This is a really interesting and important discussion, which I am enjoying reading.
I don't think there is a single answer, but here are a few views of my own. I agree that GSoC is a not a perfect indicator of how good and how interested students are in programming, but it is an interesting indicator. USD 5000 pay for a few months of coding is a great incentive, and a much bigger incentive in EA than for a student in Silicon Valley, so why no one accepted? Either they are applying and getting turned down (maybe the university should be offering to help to them to apply. Maybe we could help them to apply??), maybe they haven't heard about it (does it get publicised at the University? I haven't seen it), or maybe they lack the confidence to apply. I don't know. Governments do have a role to play here. Which is the country in EA to have invested most in IT? Rwanda. Which is the only country in EA to have had anybody accepted onto GSoC in both of the last 2 years? Rwanda. Maybe a coincidence but...... I'm sorry to say that the standard of the education at Makarere also has some blame here. I have seen first hand that they lack some basic knowledge of real world programming. a simple thing such as proper code indentation and formatting was lacking. Spending too much time on facebook, and a lack of a reading culture is a problem wherever you go in the world, not just in Uganda. Is there something the LUG can do? I think there is a lot we can do to highlight the benefits to the students of writing and using open source code. I have come across the view many times that writing open source is just for rich westerners. We need to show them how they can leverage open source to work for them. The project I am mentoring on at the moment has real world commercial value, and their incentive is to get it working and I will start a company with them to market services around this software. There are many such possibilities, maybe others here can start their own similar initiatives. Thanks Tim -- WebERP Africa Ltd +447710427049 +256752963327 +255784602561 www.weberpafrica.com _______________________________________________ LUG mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug LUG is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ---------------------------------------
