2006 06 04
Can we, Mauritians, hope that one day our Cybercity will become a new Silicon Valley?
Paul Graham thinks that there can only be one Silicon Valley and it can only be in America.
And I have to admit that I find him pretty convincing.
Let’s look at the main reasons why our own Cybercity will not become a small version of Silicon Valley according to him:
- Mauritius does not have rich investors to finance nerds (we have lots of bureaucrats though).
- A technology hub is not only some buildings.
- A top university is needed and UoM has still a long way to go.
- The area does not have any personality and therefore it’s difficult to attract the best.
- Mauritius is not prepared to wait years and years but, unfortunately, creating a technology hub takes time…
Can we still succeed? I have some doubts.
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June 4th, 2006 at 10:26
I was reading that article and that made me think about Ebene’s ‘Cyber City’. Heh, what is the government of mauritius thinking? A building? As if that would produce our own Silicon Valley!
Silicon Valley was about creating an environment where high-tech entrepreneurs thrive. It is not about getting a bunch of call-centres together and some big corporate machines like IBM or whatnot.
The startups which began life at Xerox PARC like 3M, Adobe and arguably Apple have gotten a right to birth because there were RICH INVESTORS and ENTREPRENEURIAL NERDS willing to work together.
What will the so-called ‘cyber-city’ be in 20 years?
June 4th, 2006 at 21:51
Exactly.
A technological hub needs bright (young) people AND people willing to finance them.
For the time being, both categories are (very) badly represented in our Cybercity.
I am not too optimistic…
June 5th, 2006 at 12:08
Hi Avinash,
am currently working at ebene cybercity and let me tell you that the business park as it has great potentials but certainly not as an IT hub as we think it should.
Activities that are really profitable and that will over the years bring a lot of investors would be more in terms of call centres and data processing units.
Software development in my opinion is difficult because of the indian and now chinese markets with whom its really difficult to compete against but what we can produce are consultants that are based in Mauritius and are ready to fly and work in other countries such as china and india but that too might take a while.
Its up to our institutions and people like you (being lecturer) to provide the appropriate guidance and material to our your IT professionals so as they can excel standard wise on the global market and have investors coming to dodo land for our human resources.
cheers,
Javed
June 5th, 2006 at 15:11
Hi Javed,
Thanks for your comment. I really think that UoM should focus on quality instead of quantity. It’s of no use creating 100-200 ‘Computer Scientists’ of dubious quality per year.
The UoM will shortly (?) create an institute of IT (under the guidance of IIT Kampur which is one of the best universities in India) and there are some strong indications that quality will be the most important feature of this new institution. Let’s hope it’s true
June 5th, 2006 at 19:10
‘dubious quality’?
All graduates are not of the same calibre one can say. It’s all too obvious. And packing the brighest (I wonder how you sort out the brighest from a pool of graduates) in a team will be a recipe for disaster esp. that Mauritians have an inborn quality of being covetous. Some mediocre graduates even learn later in life and move up the ladder very fast in their 30s or 40s.
Perhaps you’re avoiding to use the term ‘dubious teaching’…
To all of you : do you not understand that MAuritius has a very low exposure to technology. Yes, we can WATCH them (we read abt it, talk abt it) but do we EMPLOY it in our daily life? Nada. We’re close to Africa and that says it all. Worse, for a Commonwealth country our spoken English leaves a lot to desire. Wonder why Singapore leads the way in SEast Asia? Ask yourself and you’ll find the answer.
June 5th, 2006 at 19:12
Erreur mon cher: l’adage dit qu’il faut comparer le comparable!
June 6th, 2006 at 16:59
Hi Guys,
I am Scottish citizen with Mauritian parents. I am hoping one day to move to Mauritius, where all my family are. At the moment I am an entrepreneur in Scotland’s ‘Silicon Glen’ - the situation isnt any better. Its hard for start up companies to seek investment as VCs are concentrating existing companies for growth. I have studied that from 2006 the technology adoption lifecycle is yet to grow to 2016 (10 year cycles- its been at a low). I have always been interested in the Cybercity - I actually tried to apply for a software position at one of the companies there (its a french company), but my french isnt too good (I mostly speak english and can’t understand a word of Hindi other than Namaste!). I hear there are Shell LiveWire competitions etc. to build an entrepreneurial community - I wonder how that is going (the UK has something similar) I was thinking possibly of moving over to the Cybercity with my idea - its a hardware product - maybe being closer to the east I can have better links with possible manufacturers and at the same time help the Mauritian ecomony grow - just look at what India is doing with Bangalore!
I guess the problem is with investment. Any I bet, there arent many VCs in Mauritius…. Other than wanting to invest in the Tourist industry……
June 7th, 2006 at 20:57
Hi Ramin,
Nice to hear from someone from Scotland for once
I really feel Mauritius has *a chance* to succeed. There are some people who have good ideas but bureaucracy is killing them. But the Government has just announced that things will be streamlined. Let’s wait for the budget which will be presented by the Minister of Finance this Friday…
June 10th, 2006 at 10:24
Yesterday, the Minister of Finance announced, during his budget speech, that bureaucracy will be cut down drastically (for example, instead of having to wait up to 6 months to have a permit to operate a business, it will only take a maximum of 3 days).
So it seems that things are moving in the right direction, after all.
Now UoM needs to start produce world-class graduates
June 10th, 2006 at 21:46
Hi
For Mauritius to succeed in the IT sector we need people who worship work and are dedicated to solve a problem rather than having a civil servant mind and want to go home at 16:00 or 17:00 even if the problem hasn’t been solved. Being in the IT industry for nearly 20 years I have seen too many graduates getting the “civil servant” mentality after just a couple of years at work. They of course have an excuse that they are underpaid but then if we keep this king of mentality we’re doomed.
Secondly too many IT graduates think that development is just a temporary job and that they should become managers after a year in that post. So, what they do is to start studying for an MBA rather than studying new techniques and languages. The end result? They are neither good programmers nor good managers.
June 11th, 2006 at 20:04
Hi Raj,
I agree with you about the MBA. Too many people want to quickly move to middle management… (especially those with no programming talent whatsoever)
But as you know programming is not only coding : great programmers are, at the same time, great designers and great coders.
Unfortunately, in many (Mauritian) companies, young programmers only code. They don’t design software (i.e. do the most creative part of programming) hence their willingness to move to something else…
As for doing overtime, I am an avid partisan of Extreme Programming which states:
Working overtime sucks the spirit and motivation out of a team. Projects that require overtime to be finished on time will be late no matter what you do. Instead use a release planning meeting to change the project scope or timing.
I may be an idealist but I don’t think an artist (and, yes, programmers ARE artists) can work from 08:00 to 20:00 everyday…
June 12th, 2006 at 20:52
Hi Avinash
I also believe that you can’t work very long hours on programming but what I meant was that when you’re the IT person supporting an operation you have to be able to think above the crowd and provide intelligent solutions.
Indeed many companies get their specs from UK or France and do the coding here. But there comes a time when the foreign designers trust your capability and judgement and give you only a high level requirements spec and leave the detailed design and implementation to you. As usual they will underestimate the capabilities of “third world” people but its up to us to perform beyond expectations earn their trust.
As for a programmer being an artist I share your views :-). Though I think I messed up by saying so in an interview a some years back. I guess the interviewers expected me to say that its an engineering thing and has to comply with rules etc. Which I also believe but I think a programmer should be an artist at heart to come up with intelligent solutions
July 19th, 2006 at 00:52
Hello Avinash,
I actually work in a bank and I’m planning to move in the IT world.
I’m planning to complete “British Computer Society’ degree as well as Comptia A+,N+ and MCSE.
I just want some advise from you for what I’m doing. Is BCS well recognised here? And what about professional qualifications like Comptia,MCSE and Cisco?
Concerning the main subject of this forum, in my opinion, students in mauritius are too academic, they learn just to pass the exams and get the degree.thats all!! We need passionate people that’ll invest their selves in what they are doing and maybe we’ll move one step of the ladder to silicone valley.
Another thing is exposure to technology. Mauritius Telecom is ranked 12th in the world for telecommunication but we pay Rs1000 for 128kbps and in our sister island they get 24Mbps for approx Rs 650. What the hell????????? Safe is cheaper now!!! If mauritian people are not given facilities to be exposed on new tech, surely this government is not empowering its students to become “outstanding Pros”
What do you think.
Any comments are welcomed from anyone.
Cheers,
Jaysen.
ps: Thanks you for giving us your time & advice.Great site!!!!!!!
July 19th, 2006 at 22:28
Hi Jaysen,
Professional qualifications are very important and are obviously recognised here. Do you have any academic qualification in Computer Science? It is important (in my opinion) to have one, especially in Mauritius, as many jobs are only accessible to undergrads or even graduate students…
Mauritian students are like most students elsewhere. They have potential but they need guidance. Some lack self-esteem (i.e. they are not aware of their potential and, as a result, tend to limit themselves to “easy” things). It’s the job of the teacher (or lecturer) to make the student aware of what he/she is capable of doing.
Personally, I understand the reason why ADSL is expensive here. Someone has to pay for the millions invested by MT. We cannot compare ourselves with Reunion island. Technically speaking, ADSL is as expensive there except that the French government is forced (by law) to subsidise most of the price (so that the French living in Reunion are not penalised compared to the French living, say, in Paris).
But I have to agree with you, technology (in general) is expensive in Mauritius. The average salaries are really too low here.
July 20th, 2006 at 23:12
Hi Avinash,
Thanks for your reply.
I don’t have an academic qualification in computer science but actually I’m doing a degree with the British Computer society, and I will be very grateful to have your comments on this organisation, I mean is a degree at BCS worth a bsc from a university. Is it equally recognized? It’s not very clear for me. I’m doing this coz it suits in my daily schedule well as it’s very flexible.
Concerning MT, I really think that if they lower their price and don’t limit data transfer, they’ll have a huge number of customers subscribing & they’ll get much more than with their actual 10,000 clients.
By the way…r u that good!!! I know one of your students who can talk about you a whole day with me!!!!:)
July 21st, 2006 at 10:51
Hi Jaysen,
I don’t know a lot about the BCS but from their website, I can see that they offer three qualification levels:
A Professional Graduate Diploma is not, technically speaking, a Honours Degree but BCS states that “at their highest level, the examinations are examined to the academic level of a UK university honours degree”.
So, I conclude that in the UK, recruiters consider BCS Professional Graduate Diploma holders as being as competent as people with a UK university honours degree…
As for the price of ADSL, it seems that it will decrease in some weeks. So things are moving in the right direction. As for the transfer limit, I am between two minds. On one hand, I understand that MT don’t want to devote most of its bandwidth to bloody pirates. But on the other hand, MT is preventing many people from innovating and creating new services which might help Mauritius.
As for your last question, I’ll leave the floor open
November 24th, 2006 at 01:44
Mauritius Telecom SUCKS!!!
ADSL is extremely expensive in Mauritius. Mauritius Telecom have the monopoly on SAFE cable. MT is making millions of profit each year and he is not willing to reduce the price of ADSL!
England ADSL 8Mb/s is 10Pound (Rs600)
France ADSL 20Mb/s is 9.90Euro (RS400)
India ADSL 2Mb/s is Rs700
Ireland ADSL 8Mb/s is 20Euro (Rs800)
Mauritius ADSL 1Mb/s is Rs6400 +vat
Please dont call our country ‘Cyber Island’ People will laugh at us.
February 23rd, 2007 at 08:51
Renaming Mauritius ‘CyberIsland’ follows a long national tradition of giving inadequate names to the islands of the Republic of Mauritius: Flat Island is not flat, Round Island is not round, there is no snake on Snake Island, no deer on Ile aux Cerf and… no fucking cyber on CyberIsland!!!!
As long as we haven’t caught up with the rest of the world in terms of ADSL connectivity, we should drop the word “cyberisland” from the mauritian dictionnary. I am also of the opinion, that ministers who use the word “cyberisland” should be made ineligible for life. We don’t need idiots at the head of the country. The GM should stop ridiculing Mauritius by using grand words like cyberisland and instead work to provide decent connectivity to the mauritians.
November 16th, 2007 at 21:43
Mauritius Telecom suckssssssssssssss! It sucks. How the hell will Mu be called a cyber-island or whatever when MT only offers CRAP! 512kbps - I get less than a 56K dialup! WTF! Telecom you are a f***ing shit!
January 22nd, 2008 at 00:19
Hi Mr Meetoo,
I passed the BCS diploma level in yr 2000. Due to lack of interest I failed to pursue my studies and it has been very regretful.
Finding courses for BCS graduate diploma is very hard in mauritius.
If at your level or if you can help for course I would appreciate to hear from you.
(sorry if i intruded in a different thread)
thanks,
zul
mail: iex98@yahoo.com
May 24th, 2008 at 12:48
Hi Mr Meetoo,
We are actually doing a research for our project concerning xtreme programming.
Please can you give your feedback on what is the benefits of xtreme programming in the mauritian software companies?
Is xtreme programming being used massively in Mauritius?
Thanks,
Ogeela - UOM Students
May 25th, 2008 at 13:46
Hi Ogeela,
Why don’t you ask the people working is those companies directly?
September 2nd, 2008 at 18:33
I own an IT recruitment company in Cape Town, South Africa. I am going to be making a trip to Mauritius in 2 weeks time to assess whether we can help find resources from around the world for Mauritius. Im sure an IT Developer living in cold Britain might like a one year contract in the sun! Does anyone have any suggestions for me please? Thanks, Bev (DataFin Recruitment)
September 2nd, 2008 at 22:50
Hi Bev,
What are you looking for exactly?
September 18th, 2008 at 14:21
hi Mr Meetoo
Am writing to you if u could help me in doing my computer project(lower6) in programming.Am using vb6 to write i had a lot of prob in writing the codes so i would appreciate if you could help me please i have to submit on 29 september 2008
September 18th, 2008 at 14:41
Hi Kamlesh, what exactly is the problem?
[By the way, Visual Basic 6 was released in 1998 and is completely outdated now...]
October 13th, 2008 at 20:35
VB6 ??? o.O
ouch!! is that what youngsters learning nowadays to work in the cyber island? what a shame
as avinash said it’s completely outdated
October 29th, 2008 at 18:25
[...] to cover all Madagascar in wireless and in Mauritius it seems to be impossible. Avinash Meetoo stated the outcomes and problems of this whole business as well as the misunderstanding of the underlying projects some two years [...]