Secure IT

Audit Command Language (ACL) - List of recommended books for self study

2011-12-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

Audit Command Language (ACL) is one of the most popular Computer Aided Audit Tools (CAATs) among auditors. Designed by ACL Ltd (www.acl.com), this data analytics software enables auditors to identify trends, highlight exceptions, locate errors and potential fraud, analyse financial and time-sensitive transactions, cleanse and normalize data to ensure consistency and accuracy. Apart from attending formal ACL classes, it is possible to teach oneself how to use ACL software. All you need is a 'good' book and the ACL software itself. Generally speaking, the ACL software is expensive to buy but there are so many books available on Amazon (or e-bay) which come with the student version of this software. These books are relatively 'affordable' and can be of great help to someone who is serious about mastering ACL techniques and boosting their auditing skills set. Although not exhaustive, the list below provides some ACL books which I feel are quite good for those willing to learn ACL on their own:

*this book has relatively poor user reviews on Amazon.co.uk but should be okay if all you need is the ACL software!

WIP

2011-12-19T05:59:00.000-08:00

Work In Progress

Google Chrome and that irritating Error 324

2011-11-27T03:30:00.000-08:00

Although giving up is not part of my DNA make up, today I have finally decided to give up on it! Google Chrome, I mean. Everytime I try to connect to the Internet via this client, I keep on getting this error message: " Error 324(net:: ERR EMPTY RESPONSE): The server closed the connection without sending any data."!! If this happened to me only once, I wouldn't have even thought of turning my back on Google Chrome because I generally like some of it's features and besides I have an inclination towards Open Source Software. However, I think I have now had enough of this silly error message and it's kind of doing my head in, big time!! Over the past month, I have 'wasted' almost ten hours bringing Google Chrome back to life everytime it went down!! In any language, that's not good enough for any time conscious individual like myself! I hope my next browser will be better than the rest and will add value to my time on the net!! By the way, one thing is for sure, my next choice will not be IE, the mother of all jokes as far as web browsing and Internet security are concerned!!

WIP

2011-06-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Work In Progress

WIP

2011-06-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

Work In Progress

WIP

2011-04-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

Work In Progress

WIP

2011-03-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

Work In Progress

MTN South Africa launches InternetOnTV

2011-02-17T03:02:00.000-08:00

MTN South Africa launches InternetOnTV

WIP

2011-02-12T06:01:00.000-08:00

Work In Progress

Social networking or anti-social networking?

2011-01-25T06:47:00.000-08:00

Although Facebook (just like any technology) has the potential of making positive contributions in our daily lives, it can also lead to disastrous consequences if we don't align its use to bonafide intentions. Martel Maxwell wrote a beautiful article about social networking (Facebook, in particular) and the influences it has on our social lives. The article, "Be wary of anti-social networking" appeared in The Scottish Sun on Monday, the 24th of January 2011 and, with prior permission, I hereby reproduce (verbatim) Martel's article for your reading pleasure:
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Be wary of anti-social networking - Martel Maxwell

There I was one Sunday afternoon a few weeks back, peering at pictures of a bunch of slightly gormless looking people at a dinner party ... and it struck me.
I had become a Facebook imbecile.
What the hell was I doing? Three hours I'd been sat there mindlessly clicking away, peering into the lives of other people, when I could have been doing something with my own.
I'm better than this, God damn it, I said as I logged out and snapped shut my laptop.
There are two types of Facebook imbecile. First, the gossip merchants who have to get their fill from the lives, pictures and status updates of others.
And then those who think they're Archie* by posting every mind numbing bit of minutiae in the mistaken belief they're letting us see how exciting/funny/successful they are.
Danger
And yet, if they were any of these things, they wouldn't spend every waking moment on the site or thinking what to post on it.
Suddenly, I realised, I was in danger of becoming a fully-fledged member of both groups.
At first it seemed like a harmless way to keep in touch and catch up with friends but the dangers are increasingly evident - not least that flirtations on the site are now a major factor in marriage breakdowns.
One expert says that of the last 30 cases she had dealt with, Facebook had been implicated in them all. Another online law company said one in five of their divorce petitions in the past year contain references to Facebook. Not only can it destroy marriages, the constant need to tell the world what we are doing wrecks livelihoods and friendships too. Just ask the employee who updated her status with a comment about her "pervy boss" - only to find a new post from him on her wall which said "I'll pop your P45 in the post and you can come in whenever you like to pick up any stuff you've left here. And, yes, I'm serious." Tweeters on Twitter are also increasingly eclipsed by their own egos. Like Labour candidate for Moray, Stuart MacLennan, who moaned about having to go "up north" to his constituency, branded elderly people "coffin dodgers" and locals "chavs", only to find his political career in tatters.
I am still using Facebook and Twitter and occasionally fighting the urge to turn into a saddo.
In truth, they are invaluable marketing tools for letting people know about something - in my case a book, for others their album, gigs, restaurants or charities. There is a wealth of users who are bright, articulate AND funny. But back to the imbeciles. Anyone who has to tell you they're full of pride watching their five-year-old play his first game of football, or that they've just arrived at the church, nervous as hell, about to walk down the aisle (both real tweets) need to have a word with themselves.
Step back and log out of the un-social network. come back after you've been present in the most important events of your life. Only then will your life become interesting.

* No one in the office had heard of the phrase 'think they're Archie' which surprised me - it's old school Scots for being way above your station.

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WIP

2011-01-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

Work In Progress

Malawi sets up an oil company: who is fooling who?

2011-01-05T03:10:00.000-08:00

After a very long period of fuel shortages in Malawi, the government has finally come up with a 'solution', the establishment of a government owned National Oil Company (NOC). Apparently, NOC has been established to ensure fuel availability across the country and, according to Energy Minister, Hon. Grain Malunga, one of NOC's initial tasks will be the building of fuel storage tanks in Nsanje, Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Based on this, one gets the impression that Malawi's fuel woes are a result of lack of adequate fuel storage tanks and that the creation of the same would solve the problem. This contradicts (Malawi) Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL) explanation which posits shortage of forex as the main contributing factor to fuel shortage in Malawi. However, Information Minister Hon Vuwa Kaunda quashed PIL's excuse by pointing out that Malawi has adequate forex reserves and that the fuel shortage is due to some renovations on a bridge in Tete, Mozambique, which is affecting fuel supply into the country. Mozambique has since dismissed Hon Kaunda's point. Clearly, the blame game is on and someone somewhere knows very well who is responsible for all this and the Malawi Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) appears to have a clue to what's happening. The HRCC recently asked president Bingu wa Mutharika to reduce the number of international trips that he makes in his capacity as head of state. According to HRCC, some of such trips are unnecessary yet they drain a lot of forex from national reserves thereby affecting fuel availability in the country. Whatever the case, I only hope and pray that the Malawi government has got this one right. We need fuel!

Madonna gets Mercy

2009-06-16T07:04:00.000-07:00

She is a material 'girl' and she lives in a material world. Her name is Madonna and for one reason or the other, some people in Malawi now call her 'Ma Donor' (somebody who dontates). Well, personally I would call her Chilera balanda (a Tumbuka word for somebody who takes care of orphans) - she has an orphanage in Malawi. Anyway, whatever people call her and bearing in mind that a lot has already been said and written about Madonna's adoption of Mercy, my main point here is to focus on this adoption from the perspective of a parent. To begin with,
let me say it here that the story about Mercy's first steps into life on earth is heart rending - Born on the wrong side of the sheets, no clue as to who her mother was and no idea about who her dad is!! Mmmmhhhh - life couldn't have been more cruel than this for poor Mercy. Any child needs love and for every child, parental love is everything. Without such love, life as a kid can be a nightmare. Perhaps, James Kambewa - Mercy's father - should have known better and it is quite baffling that after so many years, Kambewa had no idea that his child, Mercy, was still alive. If anything, the least I would have expected from him in such a situation ( and from a cultural point of view - ubuntu) was to go and visit his daughter's final resting place - looks like he never did that, otherwise he would have known years ago that Mercy was still alive. That's why I find it hard to believe that he now has the courage to stand up and say 'I love Mercy, my daughter'!!! How superficial can one be!!!! When we love something, it is of some significant value to us, and when something is of such value to us we spend some time with it, enjoying it and taking care of it. If he truly loved Mercy, his daughter, he would have spent some time caring for her, he would have spent some time listening to her, he would have spent some time admiring her. He would have given her a good amount of his time!!! Above all, Mercy wouldn't have been at the orphanage - not when her father is still alive and kicking!!! Deep down my heart, this is the only point which makes me vote in favour of this adoption. She is a neglected child and if somebody offers to care for her then so be it. However, unlike the adoption of cats, dogs and other animals (very common in the West and unheard of in Malawi), child adoption entails a lot of responsibilities. It's not simply a matter of giving a child some shelter, food, clothing etc, no!! Madonna has a daunting task of instilling a feeling of being valuable in Mercy, a child who possibly doesn't feel valuable at all (at the moment) as a result of lack of parental love. Once Mercy develops that feeling of being valuable, she will easily cultivate a sense of self-worth, gain a degree of trust in the safety of Madonna's hands and indeed grow up into a very good member of the global society. ACHIEVING THIS IS AN UPHILL STRUGGLE!!! especially in a situation when a child is being raised by somebody else apart from his/her own parents. I hope and pray that Madonna succeeds in this most solemn obligation!!!

Installing and using CVS on remote server

2009-01-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

Having worked on several programming projects, my code is now becoming a little bit 'unmanageable'. As a result, I have decided to look into the possibility of using Concurrent Versions System (CVS)to kind of keep on top of one of my favourite hobbies - coding!!! By the way, the choice of CVS was pretty random!! All I want to do is install CVS on my remote remote server and be able to 'dump' and manage my code in an organised fashion
. This mini-project begins now and I will keep on updating this thread as the journey continues. Mwakoma nonse!!!

ICT Conferences in Malawi - development opportunity or another 'blind alley'?

2008-11-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

It is good news - at least to me - to hear that Malawi is currently hosting a lot of International Conferences on ICTs. However, hosting conferences is one thing and gaining something important out of those conferences is another.
I have hade a look at the program of one of the conferences currently underway in Malawi and the list of speakers /presenters is, I have to say, very impressive!! For example, Dr. Duncan Martin, Prof. Bjorn Pehrson, Dr. John Dyer, Mr. Anthony Muyepa, Mr. Harris Chinguwo, Mrs. Margaret Ngwira, Richard Chisala, Dr. Paulos Nyirenda, Dr. Edmund Katiti, Dr. H. Lipenga, Mike McKay and many others - too numerous to mention them all - are all people with a lot of experience in and vast knowledge about ICTs in the region. With that in mind, I am sure that this conference offers a very rare opportunity to our ICT policy makers who may (possibly) make use of what these resource persons may have to say / present. BUT, the question is: how far can our ICT policy makers go in utilising whatever knowledge they might gain from this conference? It would be interesting to hear Sheba Mwala's presentation on "Competition and Regulatory framework as key to ICT access: the Zambian experiences and challenges" and compare how the Zambian experiences relate to our own. Apart from other influences, I presume there are strong political demands / pressures which, to some extent, influence the ICT regulatory framework and thereby negatively affecting ICT access on a massive scale. I could be wrong!! However, with heavily 'politicised' regulatory frameworks, there is almost no chance for our ICT policy makers to 'freely' and successfully make use of some of the knowledge they might gain from these conferences. Unless we started grappling with some of these underlying influences, we are very likely to keep on missing out on such ICT development opportunities. By the way, is our ICT policy ready yet?

ICTs, education and donor aid

2008-05-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in
Least Developed Countries (LDCs) has often been motivated by ideas of
bridging the digital divide and promoting socio-economic progress within
these countries. For example, many LDCs within sub-Saharan Africa and
development practitioners alike are enthusiastic about the prospects of
socio-economic progress through the adoption and use of ICTs. In Malawi,
this belief in ICT potential is widespread and it is presumed that the
adoption of ICTs will provide a sufficient condition for socio-economic
progress and will offer Malawi the opportunity to leapfrog stages of
development and accelerate her progress in socio-economic spheres. In

particular, the adoption of computer based ICTs for educational pur

poses inMalawian secondary schools is being widely promoted.

However, in many LDCs particularly those within sub-Saharan Africa, the
realisation of such over-hyped technological gains has always remained
elusive and literature suggests that the use of computer based ICTs in LDCs
is constrained by a cross section of critical challenges (Mansell and Wehn,
1998; Kawooya, 2002; Heeks, 2002). Wade (2004) further explains that ICT
initiatives in LDCs are " biased towards the supply side and give
scant attention to demand" (Wade, 2004,p191) and that the alleged
stories of ICT adoptions within the region are generalised with "little
attention to scaling up problems" (p.186). This suggests that ICT
adoption processes can not be understood and explained by simply focusing
on the perceived potential of ICTs and disregarding complex socio-technical
influences which shape and are shaped by those adoption processes in LDC
contexts.

Of children, education and government policy in Malawi

2007-10-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

When I went home a few months ago, I had an opportunity to visit almost all the districts in Malawi. While there, I observed and experienced a lot of things. However, I identified one very disturbing thing in many parts of my beautiful country which, to say the least, shocked me speechless. Neglected children doing ‘masikini bwana’ in the streets.
On one Thursday morning, I was standing outside the Celtel Internet Café in Blantyre and in the few minutes that I stood there I saw more than 20 street kids doing ‘spare-some-change-bwana’. I then wondered as to why these kids were not at school given the FREE primary school education in Malawi. I did not bother to ask any of these kids why they were in the streets and not at school because I could foretell the excuses that I would be getting from them. ‘We are poor’, ‘we are orphans’, ‘we have nobody to take care of us’ etc. These are the kind of excuses which have always been there ‘since time immemorial’ and it is not at all the children’s fault that they find themselves in such terrible situations. However, what I really find disturbing is the Malawi government’s reaction to the plight of these unfortunate kids.

While acknowledging and appreciating the Malawi government’s move to introduce Free Primary Education, I really ask myself as to how ‘free’ this FREE primary education is in Malawi. It is true that Malawi needs a lot of effort and initiative to pull herself out of her destitution. However, such efforts need to be well tailored to the realities of life in Malawi. We are talking of free primary education here, a truly positive move (on the surface). However, when you look at the real Malawian situation, you would notice that this initiative sidelines some of the most important aspects of life in Malawi. For example, throughout my primary school education, nutrition was a very essential ingredient. I could hardly concentrate nor focus on what my teachers were teaching me whenever my stomach was empty. That was not all, I also needed note books, text books, pens, pencils, uniform etc to make sure that I benefited from school. Above all, my parents had to pay about MK5.60 every term towards my tuition fees. This was a lot of money. In other words, primary school education was not free.

However, it is not the ‘hard cash’ cash element alone which makes education free or not and a simple declaration that parents will no longer be required to pay MK5.60 for their children’s primary education does not at all make such education FREE. At the moment, I am yet to be convinced that our primary school education is free and our government surely needs to look at the broader Malawian social context and consider ways which could truy make primary education FREE. Otherwise …!!!!

VoIP : Promises and Pitfalls for Malawi – part 2

2007-09-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

In one of his speeches, Kofi Annan stated that, “in only a few years, the Internet has revolutionised trade, health, education, and, indeed, the very fabric of human communication and exchange. Moreover, its potential is far greater than what we have seen in the relatively short time since its creation.” Kofi Annan - Global Forum on Internet Governance (New York, 24 March 2004).

I quite agree that internet potential is far much greater than what we have seen so far. In Malawi, part of the internet potential was discussed in part one of this article, the VoIP. However, technology on its own is useless. It does not have that raw potential to simply ‘walk’ into an organisation or society and deliver. If the society or an organisation does not have an enabling environment, the technology (no matter what) will not yield desirable outcomes. In other words, VoIP on its own is nothing if critical parameters within the Malawian social context are not enabling.
Effectively, there are two major hurdles for VoIP adoption and use in Malawi: bandwidth limitations and the regulatory framework.

While the ‘world’ today is talking about broadband connections with speeds as high as 8Megabits persecond (Mbps), internet access in Malawi is largely via dial up connection with a maximum speed of 56 Kilobits per second (Kbps). For conventional text (which we normally use when writing our e-mails), this connection speed is quite fine. However, for voice communication, 56Kbps is not suitable at all because voice as a form of data is bulkier than conventional text. In other words, VoIP requires higher bandwidths and such bandwidths are very expensive in Malawi e.g. bandwidths of 256Kbps cost as much as US$900 per month. Such high costs are hugely prohibitive and this, combined with our poor telecommunications infrastructure, does not provide a conducive environment for VoIP.

But if we acknowledge that VoIP may enable us to make maximum use of the internet potential then why is it that Malawi does not provide the required bandwidth for VoIP use and what, if any, are the future prospects for the same in Malawi?

An expert on Malawian broadband issues, Chomora MIKEKA currently at Yokohama National University in Japan, gives his expert views on this. He observes that the above VoIP situation in Malawi is in tandem agreement with the 2006 broadband market research analysis report in South African nations and Indian Ocean islands by Data Resources Inc, ( see http://www.dri.co.jp/auto/report/bud/budafgeosou06.htm). Mikeka explains that Malawi`s telecommunications infrastructure is conventionally a Fixed Line Telephone Network which has been rated very low in terms of penetration i.e. less than 1%. It is managed by MTL and is the basis for the much reported Dial-Up service. While broadband initiatives and deployments have been reported providing up to 256Kbps and promising a 2Mbps downstream by commercial ISPs, penetration of such initiatives has very low ratio to justify a national broadband service.

To achieve a national broadband agenda, a national goal is mandatory. For example, USA President, George W. Bush in Albuquerque, NM, March 26, 2004 announced, although he didn’t say how it would be achieved, that United States of America needs a national goal for broadband technology by 2007. On the other side, Japanese government is determined to achieve universal broadband access by 2010, by making sure that the domestic fixed-line telephone network is completely replaced with a fully integrated Internet Protocol, IP system.

In relation to Malawi, Mikeka also observes that Malawi cannot all of a sudden jump to the level of broadband status as being advocated by Japan and USA, however a quantum leap to a higher level in broadband pursuit should be our deliberate goal as a nation. Such a quantum leap can be realized, if as a nation, we decide to upgrade/switch our fixed line telephone network to a higher bandwidth or speedy technology called Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, ADSL which would offer not less than 10 times faster file download size but also would support VoIP service if properly regulated. Malawi can borrow a leaf from the Southern Africa counterparts like Lesotho and launch or rollout ADSL even to the residential gates.

Mikeka gives an example of Telecom Lesotho which has introduced ADSL, on the basis that high-speed access will improve Internet service provision in Lesotho, 2007/02/15 14:06:37 ITU Int. News. Mikeka also makes a detailed analysis of the experiences of 30 African countries which have launched ADSL broadband service and observes that for Africa, in general, bandwidth (BW) has remained a scarce and costly resource to date. The solution to this, partly is in the formation of Consortia that lobby for whole chunk BW and then redistribute it to their member institutions. In Malawi, MALICO is aimed for that, while for Africa, Ubuntu Net is the lobby front-end.

Asked as to whether there are other avenues which Malawi can follow in pursuit of even better broadband services and VoIP, Mikeka says “In addition to a general discussion on the suitable and realizable technology for broadband and VoIP propagation, there are other highly researched techniques at user end or provider front which can be adopted to maximize bandwidth utilization and deeper customer penetration. These would include adaptive techniques for desired user service support or smart antennas. Whereas the broadband service institutions even their providers can implement, using Computational Intelligence (CI), techniques to find good paths through graphs [i.e. the reduced forms of Particle Swarm optimization to implement congestion controls].”

The second major problem with VoIP in Malawi is that the regulatory framework governing its use is not well outlined. Based on the recent discussions on IT Malawi Forum (www.itmalawi.org), it becomes clear that VoIP regulatory status is not very clear in Malawi. However, at the moment, discussions are underway on how to address these issues and in the next article, I will be talking about this regulatory framework.

VoIP : Promises and Pitfalls for Malawi – Part 1

2007-01-25T07:25:00.000-08:00

In my previous posting, I looked at some notions of technology choices in Malawi. In particular, the choice and value of internet based technologies to the Malawian context were scrutinised. It was observed that although these technologies are adopted with enthusiasm and great expectations, the realisation of the expected gains is usually elusive. It was also noted that while one option may be suitable for one context, it may not necessarily be suitable for other contexts. In this article, I will begin to explore one of the technological options for Malawi, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as the internet telephony.

VoIP is a service that enables us to make voice calls (telephone calls) via the internet. On the global scene, VoIP is now gaining increasing popularity. For example, in 2001, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reported that 7.3 % of the total (international) outgoing minutes were VoIP traffic. In 2005 this percentage was estimated at 30% and by 2008 it is projected that VoIP traffic will constitute over 50% of total international minutes (ITU). However, in Africa, some statistics reveal how uneven the implementation of VoIP services is across the continent. In this case, the majority of countries in Africa prohibit, restrict or simply do not have any policy for VoIP services.

In Malawi, there is a lot of confusion over the regulatory status of VoIP. In the absence of an up-to-date ICT policy, it is not clear whether VoIP is restricted or prohibited. However, research (in 2004) by Dr Tim Kelly of the ITU indicated that in Malawi, VoIP is restricted. This means that only licensed Public Telecommunications Operators (PTOs) are allowed to use VoIP services. On the other hand, the Malawi Communications Policy (1998) appears to give only the fixed operator, Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL), full mandate to use or offer services like VoIP.

MTL, I am sure, is currently all smiles as far as the current VoIP regulations in Malawi are concerned. A complete legalisation of VoIP services to a broader range of telecommunication operators and users in Malawi would potentially be the death knell for MTL’s market share. It goes without saying that MTL is aware of VoIP’s ability to leak MTL’s potential revenue and erode MTL’s market share in Malawi.

For example, a person in Lilongwe may decide to use VoIP to chat to colleagues anywhere in the world and completely bypass MTL with all their charges. While this would benefit the users quite a lot, it would certainly be bad news for MTL whose revenue would possibly start nose diving. For organisations and business enterprises, VoIP could possibly be a very smart way forward – waving goodbye to those ‘inexplicable’ phone charges.

Now in a situation like this one where VoIP poses a threat to the fixed telecommunications operator and at the same time it presents several opportunities to some local users, deciding on what to do is not an easy walk in the park. Several issues need to be taken into consideration. Should Malawi continue restricting VoIP services (to MTL only) or completely legalise it (to other operators)? If restricted or fully legalised, what VoIP challenges are there and how could they be resolved? This will be our point of departure next time.

Technological Choices and Options for Malawi

2007-01-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

The vision of technology as an automatic guarantee for socio-economic progress and well-being is now a truism in many countries both developing and developed. For the former, full scale imitation of the latter’s technological advancements has always been viewed as the answer for ‘bridging’ the technological gap or ‘levelling’ the playing field. On the other hand, developed nations have always encouraged less developed or developing countries to implement particular technologies in various sectors as a way of improving the country’s socio-economic status.

However, a closer look at the rhetoric which surrounds the potential of technologies in stimulating development reveals that promoters of technology uptake usually disregard the characteristics of the social contexts within which the technologies would be embedded. The promoters often romanticise the technology’s potential as if the technology would simply walk into a society and do everything on its own regardless of other parameters in the context of its use.
Unfortunately, such ‘colourful’ stories about technologies have often made many developing countries to uncritically adopt particular technologies. In this case, many developing countries have failed to identify available technological options. They have failed to choose technological options which are aligned to their own developmental strategies. Malawi is one of the countries that is currently failing to identify, choose and use technologies in the national interest of the masses.
I recall with sadness how the Malawi Government, a few years ago, decided to remedy the problem of long queues at the Road Traffic Commission’s Licence Department where it would take ages for the Department to process a single licence. In order, to rectify this problem, the government implemented a computerised system.
However, personal experience showed that computers were not an optimum technological option in this particular context. The computerised system was obviously of no use as it clearly led to even longer queues and longer processing time. It also appeared to me that the Licence Department officers themselves never knew how to operate the computers. The system would go down at anytime and people would have to wait for hours while somebody was fixing it.
Moreover, the system did not also appear to appreciate the significance of other parameters within the local context. In this case, while untrained drivers were continuously being issued with licences as long as they included the ‘middle page’ in their applications, the system never recognised such corrupt malpractices as vital issues.
Of late there is the much hyped Eastern African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) Project which intends to connect Africa to the rest of the world via a fibre optic undersea cable. The promoters of the idea (developed countries) and the adopters (developing countries) in this Africa region believe this is a robust and reliable way of stimulating socio-economic development. In Malawi, the idea has already been embraced wholesale and expectations are sky-high among various stakeholders.
The EASSy project mainly focuses on internet connectivity. Malawi has less than 0.5% of the total population who can afford such internet based technologies which require the ability to read and write (i.e. functional literacy skills).
Malawi illiteracy level stands at almost 40% of the total population. This is a tragedy in any language and surely the current technological mystique in Malawi (in view of these contextual parameters) requires a devil’s advocate. How can an independent state like Malawi which understands and affirms the role of masses in socio-economic development fail so miserably to find solutions which involve the masses themselves? Why should naïve technological solutions override our common sense? If anything, how was this technological choice arrived at? Who proposed it and why?
I strongly believe that Malawi does have vast knowledge about her own potential and the natural resources at her disposal but just like a baby, she has not yet been weaned from the nipple of dependence. Independent Malawi does not appear independent at all as far as decisions about the choice of technologies are concerned. It is only when we strive for such autonomy and learn to stand on our own feet that we will be able to identify options and make sound technological choices that are in the interest of the masses and our own development strategies.
There is a great need to critically analyse our own needs and choose technologies that are relevant. We do not want technologies that only serve the affluent minority and stifle the creativity of the masses - the only inexhaustible source of collective Malawian progress.

Technology Choices in Malawi

2006-06-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Almost everybody is now talking about turning Malawi into a
‘technological society’. Whatever that means but the enthusiasm, hype and
hope surrounding computer based technologies especially Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) is quite high at the moment. These ICTs
are now being viewed as a kind of saviour capable of saving a lot of Malawians
from a constellation of their daily problems be it educational, economic, social, political etc. In general, they are being viewed as key to improving the living conditions of many Malawians.

While I agree that there are some Malawians who believe that these ICTs are a threat to their jobs, there is a considerable number of us who believe that a bright and progressive Malawian future will only be possible through increasing technological growth within the country. Negative or positive, it is quite clear that the current trend of technology adoption and use mirrors a spectrum of beliefs held by various individuals and interests groups in the Malawian development arena. This means that current problematic situations being faced in Malawi and their associated solutions have all often been tied to particular technological dimensions. Such situations offer justifications for the status, meaning and value of various ICTs that have been adopted in various situations and circumstances throughout Malawi. These justifications, valid or invalid, may be said to have presented Malawians with a mechanism which facilitates the avoidance of simplistic and naïve options arising either from uncritical acceptance or uncritical rejection of ICTs.
However, there are some situations, reasons or justifications for the adoption of particular ICTs which are fraught with problems. In this case, instead of making ICTs useful and valuable in a particular context, the adopted technologies end up introducing a complicated catalogue of problems within the context of use. This is usually the case when the justifications for adopting a particular technology is made regardless of the nature of the society and the environment in which the technology is to be used. Issues like poor technological infrastructure, technical incompetence on the part of the adopters - among other factors- could possibly make a particular technology unsuitable for its intended purposes within a particular society. More often than not, unsuitable technologies are adopted in various societies due to the adopters inability to effectively map the various technical parameters to the real world of practice within a particular context. That is why technology choice is a very important concept for Malawi.
If we are really serious about turning Malawi into a meaningful ‘technological society’ it is crucial that we discriminate between different ICTs according to their relative suitability for specific purposes or contexts. What’s the point of buying a very expensive and complicated mobile phone (which you cannot even operate without consulting the manual) when you can hardly afford to buy some air time and are sleeping rough on an empty stomach? A specific attention to the pros and cons of adopting a technology is vital when making technological choices. That is why it is important that Malawi should be aware of the diversity of technological options for particular purposes. It is only when such an awareness is achieved and sustained that a careful analysis of the human and non-human parameters may lead to a conclusive evaluation of alternative options and the choice of technologies which have true potential to contribute favourably towards development.
Although it is clear that technology choice has not been an important concept in our country over the past years, it still remains a vital concept which has to be given great attention if we are really serious about turning Malawi into a technological society. Some may argue here that ‘beggars should not be choosers’ but I strongly believe that a conscious human effort both at national and individual levels is very important in these matters if we are to ensure that the technology that we acquire is truly suitable for our development objectives and context of use. Let’s not turn Malawi, the warm heart of Africa, into a dumping ground for obsolete and unnecessary technologies.

Malawi gears up for e-governance - Reality or Fad?

2006-03-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

An article on Digital Oppeortunity ( http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/129772/1/ , March 23, 2006) reported that "over 70 percent of governmentministries and departments in Malawi will be electronically connected as one way promoting efficient communication among civil servants in the delivery of service to the public...." This statement was further supported by the Manager for Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) , Patrick Machika who reported that the Malawi Government in collaboration with the World Bank embarked on the project which will take five years at a cost US$3.2million.
According to the report, the Manager also expressed the expected outcomes of such a project. In this case, he said that computer operators would be communicating through e-mail, conducting research through the internet and making conversation through the integrated computer network and video conferencing instead of the telephone. Digital Opportunity further quotes the Manager as follows:

“With video conferencing, ICT users will be able to see who they are talking to,” said Machika.He said that the services to be provided by GWAN would minimize government expenditure in paying individual Internet Service Providers and monitoring the transmission of viruses between computers linked to the network.“Government would cut costs on telephone bills, internet subscription and provide security measures against computer viruses by using anti virus software. All computers will have one entry and one exit,” saidMachika.He said over 500 civil servants have already been trained in ICT with assistance from the Taiwanese Government which has also donated 400 computers to bedistributed to various ministries.

On the other hand, it is reported that the Manager dismissed fears that the new innovation will see mass retrenchments in government ministries. According to Digital Opportunity, the Manager said some of the functions will continue to be handled manually. He said the project aims at connecting all computer systems in the civil service onto the superhighway to enable officers to communicate swiftly when processing data and share official documents through voice and video.

Nowadays, statements like these are commonplace. Often times people talk about using various technologies in solving social problems. Seeking solutions is not a bad thing. However, as in the above instance, the strategies that people implement seem to focus much on the technology itself and completely ignore the social fabric within which those technologies will be embedded. In other words, people tend to become overtly deterministic whenever they talk about technology's potential. It is a well known fact that Malawi is a country in ruins. A country torn-apart not as an aftermath of war but as result of a mesh of complex problems. I don't have to preach to the choir, but it is well in line to point out that in view of the current contextual problems in Malawi, the idea of e-governance (as in the above sense) appears wild. It would be interesting to know who is sponsoring this $3.2 million e-governance project and all the 'strings' attached to it.

ICTs, Development and the Society: Technology Choices in Malawi

2006-03-29T06:55:00.000-08:00

It would not be very far from the truth to say that the choice of a particular technology in many Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Malawi is largely implicated in diagnoses of social, political, economic and other problems. There are a lot of instances which indicate that LDCs are hard hit by significant social, political, economic and technical problems.
Malawi for instance has its own catalogue of such problems like poverty, high population levels, disease, illiteracy etc which have influenced the adoption of particular technologies as a possible means of addressing such a constellation of problems. Accordingly, the Malawian ICT and other developmental policies have become a central focus and have increasingly grown in importance as potential sources of solutions to these problems.

We can see in its ICT policy (http://www.sdnp.org.mw/ict/malawi.ict.policy.pdf) the Malawi Government admitting that the country has now “ recognized and accepted the importance and role of ICT in Malawi’s socio-economic development ” (Malawi Government, 2003). As a way of showing its conviction in the role of ICTs and its commitment to use ICTs for development, the Malawi government indicates that it removed import duty on all computer sets entering Malawi. Considering some socio-technical parameters in Malawi, it becomes difficult to envisage as to how these computers may possibly contribute towards stimulating socio-economic development in Malawi. One can hardly rule out any possibility of the ideological mentality which goes like ‘if this technology worked in one country then it will also work in Malawi’.

So far there are so many strategy papers that have been designed to guide Malawi’s efforts in solving developmental problems. In its sectoral policies like the Vision 2020, the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the Malawi Science and Technology Policy, the Malawi Government has outlined several objectives. As far as development is concerned, all these papers seem to agree on the point that ICTs are “an engine for: accelerated sustainable development and economic growth; social and cultural development; national prosperity; and global competitiveness.” (Malawi Government, 2003). Although this may sound good to a lot of us Malawians, it is clearly very deterministic and may be seen to border heavily on the naïve. Too much emphasis seems to be placed on the technology itself and no attention seems to be paid to the existence of socio-technical problems within Malawi. It is high time we recognised that technology on its own does not have that kind of raw potential to stimulate development in Malawi, instead it is the interdependent relationship between the technical and the social parameters that matters most. What's the point of putting new wine in old wine skins? However, it has to be acknowledged that the understanding of technology from this socio-technical perspective does not seem to be considered by the majority of stakeholders in issues pertaining to the adoption of ICTs for developmental purposes.

Although Malawi’s objectives for using ICTs as a key towards the attainment of its developmental goals seem plausible, there seems to be a mismatch between the role of the very chosen technologies in the achievement of target developmental goals. For instance Malawi’s objectives “to transform the Malawian educational system using ICTs with the aim of improving accessibility to educational resources and facilities, the quality of education, the relevance of the educational services and output to development needs of Malawi; To transform Malawi into an ICT aware and literate nation and to improve the information and communications infrastructure of Malawi, especially for the rural areas.” (Malawi Government, 2003) are all positive steps towards stimulating socio-economic development. It doesn't end there, in order to achieve these objectives, the Malawi government has also indicated its plans to promote basic literacy and ICT literacy among its citizens and to facilitate the provision of wider access to information and ICT services to the underprivileged (Malawi Government, 2003). However, these objectives are likely to be a pipedream if the type of technologies chosen and adopted for these purposes are not suitable for our Malawian context.

For example, it is indicated that as a strategy towards achieving the objective of promoting basic literacy and ICT literacy, the Malawi government will “introduce computer lessons in education, especially primary and secondary education” (Malawi Government, 2003). However, for a country where socio-technical parameters indicate inadequate resources for running and supporting computer and internet technologies, Malawi may be seen to have jumped on the bandwagon without really knowing where it is heading. (Takwera bus ya Ntchisi pamene tikufuna kupita ku Mulanje). In other words, while Malawian policies acknowledge the important role of technologies, they may possibly be seen to be less focussed in the understanding of the socio-technical complexities of Malawian communities.

This is what makes technology choice in relation to the social context a very important concept for consideration as far as decision making and socio-economic development are concerned. In other words, for technology to possibly make useful contributions towards alleviating some of the reported developmental problems, technology choice need to be considered as a cardinal concept where technology is understood in its socio-technical context as opposed to a collection of neutral tools. This serves to suggest that technology choice and implementation needs to be characterised by harmonious integration of the social and technical parameters in order to yield implementations that are feasible and desirable within the adopting context, Malawi.

What's this ICT talk all about?

2006-02-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

The vantage point from which some development organisations view ICTs may be seen to contribute to the current ‘magic bullet’ perception that governments in third world countries have about ICTs. In one of its papers the World Bank says:

‘This new technology [ICT] greatly facilitates the acquisition and absorption of knowledge, offering developing countries unprecedented opportunities to enhance educational systems, improve policy formation and execution, and widen the range of opportunities for business and the poor.’ (World Bank, 1998, p9)

Of course, the potential of ICTs in enhancing educational systems is well documented and some examples can be cited within the developing world, but the outcome of implementing ICTs in one developing country does not guarantee similar results in all developing countries.(Wade, 2004). Therefore, the World Bank tone could be misleading to those countries which realistically can not benefit from the use of ICTs.

These organisations, once they perceive the opportunity to apply ICTs in developing countries, become unaware of what Boyle calls the ‘danger of a narrowing view towards the nature of the problem and the possible solutions’. The hype and hope generated by ICTs encourages them to alter their funding priorities and push ICTs up the development agenda (Heeks,2002). This, unfortunately, is usually done with an ‘overemphasis on the technology itself, to the exclusion of other parameters’.

But why do development organisations and political leaders in developing countries seem to have such great enthusiasm and very positive opinions about ICTs? The answer may not be that simple. One reason, according to Heeks, is that they have all ‘been drawn in to the e-development arena by the scent of money’. Wade concurs with him when he talks of development organisations turning into marketing agencies for ICT suppliers. However, something can also be drawn from Boyle when he underlines the existence of ‘political-economic and ideological undercurrents that impact the way we understand the role of information technologies in socio economic development.’

Such undercurrents could be responsible for statements that underestimate the underlying problem that trigger the need for ICT implementation and the ‘complexities’ involved therein.

Now in what ways is this ICT hype and hope affecting Malawi? Personally, looking at some of the objectives in the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (Malawi Government, 2002), the ICT hyper-enthusiasm can well be seen to be concentrating on rather unrealistic targets that may not be achievable in the foreseeable future. Can they? Just wondering!!!