Ethiopian academics go practical in the Information Age
By Mercy Wambui, June 1st 2005

A half-day workshop was held by the Computer Science & Mathematics Department of Addis Ababa University (AAU) and ECA on 31 May 2005 at the UN Conference Centre to unpack the implications of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Ethiopia’s development and to address local software development issues in Ethiopia. The University has been spearheading a web-based Content Management System (CMS) prototyped on an OSS platform for use by Amharic-speaking stakeholders in public and other institutions in Ethiopia.

The Amharic Open CMS prototype was developed over a period of one academic year in the context of ECA’s VarsityNet programme, which aims to build the research and development (R&D) capacity of African academia on IT applications through the use of OSS.

Speaking at the opening was Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-in-Charge, Development Information Services Division (DISD) who welcomed the new system and said

"This is a clear demonstration of the path towards the emerging African techno-parks as the "holy trinity" between the private sector, academia and the public in the development of the Africa’s information society."

She pointed out that ECA has spear-headed ICT & education initiatives through the African Learning Network (ALN) with activities such as the Academia Research Network, Schoolnet Africa, and Out-of-School-Youth Network that are promoting ICT innovation to meet development challenges. "VarsityNet, for instance is developing another prototype with 4 public East African universities through the Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA), based in Kampala ."

When rolled-out, the system will help institutions create, store, and manage workflow and processes much more efficiently and cut down on duplication and time-wastage due to manual paper-based processes. Simplicity is key, particularly for those with basic technical skills. The linguistic base for the system is a hybrid of Amharic and English technical jargon written in Amharic. The Ethiopian calendar and time include some of the cultural specifications embedded in the software.

Mr. Zemene Ago who demonstrated the prototype noted that three high schools are testing it, sharing documents, information and creating web pages. "With relatively little effort and budget, this Amharic Open CMS can be used and modified freely by anyone without worrying about legal issues."

Dr. Dawit Bekele who is the coordinator of the VarsityNet project at Addis Ababa University made a related presentation entitled "Software development assessment in Ethiopia", carried out as part of the VarsityNet project raised a number of issues, including the failure rate of well-meaning, cost-saving ICT projects.

On his part, Makane Faye, DISD’s Senior Regional Advisor urged participants to begin an aggressive capacity building and sustainability programme " If this is not taken into account, and if there is no capacity to deploy and sustain, the Amharic Open CMS will be in danger of failure, like so many other projects." He cautioned.

Participants offered various perspectives on FOSS, and debated the question of the legal implications businesses changing software obtained free from the OSS community and then modifying, repackaging for sale.

With respect to the assessment study, participants noted that there is an important role to be played by software development companies, IT professionals and the clients - mainly the government in the Ethiopian context - in addressing the challenges of software development in Ethiopia. The issue of trust and the need to build a conducive environment emerged as major areas of concern.

Attention focused on the role of the Ethiopian EFFOSSNET initiative, which was formed early this year to promote a FOSS policy in Ethiopia and promote the participation of Ethiopian IT professionals (especially the Youth) in FOSS development and initiatives.

"EFFOSSNET has a lot of responsibility in this regard", said the Workshop Chairman, Dr. Ahmed Hussein, "Together with other actors there is need to build a consultant group of technically capable and trusted individuals that can handle deployment and support."

He concluded the meeting by urging educational institutions in Ethiopia to produce skilful technicians capable of responding to clients with professionalism. He also urged for more collaboration for incremental work and pointed out that AAU students are currently proposing to develop an Amharic spell checker.

Please contact mwambui@uneca.org for more information on this and other DISD projects or click on http://www.uneca.org/disd