A German, an American, a Zimbabwean, an Australian and a South African Get Into a Car...

Sound like a joke? Well it's not. We were an anthropologist, a soccer captain, a programmer, a sociologist and a social entrepreneur, and we were on our way to go and watch the opening game of the soccer world cup on a SolarWorld solar TV, several kilometres from the South African ESKOM grid (Lutz Scharf, Micah Rose, Susan Hansen, Rick Strickland and Ron Wertlen). SolarWorld had chosen the installation sites in early Summer and so the cold and unseasonal rain that met us as we turned off the N2 to head down to Nkwalini meant that the outdoor TV set could not be used. It also meant that the soccer training camp was curtailed due to the short daylight hours, something that the American planners had not counted on.

Still the soccer camp which included watching World Cup games on TV and practical exercises on the fields of Nkwalini (as bumpy as they are), brought some new insights about the game to the community and strengthened the bonds between visitors and community members.

It is my hope that we'll be able to get funding for a solar powered soccer field for a sport school or academy at Nkwalini. This is something that the community members can see immediate value in, and which could in an environmentally friendly manner lengthen activities in Winter (in particular) in a community which does not have much else and which is very passionate about soccer. This is something I have noticed during my time in the community and also on the that icy cold afternoon of the 11th of June 2010 in a dark community hall, when 300 community members (with only 2 Vuvzelas) cheered on the Bafana Bafana, in a gripping opening game.

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Drought in the Eastern Cape

Understanding rural impoverished circumstances is quite difficult for people who live in suburban or urban areas. A city's veins are its water and effluent systems and its nerves are the communications and power networks. Living within such an organism and being part of it, one is shielded from all sorts of practicalities of life, which is why we live in cities and which is why they are recognised as being the potential tool to support a large number of humans on the planet in an ecologically sustainable manner.

Since the beginning of our Southern Summer, we have faced water restrictions in Grahamstown and all across the Eastern Cape. We have a fairly sizeable vegetable garden, which is partially also interspersed with the ornamental plants. Water restrictions during a drought are often a death sentence for a garden. One is prohibited from watering, using automatic means such a hose-pipe. All watering must take place manually.

Fetching and carrying water is one of the main tasks performed by an isiXhosa woman, living at the Siyakhula Living Lab. These days they have it easy. The water only needs to be fetched from the nearest community borehole, which may be 500m away. Formerly water may have had to be hauled much farther distances, especially in times of drought. Based on durable plastics, there are several inventions that aim to ease this task (e.g. the water barrel that is also a tyre, and can be pushed). These inventions are struggling to find their way into rural life though and at Nkwalini, one can see women carrying water in the traditional manner - on their heads.

Hauling bucket after bucket of water, just to keep the vegetables alive, I had plenty of time to ponder the rural fate, which involves many such chores, that we take for granted, and to ponder the activities with which we fill the saved time -- productive work, and for some of us, TV / games / etc.). I really enjoyed that reflexive aspect of the drought. I also marvelled at how well the veggies grew, which receive the daily bath water. These recipients of daily water grew magnificently and thrived. The hand watered plants just survived. This highlighted to me the need for drip irrigation schemes such as the ones piloted by SELF in Benin.

South Africa is very vulnerable to food scarcity, because its rural population is not farming veggies, hardly at all. David Martin calls it a joke compared to what he is seeing in South Asia. We need to wake up and use our resources better. Financial and natural resources can be used in win-win ways to boost productivity. For instance linking grants to food growing schemes. If paying out the grants (delivering money) is costing so much, why not deliver what the people are buying with that money from home-grow schemes - boosting employment in rural areas? The spare money should be invested in infrastructure further boosting employment in the rural areas as well as opening new possibilities for economic activity. South Africa is a rich country -- with the potential of being a model African country. That is something I'd like to see.
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

President Zuma on ICT for Africa at the AU

In a very telegraphic style, Jacob Zuma pointed out that ICT's are a potential vehicle toward unlocking the potential of Africa and bringing its countries together for our mutual benefit.

The following are all really truisms in any netizens mind, however they are not generally accepted, so to hear this from Zuma is quite a thing:

• Technology is shaping the future of the world, challenging geographical boundaries and revolutionising economic, social and political activity.
  
  
• Information technology has the capacity to improve living standards for millions of people on the continent.
  
  
• At the same time, it has the potential to reverse existing inequality and marginalisation. For Africa, information and communication technology is not simply about science.
  
  
• Nor should it merely be viewed as another economic sector, like agriculture or mining.

Zuma is a populist - he has his fingers on the pulse of what the people want. In this speech, he has clearly been influenced by the younger set and is projecting a forward thinking South Africa as a guiding light for the continent. This really makes it clear that the people love technology and communicating. (E.g. the favourite feature of awareNet so far is the chat function.) This does represent a shift of power on the continent as hierarchies are replaced by networks. And markets. Control of the media is not as effective, when people are allowed to communicate p2p / f2f in a free manner.

Every metre of fibre laid, strengthens and extends the rope-ladder which is going to hoist the African people out of impoverishment.
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

OLPC XO Last in Comparative Survey at Rhodes University

This may be of moderate interest to some. Constance Sibanda, a honours student at Rhodes University's Computer Science Department published a comparative study on three netbooks.

The OLPC performed the worst of all of them. The author says because it was tested with older children. In the conclusion she makes the following comments:

"Participants found the OLPC XO the least intuitive for secondary school educational purposes. They felt that this netbook is better suited for small children. None of the participants were interested in buying this netbook and the teachers did not recommend the learners buy it. Arguably, this recommendation would extend to the South African Department of Education with regards to secondary school learners. Some difficulties expressed by users were that the cursor got “stuck” and participants found it difficult to familiarise themselves with the operating system interface. The first impression of the participants when they saw the OLPC was that it was a children’s toy and they were reluctant to use it."

Exactly this final comment is what allows the Kliptown Youth Project to send children home in the dangerous township of Kliptown / Soweto with their XOs every day. Children are not molested, because no one realizes the value of the tool they are carrying.

A further criticism not enunciated quite as clearly by the Ms Sibanda is that teachers in the schools generally endorse and prefer Windows on their hardware. They feel that this is the best option. Especially power users, the ones who might help with first level support at a school, are sceptical of Linux. Furher, many teachers have completed courses, which predominantly teach on Windows and MS Office basis. Teachers do not in general want to be challenged in the ICT space. They feel their productivity is assisted by staying on their known course. Viruses, costs and alternative methods do not seem to factor into their consciousness.

Anyone who knows the sugar interface, knows that it is revolutionary. As a Mac user, I am used to different ways of thinking and new productivity tools. The sugar interface is however a real challenge, and as such it often does not meet with the approval of the school directors. This observation, which is founded in my experience with about a dozen schools serving disadvantaged populations, is linked to the idea that many modern methodologies (like OBE -- Outcomes Based Education) can only thrive if there is a critical mass of knowledge already present in the population using the method. Otherwise they fail. Going into any situation, you have to play to the strengths of the group you are dealing with, before you challenge them. This is something that is difficult to do using boilerplate (i.e. templates, or prefabricated, mass production methods).

Can the promise of modern education, based on innovative insight, logical reasoning and freedom of thought, be realised in Africa?

(Read the entire thesis: http://www.cs.ru.ac.za/research/g09s2432/)
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

A P2P Middleware Design for Rural Digital Access Nodes in Marginalised Rural Areas ...

... is the title of my masters thesis, which I will hand in for external examination at the end of the week.

Thanks to my family for putting up with my midnight writing sessions.

And thanks to my friends, Erika, Ford, Henry and Tanya for proof-reading the sucker.

And thanks to my readership for putting up with the silence... (I'll publish a copy here as soon as it's final.)

Things have been going along at the speed of light at eKhaya ICT in the meanwhile. In December, Thozamile Ngeju our community coordinator has been doing wonders with the two schools that were operational in that time: Benjamin Mahlasela and Nathaniel Nyaluza (both Secondary Schools). This is our first small forray into the Grahamstown township (impoverished peri-urban area), and we look forward to it moving along fantastically during 2010. All signals are on green for this year.

On the ESTIMA Software Factory front, we are hard at work. A large part of the technical input at the start comes from my thesis -- the primary software objective will be to create a distributed middleware for rural digital access centres. Doesn't that sound familiar. We have hired two programmers and I am late in writing an offer to the third. Oops. So I had better go and do that now.

But first a word about innovation possibilities: we had a fab meeting with the East London IDZ last week. Dr. Nkem-abonta has really internalised all the recommendations that issue from the COFISA foresight workshops (http://www.cofisa.org.za, look under documents), and so the Eastern Cape is looking to attract Knowledge Industries, Green Transport, etc. It sounds, that the IDZ is a little behind schedule. As are many things on the African Continent. Like BROADBAND. Still, if they manage to get a green car manufacturer there, at least we'll have a place to peddle our mobile software. I have been talking to the CEO of neofonie Mobile, and he's keen to expand down this way...
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Moving from SourceForge to GoogleCode

awareNet is currently moving from SourceForge to GoogleCode. The main reason is the speed of the site, but a further problem is the intricate nature of the SourceForge machinery. There are really very many options on all the features, most of which I can only think would be interesting in teams of around or more than 20 programmers.

GoogleCode on the other hand is faster to access, the svn doesn't time out all the time from South Africa and I am interested to see which of the SourceForge features I am going to miss...

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

IBM Client for Smart Work for Africa

I have been trying to find out what the IBM and Canonical offering for netbooks is about, that is being trumpeted on blogs and news media around now. It sounds very much like a Google solution - office software apps available via a cloud computing infrastructure.

What strikes me about this is that noone currently has cloud computing facilities on the African continent at the moment. That means that the solution being offered is reliant on overseas Internet connectivity.

Well let's hope that African governments buy into the IBM solution - they will have to finally invest properly in their communications infrastructure (e.g. Swaziland - see previous blog about SATNAC) helping millions of people.

The Wall Street Journal said the following:

"If IBM keeps its part of the bargain and provides cloud-based applications at affordable prices then this service will revolutionize businesses in Africa," said Venansius Barya Baryamureeba, Dean of the Faculty of Computing and IT at Makerere University, Uganda, who has been briefed on IBM's plans. "

Maybe he knows more than I could find out.
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Regulating the Internet in South Africa

The new Films and Publications Act, No. 3 which amends Act No. 89 of 1998 has an interesting section which pertains to persons providing Social Media aimed at children. This is stipulated in Section 24C.

I think it is a fairly worded law, questions only arise over implementation, i.e. whether the 60-year old judge presiding over the legal case has ever used Google (let alone understanding the intricacies of GUI design for browsers). All of the items in the Act have been or are being addressed by awareNet, our home-grown social networking software specially for schools...

"Obligations of internet access and service providers

24C. (1) For the purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise indicates-

• (a) ‘child-oriented service’ means a contact service and includes a content service which is specifically targeted at children;
  
  
• (b) ‘contact service’ means any service intended to enable people previously unacquainted with each other to make initial contact and to communicate with each other;
  
  
• (c) ‘content’ means any sound, text, still picture, moving picture, other audio visual representation or sensory representation and includes any combination of the preceding which is capable of being created, manipulated, stored, retrieved or communicated but excludes content contained in private communications between consumers;
  
  
• (d) ‘content service’ means-
• (i) the provision of content; or
• (ii) the exercise of editorial control over the content conveyed via a communications network, as defined in the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 35 of 2005), to the public or sections of the public; and
  
  
• (e) ‘operator’ means any person who provides a child-oriented contact service or content service, including Internet chat-rooms.

(2) Any person who provides child-oriented services, including chatrooms, on or through mobile cellular telephones or the internet, shall-

• (a) moderate such services and take such reasonable steps as are necessary to ensure that such services are not being used by any person for the purpose of the commission of any offence against children;
  
  
• (b) prominently display reasonable safety messages in a language that will be clearly understood by children, on all advertisements for a child-oriented service, as well as in the medium used to access such child-oriented service including, where appropriate, chat-room safety messages for chat-rooms or similar contact services;
  
  
• (c) provide a mechanism to enable children to report suspicious behaviour by any person in a chat-room to the service or access provider;
  
  
• (d) report details of any information regarding behaviour which is indicative of the commission of any offence by any person against any child to a police official of the South African Police Service; and
  
  
• (e) where technically feasible, provide children and their parents or primary care-givers with information concerning software or other tools which can be used to filter or block access to content services and contact services, where allowing a child to access such content service or contact service would constitute an offence under this Act or which may be considered unsuitable for children, as well as information concerning the use of such software or other tools.

(3) Any person who fails to comply with subsection (2) shall be guilty of an offence and liable, upon conviction, to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both a fine and such imprisonment."

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

SiLLMU - Organisational Chart

A previous blog explains what SiLLMU (Siyakhula Living Lab Management Unit) is about and a bit about the background.



The picture above explains how the SiLLMU will ultimately restructure the parties taking part in the LL. Some Acronyms and Abbreviations: ENoLL (European Network of Living Labs), LLiSA (Living Labs of South Africa), SLL (Siyakhula Living Lab), RU (Rhodes University), UFH (University of Fort Hare).

Bottom are projects, Left are political organisations, and top are stakeholders in the Living Lab, which is depicted in the centre.

The Siyakhula Living Lab is currently well positioned to develop more excellent research and piloting on ICT's in rural areas. I am very excited about the future, especially concerning recent developments around a software factory in Grahamstown involving eKhaya ICT...
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

SATNAC - Telcos! Give up your Fear and embrace Innovation

Several talkers at the conference, including keynote speaker Anton Musgrave used the word extinction. They were refering to Telcos (or telecommunications operators) like Telkom or the Deutsche Telekom. In fact these are not extinct. They have restructured and are restructuring and _some_ are suffering under the yoke of regulators. They are perhaps an endangered species, but not extinct at all. In Africa, government Telcos are a reality to be reckoned with A brave new world of ubiquitous ICTs as trumpeted by some is still no more than the hint of a cooling breeze in the overheated information desert. And there is no sign of rain. Unsocially minded MBA graduates who live in an ethically sterile environment make the decisions which leave the poor in the lurch (as one Exec with an Engineering background put it - Engineers should be making the decisions, not MBAs). The absolutely unapologetic and uncaring (even smirking) attitude visible in most African Telcos and governments is hopefully a last show of strength from the endangered raptor. They seem to be waking up to the danger being mastered by their 1st world cousins. The problem is their reaction could be (as in Iran and China) deleterious to the majority of the population, i.e. a poison pill for ICT4D. That is perhaps a good thing about a conference like this - which highlights that a glass being half-full and half-empty are fundemantally different. As a context for decisions they lead to completely different outcomes. As the MC just said: I don't know if I should be scared or euphoric about the future. Telcos - give up your fear! Embrace the future - unlock the frozen government Universal Service Access funds by making a strong move for the future. It WILL pay off!

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]