brought a lot of attention to Africa, it also brought awareness to the need for online businesses on the continent. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled: “After The Cell Phone, E-Commerce is The Next Technological Boom in Liberia”. (see link: http://www.theliberianjournal.com/index.php?st=news&sbst=details&rid=160...)

In that article I mentioned the next economic boom in Africa will be E-commerce and M-commerce. I argued that the multi-billion dollar investment in telecommunications and technology that large international companies are making in Africa signifies the genesis of the next economic boom. One of the many large and international companies that is investing in Africa is Google, who recently held an “Internet Camp” in Liberia.

Recently I attended an Open Source (LinuxFest) all-day symposium sponsored by the Atlanta Linux Enthusiast in Atlanta, Georgia. In one of the groups, we discussed the issue of IT certifications and the question, “What types of certifications should IT professionals seek as companies gravitate toward cloud computing?,” seemed to elicit several visceral responses. The discussion focused on the skills needed to work in Cloud Computing environments and therefore, the new VMware Certified Professional now available on vSphere 4 (VCP4), the VMWare Certified Design Expert (VCDE) and CompTIA's Strata Green IT certification (for Green IT) were central to the discussion. As we conversed about the “hottest” IT certifications that are or will be in demand, I could not help but think how this discussion applied to IT professionals in Liberia. So, today, I have decided to write about few IT/industry certifications I feel will benefit IT professionals in the next few years.

In Liberia, from an ICT and Telecom perspective, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will go down in history as the president whose administration drafted the National ICT and Telecommunications Policy document, initiated reforms in the Telecom sector, but most importantly, the administration that signed and initiated Liberia’s access to broadband connectivity. The ACE cable system that the government recently joined is expected to be ready for service (RFS) by Q2 of 2012. That year will mark either the continuation of President Sirleaf’s administration or the start of a newly elected one that will begin to set the stage for the next six years. Whatever the outcome, I believe the next six years will see significant economic progress in Liberia. Why do I say this?

Software piracy has for sometime been a major problem for proprietary software companies. Microsoft, the software giant, is not immune to this. And despite all of its (Microsoft) attempts to combat and eradicate software piracy, the problem still persists. Software piracy is a common phenomenon in developed countries and doubly so in developing countries where scarce resources make purchasing the software cost prohibitive. This in turn, leads to the illegal use of the software through duplicitous measures where they develop a “crack” to the software key in order to have access to that software. Liberia is no exception! In fact, I have encountered at least two IT professionals in Liberia who told me blatantly that they each have a copy of widely used software and the key to that software was stored in their “heads.” To me this is not only awesome, but also phenomenal because a software key is usually a combination of alphanumeric characters that are not that easy to remember. I guess it is phenomenal because I struggle to memorize my driver’s license number and that is much easier than a software key.

They say it takes a village to raise a child but what then does it take to educate a child? Should the government be responsible to educate our children? Or should the responsibility to educate our children fall on parents, government, NGOs, businesses and churches et al?