**********************************

1. Antony Trowbridge : Orange Farm Community Development Project

African Renaissance:

? We need to define what "communities" are if we intend to do work and with

for them. Communities are not just a political gimmick.

? Need to define "development"

- Renewal/renaissance : The issue of paradigm shift, where communities where

communities view information as power. People think differently.

- New paradigm : Community wheel of progress as opposed to hierarchical

approach. Communities valued for their intellect and ability to think and

contribute.

- Communities becoming more self-reliant, more productive because they begin

to appreciate their capacity.

- MPCC sustainability options identified: pay-off-use services.

Community-driven, Community savings for development projects.

- Development model emerging : its components include Development Forum,

Information Centre, Village Banking.

Summary: New culture / new paradigm. New African Renaissance

? From politics as power to information as power

? From power position to collaboration.

? From dependence and entitlement to self-reliance

? From handouts to sustainable development that is community-drive.

**********************************

We have not yet received information from the Universal Computer Foundation

with regard to its presentation. When this information becomes available, we

will send it to TAD members. Otherwise, you can contact Al Karaki at

**********************************

"Internet and Development in South Africa."

Lawrence Edwards

lawrence@hivemind.net

Commercial Internet acess has only been available for about 5years now,

however the impact that the Internet has had on South Africa industry and

society is already visible. I personally use the Internet to do my banking,

for vital business communication and to keep in contact with friends and

family around the world.

And everyday I see more innovative uses of the Internet, from voicemail to

electricity utility accounts being online. I think that it is now generally

accepted that Internet access is one of the driving forces behind the

transformation of our society into an "Information Society". What this means

for development, and telecommunications is not so clear-cut. However we can

examine international presidents by tracking the progress in countries whose

transformation is further development than ours.

STRUCTURE OF THE TALK

The talk is divided into 3 sections: what role does the Internet play in

development, what issues will affect the role the Internet has to play, and

what role the ISPA can play.

Each of these sections will look towards indications from international

sources to answer them.

What role does the Internet play in development?

The Internet is a powerful democratising agent, online activism and advocacy

has a strong online presence. The Internet also gives access to

information - empowering individuals to make informed decisions about their

future, and demanding institutional accountability. The Internet also gives

access to communication - which enables individuals to make their voices

heard and hear the voices of others. In general, there are three major areas

where Internet access and telecommunications in general can make a

difference: Economic, Social and Political.

ECONOMIC

That the Internet has a large effect on the growth of the economies is well

known.

It introduces cnew economic rules that distinguish an information economy

from an industrial one and blur the lines between industries

It has a radical effect on employment patterns.

It promotes the formulation of market economies. As a result, the private

sector has become the primary engine of growth worldwide, and the role of

government is changing. It supports the growth of global trade and

investment. Global competition increases through the globalization of trade

and investments and the entry of developing countries into markets formerly

dominated by industrial nations.

In the information economy, firms compete with knowledge, networking, and

agility. Those that lag behind risk shrinking market share or extinction.

Entire industries transform and emerge through adjustment to the new

economic, social, and technological environment.

SOCIAL

Society is being reorganized. Social and organizational control based on

closely held information is no longer possible when information is

ubiquitous and inexpensive. Demand for institutional accountability

increases. Because of the increasing availability of international

information, the public is increasingly unwilling to allow public and

private organizations to operate in secrecy. At the same time, the spread of

democracy creates new opportunities for people to participate in public

decisions.

Institutions of all kinds, but chiefly government, must promptly change

their roles and must operate under permanent scrutiny by stakeholders. A new

kind of institution - the nongovernmental organization (NGO) - rises to

prominence as it slowly replaces government in the social agenda.

An environmental agenda rises. The preservation of the environment has

become the concern of a well-informed public worldwide. This increased

awareness of environmental changes is due in large part to global

communications.

The social agenda rises. Human development and poverty alleviation,

long-established goals of economic and social development, are increasingly

prerequisites for international competitiveness.

Culture can be preserved; it can also be destroyed. Intellectual and

artistic products of national cultures can be preserved and disseminated

with information technology. But creative cultures and societies can also be

overwhelmed by the influx of outside information, and sinister uses of

information technology, notably computerized weaponry, certainly exist.

POLITICAL

Communication technologies reinforce these tendencies towards more open,

democratic forms of governance and flattens hierarchical organisations. It

becomes increasingly difficult for repressive governments to act without

attracting international attention. At the same time, the spread of

democracy creates new opportunities for people to participate in public

decisions.

What issues will affect the role that the Internet can play?

OWNERSHIP + ACCESS

REPRESENTATIVE OWNERSHIP

There is a need to ensure that the people have representative control of the

industries that will be influential in their future development.

INFORMATION HAVES AND HAVE NOTS

As more and more financial and government transactions are taking place over

the Internet, the need for all people to have access to telecommunications

is evident.

UNIVERSAL ACCESS OF BASIC SERVICES

Focus on rural areas, where 80% of the population resides, and has minimal

access to ICTs.

CONTENT

AVAILABILITY OF CONTENT

The most accessed information is medical or healthcare information, which is

primarily provided by American content providers.

Who is creating content?

Where is it?

RELEVENCE OF CONTENT (LOCAL CONTENT)

What content is the most needed?

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION

If there are no protections against intellectual property theft, the

development and availability of content will be discouraged.

CONTENT REGULATION.

Also, restrictive content (and broadcasting) legislation introduces a number

of complex problems in the Internet industry.

REGULATION

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

The question of who should own and control the infrastructure and how should

it be financed is undecided.

PURSUIT OF UNIVERSAL ACCESS

What is the best way to ensure progress is made towards "universal access"?

GOVERNMENT'S ROLE

What role should the government play? The role of government within the

current global political climate is increasingly seen as arbiter or

regulator rather than the direct provider of goods and services. Governments

all over the world are privatising state assets which are not seen as

central to the delivery of a minimum level of service and the achievement of

a level playing field for market players. This obviously has to be balanced

by the need for the Industries to provide for government policy objectives.

What role can the ISPA play?

OWNERSHIP, ACCESS & CONTENT

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PROGRAM

The ISPA has already started with a program to encourage ubiquitous access

to telecommunications, and to stimulate the growth and penetration of

Internet access into rural and under-developed areas. The program relies on

donating or heavily discounting Internet access, services, equipment and

training to selected institutions.

ACCESS TO MARKET

The ISPA recognises the need to work towards creating a condition that

allows entrepreneurs freedom of access to the Internet industry. Most ISPs

work on a franchise model, which allows smaller, independently owned local

ISPs to operate.

NATIONAL NETWORK INTERCONNECTION POINTS

The need to develop an efficient national network interconnection system is

of great importance on the road to universal access. The ISPA currently

controls a majority of national peering traffic at its two interconnection

(peering) points in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The ISPA provides national

peering to the Uninet network, which provides Internet access to a large

number of Universities and schools in South Africa, ensuring academics,

researchers and students access to a global and a localized national

knowledge base.

REGULATION

PUBLIC POLICY

The ISPA participates actively in the public policy discussion area,

contributing to the development of effective telecommunications policy.

LICENSING

The Internet industry is soon (hopefully) going to undergo a licensing

process, the ISPA hopes to be a part working with the regulator to set

licensing conditions, and will be assisting its members to become licensed.

***********************************************************

SCHOOLNET SOUTH AFRICA

Ntutule Tshenye (DEpartment of Education)

nitshenye@educ.pwv.gov.za

Summary of SchoolNet SA:

- Different regional groupings saw a need to consolidate activities around

technical developments, fund raising, sponsorships and advocacy - NSN

- In a meeting of January '97 it was realised that other potential players

- Absorption of NSN into SchoolNet SA - this occurred in September '97, Cape

- In this meeting the DoE asked to co-ordinate 1st workshop whose objectives

were to sort out: Organisational structure, Legality aspects, Membership &

Functions

Structure

- Decentralised with regions/provinces autonomous

- Transitional Exec. Council, Secretariat, Stakeholders Advisory Council

(SAC)

- Co-option of members by TEC to the Council is possible

- SAC comprising specialists in the area, all other appropriate players

- Business-friendly and a legal entity.

- Finalising registration as a section 21 Company (Legality)

Membership

- Schools/Institutions of learning - through their provincial Networks

- Levels of membership must be investigated

Strategy and action plans towards processed and outcomes (Functions)

1. Connectivity/ Technologies (Stephen Marquard)

2. Content/ Curriculum (Ron Beyers)

3. Human Resource Development (Denis Brandjes)

4. Advocacy

Current activities

- Workshops to build capacity in teachers

- Train the trainer project

- School Net SA competition (with ThinkQuest)

- Establishing formal links with SchoolNet Canada

Future development

- Link to World Bank's World link Initiatives

- Proposed 500 School Project

***********************************************************

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

***********************************************************

Programme Overview for

THE AFRICAN INFORMATION SOCIETY COLLABORATORY

Collaboratory Secretariat

Centre for Information Society Development in Africa (CISDA)

CSIR Policy Group

P.O. Box 395

Pretoria 0001

dcogburn@csir.co.za

bfouche@csir.co.za

------------------------------------

This document is designed to serve as a programme overview of the African

Information Society Collaboratory (Collaboratory). The Collaboratory

operates as a a virtual organisation, building upon the strengths of its

strategic partners from Africa and around the world to contribute to the

intellectual, technical and organizational capacity for effective engagement

in the Global Information Society. A secretariat for the Collaboratory is

provided by the Centre for Information Society Development in Africa

(CISDA).

1.0 Background

The on-going global information and communications revolution unleashed by

Globalisation, digitalization, and technological convergence presents

tremendous challenges and opportunities for Africa and the developing world.

Many countries and regions around the world are attempting to develop

effective strategies for responding to this phenomenon and to create an

equitable Global Information Society which benefits all segments of their

societies.

These developments are affecting developing and developed countries alike.

From the highly-industrialised world, the G7 launched an initiative in 1995

which is attempting to facilitate the development of a Global Information

Society within their countries. However, as South African Deputy President

Thabo Mbeki argued in his keynote address to the G7, there are [still] more

telephone lines in Manhattan than in all of sub-Saharan Africa, and half of

humanity has never made a telephone call. Mbeki challenged the G7 to embrace

the less-industrialised and developing world to build a truly Global

Information Society. This challenge was addressed in May of 1997 by the

Information Society and Development (ISAD) Conference, held in Midrand,

South Africa.

During ISAD, the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), developed by

the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), was launched

publicly at a luncheon forum sponsored by the Global Information

Infrastructure Commission (GIIC). In his keynote luncheon address to the

GIIC forum, Dr. K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the ECA, argued that to

move into the Information Society, Africa must be clear on what it wants and

make its desires clear to others. If we are clear, if we have a compelling

vision for ourselves, then it is likely that our choices will turn into our

own reality. If we are not clear, then we will either be perpetual

observers of the information highway or find ourselves on a road not fit for

our needs. In addition to these major initiatives, a coalition of donor

organisations has emerged to support the implementation the AISI. This

Partnership for Information and Communications Technologies for Development

in Africa (PICTA) includes most of the major international organisations and

donors from around the world that are interested in contributing to building

the GII in Africa.

2.0 Mission

The primary mission of the Collaboratory is to leverage the combined

resources of selected strategic partners in Africa and around the world to

build increased intellectual and technical capacity within all societal

sectors for effective participation in the Global Information Society. The

Collaboratory is designed to serve as a resource to support the on-going

implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) being

coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

3.0 Strategic Objectives

In order to accomplish this mission, the Collaboratory has the following

proposed strategic objectives which are based on the findings of a

feasibility study undertaken by the CSIR:

(1) To help meet the diverse needs in the African region for the

implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) through

the development of intellectual skills, technical capabilities, policies and

regulatory frameworks conducive to the emergence of an equitable Information

Society resting on a global knowledge-based economy;

(2) To make a significant contribution to the institutional capacity at

historically disadvantaged research, educational and training institutions

within the African region;

(3) To contribute to human capacity building in the African region through

involving participants in collaborative Information Society working groups

and projects in association with leading-edge strategic partners;

(4) To test, demonstrate and promote a unique approach to collaboration

between the major institutions in the African region and around the world

(research, educational and training institutions, international

organisations, donor, executing and implementing agencies, governmental and

non-governmental organisations, and private sector enterprises) which have

significant complementary expertise and can make a significant impact on

developing an equitable Information Society in Africa.

4.0 The Collaboratory Strategic Thrusts

The Collaboratory will accomplish its mission and strategic objectives

(1) Research, Applications Development and Pilot Implementation: conducting

basic and applied research, applications development and pilot project

implementation within a specified range of Collaboratory Information Society

themes focusing on national and regional priorities and having a strong

developmental impact.

(2) Curriculum Development: increase the intellectual capacity within the

African region by utilizing the on-going outputs of the Collaboratory

working groups and pilot projects to contribute to curriculum development

and strengthen the course content at research, education and training

institutions participating in the Collaboratory;

(3) Teaching and Interactive Distance Education: also to increase the

intellectual capacity within the African region, the research, education and

training institutions participating within the Collaboratory will enhance

their teaching and interactive distance education activities;

(4) Training and Certification: leveraging the combined resources of the

Collaboratory partners to increase the technical capacity of the African

region through the training and certifying of African people in the skills

necessary for active participation in the information society, including:

telecommunications policy development and operations; information and

communications policy development; and applications;

(5) Community Service/Awareness Building: performing a service to African

communities through education, training in information handling skills and

awareness building about the Global Information Society;

(6) Consultancy/Advisory Services: providing consultancy and advisory

services to government, private sector and non-governmental organizations on

areas of Collaboratory expertise;

(7) Information Dissemination: actively disseminating new scholarly and

popular knowledge about the Global Information Society through a strong

multifaceted publications programme which will include: (1) working paper

series; (2) ;World Wide Web site; (3) Collaborotory Newsletter; (4) journal

articles; (5) book publishing; and finally,

(8) Liaison: establishing and maintaining concrete relationships for the

Collaboratory with selected leading-edge organizations and institutions

around the world, representing the best in research, development and

implementation for the African Information Society.

5.0 Collaboratory Information Society Themes

Through these seven strategic thrust areas, the Collaboratory will focus

initially on ten Information Society Themes. These themes have been

selected for special Collaboratory focus from the numerous possible

Information Society project themes using the following criteria. (1)

supportive of articulated national and regional priorities; (2) significant

development potential; (3) core scientific and technological competencies

within the Collaboratory partners; and (4) significant activity and/or

interest within the Collaboratory partners and its potential strategic

partners. Thus, the initial ten Collaboratory Information Society Theme

areas are as follows:

- Cultural Heritage Preservation

- ICTs in Research and Education

- Community Empowerment

- Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing

- Electronic Commerce

- Environmental Information Systems/Geographic Information Systems

- Government Services

- Gender and ICTs

- Globalization and Information Society Policy and Strategy

- Information Society Professional Development: Cyber-Century Forum

Each of these theme areas is supported by Virtual Working Groups (VWGs)

containing Virtual Project Teams (VPTs). The structure and functioning of

these virtual working groups and project teams are described below.

6.0 Governance, Management, and Structure

Legal Status

The Collaboratory is owned by all of its members under the authority of its

Board of Directors. An initial secretariat for the Collaboratory is

provided by the Centre for Information Society Development in Africa

(CISDA). CISDA is a strategic research, development and implementation

(RDI) centre established in 1997 within the corporate division of the CSIR

in South Africa. With a staff complement of over 3000, mostly professional

scientists and engineers, the CSIR is the largest industry and

community-driven RDI organization in Africa.

In order to minimize bureaucracy and to facilitate strategic partnerships,

the Collaboratory will make no attempt to build an in-house project

implementation capacity. Instead, the Collaboratory will operate as a

virtual organisation and focus on the collective strengths of its

Collaboratory partners. The Collaboratory will have strategic partners from

the African region and around the world. In the longer term, the

Collaboratory Secretariat may be established as a not-for-profit

organisation in partnership with all strategic partners.

Board of Directors

At this time, it is envisaged that the Collaboratory will be governed by a

Board of Directors. The Board will consist of a Chairperson, two Vice

Chairs, and one senior representative from each Collaboratory Organization.

The main functions of the Board will be to:

- review, inform and approve the Collaboratory's strategic plan and budget;

- evaluate Collaboratory performance against the objectives of the business

plan;

- assist with strategic stakeholder management where appropriate.

Stakeholder Environment and Strategic Partners

Since the vision driving the Collaboratory is one of leveraging resources to

meet its strategic objectives, attention to the stakeholder environment is

of paramount importance. The Collaboratory stakeholder environment can be

divided into the following components: (1) research, educational and

training institutions; (2) international organisations, donor and executing

agencies, (3) regional agencies; and other community and client

representatives.

Strategic partners for the Collaboratory will be drawn from amongst this

stakeholder environment, with a particular focus on the research,

educational and training institutions.

Organizational Structure

The Collaboratory attempts to utilise the latest thinking in organisational

development in the Information Age and operates largely as a virtual

organisation. Thus, the Collaboratory maintains strategic relationships

with local and international partner institutions linked to the

Collaboratory through both memoranda of understanding and cooperative R&D

agreements. CISDA, which serves as the secretariat for the Collaboratory,

consists of the following elements: senior management in the form of a

director and deputy director; senior advisor; a small staff complement (not

exceeding four FTUs); and CISDA fellows, research associates and interns.

CISDA also welcomes the secondment of resources from partner institutions.

7.0 Key Operational Processes

Virtual Working Groups

In view of its facilitating role as a catalyst and integrator of resources,

as well as the interdisciplinary, multi-institutional and geographically

dispersed nature of its activities, the Collaboratory will rely on strong

integrative business management techniques and Avirtual teams. Each of the

ten Collaboratory themes is organised into a Virtual Working Group (VWG) and

co-chaired by three members of partner institutions in the Collaboratory.

These VWG co-chairs have a great deal of autonomy within their respective

theme. The VWGs have two primary thrusts: (1) knowledge-management within

the theme; and (2) research, applications development and implementation.

Each working group will be responsible for six tasks. The Collaboratory

secretariat is willing to assist as much or as little in these tasks as

desired by the VWG co-chairs. These tasks include the following:

(1) Research and analysis on best practices (as agreed upon within the

VWG), lessons learned, alternative approaches, current status and future

trends within the theme area;

(2) Development of a database on organisations and contacts operating

globally within the theme area;

(3) Facilitate joint research, applications development and pilot project

implementation within the theme area;

(4) Contribute information on the Virtual Working Groups activities to the

Collaboratory newsletter;

(5) Coordinate the development of the Theme=s area within the World Wide

Web site of the Collaboratory; and

(6) Coordinate the working paper series within the theme area.

These VWG co-chairs are expected to meet with their teams at least once a

month utilising various physical and virtual means. VWGs are welcome and

encouraged to use the CISDA offices for meetings and project activities if

they so desire.

Funding

The funding objective of the Collaboratory is to become financially

sustainable within three years. During the feasibility study, we identified

a number of promising alternative funding streams, which could come on-line

at various intervals. The main sources of funding for the Collaboratory

over the next three years are envisaged to be: direct investment by

strategic partners; development organisations; contract income; and in-kind

contributions from strategic partners.

8.0 Conclusion

With this approach, the Collaboratory hopes to play a very important role in

strengthening the institutional and human capacity within the region for

effective participation in the Global Information Society. The success of

the Collaboratory will hinge on its ability to develop and operate as a

virtual organisation which meets the expectations of all its strategic

partners.

---------------------------------------

APPENDIX A

Potential Information Society Projects within the African Information

Society Collaboratory

The activity and awareness building during the feasibility study for the

Collaboratory has created a plethora of activities which can make a

substantial contribution to the first year Programme of Work for the

Collaboratory. The proposed Programme of Work has narrowed the possible

Information Society project themes using the following criteria: (1) those

themes most supportive of articulated national and regional priorities with

significant developmental potential; (2) themes where there are core

scientific and technological competencies within the Collaboratory partners;

and (3) themes were there is significant activity and/or interest within the

potential strategic partners in the Collaboratory.

1.0 African Regional Research Symposium for the Information Society

This project is listed first since it will add value to all of the other

projects within the Centre and shape the overall research agenda of the

Collaboratory and its strategic partners. The Collaboratory proposes to

host, in conjunction with an appropriate Senegalese institution (to be

identified by ECA), an African Regional Research Symposium to Define a

Common Research Agenda for Implementing the African Information Society

Initiative. Since the AISI coordination committee and African Technical

Advisory Committee (ATAC) is meeting in October as well as the next PICTA

meeting, it is proposed that this symposium be discussed at that meeting to

inform the discussions and subsequent debate. IDRC proposes for the

Collaboratory to host a SADC research meeting prior to the Regional meeting

in order to better develop a SADC research perspective (the same could be

done in each of the other four regions, perhaps supported by IDRC). IDRC's

Regional Office on Southern Africa (ROSA) has, in principle, offered

financial support for the Southern Africa research meeting.

An additional linkage for this conference is the opportunity for the Africa

Regional Focal Point for the World Association of Industrial and

Technological Research Organisations (WAITRO), hosted by the CSIR, to

provide value to its members and to recruit additional institutions.

2.0 Cultural Heritage Preservation

In Africa, the process of nation building requires the preservation,

development and dissemination of the cultures of all our language

communities as well as the documentation and dissemination of an emerging

broader African identity. Africa has a wealth of cultural traditions, but

most of these were given little value and some are in desperate need of

preservation. The issue of sustainability (through the commercialisation of

cultural heritage products) must therefore be addressed were relevant in the

development of the cultural heritage projects.

This project proposes to work with the University of Michigan School of

Information in its Cultural Heritage for Community Outreach (CHICO) project.

However, the Collaboratory approach to CHICO is to unpack its related

components into separate projects (see the following ICTs and education and

computer empowerment). For this project, the objectives would be as

follows:

- to develop multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional project teams to work

with selected communities and institutions in identifying the relevant

cultural heritage content that the communities would like to preserve;

- to assist in the development of the cultural heritage content;

- make cultural content available to local communities and internationally;

- enable communities to obtain tangible benefits from the projects, e.g.

stimulation of craft sectors, income generated from traditional crafts, new

historical perspectives for previously disadvantaged communities, etc.; and

- enhance curriculum development and education in Information Schools and

other relevant disciplines.

3.0 ICTs and Education

Education is another high priority for most African Governments and in the

African Information Society Initiative. Thus, this project aims to

stimulate cooperation on the development of a range of opportunities to

apply information and communications technologies to education.

Technology Enhanced Learning, particularly interactive distance learning,

is of great importance in Africa because of its ability to accelerate

empowerment and therefore, development. The challenge is huge, but there

are many active parties from both within and outside the region. An

important initiative is to bring as many of these parties as possible

together to facilitate group learning, reduce duplication, and accelerate

growth. The Telematics for African Development Consortium is playing such a

role. This project will focus on three areas of ICTs in Education:

- Developing appropriate digitized content: Focusing on the digital

production of curricula and courseware in hypertext, text, image, audio and

video, for distribution via the Internet, the web (including JAVA), CD-ROM

and even stiffy disks;

- Connectivity/Infrastructure: Focusing on providing access to multimedia

educational content and applications to user environments;

- Delivery Environments: Focusing on creating delivery environments

particularly to disadvantaged communities in such a way that they not only

have access to a wide range of appropriate information, but also can create

their own content locally, including: text-to-voice conversion and

curriculum management tools;

- Education and Training in Information Services: Developing the human

resources for information services within the African region.

- Curriculum Enrichment at Information Schools in Africa

4.0 Community Empowerment

This project is to contribute to the theoretical framework, development and

implementation of multimedia, multi-purpose community information centres.

One element of these community centres draws on the content created in the

cultural heritage project to assist communities in making their cultural

content accessible to the community and to the world. This project could

build on the CSIR work with the Mamelodi Community Information Services to

address the cultural heritage issues in Mamelodi. This pilot project would

provide the model for replication in other areas of the country and the

region. Expertise gained through the UMSI could be well-applied to the

establishment of this project.

5.0 Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing

In the recently published White Paper on Science and technology in South

Africa, a well-managed National Innovation System (NIS) is identified as

crucial to the international competitiveness and hence the economic growth

potential of the country. The role of library and information services are

recognised but the requirements for effective information support for the

NIS is not indicated clearly.

The decline of traditional academic, corporate and public libraries in the

country during the past decade coupled with the advent of the Internet, WWW

and other electronic collaboration applications over the same period seem to

indicate a transition to a new paradigm of digital information services.

The overarching goal of this project would be to develop and test a new

information services paradigm for the support of the NIS in South Africa,

with applicability through out the region. Thus, this project would draw

upon the expertise developed through the University of Michigan Digital

Libraries (UMDL) project and their Journal Storage (JStor) Project to make

such content available to African institutions (universities and perhaps

community centres); and to understand the best practices, lessons learned

and alternative practices in the development, application and utilization of

digital libraries.

6.0 Electronic Commerce

Electronic Commerce is the use of electronic networks to identify business

opportunities, facilitate contacts, negotiate contracts, deliver goods and

services and render payment for goods and services. In many circles,

electronic commerce is considered to be the `killer-app' of the Global

Information Infrastructure. The application of electronic commerce will

have tremendous impact on the ability to stimulate SMME growth and

sustainable economic development within Africa. Also, as more governments

move to re-engineer and streamline their operations throughout the use of

ICTs, they will rapidly move toward electronic procurement methods and

electronic data interchange (EDI) to conduct business. SMMEs will have to

have implemented their own EDI systems in order to even conduct business

with the government. Numerous international organisations have begun to

stimulate electronic commerce and its related applications. In addition,

the ECA is attempting to implement an electronic commerce programme, but is

lacking the resources to implement it fully. Finally, in order for

electronic commerce to be fully successful, it should be accompanied by an

appropriate legal and regulatory framework. This project is designed to

contribute to development and implementation of electronic commerce in

Africa.

7.0 Environmental Information Systems/GIS

The CSIR hosts the Programme on Environment Information Systems in

Sub-Saharan Africa (EIS), an initiative of the World Bank, which draws

together a network of leading specialist on environmental information

systems and geographic information systems in Africa. The CSIR also a

Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) which collects and utilises satellite

remote sensing data and a Division of Environmental Technology which

utilises remote sensing applications and EIS/GIS applications. The CSIR is

also investigating opportunities to cooperate more fully with the Indian

Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on remote sensing training and

application. These facilities provide a tremendous opportunity to build

intellectual and technological capacity within the areas of environmental

information systems and geographic information systems.

8.0 Electronic Government Services

With the onset of the information revolution, governments around the world

are changing and facing tremendous pressures for external and internal usage

of information and communications technologies. The director of CISDA

serves on the global steering committee for the G7 Government On-Line (GOL),

the only other African country participating is Egypt. In this capacity,

the Collaboratory has access to a wealth of information on the best

practices, lessons learned and current trends in the development and

application of ICTs to government.

9.0 Gender and ICTs

Women in continental Africa are far more likely to walk on dirt tracks than

to surf along the electronic information superhighway. Despite the hype and

hyperbole regarding global information superhighway development, there still

exists significant geographical disparities in the rate of development of

these electronic and communication networks. For African women and women's

organisations, the problem of solving these resource gaps and making

effective and productive use of these technological systems, is even more

difficult because women face unequal access to public decision-making and

power bases. This project will attempt to facilitate the development of a

research perspective and agenda on Women and ICT issues.

10.0 Globalization and Information Society Policy

With the transformation of the global economy and the international regime

governing telecommunications and information infrastructure, the

national-states ability to respond is being seriously challenged. This

argument holds for both developed and developing countries alike. As the

new telecommunications agreements negotiated at the World Trade

Organisation, additional challenges emerge as to how to implement and

monitor the agreements. Further, issues such as the ability to develop

regional policies regarding Global Mobil Personal Communications Systems

(GMPCS) and other high-technology communications policies are crucial.

There are numerous national strategies emerging to confront these issues,

but the analysis of these strategies is less than adequate. This project

will attempt to look at the development of these National Information

Society Strategies, analyse them, and assist in the development of

appropriate policy frameworks for the African region.

11.0 Professional Development for the Information Society

The mission of this project is to contribute to the development of

Information Society professionals in the African region who posses a global

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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