Wire Lunghabo James talks to Frederick Noronha about organising Africa Source 2, running a GNU/Linux-based firm from the heart of Africa, and why Free Software is specially relevant to the continent. James turns 32 this year, and has one son. He studied in Uganda's Makarere University.

Q: How much of a challenge was it to organise an event like Africa Source 2?

Initially, I didn't expect it to be such a challenge. But when when the actual work began, I realised how big it was. The location (Kalangala, an island on the banks of Lake Victoria in Uganda) is so remote; you had to plan for the smallest thing. We were planning for everything, down to staples. It was a logistical nightmare. Also, coordinating the travel for delegates... from the airport to this point.

Q: Why do you see Free/Libre and Open Source Software as particularly relevant for Africa?

I still insist that FLOSS is the way to go for Africa and even for other countries. We finally have an opportunity of (charting out) our progress in the digital world. It's unfortunate that we've got used simply used to consuming (IT products). IBM has done it for us, Microsoft has done it, Oracle has done it. (With their approach, it's a question of) just buy and use.

But there are challenges which come which simply using something which has not been customised. We have to adjust to technology, as opposed to technology adjusting to our needs.

With FLOSS we stand a very good chance, because we can adjust technology to our needs. It gives us an opportunity to learn very speedily from others. Knowledge which was earlier available to just a few, is now public knowledge.

Q: Do you see young people as picking up FLOSS speedily? Does this system of informal mentoring really work?

At the university level, I've interacted with a number of them, and they've begin to realise that FLOSS is for real.

That it's there to stay. Some three to four years back you couldn't tell them that. All they were interested in was Visual Basic, DotNet... all Windows-based proprietorial software technologies.

Today, my companies receives a lot of enquiries from people wanting to do internships. And the reason they contact us is they want to learn how to use FLOSS. That's already a sign they are appreciating it.

Q: Do you see African students learning FLOSS technologies fast?

Yes. Students here learn very fast. Some are naturally lazy, not self-driven. They need pumping like in the classroom approach. But some are self-driven. And within three to six months, the knowledge they attain is really amazing. They can be very fast learners. When you put them to some task, they can do a lot of research and come up with something really amazing.

Q: As someone running a private company that offers GNU/Linux services, do you see yours as a successful business model for your part of Africa?

Frankly speaking, in East Africa, to be a GNU/Linux specialist there's still a lot to learn on how to run your business. You have a lot of challenges. Even me, upto now, I keep changing my approach on how to do business.

Every six months to one year, I keep changing my approach. I haven't yet come up with the right way to doing things. It's a learning phases. Just like the proprietorial companies took time, I believe we're in the same phase.

Q: What do you see as the impact of Free/Libre and Open Source Software on Uganda? And, in the rest of East Africa?

In East Africa, FLOSS is making very good progress. Starting with Uganda, I can say the levels of deployment and awareness, especially in the corporate sector, are impressive.

When you start with administrators, Linux is no longer something strange. When you get to government, many solutions deployed by third party service providers involve FLOSS in one way or another.

This is mainly due to the competition. Companies compete for government projects, and costs become an issue. A number of companies that bid for big government contracts, end up subcontracting to us at Linux Solutions for specific areas.

When we come in, we cut down their costs by a big chunk.

In Uganda, the situation is good. But when it comes to decision-makers, we still have a long way to go. Not only on FLOSS, but also in ICT (information and communication technologies) in general. I think this is an industry decision.

In Kenya, there's been some good progress in the last two years from my observations. This is evidenced from facts like one of the founders of Linux Chix is a Kenyan lady. There's a Kenya Linux Users' Group [1] that came up in the last one year. It's growing. Every other day, I see new members adding to it. It's at Kenyalinux on Yahoogroups.

They also recently formed a Linux professionals association in Kenya. It is a sign of an emerging FLOSS user base.

Q: In the continent, South Africa is probably the leader when it comes to deploying FLOSS?

Without doubt. South Africa is really, really ahead. One of the reasons is their advanced infrastructure. You cannot divorce the issue of infrastructure (from the spread of FLOSS).

Q: What other achievements of Africa are noteworthy?

In Namibia, I like the Schoolnet model. About Ghana, I still don't know enough about how entrenched FLOSS is. But as far as general ICTs are concerned, I'm really impressed.

Another country is Egypt. From my interaction with the few people who come down from Egypt, I've come to the conclusion that it could almost be neck-to-neck with South Africa. Because it's more Arab-oriented (and non-English) we don't tend to notice what's going on. But there's a lot of buzz going on there.

As far as Tanzania goes, I'm impressed by the translation efforts taking place there. Kilinux.org for Ki'swihili Linux, for example. That's a project aimed at translating Linux to Ki'swahili. They've completed Open Office, which they're moving on to the next task.

Nigeria too. Sorry, I'd actually forgotten to mention it. Right form the rural areas, there's a lot happening. Take the case of a group like Fantsaum Foundation, deep in Kaduna state, in the north. There's a lot of things happening.

Q: What do you see as the secret of spreading FLOSS in your part of the globe (Africa) or mine (Asia)?

One of the things I've realised is the crucial role played by enthusiasm. If you can find some fire in the target group, then you don't have to be there (continually to build up things).

In the case of the Nigerian Fantsaum Foundation, I was invited there in 2003. They then knew nothing about Linux. The things they've done since then... it started off with just a five day training. Everything I hear, I'm amazed. Just from the small seed laid there. Despite nobody being there (to hand-hold all these years), they still had a fire a them.

You need an approach that not only offers people the skills, but also raises their skills. You don't have the resources to keep going back. Once you light a fire in them, they will keep doing the research.

Q: How did you get involved with FLOSS?

When I just joined IT, I had this this friend, an assistant admin in an internet service provider. The company I was in ran a Windows server. That was NT 3.5 around 1997. When he came and changed the server systems, he told us of the advantages. Earlier, we used to stay awake practically the whole night, just to reboot the servers. When we changed servers, everything was so, so stable. From that time, I got inquisitive. I read up a lot about servers. Sometimes, I'd stay awake at night ... reading material from the internet. One day, I made up my mind that I'd be going into Open Source, come what may.

In those days, a simple installation of GNULinux would take a week. You had no drivers for the card. You spent two days looking for drivers, and when you did find it, it wouldn't work on Slackware! Then you found someone with a working Red Hat (distribution of GNU/Linux). When installed, a monitor would blow up....

Q: Does he have any regrets about the road taken?

I had some sense of feeling scared sometimes; feeling maybe I've not made the right decision. Maybe, I felt, it might not take me anywhere. Something deep within me told on, just stay on, keep up the fight. But by that time I was such a techie, that I always wanted difficult things.

When discussing with people, they would discourage you. 'There's no future in Linux,' they would say. I remember someone quoting an American expert, who gave GNULinux a very bad bill of health. And who said in two years time, GNULinux would be nowhere. That was in 2000. Laughs. But said it's okay....

Q: Did you'll also get some help and inspiration from the outside world?

At that time, most of our help came in the form of mailing-lists. From Europe or Australia or the US. Occasions, when you go for a technical sessions we would meet great techies like Brian Candler. He's one of the kernel hackers for Linux. I met him, and he changed my life. It was at a workshop in the US. I immediately started to use such opportunity to learn.

Q: In this world, there's a lot of sharing of knowledge...

Very much so. Techies are ready to share, because they also learnt through sharing.

At that time we realised we were so many, but all scattered. We used to meet in bars. Around 2001, we came up with the site linux.or.ug and the idea of setting up a mailing list.

Right now we have over 300 members on the list lug@linux.or.ug. Of which, about 80 percent are local. The others are international 'observers' and well wishers. Laughs.

That helped us to network closely as Ugandans. When we started sharing our problems, we realised we had the answers here itself, though we were looking for them outside. Once the Kenyans realised how this worked for us, they started their own network. The same was the case with the Rwandans.

Q: Tell us something about your firm.

Linux Solutions is a private company, set up in 2000 to offer solutions and support based on FLOSS. Mainly to the Ugandan private sector, NGOs, and government too.

That's one reason (for our active participation) in Africa Source 2. One of the things I'm going away with from here is the idea of looking seriously at the (GNU/Linux in) education sector. I keep gathering such ideas, and seeing how applicable it is to us.

Some of these ventures require a philanthropic approach. But we don't have the money to just keep throwing. The models in education I've discussed, seem to be viable though.

Q: How do you see the interaction between business and IT?

Business is a hub of innovation when it comes to IT. That is the field where most people have certain needs, and they insist to getting them across. When you look at sectors like government, they will settle for what's there. But business demands what it expects. So business plays a key role in innovation.

Business also plays a key role in the spread of technology. We're the ones who amplify whatever has come up. You can't expect the average person in Africa to knows about (the Free Software distribution) Ubuntu, unless we guys make a noise about Ubuntu.

Business with a social responsibility angle can impact technology in so many ways. Through interaction with society, they could give up some technology they've been using and place it in the public domain. By extending what has been considered as private. They could educate the public about the potential benefits of technology. They could increase awareness. Yes, business has a very big social responsibility.

Business is also there to a check. Without the insistence of business, many governments would be living in the stone age. The business world is really key in moving IT.

[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kenyalinux/