BLACK AMPHI

Ekwoge Fritz a.k.a FEE From Cameroon

Ladies and Gentlement lets all listen to Ekwoge Fritz tell us about the secret to his success as an African Software/Web professional and business man.

Ekwoge Fritz is the developer behind the  widely popular African classifieds website www.kerawa.com and recently he is coming up with the GSM accessible  mobile phone directory hosted on IYAM.MOBI.

While we have him on the blackamphi why dont we all hear from the GURU.

- What are your names
Fritz Ekwoge Ekwoge aka Fee.

- Where do you live and work
Douala, Cameroon

- How did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)
Got lucky

- What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)
firefox ; notepad++

- How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development
Ever since I discovered the “PROG” button on the TI80 graphic calculator in High School.

- Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development
http://www.kerawa.com, http://iYam.mobi

- Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.
Any of the above. Depends on the job.

- What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)
All of the above mentioned.

- What software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)
All of the above mentioned.

- Do you find design patterns usefull and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze
Yes.

- Can you tell us about any computerscience theories you have applied before ( Bayesian Theory, parallel computing, Bigtable, Mapreduce, Active Records, etc)
All of the above mentioned
Nah , that’s not true.
I’ve come accross the Bayesian Theory and Active Records in a distant past.

- Do you work in a team environment if so what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)
GMail

- How important are deadlines in your work
Not that important, for now.

- Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans
It helped India’s economy. Could also help ours.

- What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks
They all have their place in this diverse world of ours.

- Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises?
They will help African developers adhere to the framework’s concept and implementation of best practices.

- Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc
Morse

- What do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies
They each have their place in this diverse world of ours.

- What are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa
Funding
Young market

- What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges
Funding >  Bootstrap
Young market > Build the market

- What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa
This is for the nobodies: “Go for it”.

- How can people interested in working with you get to contact you
ekwogefee at gmail dot com

-While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more
Believing is an understatement. I swear by those.

- What popular principle did you use to respond to this interview
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Less is More

-Thanks for your time and please give us some closing words.
There is no excuse in life.

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Enstine Muki Musaga from Cameroon Stays Focused

Hey people!

We’re back again to Africa in Miniature. This time around, we are neither near Mount Fako nor on the grasslands but somewhere around the coast, in the economic capital.  While all commands come from Yaounde, I guess Douala is where all the money gets printed . Not really! But it is obvious that Business on this highly populated and busy town is at its peak. Talking of business, you know, of course, we can’t leave software and the web  development out of the ring. Who are we “investigating” now? There is a php/MySQL guru on the line.

Hello….. Anybody there?….. Echo…

Oh, here he comes. The first to be interviewed by us in his Region. As usual, per our tradition, we let him express himself because no one can possibly talk about him more than his very self.

What are your names?
My names are Enstine Muki Musaga.

Where do you live and work ?
Douala, Littoral Region of Cameroon

How did you get the skills in software development(university, professional school, online certifications, study from home, internet)?

I got into the digital world with screw-drivers lol … Well I got my first training as PC Technician far back in 2001 and my trip to software (web apps) sprung from an annoying experience I had while serving as computer operator in one construction company in Douala, 2003. My boss asked me to get someone to setup a website for the company so I called this guy who came and tabled a bill of 300,000fcfa and said he was to deliver in 2 weeks. Oh God! I said this guy’s slapping my face. He can not just come here and walk away with such a juicy sum so I told my boss I was going to do it (good enough he was not ready to pay that kind of money ‘just for a website’). Holy Cow! I was enraged and determined to break the hard wall so I laid my hands on html and put up my first website on geocities later in 2003 (about 2 weeks later). So by mid 2004, I was ‘eating’ html and could do some pretty good designs with fireworks 3. Not long, I picked up a piece of design job with a group of PHP developers in California USA and requested for PHP training as pay package. So these guys took me through online (principally using yahoo messenger, email and urls)

What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)?

My major tools are Internet, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. There are a couple of others but with these, I often produce satisfactory results and of course Windows OS and WAMP

How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development?

You can count the years from late 2004 lol

Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development?

I have quite a good number of works…but let me just highlight the most recent, most active and possibly most used…

CredFollow: Do you tweet? Well if you said yes, you should know what it means to get Twitter followers. I just put up CredFollow (http://credfollow.com) a twitter site aimed at bringing targeted twitter followers to its members. Based on Twitter’s Oauth API, authentication is 100% safe. No auto tweet in it please lol. so if you believe in the Twitter marketplace, hurry and grab your FREE account before I change my mind

NjangiHost: I am a co-founder Njangihost.com Feb 2008 and it’s today the No. 1 web hosting institution in Cameroon. Check it here [http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/Country/CM]

NoStress CMS: Have you ever heard of “NoStress CMS”? I started that far back in 2006 and it’s running on many sites already. Though I dropped it for other projects, it’s not dead. Watch for its return. It’s going to be open source

Some other web applications include:
Gesforet: A complete ajaxified application for companies doing forest exploitation… Ref: Cameroon United Forest (CUF) http://cufcm.com

CyberCash: Web based money transfer application plus instant SMS alert
Ref: UNICS http://unicspeedycash.com
TRANSAFREX: http://transafrex.com,

OPENSMS: A web based sms application with reseller account management. In fact, I give this to my clients under their brand name: ipwSMS, betaSMS, simpleSMS, njangiSMS

Some other sites include:

The first site to run NoStress SMS http://cameroon-business.com

http://cufcm.com

http://camarues.com

http://btp-djemo.com

http://cometal-superdoll.com

http://cemactours.com

http://carehealthprogram.org

http://gccint.org

http://neltatravel.com

Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc…?

Both are necessities depending on the weight of the project. For real projects, I do OOP but for some simple needs, structural programming will be quicker to implement.

While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS (Keep It Simple…) and Less is more ?

Every software developer strives to make his/her products friendly. You know as I do that the more complex a system is, the more it needs to deploy. Simple and useful apps sell faster except simplicity means weakness.

What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)?

MVC is what I have used and I like its implementation in CodeIgniter (CI) www.codeigniter.com

Do you find design patterns useful and do you think they help make codes orderly for teams to work together and future maintenance a breeze?

I think most development framework are based on these patterns. That further goes to project its importance. If I do a project using CI (MVC) any other developer using CI will go through the code crossing his legs

Do you work in a team environment? If so, what tools do you use for collaboration (eg collabtive, unfuddle, basecamp)?

I do not work in a team environment for now. May be for future projects

How important are deadlines in your work?

Holy Cow! They are as important as the check. You don’t deliver your projects on time and if you are the cause of the delay, know that you are drifting far off your next projects.

Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans?

If Africans can deliver critical projects, they may grab projects from Indian developers. There are lots of projects in the market. Whether they are given us or sent to India depends on results. The best developers eat the fattest bones.

What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks?

There is no doubt that frameworks go a long way to enhance team work, facilitate the development process and of course step up productivity. These are all great tools depending on the choice of technology.

Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practices?

African developers should adhere to these best practices whether on frameworks or not

Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc?

I do not do other languages apart from PHP so I prefer what I know to what I do not

What do you think about open source vs proprietary technologies?

I think the Internet is growing this fast thanks to Open Source technology which has a bigger community. In the Open Source kingdom, there is more room for scalability as every user is free to contribute to its growth. In a nutshell, I think the Open Source tech offers more to users.

what are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa ?

The main challenge here is the client. Most of the people don’t know what they want. Sometimes, they want everything for free or little pay. A lot is still to be done.

What do you think could be done to get rid of these challenges ?

Nothing other than information! Information on how things should be done should be circulated. In short, Training is the right word.

What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa?

All I have for them is that everything there need is available on the Internet ( Professional training, study materials, certification, fame, jobs,etc). All they need is Internet signal and probably some guiding steps. In addition, there is a big virgin market.

How can people interested in working with you get to contact you?

All my contacts are available on http://enstine.net though I need to update it…
You can also follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/enstine
If you use CredFollow, watch out for updates: http://twitter.com/credfollow

Thanks for your time, Mr Enstine Muki. I equally thank all those watching out for what we have to offer. Black Amphi is always at your service.

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Minang Suh: young software developer in Cameroon

Minang Suh is a 19yr old Cameroonian, an alumni student at AfroVisioN Group Training Program, www.afrovisiongroup.com/training . He was one of the best students though he was taking the course along with his Maths and Csc course at the University of Buea. It should be noted that he is still having his degree course at the university of buea www.ubstudents.com but taking up some part time work with AfroVisioN Group. Now that we have him on The Black Amphitheater, check out his experience from the interview below.

[BA]What are your names
Minang Suh Franklin

[BA]Where do you live and work
Live in Buea Cameroon and I’m a second year student in the University of Buea. Working at AfroVisioN Group

[BA]How did you get the skills in software development(university, professonal school, online certifications, study from home, internet)
Studied and currently practicing at AfroVisioN Group, Buea Cameroon

[BA]What are the tools you use in your daily activities (windows, WAMP, visual studio, dreamweaver, netbeans, eclipse, etc)
dreamweaver, eclipse, phpdev, kohana, codeigniter

[BA]How long have you been writing codes or doing any form of software engineering/development
I’ve been studying for a year now. I actually started writing codes 4 months ago (June 2009)

[BA]Can you give some examples of projects you have developed or you have been a part of the development
I’m a newbie and presently working on my first project ever: “camerjobs.com” which is going to be a Cameroon job search engine developed by AfroVisioN Group

[BA]Are you more into object oriented programming or structural/procedural programming, or something else like aspect oriented etc.
Object Oriented

[BA]While developing/engineering do you believe in KISS(Keep It Simple…) and Less is more ??
Considering the fact the different algorithms for a particular task serve to solve the task, I believe I KISS

[BA]What are some of the software development design patterns you have used (eg MVC, Facade, Observer, front controller, singleton)
None (beginner here!)

[BA]What software development cycles have you used before (Extreme Programming, SCRUM, Waterfall, Agile, Itterative, etc)
None (beginner here!)

[BA]How important are deadlines in your work
Could cause you not being paid! Would also lose upcoming projects

[BA]Are you into software outsourcing and do you think it will help enrich and empower Africans
Well we all looking for better technology and so if there is a great software or team out there that eases this, why not use.

[BA]What do you think about software development frameworks like Kohanaphp, Codeigniter, hibernate, django, castle monorails, .NET frameworks, J2EE frameworks
Mmm, codeigniter, kohanaphp, mm, great tools developed by great minds and have made development more interesting and very easy.

[BA]Do you think those frameworks will help African developers easily adhere to software development best practises
I think these frameworks are so much organized and help Africans who have studied the programming language in question to do their tasks faster. Though it encourages laziness and less creativity since everything has been coded and given to us as objects to use and do what we want.

[BA]Which do you prefer more: php, python, java, CSharp, ruby, etc
Not much of  an opinion because I have studied just php, but reading from programming forums.  I will say more php and java

[BA]What do you think about open source vs proprietory technologies
It  all depends on what software the developer is creating. We don’t expect the codes of Microsoft to be open source. Man the hackers out there are terrible.

[BA]What are some of the challenges you face as a software developer in Africa
As a beginner I haven’t faced much of a challenge. My only challenge now is me getting to be a better developer

[BA]What word do you have for other aspiring software developers in Africa
Will just say this is a very interesting field your getting into and that  a great developer must first enjoy what he/she does (coding should be like a hobby) before any other gains in it.

[BA]How can people interested in working with you get to contact you ?
(+237)70222251 email: minangsuh (at] yahoo.com

[BA]thanks for your time and please give us some closing words
Big thank you to all the minds at blackamphi. I love what you guys are doing towards  developing IT  in Africa and how you inspire the young African  developers

[BA=BLACKAMPHI]

Ok now you guys had Minang Suh and you all heard what he had to say. We will be looking on more developers like him in Africa.  Stay tuned and our next person on stage will be Victor Asobo.

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