Just think long and hard about what you have just said.

How do you propose a fix without knowing the problem?

I don't know about you, but personally I would prefer my doctors identify my symptoms before telling me I need surgery. Or chemotherapy.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bernard Owuor wrote:
You seem to agree that the issue is "we do not know."
And I've proposed a fix for this going forward.
I am probably biased, so feel free to propose anything as it comes to mind.
From: Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems

Nobody knows what the issue is ... That is the point, we do not have sufficient information to make any calls. It could be a database issue. It could be a code issue. It could be a network issue. It could be that SIM cards don't have airtime. It could be a process issue. It could be a load issue. We don't know.

Ergo it is premature to start throwing stones.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bernard Owuor wrote:
Rad,
So what is the heart of the issue? And how would you fix it?
Don't waste time with the technical problem - which none of us noise-makers have any opportunity to fix - and would be speculation at best.

Try to focus on fixing the bigger picture. We've had similar large failures on publicly procured systems, yet most privately built systems eg mobile banking, agency banking etc cost 1/1000 times the price and carry a million times the load and value.

Don't get side-tracked by the windows 2008 server bashing either.... I'm using a windows machine to type this email :)


From: Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems

As usual - any technical debate eventually loses issues and descends to open source vs closed source.

It is not in order to allege the issue is the openness of the code or the operating system in use without knowing the facts.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bernard Owuor wrote:
Erik, thanks for the link.
(And great job with the http://results.uchaguzi.co.ke/index.php/senator.)

This can never be a disk space issue... the error gives it away:
"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL"

 It's a case of using Windows 2008 server - without tweaking - when a LAMP server would work out of the box :)
Which points to the bigger problem of using closed source systems for public interest software.
After paying KES 9B (or some happy figure) for it, and with the very detailed RFP in the public domain, IEBC should be able to own the software. They should open-source it - since it's paid for with public money. (I understand it is still proprietary to IFES)

For such a system, the cost of implementing the solution far outweighs the price of the software, so IEBC will still pay a lot of money for it. However, we get better quality, future-proofing and some savings (in future elections). Biggest payoff is the trust engendered by openness.


From: Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems

http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/

On Mar 6, 2013, at 8:59 AM, Patrick Kariuki <
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