NEWS
--- TELISA Update
--- Update on Internet2

ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Peter Honey's 12 Values for Learning
--- Site on education in Africa
--- Study concerning the Internet for Latin America and Caribbean

ANNOUNCEMENTS
--- Centre for Information Development (University of Pretoria) annual
Winter School
--- Seminar on Learning Technologies by Prof Piet Kommers

CONTACTS
--- The Community Voice Media; Zambia

ARTICLES
--- Life After Cyberspace (Phil Agre)

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Dear friends,

Attached please find the latest collection of snippets from the world of

Telematics and Development.

Please note that the next meeting has been confirmed for 14 July, 199, and

will take place at the Microsoft SA offices in Johannesburg. An agenda and

directions will follow closer to the time of the meeting. All are welcome to

attend.

Regards,

Neil Butcher

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NEWS

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TELISA UPDATE

This report is a general update on the progress of various projects

initiated through the Telisa Initiative network. The overall concept is

for occasional information updates may be found on the web-site.

The Telisa Initiative remains focused on three general areas, namely,

access, content and Internet warehouse support. Individual projects will be

grouped under these headings.

ACCESS

Access refers to places where students, business people and the community

can gain access to high technology communications equipment that they

otherwise would not be able to acquire. The concept is that the centres are

set-up using sponsorships or entrepreneurial capital and run at a minimum of

break-even, or a profit, basis. Services offered include, but are not

restricted to, telephones, fax (send and receive), typing services

(opportunities for additional micro-businesses), printing, copying,

scanning, lamination, binding, computers and Internet.

LESOTHO ICT CENTRE

This centre, named the "Lesotho Distance Learning Support Centre" was

officially opened on 5 March 1999. The function was attended by top

representatives of the sponsors, DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany, Technikon SA

and Lesotho.

The Centre is located on the premises of the Institute for Extra-Mural

Studies (IEMS) of the National University of Lesotho (NUL) and is run as a

separate business entity under a board of directors. The board comprises

members of the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA) in

Lesotho, other Lesotho institutions, business and community structures.

SOUTH AFRICAN ICT CENTRES: MPUMALANGA, EASTERN CAPE AND FREE STATE, SOUTH

AFRICA

A grant was made by Technikon SA to establish three ICT Centres in these

three South African provinces to support learners of any institution or

business, and members of the community. Detailed business plans have been

drafted and implementation is to begin early in April.

Each centre will comprise 10 work-stations (PCs), server, telephones and a

range of work-station equipment to support business and learner needs. The

Technikon SA regional directors, in co-operation with local business and

community structures, will be run these centres on a self-sustainable basis.

SOUTH AFRICAN ICT CENTRE: KGAUTSWANE (MPUMALANGA PROVINCE)

This centre is in the rural area between the towns of Lydenberg, Ohrighstad

and Burgersfort. The area reaches into both the Northern Province and

Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. The Community Information Centre has

already been established through previous community projects. This project

will ensure the installation of an ICT Centre with 3 work stations, server,

two telephones and a similar range of equipment to the larger ICT Centres,

to support learner and business needs.

Additional challenges in the project include the acquisition of electricity,

where existing power lines are some 25km from the Centre. Once in place, the

Centre will help form a new business centre for the rural community, which

has no piped water, electricity and few roads or industry. The nearest post

office and copy machine (Xerox) are approximately 28km from the centre.

There is a population of approximately 60 000 people, as well as a number of

schools, in the immediate area.

CURRICULUM CONTENT

This aspect includes the development of learning support materials that may

be used by institutions in Africa for non-profit purposes.

CD ROM PROGRAMMES

Negotiations are underway with a producer of educational CD ROM programmes,

and with possible sponsors for the customising of existing programmes. These

programmes will be made available to learners and institutions in Africa via

the Internet and where possible, on CD.

FIRST YEAR PROGRAMMES

Technikon SA has agreed to part-sponsor the development of a range of

courses in subject areas that are appropriate to the current greatest needs

in Africa. Partner institutions for this programmes are being invited to

join this project. Materials developed will carry the names of participating

individuals and institutions and will be created in small, granule-sized

components. The end result of this project is expected to be a body of

"learning granules" from which anything from a mini, customed-designed

course to an almost full, first-year programme may be extracted, via search

engines.

LINKS TO EXISTING MATERIALS

Where available, links are being collated to existing materials that may be

used by learners, academics, business people and the general community.

These materials are being made available via the Internet by authors,

publishers, companies and organisations wanting to help "make a difference

in Africa". Staff who have links to content on the Internet that can be used

by others in Africa can e-mail these to the Centre for Lifelong Learning.

INTERNET WAREHOUSE

This aspect involves a series of projects to help academics and

professionals in education in Africa to gain access to available materials

via the Internet.

Negotiations with the Netscape Corporation resulted in the establishment of

a directory specifically for educational links for the Africa region. The

address for the directory is:

divided up into categories including:

Regional: Africa: Education

Regional: Africa: Education: Conferences on Africa

Regional: Africa: Education: Development Agencies and NGOs

Regional: Africa: Education: Primary Schools

Regional: Africa: Education: Research

Regional: Africa: Education: Research: Repositories and Institutes in Africa

Regional: Africa: Education: Research: Researcher's Home Pages

Regional: Africa: Education: Secondary Schools

Regional: Africa: Education: Tertiary Institutions

Regional: Africa: Education: Tertiary Institutions: Colleges

Regional: Africa: Education: Tertiary Institutions: Polytechnics

Regional: Africa: Education: Tertiary Institutions: Technikons

Regional: Africa: Education: Tertiary Institutions: Universities

Regional: Africa: Education: Who’s who in Education

FACILITY FOR HOSTING PERSONAL HOME PAGES

A facility exists for academic and professional staff in Africa to host

personal and project home pages free of charge. The service is hosted by the

A guideline on how to create a personal home page on this site will be

procedure is very straight forward and may be used immediately. Once staff

members have created their personal Internet home page, a link must be

created on the Netscape Directory by the user under the appropriate category

under "Who's Who in Education".

WAREHOUSING OF CONTENT

Negotiations are underway with a private sector company to provide an

Internet warehouse facility for the storage and delivery of educational

content and other services. Progress will be reported on in the next

quarterly report.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The Telisa Initiative has been established as a catalyst to developmental

projects in Africa with an emphasis on the expansion of education through

the use of high technology.

Institutions, companies and individuals are encouraged to initiate projects

and share experience and resources with others in Africa in the interests of

accelerating the development of the region.

Please address queries and suggestions to Paul West at pgwest@pgw.org.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you would like to find out more or participate in any of the projects the

Centre for Lifelong Learning initiates or to which it is linked, please

contact us by telephone, fax, e-mail or in person at the contact details

given below:

E-mail: pgwest@pgw.org

Fax: +27-(0)11-471-2603

Tel: +27-(0)11-471-2575

Private Bag X24

Florida, 1710

South Africa

Taken from the Spring 1999 edition of the ‘FOA Newsletter’, brought to you

by Research and Management Systems, Inc.

1) Internet2: What, Who, When and Where

A) What is it?

Internet2 is not a physical network that will replace the Internet. Rather,

according to UCAID, it is a "collaborative effort to develop advanced

Internet technology and applications vital to the research and education

missions of higher education." Internet2 will employ two high performance

backbones: the vBNS, created by MCI, and the Abilene Network. Neither

network is open to the public so the enormous amounts of traffic that slow

down the Internet will not interfere with Internet2. The increased speed,

bandwith and performance afforded by these networks will allow for the

creation of new technologies that promise to deliver such exciting advances

as telemedicine, virtual laboratories, real-time video broadcasts and video

conferencing that will be available to participating institutions.

B) Who is involved?

Internet2 is a project of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet

Development (UCAID). There are several dozen participating universities that

include the well known, such as Yale University, and the not-so-well-known,

such as Gallaudet University, the world's only university for deaf and hard

of hearing undergraduate students. Corporations involved include 3Com,

Apple, Cisco, IBM, Lucent, Novell, Nokia and several more. In all, there are

146 participating universities, 20 Affiliate Members, 16 Corporate Partners

and 30 Corporate Members.

C) When will it be ready?

It already is...sort of. Universities around the nation are already using

both networks, Abilene and vBNS, for some exciting projects. But they're

just getting their feet wet. It is going to be a while before the really

interesting technology is developed to take advantage of Internet2.

D) Where can I find more information?

ONLINE RESOURCES

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Take from ‘The TrainingZONE LearningWIRE - Issue 44’

Peter Honey's 12 Values for Learning

Following the success of last October's 'Declaration on Learning' written by

eight leading figures in the training/learning movement, Peter Honey has now

published his statement of 12 Values for Learning. You can read – and

If you are interested in distance education in Africa, you might like to go

This site is intended for anyone who is involved or interested in distance

education and development in Africa or, more generally, people who are

working in developing countries in the areas of development communication or

education.

There is a very interesting study concerning the Internet for Latin America

Eric Arnum (earnum@interport.net) for the Technical Conference for the

Implementation of IABIN (Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network)

held last week in Bras=EDlia, DF, Brazil.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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The Centre for Information Development at the University of Pretoria offers

a number of short courses during their annual Winter School in June 1999.

Courses deal with Multimedia and Web Development, Information and Library

Science and Publishing.

You are hereby cordially invited to a seminar on Learning Technologies by

Prof Piet Kommers from the University of Twente (Netherlands). Residing at

the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, Prof Kommers is

acknowledged as an international expert on Instructional Technology and has

published widely in this field.

DATE AND TIME

Date: 4 June 1999

Venue: Senate Hall, University of Pretoria

Time: 8:30 - 16:00

Fee (includes refreshments and a finger lunch) : R750.00 per person

Cheques are to be made payable to the University of Pretoria

PROGRAMME

08:30 - 09:00 Registration, refreshments

09:00 - 10:00 Link to ongoing projects - communication scenarios and wider

integration: examples from the University of Twente.

10:00 - 11:00 New educational paradigms: Constructivism, Situated Learning,

Collaborative Learning.

11:00 - 11:15 Refreshments.

11:15 - 12:30 Hypertext, Multimedia and Virtual Reality.

12:30 - 13:30 Finger lunch. 13:30 - 14:30 Learning tools for in-depth

exploration.

14:30 - 14:45 Refreshments.

14:45 - 16:00 Concept mapping for designing learning scenarios.

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CONTACTS

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Taken from ‘The Drum Beat - 18 – Editor Warren Feek

Community Newspaper - Zambia - The Community Voice Media, formed by young

writers in Lusaka, has launched "Community Voice", Zambia's 1st-ever

community newspaper. It features events in Kanyama, a collection of shanty

townships of some 300,000 people. The Community Media Development

Organisation (COMEdo) has adopted "Community Voice" as a pilot project.

Contact Elias Chitenje scoop@zamnet.zm

ARTICLES

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LIFE AFTER CYBERSPACE

April 1999

You are welcome to forward this article electronically to anyone for any

noncommecial purpose.

1500 words

As the Internet matures and becomes integrated with the institutional world

around it, it is becoming increasingly clear that science fiction has

disserved us. Although networked computing had already been familiar to many

academic and military people for several years, it was taken up by popular

culture in the context of the virtual reality craze whose canonical text was

Gibson's _Neuromancer_.Compelling though _Neuromancer_ was as myth, as a

forecast it was quite backward. Gibson famously defined cyberspace as a

space apart from the corporeal world -- a hallucination. But the Internet is

not growing apart from the world, but to the contrary is increasingly

embedded in it.

Forecasting is a hazardous occupation, and among its many hazards is the

mistake of overgeneralizing from transient aspects of one's current-day

reality. One prominent reality of computer use in the 1980's was the

cumbersome nature of interfaces. The paradigm of computer use then, as for

most people still, was the box: the desktop terminal, attached by wires to a

processor, with a display screen and keyboard that were useless unless the

user's body was immobilized in a narrow range of postures. The desire to

cast off these chains is widespread, and Gibson spoke for many in imagining

that the constraints of the box could be cast off by plugging the darn thing

directly into one's brain.

Computer science, though, is headed in an entirely different direction. The

great fashion in user interface research is to get out of the box, as they

say, and to embed computers in the physical environment: in clothing,

architecture, automobiles, and public places, letting the devices talk to

one another wirelessly. Computing is to become ubiquitous and invisible,

industrial design is to merge with system design, and indeed the very

concept of computing is to give way to concepts such as writing reports,

driving to work, and keeping in touch with one's family. Computing, in

short, is increasingly about the activities and relationships of real life,

and the boundary between the real world and the world of computer-mediated

services is steadily blurring away.

The early visions of cyberspace have disserved us in other ways. Certain

aspects of Internet architecture and administration are decentralized, and

this led to hopes that everything else would become decentralized as well.

Information connoted freedom, and networks connoted Adam Smith's market of

artisans. Economics, however, has taught us that each of these associations

is misleading. Information as an industrial input and output exhibits vast

economies of scale, and economies of scale frequently lead to industry

concentration -- witness the vast wave of merger activity currently going on

in many industries and especially those related to information. Economics

also teaches of network effects, which can persuade the whole world to adopt

an open protocol like TCP/IP but which also creates natural monopolies for

any private good whose value to customers lies mainly in the number of other

people who have it.

It is clear, therefore, that we need to retool our intuitions if we want to

understand the real world of networked computing, much less do anything

about it. But why have our intuitions been so wrong? The things that seem

newest are in fact very old, and _Neuromancer_ is a good example. It is an

archaic tale of shamanic journeys overlaid with the symbolism of computers

and the dystopian narrative of the wounded hero that also gave us Sylvester

Stallone's film version of _Rambo_. We do need more shamans, it is true, but

we will not find them in the false lower world of the circuit boards. To

seek that kind of wisdom, we must look deeper into the reality of the

counterintuitive coevolution between information technology and the rest of

the real world.

Some guidance in this project can be had in the work of economic

sociologists such as Karl Polanyi, who urged that the formal logic of the

market as an allocational mechanism for distributing scarce goods must be

understood as something embedded in, and analytically inseparable from, the

substantive workings of the social world. Recent scholars of this tradition

such as Mark Granovetter and Paul DiMaggio have developed this theme more

fully by investigating the ways in which market phenomena are structured by

phenomena such as social networks and cultural meanings. A similar

perspective can be applied to computing. Although the formalisms of computer

science and the esoteric concerns of computer scientists can mislead us into

treating computers and computer work abstractly as an autonomous realm unto

themselves, serious empirical work demonstrates the many ways in which they

are embedded in a broader world of social relationships and social

processes. In the case of the Internet we can see this embedding in many

ways. I will describe three of them here.

First, we can look at some of the institutional preconditions that almost

miraculously made the Internet possible. Contending theories of social order

emphasize centralization and decentralization, but in fact the Internet grew

out of a special combination of the two. ARPA was located at both the center

and the periphery, in different ways, of a powerful institutional order. Its

centralized support enabled a loosely organized process of producing public

goods, namely technical standards. And then NSF's policies, broadly

supported by the university community, established by critical mass that was

necessary to set networks effects in motion. Those effects, which we

experienced as the explosive growth of the Internet in the last five years,

had as its preconditions the great power and the equally great obliviousness

of at least two other monopolies: AT&T, which built a robust telephone

network that carried the ARPANET's bits from its earliest days, but which

failed to embrace and extend the network when it had a chance, and IBM,

which had the power to establish a standard for personal computers, but

which saw the need for such a standard coming so late that it passed on an

opportunity to take control of the rest of the networked desktop. Between

them, these powers fortuitously gave rise to a niche that the Internet was

able to occupy. This niche was so cleanly defined that it was taken for

granted in the background, and the firms that benefitted from it were able

to believe that they did it themselves.

A second aspect of the Internet's embedding in the social world pertains to

its user communities. So long as we persist in opposing so-called virtual

communities to the face-to-face communities of the mythical opposite

extreme, we miss the ways in which real communities of practice employ a

whole ecology of media as they think together about the matters that concern

them. And so long as we focus on thelimited areas of the Internet where

people engage in fantasy play that is intentionally disconnected from their

real-world identities, we miss how social and professional identities are

continuous across several media, and how people use those several media to

develop their identities in ways that carry over to other settings. Just as

most people don't define their activities in terms of computers, most people

using Internet services are mainly concerned with the real-world matters to

which their discussions and activities in the use of those services pertain.

A third and final aspect of the Internet's embedding in the real world is

the process of social shaping through which the Internet's architecture on

various layers evolves. This is a large and complex story, but I want to

draw particular attention to the ideas about people's lives that are

inscribed in the code. For example, the Internet was originally designed for

the scientific community, and its architecture reflected a whole set of

background of assumptions about that community, or example its high capacity

for self-regulation, its openness, and its relative lack of concern with

exchanging money. As new communities began to appropriate the architecture

for their own purposes, all of those background assumptions came to the

surface in the form of security holes and other problems. Although the

architecture exhibits the same inertia as any other standard, it is

fortunately not entirely inert, and it is now evolving through the vast

feedback process through which user communities' experiences give rise to a

discourse of controversies and agendas and opportunities, and these give

rise to new architectural ideas in turn. We can best see the Internet's

embedding in the real world by seeing the Internet of this year or any other

year as a snapshot of something in motion, and as one element of a variety

of much larger institutional fields which are themselves very much in

motion.

All of this is most unfortunate in a way. The concept of cyberspace, if it

made sense, would solve many problems, not least the problems associated

with the emerging sprawl of nontransparent and undemocratic institutions of

global governance that increasingly order our electronic and nonelectronic

lives. That's how it is, though, and we need to deal with it by recommitting

ourselves to the values of democracy here in the real world.

end

Telematics for African Development Consortium

P.O. Box 31822

Braamfontein

2017

Johannesburg

South Africa

Tel: +27 +11 403-2813

Fax: +27 +11 403-2814

neilshel@icon.co.za

www.saide.org.za

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