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A number of African nations are currently struggling with this -- attempting to bootstrap nationwide networking from zero, while having economies which are very

by hodwik2 10y ago

A number of African nations are currently struggling with this -- attempting to bootstrap nationwide networking from zero, while having economies which are very much command economies (although in Africa, that's due to corruption, rather than being baked into the law). In one small African nation the government was intensely interested in building a national system for finding lost cows. (This was a much-touted presidential initiative.) Basically, farmers would be able to text their cow's ID and the system would tell them if another farmer had found it. In spite of the simplicity of such a system, it took them years of 'research and development', and enormous budgets spent, for a system which they discovered in the end, didn't work. It turned out, they couldn't figure out how to procure and install a server for it to run on.

drzaiusapelord 10y ago
>It turned out, they couldn't figure out how to procure and install a server for it to run on. Sure they could. There's talent abound in Africa. Unfortunately, the case here is usually corruption. That project money was siphoned to the politicians themselves or a connected pal, or both. Just old fashioned fraud here. I think "Africans don't know what they are doing" is a convenient scapegoat that empowers fraudsters. And if that narrative leads to more foreign aid, then wonderful, because the politically connected class abuse that too.
- RogtamBar 10y ago
  I would not be so sure. While corruption and nepotism is a huge problem, there is more in play. There is decades worth of psychometric evidence pointing to the conclusion that on average, native Africans have less talent for mental tasks. It'd be rather surprising if ~100,000 years of separate evolution and a good deal of founder effects would have not produced appreciable mental differences between Eurasian and African populations. This, of course, is heresy:http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconvenient-truth_296.php http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconven...
- hodwik2 10y ago
  Oh, I'm glad you know more than I do about this thing I lived through, so you could correct me on it.
pjc50 10y ago
Western developed economies are quite capable of doing this, such as the Canadian gun registry which somehow managed to spend billions of dollars without achieving anything.
- presidentender 10y ago
  CGI, which built the registry, is the parent company of CGI Federal, known lately for the Obamacare site.
  - Aelinsaar 10y ago
    Let me guess... they're absurdly well connected though?
    - Bluestrike2 10y ago
      You don't get large federal contracts without being well-connected.
      - pasbesoin 10y ago
        And this sub-thread is one, if tiny and partial, solution. Sunlight (public knowledge and understanding), bleaching out such stains. I appreciate the pointers. And... we shouldn't let these people simply re-organize under new names. Just as I'm likely to look askance at anyone with Goldman Sachs in their resume. Only, I prefer to know and respond more specifically.
  - leggomylibro 10y ago
    And before that they were known for bungling a healthcare exchange for Canada's CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). I guess the US took them because they had experience in the field?
- ape4 10y ago
  Off topic of course. The gun registry was very political and had many people who wanted it to fail. Then it did fail. I always wondered if the two were related.
tomjen3 10y ago
Shouldn't Twillio, digital ocean and one small bespoke node app be able to do it?
- kuschku 10y ago
  If half of them would work outside of the US, people would already be happy. DO’s usability goes down a lot if you don’t have a credit card (you literally pay to be able to pay), and Twilio is quite similar.
- pjc50 10y ago
  It's not about what needs to be done, it's about finding reliable people to do it, especially when there's all sorts of opportunities for people to funnel it to a "preferred bidder".
- hodwik2 10y ago
  The government was immensely paranoid about it, insisting it had to run on site, and be completely configurable by their tech staff, who were not themselves engineers.

by hodwik2 10y ago

drzaiusapelord 10y ago

>It turned out, they couldn't figure out how to procure and install a server for it to run on. Sure they could. There's talent abound in Africa. Unfortunately, the case here is usually corruption. That project money was siphoned to the politicians themselves or a connected pal, or both. Just old fashioned fraud here. I think "Africans don't know what they are doing" is a convenient scapegoat that empowers fraudsters. And if that narrative leads to more foreign aid, then wonderful, because the politically connected class abuse that too.

RogtamBar 10y ago
I would not be so sure. While corruption and nepotism is a huge problem, there is more in play. There is decades worth of psychometric evidence pointing to the conclusion that on average, native Africans have less talent for mental tasks. It'd be rather surprising if ~100,000 years of separate evolution and a good deal of founder effects would have not produced appreciable mental differences between Eurasian and African populations. This, of course, is heresy:http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconvenient-truth_296.php http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconven...
hodwik2 10y ago
Oh, I'm glad you know more than I do about this thing I lived through, so you could correct me on it.

pjc50 10y ago

Western developed economies are quite capable of doing this, such as the Canadian gun registry which somehow managed to spend billions of dollars without achieving anything.

presidentender 10y ago
CGI, which built the registry, is the parent company of CGI Federal, known lately for the Obamacare site.
- Aelinsaar 10y ago
  Let me guess... they're absurdly well connected though?
  - Bluestrike2 10y ago
    You don't get large federal contracts without being well-connected.
    - pasbesoin 10y ago
      And this sub-thread is one, if tiny and partial, solution. Sunlight (public knowledge and understanding), bleaching out such stains. I appreciate the pointers. And... we shouldn't let these people simply re-organize under new names. Just as I'm likely to look askance at anyone with Goldman Sachs in their resume. Only, I prefer to know and respond more specifically.
- leggomylibro 10y ago
  And before that they were known for bungling a healthcare exchange for Canada's CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). I guess the US took them because they had experience in the field?
ape4 10y ago
Off topic of course. The gun registry was very political and had many people who wanted it to fail. Then it did fail. I always wondered if the two were related.

tomjen3 10y ago

Shouldn't Twillio, digital ocean and one small bespoke node app be able to do it?

kuschku 10y ago
If half of them would work outside of the US, people would already be happy. DO’s usability goes down a lot if you don’t have a credit card (you literally pay to be able to pay), and Twilio is quite similar.
pjc50 10y ago
It's not about what needs to be done, it's about finding reliable people to do it, especially when there's all sorts of opportunities for people to funnel it to a "preferred bidder".
hodwik2 10y ago
The government was immensely paranoid about it, insisting it had to run on site, and be completely configurable by their tech staff, who were not themselves engineers.