Over the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of expanding my open source developer advocacy to include countries in the Global South — Brazil last year, and Nigeria this year. What struck me during these trips is that a country lagging behind wealthier, industrialised economies doesn’t mean being left out of technological progress. Quite the opposite. Cutting-edge technologies are very much present. Yet, a closer look reveals a distinctive pattern: gaps in the usual technology adoption timeline. Take communications, for example — wireless networks are everywhere, and often far more reliable than wired infrastructure has ever been in those countries. The lesson is clear: as they advance, Global South countries don’t need to follow the same incremental path taken elsewhere. They can leapfrog transitional technologies and move straight to the most advanced solutions. This was the essence of my message to the audience at OSCAFest 2025 a few weeks ago. During the event, which took place...
The personal blog of Frédéric Desbiens, a.k.a @BlueberryCoder. All views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the opinions of any organization I have been, am now, or will be affiliated with.