What matters more than ICTs: As one of the members of the Presidential International Advisor Council on Information and Development, Esther Dyson took the lead in a Q&A session instead of giving a presentation. With Mark and the Deputy Minister, she spent the past weekend with President Thabo Mbeki. She highlighted some optimism from people…
Topic: Challenges and strategies in ICT regulation in Africa: Mark Shuttleworth made his first appearance at iWeek and provided delegates with the lessons from other emerging markets. If South Africa is to succeed in providing Internet access more affordably, we can learn a lot from South Korea. They have the world’s cheapest broadband access. Spain…
Opening Address: Mr Padayachie addressed the opening session of the iWeek 2006. Since the advent of the Internet in South Africa, the government and ISPs played a ‘hard to get’ sort of politics. His views represent a shift from old politics to an idealistic and consultative one. The Deputy Minister gave us some feedback on…
People who are accusing MXIT are likely not even using MXIT. I’ve interviewed Herman Heunis, and I’ve also been using it for a few months now. It’s a text-based system for instant messaging or chatting in semi-real time. And whatever explicit messages are being sent are just words. And it’s not more or less damaging…
In 2005, civil Society groups in Africa continued their role on ICT as the World Summit on Information Society kicked off in Tunis, Tunisia. As digital Divide continue to cripple millions in the South many still believe that the Information Highway is coming to Africa. Challenges remain high, so as possibilities grow with risks. James…