We are back in the interview section of LessFios, with the first 2013 interview.
And the conversation with one of the men who has participated in several projects for the dissemination of IT in Angola and for the exchange of information among professionals of the area could not be more opportune.
Your name is Wanderley Ribeiro and his vision on Technology in Angola can be seen in this interview.
1. MenosFios (MF): As usual, we reserve the first question for presentations…
Wanderley Ribeiro (WR): Wanderley Ribeiro, Angolan, currently works as a coordinator for systems administration and project management in IT, enthusiastic technologist, writer of technical articles, technology management and career.
2.MF: Known for Participation in several IT projects in Angola, could you name some?
WR: In fact, whenever possible, I try to participate and help initiatives that promote the dissemination of knowledge, the culture of homogeneous vision and above all to be an integral part of the efforts made by our society in the creation of research centers and institutions that can serve as a reference. of learning for the technological market in Angola in the most diverse subjects. To mention some of the projects that I collaborated with and very proud to have done so, the following stand out: CAFA, TIangola and more recently the BROWN and the APTA, are projects that have earned me great learning, not only from the point of view of technical knowledge acquired but also in the expansion of my professional network.
3. MF: Speaking specifically of the CAFA project, what did it consist of, who had the idea ...?
WR: CAFA was a project developed by a group of Angolan students residing in Brazil, mostly in the area of technology, and the result of this initiative had a positive impact in Angola. When these began to return to the motherland, they were organized technology seminars at various educational institutions, where the intention was generally to promote the sharing of knowledge and to develop integrated technology projects. The CAFA realized that there was great potential in our academic community, but some members of this community needed guidance, a helping hand of support and help. This initiative was intended to cover the whole academic sector with the practice of integrated seminars and projects, since this sector is the one that suffers most from the consequences of technological exclusion. This group was at the time led by Eng. Jorge Cipriano, a visionary figure who had with him at the time a strong team of other Engineers committed and totally willing to pass the message forward.
4. MF: Is there any chance of this project being reactivated? Because?
WR: The question is quite pertinent, but I fear I am not the appropriate person to make this statement, over time the members of the group have been moving their sails to catch different winds, so that today the motivation may not be the same. I believe that the will to continue / reactivate is still great, but above all else there is a collective disposition to translate it into realization. Some time has passed since I do not meet with the members of the CFAA's management, but I believe that even if the project does not resurface under the same name, we will be able to fit into similar initiatives with another denomination.
5. MF: In the last few days we have heard about the CAST project. What is it, how did it come about ...?
WR: In a synthetic way it is a community of technology experts, the CAST stands for Angolan Community of Security and Technology. It is intended to be a discussion and analysis group on security and technology, the initial focus was on security only, but over time we realized that it is fundamental to involve the other elements of computing and technology for analysis. The idea came through a friend, Lohan Spies, a Systems Security consultant, he manages some groups on LinkedIn and one of the groups is the Angola Information Security Group where we debate together with other engineers and specialists in the field on various topics that suppress companies and professionals, not only in Angola but in the whole world, we also count on the faithful help of Eng. Cláudio Gonçalves, one of the members of the organization dedicated to this cause.
It was in the middle of one of these debates that we decided that it would be more productive if we could meet in person to better explore the themes, then we started to have andmeetings with a bimonthly frequency where each one is free to bring a suggestive theme to the debate and to share some of their experience, whenever possible we have some special guests, from local and international institutions, as an example I can mention the lecture of a South African specialist who holds the title of Microsoft Certified Master, a prestigious position in the Microsoft certification program and other guests, which are people that we understand have useful experience to be shared among our professionals.
With this we have learned a lot about the skills and difficulties of the professionals in Angola and together we analyze the cases that are presented to us. Fortunately some companies have joined the project as is the case of Integrated Solutions, which has made available its office in Luanda for the group's face-to-face meetings and is also one of CAST's official sponsors. Thanks to the effort and dedication of the group and our sponsors, we are now a group of 120 professionals, including researchers, engineers, managers, businessmen, academics and so on.
6. MF: So far we are aware of 4 CAST meetings, what is the next step in this group?
WR: Our intention is not to stagnate, because this is an attribute of discontinuity, we intend to involve members of the group in ways that no one feels overwhelmed because it is understood that each of us has other responsibilities and there needs to be a balance between them. The professional sector is the target, ensuring that the group has several professionals and that there is an interaction with regard to the promotion of technological events and integrated development of solutions. It is also the intention to reach the academic sector, because not everything that is learned in the classroom is applied here, the intention is to transmit a little of this experience to our students in order to better prepare them for the field and make them realize that they can count on us as needed. One of the aspects that we have noticed is that some of the academic members, show us the concern of not being qualified for the job market, others already think otherwise, and we, as far as possible, help them with guidance and even recommendation for hiring when it is the case, because as we know the demand for qualified professionals is high, and the offer is not that good, in ways that we identify these professionals in CAST, then we do the due diligence so that they are well framed.
7. MF: Do you think that Angolan technicians already share more “technical information”?
WR: Thank you for using the term share, as I think it is the ideal word to classify what our professionals need to understand. On the one hand, to share is necessary to have, I can not share something that I do not own, on the other hand, sharing is usually associated with the need for someone to receive something, so here we have the components needed to answer the question. Here's what I think happens, some of the our professionals prefer to remain anonymous because they believe that they have nothing special to share / offer, and others who have baggage to pass on sometimes do not do so because they do not have efficient means to do so and do not even know who they should do it to, so that at the end of the day what they think they have nothing to share he ends up not leaving his position, and what he has the knowledge to share remains with him only for himself. It is necessary to have a link between these two characters that we have just represented, this is where the debate communities, forums and research institutions appear, to promote the meeting of these individuals, once they are reconciled we will be facing the essential synergies for the resolution of this problem. In conclusion, the answer is no, our technicians still do not properly share neither the technique nor the information.
And I say more, we we have highly qualified professionals in Angola, but that sometimes end up leaving our self-centered routine and want to excuse the term, but the reality is that we are left with the feeling that only what benefits us is worth it, what is the difficulty of reserving one day every two months or semester to participate in a technology debate? Do we lose so much time if we write an article on a topic that is in our domain? In my opinion, the professionals of the labor elite (multinationals, oil companies, etc.) believe that they should only mesh with each other and what is already difficult to happen. Fortunately, these professionals have the possibility to develop training activities abroad, in renowned institutions in the technological field, this knowledge baggage could easily be transmitted to our local community, in order to give a little more value to our sector.
8. MF: In your opinion, what is missing for Angolan specialists to evolve more in their professional careers?
WR: Humility and dedication. Albert Einstein said once, "The mind that opens itself to new ideas will never return to its original size", Our problem is not open to new ideas, I think we open ourselves easily to them, the problem is to remain dedicated, we lose momentum easily, if there is a current of motivation and sometimes a return individual and immediate associated with the cause, we detach with ease.
It is fundamental that professionals define a personal career plan, this plan does not have to be associated with the company that belongs, it should easily be able to answer the following questions: Where do I come from? Where am I? Where I go? What options are there? What do I have to do? These are some of the questions that the professional must have answered in his individual plan, and then align this plan with the one proposed to him by the company that works or the professional career plan, if the professional wants to become a programmer of reference, then you have to ensure that the appropriate training and skills are taken care of in your plan, and it is important to be attentive to the network of professional contacts, as this helps us to stay within the desired segment, it is no use to aim for a successful career in programming and live with network technicians all the time (and vice versa). I have seen many professionals get caught up in the employer's shortcomings, that is, the employer determines the future of their employee, while this is the responsibility of the employee, to envisage the goals that he intends to achieve and to define a strategy to achieve them, at the end of the day we are in a game, where each one must know to the detail who their allies and opponents are and to frame them in the best way in the personal strategy.
Humility here concerns the feeling of togetherness, we do not always have to live in a competitive environment, there are times when it is essential to be united, and this feeling is lacking, it is as if we are unsure of our abilities, in this case, sharing no is an option, as sharing can turn into a loss, but the reality is that our labor market is fertile, companies in Angola need to recruit specialists outside the country to fill some, so there must be a sense of complicity where we will work together for better results not only to satisfy our professional needs and ambitions, but also to better level our market.
I have recently seen several groups and initiatives for reflection, forum and debate, however, there is almost no interaction between these initiatives, people are invited, the purpose is shared the doors are open to suggestions but simply no adhesion, because we want to create our own initiative, and measure the strength to see who gets the most members, we have to realize that this is not exactly a cause of rivalry, but a noble cause of union, the more united we are, the better the results. I do not want to say that no initiatives should be created, I do not want to say that before parallel initiatives are created in favor of the same cause, we must study the possibility of reconciling efforts, a fire will only remain lit all night long as the If wood is held together, if we separate the wood, there will certainly be fire, but low fire that soon goes out.
9. Final considerations.
WR: In a conclusive tone, our society has in the data extracts of satisfactory growth, I believe that sooner or later efforts will be combined and the results will speak for themselves, I am a little concerned about the segregation of the academic community in the face of the challenges of the labor market. work, I have the perception that sometimes they live in a parallel world, I have seen many young people finish their engineering and still uncertain about what they will have to face and how they will do it, the objective of groups like CAFA, CAST and among other forums of technology, it is also to serve as advisers for those professionals and academics who feel a little confused in their careers and lack some guidance. Therefore, here is the incentive to our technology community, so that we are more participatory to projects that already exist, as far as I know none of them augurs financial income as a return, so everything that exists is for the benefit and benefit of all of us, together we will be better able to print the results of these initiatives.
