60minuteswiththegeeks

Interview with Opeawo

60minuteswiththegeeks got talking with opeawo, the dude behind ennovateNigeria:

Now tell us who opeawo is:

I am Opeyemi Awoyemi, student, entrepreneur, brand strategist and web developer. I love all things web and am simply stuck. When I am not on the internet, I am busy upgrading my self, designing for clients and for my pet projects, or just being a student.

I am a netpreneur with projects like naijalyrics.com, jobberman,com and lately greatife.net as my baby projects.

Let’s meet your PC

I got this baby, HP LiveStrong, 512+256 RAM, 100GB. I have long overused my baby, so it needs a brother, which is likely to be a MAC. Apart from my being freaked about the Mac, I love all things hp.

How did you get started with IT.

It was a year before I resumed as a student of OAU. I needed something to keep me busy, and I came across a big brother (Victor Ariyibi-Oke) who was ready to teach me Graphics. So it started, and six months later,I switched to webdesign. That was 2004. Have been designing for the web and print media since.

What technologies do you use?

I use php+mysql, lately looking seriously into focusing on interface design (xhtml +css). The kind of sites I see around in Naija don’t challenge me.
Design wise , Corel Draw, Photoshop and some Flash.

What is your own personal reason for going with PHP?

Well php was the first web coding language I got in contact with, but I have come to love it as it is easily extensible, also open source support is available than any other language. Given some time, I might start using Ruby on Rails professionally. It’s kinda interesting too.

Which is your favorite code editor?

Anyday, anytime I will stick to my Dreamweaver. Feeling too cool, I drop some nice stuff with Notepad ++.

What motivates you and gets you energize to program? Rock music, coffee, Sudoku or just silence?

Deadlines, advice, sweet music and speedy systems(when I am not with my baby).

I don’t see myself as a hard core programmer.
Infact, I am not. I see myself as a technology opportunist (what??), addicted to computers and the web and getting good stuff out.

Nigeria is presently the second largest growing mobile market in Africa, what prospects do you feel Nigeria has when it comes to the software industry?

Software in Nigeria will boom especially in Bespoke apps, web apps and mobile tech stuffs.
I am working presently with an organization that has Software Piracy as her major concerns. The problem can not be totally crushed, but we will get better. Once piracy is curbed, we will get a fair chance to prove ourselves.

Computer village is not helping matters, and we are part of the rot too. All the same, I will not and cannot heap all the blame on IT savvy Nigerians, we cannot use Paypal or credit cards to purchase stuff so how do we get these softwares legally. Quite a number of people understand the benefits accrued to licensed softs and very few privileged ones know where to get them.
Software Vendors should provide channels for people to purchase softs at discounted prices(Africa Edition, so called). Else, where will I be able to get my beloved MAYA?

Nigeria is not a major player when it comes to application development. What do you think is responsible for this and how can that be solved?

Funding is a big probs. It is not easy for a developer to sit down and analyze a whole system, design and develop. Especially when you want grandiose features. And companies do not want to take the risk of financing such projects. We need a team that will fund themselves and release the first big thing and then there will be no going back.

The question is, Who and When?

What about outsourcing, do you think Nigerian developers are ready to benefits from it?

Nah, no international payment channels. That puts a NO to it? Give us paypal and creditcards, boys will enter the outsourcing market big time.

On a sincere note too, we are not that good yet. Especially in design. Coding-wise, we’ve got wonderful guys like Timba and Geekabyte.

Do you have any favorite technology book?

Maybe, GETTING REAL by the guys at 37signals. Teaches you how to develop web apps with sense.

When you are not in front of your laptop, what do you do?

Read, Watch 24, motivate myself and people around me, sleep or on my incessant phone conversations.

Tell us your favorite spots online; websites and blogs you read often?

Hey, this is what keeps me ahead, anyway you asked for it.
Killerstartups.com
Cssmania.com
Smashingmagazine.com

What advice do you have for those who are just starting off with web application development?

• Make use of open source like hell. There is no use reinventing the wheel.
• Live on the internet, if possible, die and be buried there.
• Think profitability while developing.
• Keep things simple.
• If you can, do not do anything for the money for the first 2 years! Afterwards, let’s talk, we will hit the world hard. Visualize it, but don’t chase it that fast.
• Get real.
• You can’t do all alone. I always thought I could.
• Read outside codes too. Politics, finance, tabloids even!
• Thirst to know.
• Coding isn’t going to make you rich, coding with the public in mind will.