Info

Information Society

Zimbabwe: Ministry to Honour ICT Players

The Ministry of Information Communication Technology is set to host the ICT Achievers Awards in Harare tomorrow. ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa said the awards seek to reward and recognise the outstanding work by the ICT players and inspire them to drive economic growth via ICTs.

Nigeria: Openmedia Links Transition On ICT Solutions

An ICT Firm, Open Media Communications Has Exposed Cutting edge technology products from a US-based organization, Transition Networks to a select audience of chief information officers and procurement managers at a one-day seminar which held in Lagos last week. Open media is a service management and technology consulting firm with core competence in analyzing, advising, and providing solutions to business, operational, and ICT challenges of public and private sector organizations in order to enable them achieve set goals and objectives.

Zimbabwe: Busy Year for Local ICT Industry

This year has been one of the busiest for the technology industry in decades due to the number of events that have been lined up since January. Most of the events have been marketing and exposing local talent with computer software developers benefiting the most from the recent events.

Tanzania: IT Backbone Drives Down Internet Costs

The national telecommunications backbone has brought cyber revolution in Tanzania that has seen the cost of Internet connectivity drop to as little as 15 US cents a day on a prepaid service. According to a statement issued by SEACOM Communications, the increase represents an effective drop of thousands of percentage in the cost of Internet bandwidth in the country over the past three to four years.

Nigeria: Ashafa Stresses Need for ICT in National Devt

Senator Gbenga Ashafa, representing Lagos East Senatorial District, has stressed the need for the adoption of aggressive Information Communication Technology, ICT, in the modern world in order to achieve rapid development in the country.

Namibia: Youths Plan ICT Expo

Young entrepreneurs who initiated the first ever Ongwediva Career Fair and Youth Expo, are yet on another mission to bring the first ever Information and Technology Expo under the theme: African Information and Communication Technology Revolution, Economic Breakthrough, Sustainable Development, Equal Distribution of Wealth and Opportunities and African Investment. The three-day expo, by Mwala Chenjekwa and Staden Siyoka of Glory Computer Enterprises, is scheduled from the 14th - 16th August 2012 in Windhoek.

Africa: Transform, Innovate, and Connect - a New Strategy for ICT

A press release from the World Bank which aims to help developing countries use ICT for greater development impact.

Angola Among ICT Fastest Growing Countries

Angola is part of the world fastest information and communication technology (ICT) countries in recent years, said Monday in Luanda, the chairperson of the board of directors of the National Institute of Communications (Inacom), Pedro Mendes de Carvalho.

Tunisia: MoU in ICTs and Mailing Signed Between Tunisia and Libya

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on information and communication technologies (ICTs) and postal services was signed on Friday in Tunis between Tunisia and Libya. The agreement was signed by ICTs Minister Mongi Marzouk and Libyan Telecommunications Minister Anouar Fitouri. This MoU provides for developing bilateral co-operation in the ICTs and mailing fields, as well as for exchanging expertise and experiences in the e-services area.

Study on women active in the ICT sector — SMART 2012/0066

Deadline: 29 October 2012. The aim of this low-level study is to identify, analyse and provide follow-up analysis to the most effective practices in view of replicating and scaling up and fostering structural and culture change. It will analyse existing data and studies with the view to arriving at a set of figures which could serve as an 'economic case' for fostering higher participation of girls and women in ICT studies, careers, digital world. Furthermore, the study will look at ICT-related careers image change, i.e. the fact that an ICT-related profession and career may mean working on world changing and addressing multidisciplinary challenges. It will also explore what it MEANS to have ICT skills and how and where they can be employed.

Category winner of the 2012 e-inclusion awards: Library Development Program – Information Society Development Foundation

The primary objective of Library Development Programme (2009 – 2014) of the Information Society Development Foundation (FRSI) is to provide equal opportunities for the underserved population living in rural areas. This has been achieved by revitalizing local libraries and providing them with multimedia equipment and internet access. Training has also been offered in order to improve staff capacity. The initiative covers more than 3,300 libraries servicing 10.6 million inhabitants. It has provided internet access to c. 750,000 people, half of which have made their first click on the internet in libraries. The libraries participating in the program assist more than 50,000 people annually, offering group classes and individual consultations on the hardware and internet usage.

Government of Egypt commit to foster ties in ICT development

The Government of Egypt and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to participate in the development of Information and Communication Technology to foster the implementation of action lines of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The MoU was signed by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh – United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the ECA and Mr. Mohamed Salem – the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Egypt, in light of the Egyptian proposal to host the review meeting together with the World Telecommunications Conference (WTDC) in 2014.

Framework to measure government ICT-based service delivery adopted in Mauritius

The Partnership for Measuring Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Development has adopted today in Mauritius, a Framework Document and a list of ICT indicators to measure e-government. Coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), which leads the Task Group on e-Government (TGEG), established in 2006 following the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Framework Document proposes a set of globally comparative e-government core indicators to support the efforts of countries worldwide in the collection of data to measure the use of ICT in Government service delivery.

Rwanda: Sonrise Launches Digital Library

Musanze based Sonrise School has introduced a digital library in which Nooks, a hand-held digital reader, will make it possible to access books in digital content and it will cover the education curriculum and books in world libraries.

Zimbabwe: Varsities Urged to Embrace ICTs

Universities have been urged to embrace new information communication technologies to help students easily acquire knowledge when using libraries.

Tanzania: Varsity to Introduce Video-Conferencing

The University of Dodoma (Udom) in planning to introduce teaching through the use of video-conferencing as a way of addressing acute shortage of lecturers.

Rwanda: NGO to Offer ICT Skills in 23 Districts

59 trainers over the weekend graduated from a programme run by Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), an international organisation that creates educational and economic opportunities by offering skills on the use of ICT.

Tanzania: ICT Seen As Economic Growth Booster

Tanzania's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can grow between two and three per cent in the next few years if priority is given to developing the country's Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector, the Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Professor Makame Mbarawa, said.

eLearning Africa

eLearning Africa is delighted to announce that this year’s conference, the fourth in the highly successful series of pan-African gatherings, will take place in Senegal. In May 2009, the Continent’s largest annual assembly of eLearning and education professionals from Africa and beyond will convene in the capital, Dakar. Moving to Senegal in 2009, eLearning Africa continues to build and expand a worldwide network for people involved in all aspects of technology-enhanced education and training in Africa, including management and policymaking.

African Telecommunication / ICT Indicators 2008 report

ITU TELECOM AFRICA kicks off with the launch of ITU’s African Telecommunication / ICT Indicators 2008 report, which is an invaluable information tool to inform and guide policy-makers, investors, analysts and other observers of Africa’s telecommunications landscape. It contains an extensive overview of key sector developments, and includes a number of recommendations to sustain growth and deepen access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in the region.

Africa: ICTs Discussed at High Level Nepad Meeting

The New partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has challenged more African nations to get involved in the project to develop Internet connection linking African countries to one another and to the rest of the world by 2015. The project, called the Broadband Infrastructure Network, hopes to connect east African countries to a communications network stretching from South Africa to Rwanda. A second broadband network will connect Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Namibia and Madagascar to an undersea cable running along East Africa.

Major new book on ICT4D

Cambridge University Press has recently (2009) published 'ICT4D', edited by Tim Unwin. This provides an authoritative and accessible account of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in contemporary development practice. It combines theory with practical guidance – including both a conceptual framework for understanding the rapid development of ICT4D, and practitioners’ overviews of the use of ICTs in enterprise, health, governance, education and rural development. Boxed case studies provide detailed examples of issues and initiatives from a wide variety of countries and organisations.

Web 2.0 vs. digital libraries

The Web 2.0 trend has placed a renewed emphasis on interoperability and cooperation between systems and people. The digital libraries community is familiar with interoperability through technologies like OAI-PMH, but is disconnected from the general Web 2.0 community. This disconnect prevents the digital library from taking advantage of the rich network of data, services and interfaces offered by that community. This paper presents a case study of a collection within the Texas A&M; Repository that was improved by adopting the principles of cooperation embodied by the term Web 2.0.

Australia asks for comments on OA to PSI

Australia's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has issued a consultation paper asking for public input on, among other topics, OA to public sector information.

W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web

W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0" specification improves upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, apply to more advanced technologies, and are more precisely testable.

Nigeria takes technology to countryside

AS the world becomes a global village, Nigeria is taking Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the countryside in a bid to bring modern communication technology to rural people. The National Information Technology Development Agency of Nigeria (Nitda) said the move would expose both primary and secondary scholars to advanced technology.

South Africa: Internet Turnaround Has Begun - Report

In the past year, the Internet user base in South Africa has seen its highest rate of growth since 2001, increasing by 12.5% to 4.5 million. This is the key finding of the Internet Access in South Africa 2008 study, released today, Thursday, 4 December 2008 by World Wide Worx

Web 2.0 and Development

Wikipedia and a host of other websites which employ varying degrees of user-interactivity have changed the face of the internet might have potential in ICT4D and the attempt to bridge the digital divide. The most obvious potential for Web 2.0 applications is that they provide free tools to the user which would otherwise require expensive software packages, one example of this is using the free Google Docs service to replace Microsoft Office.

Nigeria: National Assembly Proposes Bill for Science, Technology Trust Fund

The National Assembly has proposed a bill for the establishment of a science and technology trust fund to aid science and technological education. The establishment of the trust fund will reduce the reliance on government subvention by agencies in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology thereby increasing their efficiency.

Internet Governance must ensure freedom of expression and universal access, UNESCO says

“The principles of freedom or expression and universal access must be safeguarded on the Internet and, consequently, in Internet Governance structures”, said Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information yesterday at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Hyderabad, India.

There is more than a digital divide

The Networking TIC Club developed its network in Medellín. On the 13nd of November, it invited the Network of Public Libraries of Medellin Metropolitan Area to present its experience in Bogotá. The Club focuses its effort on reducing the Digital Divide and sharing digital alphabetization success stories. The Club started to work with the Network of Public Libraries as part of its activities to strengthen the local actors and their initiatives in the use of the ICT.

Panel: Government data-mining programs lack oversight

Government information collection and sharing programs are too secretive, security and privacy experts tell the House Homeland Security Committee.

Open Library

Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and is funded in part by a grant from the California State Library. We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can't do it alone! This is an Open project - the software is open, the data is open, the documentation is open, and the site is open.

Mauritius is Africa’s ICT leader- Deputy Speaker

Ettiene Sinatambou, the deputy speaker of parliament in Mauritius, has hailed his country’s favourable investment regulations as the major driving force behind the success of ICT in that country. Sanatambou spoke to ITNewsAfrica.com during the African ICT Achievers Awards last week in Johannesburg.

ICT for Development Success Stories: Youth, Poverty and Gender

The 100-page publication highlights initiatives that are using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to make a real and meaningful difference in communities around the world, no matter how disadvantaged or isolated they may be. These stories on Youth, Poverty and Gender intend to provide snapshots of the learning process that accompanies the introduction and implementation of ICTs in a community development project.

Nothing endures but change: Thinking strategically about ICT convergence

'Countries that adopt policy frameworks to enable convergence will enhance the impact of ICTs on economic development. Convergence can lower entry barriers, allow service providers to try out new business models, promote competition, lower costs to service providers and users, and broaden the range of services and technologies available to users. This report outlines options for government policy responses along with the likely outcomes and potential benefits and risks.'

Uganda: Anti-Cyber Crime Technology Here

AFRICA Online, a member of Telcom South Africa Group, has developed a technology to safeguard private and confidential data sent over the Internet, Joseph Barungi, the regional manager, has said. Barungi said the Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology was designed to fight cyber crimes. "One can connect from his company network using a basic Internet connection and remain confident the data is secure," he said

Nokia brings out Life Tools for rural emerging markets

Products, Nokia, Education, Agriculture, Global: Nokia will launch Nokia Life Tools, a range of innovative agriculture information and education services targeted at non-urban consumers. Designed specifically for emerging markets, Nokia Life Tools helps overcome information constraints and provides services to this next generation of mobile users. Nokia plans to launch the service in the first half of 2009 with the Nokia 2323 classic and the Nokia 2330 classic as the lead devices in India, expanding across select countries in Asia and Africa later in 2009.

Linux dominates supercomputer charts

he 32nd edition of the Top 500 supercomputers lists was released late last week and Linux-based systems occupy 439 of the 500 positions. Other Unix variants, including BSD-based systems occupy another 24 positions. The 32nd edition of the biannual list is also notable as the first time a Windows-based supercomputer has made it into the top 10 positions. That machine sits at number 10 on the list and is based at the Shanghai Supercomputer Center. Windows-based machines account for a total of 5 of the top 500 supercomputers in the world.

Untangle the Web: Delivering Municipal Services Through the Internet

'The technological advances of the last decade have changed the way we live and work. The World Wide Web is a perfect illustration. The Web offers people and organizations a whole new way to interact and communicate. This report provides a framework for helping local governments achieve the benefits of the Web without being overcome by its complexity.'

Return on Investment In Information Technology: A Guide for Managers

New information technology (IT) systems are serious, and potentially risky, investments for government agencies and nonprofit organizations. This guide is designed to help public sector managers better understand how a return on investment (ROI) analysis can take some of that risk out of their next IT investment.

Webcast on Enabling Mobile Transformation in Africa

This webcast/workshop (Nov 18, 2008) is part of ongoing series of mobile transformation workshops discussing the role of Mobile for Development (M4D), this time focused on Africa.

What is the role of ICTs in enhancing rural livelihood and poverty Eradication?

Using ICTs strategies for Socio-Economic development through digital technologies and Internet network currently can play a leading role in improving livelihood opportunities for people who are living in poverty and especially in rural areas. Taking into consideration the needs of life in rural areas and identifying the most important priorities through studies, survey, and practical research.

Kenya wants tough stance on cyber crime

THE High Level Segment Information Technology Summit entered its second day today with Kenya’s Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio calling for tougher action against cyber crime.

ITU launches initiative to protect children online

ITU launched a new initiative today to safeguard children, the most vulnerable users of the Internet. Addressing ITU’s high-level meeting on cybersecurity by video message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We have to protect against cyberthreats, especially when they target children. I welcome the ITU’s ‘Child Online Protection’ initiative and urge all States to support it.”

Irish Gov't Seeks To Rein In Cyber Bullying

An anonymous reader points out a story on the Irish Times that says"the Irish government is looking for ways to combat 'cyber-bullying' after data indicated that a significant percentage of young children are subjected to this kind of abuse via their mobile phone and popular social network accounts. The industry has been asked to come up with solutions for this problem and a government office is due to publish a guide on the issue in the near future. Surely this is a problem faced by children in all developed

Webcast - Enabling Mobile Transformation in Africa: Next-Generation Mobile Services for Government, Health and the Financial Sectors (November 18, 9 - 12 ET)

Mobile services are quickly emerging as the new frontier in transforming government, health, banking and many other sectors due to fast growing penetration of mobile phones even in the poorest and most remote areas of the globe. In theory, many services can be now made available on a 24x7x365 basis at any place in the world covered by mobile networks, which today means almost everywhere. This emerging trend in improving service delivery and organizational efficiency and effectiveness can be called mobile-enabled development (m-development) or mobile transformation.

Nigeria: Science, Technology Can Help Attain Vision 2020, Says Yuguda

As global prices of petroleum continue to dwindle, resulting in low income for the country, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State has identified commitment to the promotion of the study of science and technology as a cornerstone for the attainment of the Nigeria's vision 2020 project which the Yar'adua administration pursues as a road map for the nation's transformation from a mere developing country to a continental giant.

Rwanda: ICT - Kenya?s Seacom Cable Construction Advances

Rwanda is set to benefit from this project and recently it signed up for a $24m World Bank project to connect its Internet national backbone to either the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) or the SEACOM Cable The construction of SEACOM's undersea fibre-optic cable is in progress with the recent completion of initial works on the cable landing station sites in Kenya and Mozambique.

IDC lowers IT spending forecast for 2009

Industry analyst firm IDC is revising its yearly forecast on the IT budgets of companies around the world. Because of the worldwide financial crisis, the firm expects spending on technology by enterprise companies to grow by just 2.6 percent next year compared with 2008. Before the late-September Wall Street meltdown, IDC was predicting a worldwide spending growth rate of 5.9 percent. In the U.S., it was expecting 4.2 percent growth, but now IDC is revising that to just 0.9 percent.

The Impact of Technology on Social Inclusion

Daniel Scioli, governor of Buenos Aires and John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco recently held a virtual meeting to inaugurate Cisco's first TelePresence system in Argentina. They used the opportunity to discuss the use of technology for health, education and economic development for greater social inclusion of citizens.

Undersea cable connection to link up Africa with World

ALTHOUGH cable connections across many African countries are in a poor state of repair or non-existent, the continent is slowly being connected to the global community through five undersea cable projects, three of which are due for completion in 2009.

Presidents of Burkina Faso and Rwanda address new trends in ICT

South Africa: Information, computer industry loses 25% skilled personnel

Analysts project that the Information and Computer Technology industry may suffer in 2009 due to a skills shortage, which is predicted to be as large as 25 percent. The forecast setback is attributed in part to the fact that domestic supply is far below demand while deep skills are even scarcer than entry level skills. Players in the industry are thus taking measures to resist the problem.

Rwanda: Rita, NUR Partner to Enhance National ICT Policy Drive

The National University of Rwanda (NUR) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rwanda Information and Technology Authority (RITA) to increase ICT access in rural areas. The cooperation between the two institutions seeks to translate Rwanda's stated ambition of becoming a regional ICT hub into a reality.

South Africa: Website to Bring Expertise Into Country's Classes

THE Shuttleworth Foundation and Connexions from Rice University, in the US, yesterday announced plans to jointly develop what they say will be one of the world's largest, most comprehensive sets of free online teaching materials for primary and secondary schoolchildren. The new project had the advantage of being aimed at the teacher instead of the pupil, Horner said. The website could act as a tool for sharing teaching resources, and was not just a place to download them.

Mainstreaming Information & Communication Technologies for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

'The intersection of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) forms a critical nexus for the future of sustainable human development and poverty eradication. Yet the great paradox of the information age - the persistence of scarcity in a digital era of superabundant capacity – remains the greatest single challenge to the networked economy and society. This report argues that while the means to meet this challenge are actually close at hand, the so-called “digital divide” has shifted perilously in recent years to the detriment of the poorest developing countries with serious and potentially irreversible consequences for the achievement of the MDGs.'

Nigeria: Be Computer Literate Or Forfeit Promotion - SSEB Boss

From the next academic year all principals, their deputies and zonal directors of the Akwa Ibom state Secondary Education Board who cannot show evidence of being computer literate will forfeit his or her promotion. Giving the warning in Uyo, while addressing principals of public secondary schools and zonal directors, the executive chairman of the State Secondary School Education Board, Obong Ime Isine, stated that in a constantly shrinking world, the power of information and communication technology cannot be overemphasized hence the need for all public schools administrators to use the computer.

The E-democracy issue at the Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Political Science (SISP)

During the XXII Annual Conference of Italian Society of Political Science (www.sisp.it), held in Pavia last September, a wide space was dedicated to a theoretical and empirical reflection on participation and deliberation, on national and international political communication through the web, on participative and deliberative public policies, on ICT tools used for implementing participative and deliberative processes, promoted by political institutions as well as by civil society, and on the quality of these processes.

Uganda: Data Firm Opens

Getting information about firms and corporations has been eased. ADCEL, a data service firm, has opened to help the public access information about any company in the country free of charge. The information can be accessed at any time of the day from anywhere.

Training-the-Trainers Workshop in Information Literacy for South and Central Asia inaugurated in India

The tenth UNESCO Training-the-Trainers (TTT) Workshop in Information Literacy was inaugurated, on 5 November 2008, at Punjabi University in Patiala, India. This Workshop, which is one in the series of eleven IFAP-funded TTT workshops, is organized by the Department of Library and Information Science of Punjabi University from 5 to 7 November.

Usage of information technology on increase in South Africa

USAGE of information and communication technologies increased marginally during the year as more and more SMEs move with the technological times. This is according to the latest findings from the annual SME Survey.

The Director-General hails the importance of freedom of expression

On 29 October 2008, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, opened an international symposium on ‘Freedom of Expression: Development, Democracy and Dialogue’ organized at UNESCO’s Headquarters to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Nigeria: Senate Considers Bill Against Cyber Crime

The Senate yesterday referred a Bill for an Act to outlaw perpetration of financial crimes through such electronic devices as mobile phones, internet and the Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) to its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

Uganda: MPs Query ICT Development

The parliamentary committee on Information and Communication Technology has expressed concern that ICT development in the country is backsliding.

Is there still a need for telecentres now that there are mobile phones ?

Following the initial rush of Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects in rural Africa, many did not yield the anticipated outcomes, and interest has been dying down. People then began talking about “sustainable ICT” projects, in which it was understood that projects would become self-sufficient after their initial donor-led investment and set-up period. But with the use of mobile phones gaining in popularity, popular rhetoric has begun to question the need of ICTs beyond the mobile phone.

Overview of the digital divide

Simply put, the "digital divide" is the division between those who have access to ICT and are using it effectively, and those who do not. Since information and communications technology is increasingly a foundation of our societies and economies, the digital divide means that the information "have-nots" are denied the option to participate in new ICT-based jobs, e-government, ICT-improved healthcare, and ICT-enhanced education. More often than not, the information "have-nots" are in developing countries, and in disadvantaged groups within countries. To bridges.org, the digital divide is thus a lost opportunity -- the opportunity for the information "have-nots" to use ICT to improve their lives.