Kenga Solutions and Chisimba parting ways

[Derek Keats]

Dear list lurkers:

I want to give notice that as from the end of October, Kenga Solutions will no longer be acting as the commercial home for Chisimba (barring a sudden miracle). It is just not profitable to do so. The good news is that there was a net 'profit' of just under R20 000 on our Chisimba activities against a turnover of under R350 000 for Chisimba-based work since the beginning of the previous financial year. This is such a small component of revenue that it is not worth the effort on revenue alone. However, I persisted in the hope that there would be commercial opportunities that would keep the only existing Africa-developed software framework alive. It was never about the money, but without revenue it is not sustainable.

However, it is clear that despite the superb technology, we cannot make this a commercially viable venture. People prefer to import technology, and we are not able to compete with that no matter how good the technology we build is. We were, in fact, ahead of our time, and all the stuff that is new and awesome in Joomla and Wordpress, we had years ago. And now we have more.

Therefore, I am asking the following:

Is there anyone who would like to take over Chisimba, including the website. That is, is there anyone who feels strongly enough about keeping it alive to take it and run with it?

It is my intention to remove Chisimba from the Kenga Solutions stable, and to shut down (or hand over) the Chisimba website at the end of October (if someone wants it, we will continue to sponsor it).

I will, in all probability, continue to use Chisimba for personal projects such as dkeats.com, soon to be launched Thinking Human, Adorabel.co.za, another biodiversity project that I am working on, and if anyone wants help with Chisimba I will help where I can on a voluntary basis as I always have. In the unlikely event that a business opportunity arises and Kenga is able to avail of it, then we will.  But current scenarios do not justify keeping it as a business venture.

Furthermore, my own direction is moving away from direct technology projects, and becoming more strategic and business oriented. I will have little time to do more direct technology work in the near future.

It is a pity things have worked out this way. I am still convinced that Chisimba remains the best PHP software framework available in the world today, and the changes that we made through Kenga has made some aspects of it cutting edge. It can be light or heavy as circumstances demand. If anyone is willing to take it on, you will be taking on something that is still able to deliver better technology faster than any other PHP application framework.

Regards

Derek

--
Dr Derek W. Keats, PhD
IT Strategy, FOSS, Technology Innovation

Kenga Solutions Pty Ltd
2 Hollywood Drive, Northcliff, Johannesburg
Email: de...@dkeats.com
Phone: +27 82 787 0169 / +27 11 477 4954
Web: http://www.dkeats.com

[Monwabisi sifumba]

I would like to take over and bring it to life.

monwabisi

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[Derek Keats]

Go for it! Probably a good idea to get it all into GIT, including canvases. But they are big repos so should probably be somehow kept separable under the Chisimba umbrella. 

cheers

derek