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When people talk of the many languages of Africa, and need for localized content, they're often thinking about English, French, Kiswalhili, or Xhosa.

But in the technology space we have our own languages in addition to these. We have languages of hardware and networking, from servers, to routers, to nodes and bridges, to the languages of code, like PHP, Java, and C++.

Thanks to Jonathan Gosier, we now know the popularity of each programming language in Africa with this handy chart:

Now why would it matter to a business that Java is way more popular than J2ME? There is business opportunity in this variability. If you are a big company, you should try to dominate the Java and PHP market, but if your small, walk away from the popular languages. You'll not beat the big players at their own game.

Yet a new entrant who is willing to gamble on Python or Ruby can make a name for themselves before the big players know what happened. Also, with unique skills, you can price your services at a premium to others, making your company much more profitable. See Apple as a great example.

Just be sure that if you choose one language to focus on, you keep some skills in several. This will allow you to translate between them as needed, matching the right software language to the job.

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Had I told you in 2000 that Kampala, Uganda would host a TED-type event sponsored by UNICEF and a growing IT incubation center, with notables like New York Times reporters and founders of the World Wide Web, you would've laughed me out of the room with a parting, "In Africa? Hahahahh!"

No one is laughing now. In fact, I'm applauding the organizational skills of Jonathan Gosier and his Appfrica Labs in pulling off TEDxKampala. Just listen to the presentation lineup:

Making ICT history in Africa

Simply put, the event was incredible! Stephen Boyera of the World Wide Web Foundation offered the keynote talk, while Ron Nixon from the New York Times dropped with arguably one of the most interesting talks of the day where he presented his app Ujima which tracks spending too and from African countries.

Solomon King of Node Six gave a moving talk on how he became a ‘famous citizen journalist’ for simply blogging about his experiences during the Kampala riots. Paul Bagyenda of Digital Solutions offered advice for young tech entrepreneurs, while Paul Asiimwe of Sipi Law Uganda talked about the importance of intellectual property law and digital rights to protect content and content producers.

Or better yet, you can check out videos of the event. Wait, think about that for a moment - you're watching what happened just a few days ago hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away in East Africa. Just the very act makes me want to laugh with happiness - this is Africa's ICT arrival:

If you're disappointed you missed TEDxKampala, then check out Africa Gathering Nairobi - technophiles, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and innovators talking about positive change in sustainable development and technology across Africa. They're convening December 21-22 in Nairobi, Kenya, to highlight emerging technology that is relevant to Africa - get your tickets now!

Here's an interesting data point on the growth of mobile phones in Africa - they may already outnumber light bulbs in Uganda.

New Ugandan light blub

This idea started with the cNet article For Uganda's poor, a cellular connection, where Dara Karr notes that 10% of Ugandas have electricity but 30% have mobile phones, suggesting that mobile phones could outnumber light bulbs.

From there Paul Boutin who asked if this was really true, could mobile phones really outnumber light bulbs? The response from Jonathan Gosier at App+frica gives us more detail.

He points out that in 2007 only between 5% and 6% of Ugandans had electricity, with demand growing at roughly 6% per year. Yet mobile subscriptions stood at 13% in 2007, and demand is expected to double by 2012.

We can assume that people with electricity have more than one light bulb, but people also have more than one mobile phone, and most phone usage is by pre-paid cards, not subscriptions. So from these numbers, I'm confident that the original postulation is correct: there are more mobile phones than light bulbs in Uganda.

Of course, mobile phone companies may have already realized this, what with phones advertised as flashlights, in this photo by Ken Banks of kiwanja.net