[kictanet] Cheap AI coding labour?

Thu Nov 15 00:40:18 EAT 2018

 A BPO stint during entry-level days can actually make someone a better software engineer, with improved soft skills, customer savvy as well as business acumen. 
The key thing is to be strategic about it... avoiding the "dumb BPO" work (e.g. keying in meaningless accounting vouchers on a single screen every day, forever..) and focusing on "smart BPO" work (e.g. multi-domain customer support, AI training etc). Jobs which impart potentially high-value skills / insights.
Developers who don't care about the meaning of data or the business issues being solved, risk turning into coders (which I think is a *horrible* heavily commoditized job). I think the code submission shops (modeled after Indian body shops), whether online or institutional, are partly responsible for the suppressed wages. They have high incentive to underpay so they can maintain great margins from your work, which they keep for themselves. 

"Why buy the cow, if you can get the milk cheap/free?" That is what their customer is thinking when asked about direct engagement of Kenyans. Developers need to think hard about this. You can't commoditize your skills and then expect to be paid a premium!

Unless you are desperate for cash, or want to gain experience, avoid the body jobs. You will waste many years of your life getting paid significantly less the *true worth* of your work. Job creation should be about *high value* jobs.

On our side we have to demonstrate high value and skill up (T shape) on multiple domains (engineering, one or two business domains and project management) according to international market needs so we can be branded globally, hopefully with Government support, as the go-to country for full-stack solution architects, business analysts and project managers - rather than coders/programmers. 
Brand + Scarcity = Good Wages (Gov earns more taxes)

Commoditization + Oversupply = Poor Wages (Gov earns less taxes).
Good evening listers!Patrick.

    On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 7:36:55 PM GMT+3, John Paul Karijo via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:  

 Just to clear up some ambiguities
**********************************
We have two threads running here - one is about coding/programming and building AI powered tools and the discussion was about competition prizes being low e.g. $12,000 and yes that is a low figure and other support should be offered to accompany those who have come up with an idea on the long journey to building a successful startup and social enterprise.
*********************************The other thread is about training AI - this is really outsourcing work... it is mostly mechanical, rote, repetitive tasks.

This is not new in Kenya - Those who worked in Kencall trained a bot called Spinvox and that was in 2008... a lot of people who worked the call center circuits then, now work at home on Crowdflower, Amazons mechanical turk, client work through Samasource.... (There is still a few who work in institutional call centers such as Horizon or Daproim or Adept.

***********************
Leila Janah the founder of Samasource is talking about $9 a day. In my days in Kencall we used to be paid $120 a month translating to about $4 a day.... this kind of why explains why a lot of people will prefer to work from home instead of in an institutional call center (less expenses and you make about double)... So yes the points of valuing ourselves and stopping self hate are very valid. 

That said - if Konza is still a project I hope they have iterated the business model over the years (initially it was all built on the promise of BPO)
***********************Learning - Do you learn while training an AI? (BPO)
Yes -  you learn about content. You learn about other contexts and you might learn about other subjects but it will not make you a developer and it will not give you any insights about how the machine you are feeding works or how it has been created... you are doing repetitive work and the eventual goal is that the system should be able to work without your input.
Do you learn in competitions?
I have found while a lot of ideas are valid and good - the work that goes into making them a reality and the learning that happens post competition is way much more than in the competition.

My two cents for people taking part in competitions - just put in enough content to win the competition reserve the rest for boardroom meetings with investors and partners and reserve the secrets for you and your team - and the internal motivation for only yourself.
I don't know if IP and copyright laws in Kenya are affordable enough for anyone to start patenting at idea stage... maybe to just apply for a patent but not follow through - it is not the priority of any startup at this stage. 

*****************************
Finally there are people working at the intersection of these two areas BPO (outsourced work) and Programming(development work)
A lot of them will work on platforms like Fiverr, PeoplePerHour and Upwork... (Does Apptank still exist?) there are fewer platforms for programming work than say writing, transcription, data entry and SEO work.

I think if we want to offer some protection - then these are the people we need to offer protection. 
Some of these work platforms and even payment platforms such as Paypal will withhold money on grounds of location... this is really discriminatory... maybe that now Safaricom has a partnership with them it will improve their perception of Africa - I hope all this trade promotion we do will include this area... not just export of food produce or whatever else it is that we export nowadays.

With kind regards

Jeipea
Believe in yourself then you can change your world
____________________________________________Skype: john.paul.emCell: +254735586956

On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 11:56 AM Clifford Derrick via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

It’s nigh impossible to pay the bills in exposure :) but well, I think Ali put it very succinctly - let’s train our dev ops and technologists on how to better market and sell themselves on the global economy.
And I agree with you on the last points - working with locals and for our market tends to return better value in the medium to long term compared to multinationals (where you cut your teeth at and learn the nuances of the business). I’m a firm believer in Pan-Africanism and the fact that it is only Africans who can uplift themselves. Let’s not get caught napping by the ‘4th industrial revolution’...
Get Outlook for iOS From: kictanet <kictanet-bounces+cliffordosedo=gmail.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke> on behalf of S.M. Muraya via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2018 9:09 am
To: cliffordosedo at gmail.com
Cc: S.M. Muraya
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Cheap AI coding labour? Just (very briefly) looked at the Samasource profile. They seem to be an educational non profit. 
Skills developed are applied to generate income (intelligence) for their clients + relevant experience (exposure) for their willing subjects/students. 
For 20 years now, have observed (researched) career progression of a good number of technologists in East Africa. Can say without reservation, the very few who become solid entrepreneurs (if not investors) over time (5 to 7 years) prefer (are convinced by their value system) to work with locals, for our market (not the same as working in multi nationals). It is simply a matter of choice.
On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 8:00 AM Clifford Derrick via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Hi Barrack and Listers,

I fully agree with this opinion, but before we throw rocks, let’s remember charity starts at home.

It is quite vital to raise local standards and awareness on dev and engineering skills plus the remuneration package that comes with being very skilled in niche sectors. The global marketplace would be a good starting point but there are certain ‘barriers of entry’ so to speak. If local companies pay software developers 15k a month to tirelessly slog over code, why would a Silicon Valley start-up come in and pay the chap over 20 times that? Yes, that would be the ethical thing to do but most companies do not run on ethics. They run on P&L. There’s a reason low tier supply chain manufacturing jobs are shifting to Vietnam, Ethiopia and Bangladesh and away from the traditional hubs…

Regards

Clifford

From: kictanet <kictanet-bounces+clifford.derrick=liquidtelecom.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke>On Behalf Of Barrack Otieno via kictanet
Sent: 12 November 2018 14:58
To: Clifford Derrick <clifford.derrick at liquidtelecom.com>
Cc: Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Cheap AI coding labour?

Hi Wainaina and listers,

Unfortunately we don't have a culture of rewarding local innovations
and pumping billions into local Research and Development. The global
north has noticed the talent that abounds locally and is not
hesitating in tapping into it. I wish we could invest more into our
Vocational Institutions and provide funding that would help our
innovators in the Jua Kali space to scale up. That said i would be
curious to hear what ndugu Ali who has been involved in the start up
phase or Harry Hare have to say since i consider them authorities in
the space.

Regards

On 11/12/18, Bernard Kioko via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> Moral rights are not transferrable.
>
> On Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 2:35 PM Patrick A. M. Maina via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Heehe $12,000 for the "best" source code (including moral rights - so you
>> will never get credited if its a big hit) is a complete joke imo.
>>
>> I would urge local developers to be cautious about these competitions and
>> approach them strategically.
>>
>> For example, you can use these kind of competitions as idea triggers to
>> (lawfully) get clues and inspiration on what problems need solving
>> (*without*
>> participating or signing up, as that potentially binds you to their T&Cs)
>> -
>> then form teams/coalitions to solve these problems independently for a
>> much
>> bigger potential payoff.
>>
>> On policy these things are happening because there are glaring loopholes
>> in our intellectual property laws that allow *IP mining* to take place
>> without any restriction or consequences. Its literally a free for all.
>>
>> Kenya needs an "Intellectual Property Resources Act", which would
>> invalidate exploitative contracts / terms and conditions is long overdue.
>> This is the kind of 21st Century legislation that can stimulate
>> innovation
>> and the creation of *high quality jobs* in Kenya.
>>
>> 21st Century resources include:
>> 1. Attention or engagement (systems designed to distract people from
>> contributing to economic activity)
>> 2. Data (for mining/analytics or ML)
>> 3. Source code, novel circuits, algorithms, chemical formulations,
>> mixtures, blue prints (including business plans, pricing models etc).
>> 4. Valuable ideas (e.g. "please call me") that cannot be protected via
>> any
>> combination of the old industrial era laws e.g. patents, copyright, UM &
>> DM.
>> 5. other?
>>
>> Thanks for the heads up and Good day!
>> Patrick.
>>
>> On Monday, November 12, 2018, 2:01:43 PM GMT+3, Wainaina Mungai via
>> kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Some developers are raising concerns privately that great initiatives
>> such
>> as Zindi are "cheaply buying AI code" from Africa
>> https://zindi.africa/faq/data_scientists
>>
>> According to them, "Zindi runs high-value expertise programming
>> competitions/ hackathons in Kenya and Nigeria... and demands code in
>> exchange for low pay prizes. It is unfairly low-cost labour for them."
>>
>> See attached. Are their concerns valid?
>>
>>
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