Coded in Country
Nate Barthel
Today's topic is Coded in Country, a concept/initiative initially
launched by Dimagi Inc and DataDyne to support local software
development firms. Currently, I am Managing Editor of
CodedinCountry.org and the following is a brief description of the CiC
concept and our activities. I'd love to hear your comments, questions,
or anything else you'd like to add. Thanks!
-Nate Barthel
CODED IN COUNTRY
Coded in Country (CiC) is a software implementation approach in which
the technical needs of a project are met by local software developers
who are involved in the design, development, and deployment of the
solution.
CiC is primarily, though not exclusively, associated with
international development and is born out of the growing capacity of
high-quality software developers found throughout low- and middle-
income countries
CiC ADVANTAGES
Cost
Often eHealth, eGov, eLearning and related applications are
implemented by software developers from the United States and other
wealthy countries. With associated travel, salaries, and maintenance
costs, this is an expensive solution. Projects that use local
technical partners have the potential of being less expensive,
particularly when considering costs over the long term.
Local Knowledge
Foreign-based implementers can be a liability when a project rests on
an appropriate understanding of local culture, language, and
established relationships. In these cases, CiC offers a distinct
advantage. When developers and implementers have innate knowledge of
the local culture, language, and infrastructure, they are better
positioned to tailor applications to that particular region.
Build code and capacity
One of the most compelling reasons to pursue the Coded in Country
approach is the potential to address both the immediate needs of the
project undertaken, while at the same time investing in, and
developing, the skills of people living in the region.
CODEDINCOUNTRY.ORG
CodedinCountry.org is US-based organization dedicated to this
concept. We firmly believe CiC makes both practical - business -
sense for those who are seeking capable software companies and sense
as it relates to the larger goals of international development.
Our goals are to:
1) Increase donor and prime contractor engagement with local software
companies.
2) Increase the capacity of local software companies.
OUR ACTIVITIES
Promoting companies
Our current focus is on finding, connecting with, and promoting
software firms around the developing world. Once we establish a
relationship with a firm, we work with them to develop corporate
profiles and case studies in order to highlight their skills and
competencies - essentially helping to provide a channel to market
their company. To date we have engaged with companies in Ghana, West
Bank, Rwanda, Mozambique and Kenya and are eager to continue to expand
our coverage.
Providing services
While we are confident that these local companies provide a compelling
alternative, or complement, to foreign implementers, we also realize
that there may be challenges. Therefore, we are also working with
these companies to identify areas where assistance is needed and
establish services designed to help address these issues. Our primary
focus is on those services that leverage both our location, near
Washington DC, and those that provide value via online channels such
as proposal reviews, marketing materials, and connecting with training
and mentoring opportunities.
Connect with opportunities
Ultimately our goal is to increase donor and prime engagement with
local software companies. We will do this by providing a place where
the donor community can learn about local companies, their skills, and
experience, and where local companies can learn of upcoming
opportunities. We aim to act as the place where donor communities and
local software companies can connect.
___________________________________________________________________________________
For more information visit www.codedincountry.org
Nate Barthel
Been quiet this week. I hope it's because of upcoming holidays and not
that I bored you all! Anyway, I thought I would actually ask a
question to the group.
One challenge we've had is in demonstrating (as factually as possible)
the advantages of CiC. I do believe that its benefits make sense to
most people, but I'd love to be able to gather something more concrete
- particularly surrounding the more business related issues including
cost and ability to deliver effectively. After all, for CiC to work I
do believe it ultimately needs to make business sense. How do we
demonstrate this?
I have some thoughts on the issue, but I'd love to hear any ideas you
all have. Thanks!
-Nate
Sasha Fisher, Spark MicroGrants
Nate Barthel
Thanks for the questions. I'll do my best to take a stab:
1. Cost per delivery...? I wish I had hard data on this, but I
don't. Something I'm hoping to change. We know that salaries are
often less (than say here in the US) and that there would be
significantly reduced travel expenses. But I think the biggest
savings would be long term project costs - costs associated with
maintenance and upgrades.
2. Largest hindrance..? I would say one of the biggest hindrances is
simply familiarity and timing. When money becomes available, there
isn't a whole lot of time to find a good local implementer, especially
when you know of a good tech team just down the road. It's also risky
- at least in their eyes. As much as donors (and primes) would like
to use local firms for long term good, they have very real immediate
needs (get the project done) that must be met. You also touch on
another issue - how effectively do they deliver?
When I talk to local companies one of the questions I always ask is,
'What challenges do you face?' What is interesting is they almost
never say that we don't have technically capable people. What they
have said is that there is sometimes challenges functioning together
as a corporation with defined roles and structure. This would point
(to me) to an opportunity to help these companies more with issues
relating to project management, contracts, and communication.
3. How useful if software is developed in local context? Great
question. The answer is, it isn't always. To steel an example from
Dr. Selanikio (DataDyne), does it makes sense for an online email
application (such as gmail) to be implemented locally? Not at all.
Gmail provides a great service that can be adopted easily around the
globe by people of vastly different cultures. BUT, there are many
applications that are very particular to the region they operate in -
this becomes even more true when you start talking about applications
relating to eGov and eHealth.
The other day I had the opportunity to hear from WellDoc - a Baltimore
based company that has a cell phone based application to help people
manage diabetes. There are several things that makes this software
very local, and having local implementers critical. 1st, they've
actually been going through clinical testing and FDA approval for the
product. It's clearly important to understand local laws, regulations
etc. 2nd, When I asked the founder about foreign implementations, the
first thing she said was that the algorithm they use is very behavior
specific - and she didn't think you could simply plot it down in
another country. These are just two examples of why it might be
important to have something developed locally.
4. Examples of local implementations where having someone local
improved overall design? This really relates to the last question.
Does it make sense to use a local implementer? If it does I would say
it would always improve overall design. But let me get away from
theory. There is of course the simple aspects of improving on design.
There was a project that Dimagi worked on in Mozambique with Afrisis
(local firm). Because they were local they were able to help out with
rapid iteration and testing. A problem came up, they could quickly
address it, and deploy the fix. At the same time they could also help
with product localization. A twofer. Another example is with Souktel
(West Bank). In 2008 they were called upon to help with the get
messages out about where people could find food and other forms of
aid. One thing they understood was that the timing of the text
messages would be important, so as not to conflict with prayer times
or busy travel times. Perhaps you could say that an outside org would
have figured that out, but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm sure
there are tons of example of this. Great question.
Thanks for the great questions. I hope I've answered them. And of
course thanks for your interest.
-Nate
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Nate