The Head at the Faculty of IT and Communication Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Mr. Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku has laughed off claims by a colleague IT researcher that government was “lazy” to use eight months to develop a ‘one-day’ GhanaPost GPS app.
“Really, just a day for such app? Then I have to go back to school and learn that process to use it. It is impossible,” he dismissed the claims.
An IT researcher, Kingsley Komla Elikem, has raised concerns about the cost and quality of the newly introduced digital property addressing system; the GhanaPost GPS App, while referring to the government as ‘lazy’.
The National Digital Property Address System was launched about a month ago to facilitate easy location of addresses and to boost emergency service delivery nationwide.
Many have criticized government over monies being channeled into the operation of the app as well as its effectiveness as projected - others claim that the app is a duplicate if Google map.
Vokacom, the company that designed the app has however come out to reject the claims, their justification being that it was built on a global addressing system that was designed solely by them.
Mr. Elikem argues that the eight-month period used to design the app was lethargic. According to him, it requires a maximum of just a day to produce the Ghana Post GPS app.
But speaking on issue on NEAT FM’s morning show dubbed ‘Ghana Montie’, Charles Nii Ayiku Ayiku admits to the fact that the effectiveness of the app has not met its expectation.
According to him, government is not doing much to educate the public about the app – “Personally, I have downloaded and deleted the app several times on my phone for some reasons.”
Explaining the cost involved, he said “building an application involves a lot of things. The GPS is just one component of an infrastructure to build the proper system. So when we are discussing the GhanaPost GPS, we must discuss it holistically to avoid distortion.”
Adding that “Government should educate us properly. They should come out with a communication strategy that will make Ghanaians understand, otherwise a lot of misinformation and other issues will come up that will not make the good intention behind the GPS successful.”
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash
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IN FACT THESE NDC ***barred word*** ARE DISTURBING US WITH ***barred word*** NOISE
As a fellow It personnel, I find it extremely strange for a so called It person to say an app can be developed in a day. Simple testing can even take months not forgetting even graphic optimization on mobile phones. The government has taken a bold step but must aggressively educate the populace the usage of the app. Good job Nana and Bawumia
I wish the Government could challenge this IT specialist called Kingsley Komla Elikem and give him the needed money to build a similar app in 24hrs for ECG/VRA to improve their efficiency and if he is not able to then he should be sanctioned.!
Why should we waste our precious time on the ***barred word*** statement from that failed IT guy?
I think Elikem should be either pissed off that he was not selected to carry out the project or was perhaps promised by the previous administration to be given the contract once they won the contract. He is being too cynical and driving away potential users with his silly comments. I am not sure if this is the modus operandi of the opposition. Lets fail the system by discouraging as many people as possible from using it. there is no perfect system in this world. Even google maps has a deficiency so why not let us identify the deficiencies and correct them than rather spew out this thrash that the software can be developed in a day so it is a lazy government. Can he show us what he has done with his so called IT expertise? Constructive criticism are always welcome but this is a blow below the belt and the NDC must disassociate itself from it if they claim to a responsible opposition.
i think the govt should leave this for experts to handle and concentrate on bread and butter issues. The masses are not interested in something that will show where they live. Is this app necessary? If one move today to another place what becomes of their initial data in the system. Must i be the one to provide data on my place of abode? There could be alot of inaccurate data in the system. Its good road, well equip hospitals, good schools, water are what people needed not an app that one percent of the people may eventually be using.
Even the preferred NDC compny of IT experts K-net, which was given over E80m (Eighty Million Euros) performed abysmally? NDC is a party of d e c e i t f u l characters.
and am sure this MORON was paid with some of the booty they v amassed whiles they were in power very sad where has he been all this while? if it was that easy why didn't he introduce the free app to us when his govt was in power
Why is there so much misinformation on a simple technology that has been promulgated in Ghana. I'm not in Ghana to use the technology to determine its efficacy or lack thereof, but the misinformation going around this simple tech puzzles me. I'm n IT professional myself and the Ghanapost GPS system that has been built is what we IT engineers call Client-Server technology. It's not really rocket science. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia's explanation was right on the spot. Most technologies are of the Client-Server type. In the client-server technology, the bulk of the financial resources is spent on the database servers that are secured by firewalls and put in some data center somewhere. IT engineers use a technology called distributed computing thesedays to achieve redundancy. So you have the app, which is the client but that is not where the digital address is coming from. The app(client) only displays the digital address. All that 16.1billion mappings are stored and secured in the database server. The app(client) by use of the American GPS (internet), access the server and retrieve the digital address from it. The client(app) is not where the bulk of the work was done. The actual work is the data put in the database servers and secured with firewalls. Most of the computer applications out there use this client-server(distributed computing)technology including whatsapp, ecommerce and many others. In light of the above, i give kudos to the people that developed the database from which the Ghanapost app retrieve the data. It's ridiculous to think that this could have been done in a day.
that Elikem guy is just one of the many ed10ts in the ndc. the name alone will tell you which part of his brain he is thinking from. even my grandmother (who is Mugabe's age mate) said tweaaaaaa when i told her this is what someone said. she couldnt believe in this our modern age there are still some dumb ple like elikem in the society. she felt very sorry for our generation bcos of ple like this elikem guy.