Re: a couple of blog posts about free software activity in Ghana

[Ben Konrath <ben bagu org>]

Hi Germán,

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 10:18 AM, Germán Póo-Caamaño <gpoo gnome org> wrote:
<snip>
> OTOH, I tend to sympathize with the idea of helping to build their own
> "software industry" by coding in FLOSS projects.  However, there is a
> strong correlation in involvement in FLOSS projects with the size of the
> software industry in each country[1].  So, that is something that be
> should be taken in mind.

I didn't read the article but my feeling is that the correlation is
probably accurate. I mean, how many of us work on free software
directly as part of our jobs - even if it's just a few hours a week.
And then there's people who use contributing to free software as a way
to get experience they can put on their resume. If there's no software
industry, the economic motivations to actually get these skills is not
really there. There probably are other explanations as well.

I still think it's important for GNOME to encourage people from
developing countries to learn about our project and join in if they
feel motivated to do so. If the GNOME project wants to claim to be a
inclusive global organization, we really need to address the fact that
there are very few people from sub-Saharan Africa who participate in
our community. And I'm not only talking about software developers -
there are many ways to contribute to GNOME besides coding.

Gaps in the GNOME contributor map can probably be found in other
regions of the world too but I'm more familiar with sub-Saharan. I
realize that there are many factors that affect who can participate
that cannot be addressed by the GNOME project (e.g. access to
internet, stable electricity, access to computers, personal free time
etc). However, I believe that there are things we can do to help lower
the barrier to entry into our community in regions which have a low
number of participants.

I see outreach efforts specifically related to teaching programmers
about GNOME as part of a bigger thing that's already happening. When I
was at Idlelo, I saw countless NGOs who main mandate was to try to
create economic activity using and servicing free software. I think
it's import to solidify connections between these NGOs and our
community by participating more in the region.

Cheers, Ben