Title: Avoiding the Digital Divide Hype in Using Mobile Phones for Development
Author: Lindsay Poirier
Source: ICTWorks
Publisher: Inveneo
Date (published): 27/12/2011
Date (accessed): 03/01/2012
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"To all of you digital divide warriors out there – nice work. With over 483 million mobile phone subscriptions in low-income countries - an estimated 44.9% penetration rate, few will deny the success of your efforts to expand mobile technology in the developing world.

Rapid mobile growth rates further exhibit success in dissemination, and stats such as, “There are more mobile phones than toilets in India,“ and “There are more mobile phones than light bulbs in Uganda,” make us smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

While it’s true that, in most cases, these numbers exhibit stimulation in local economies, there are some fuzzy lines when it comes to determining what these numbers mean in terms of mobile phone access and development. The data shows that mobile technology is expanding, but does this necessarily mean that access to technology is coinciding with the expansion?
..."

Title: Technologies for Transparency and Accountability: Implications for ICT Policy and Recommendations
Authors: Renee Kuriyan, Savita Bailur, Björn-Sören Gigler and Kyung Ryul Park
Pages: 64 pp.
Source: Open Development Technology Alliance
Publisher: The World Bank
Date (published): 13/12/2011
Date (accessed): 15/12/2011
Type of information: draft
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"In wake of the events of Arab Spring and increasingly over the last decade, there has been attention and expectations on the role that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based technology platforms such as websites and wikis, social media, interactive geo‐mapping, and SMS and voice based reporting can play in increasing accountability, participation and transparency in public administration (R. Avila et al., 2010; Davis, 2004; Pina, Torres, & Royo, 2009). Public bureaucracies are under pressure to adapt and more openly improve the ways they interact with citizens through the adoption of web‐based technologies (Ibid.). Factors such as the gap between public expectation and perceived governmental performance, the role of mass media, political scandals, lack of transparency, and corruption contributed to a decline of public trust in government in the last two decades (Nye, 1997; Sirker & Cosi, 2007).

The field of technology for transparency, accountability and participation is an increasingly dynamic space for innovation. Whether it is using the power of crowds to monitor elections, or educating citizens about how the government spends money on public service, or monitoring local and national government budgets, ICTs are tools that have been used to shift how accountability and transparency are incorporated into public service delivery.

ICTs, particularly online and mobile technology tools, are changing the transparency and accountability field. Many of the initiatives including complaints mechanisms, public information/transparency campaigns, and public expenditure monitoring, are based on ICT platforms (R Avila, Feigenblatt, & Heacock, 2009). A number of websites function as portals where citizens can list their complaints related to their government’s performance and administration. As a result, citizens may have better access to information through technologies and can find new ways to participate (R Avila, et al., 2009). Citizen journalism and the concept of digital democracy are rapidly emerging and citizens are demanding their rights in public online forums. There are also initiatives that aim for transparency by publishing more information about the private sector that are in the public’s interest.

This report focuses on analyzing the conditions under which new technologies can enhance delivery of public services to the poor through improved accountability and transparency. It examines the linkages between the use of innovations in technology, increased accountability and the effects on the delivery of public services to poor communities. Specifically, the paper investigates the role that the combination of social media, geo‐mapping and various technology platforms can play in this process."

Title: ‘Informational Capabilities’- The Missing Link for the Impact of ICT on development
Author: Björn-Sören Gigler
Pages: 16 pp.
Source: Open Development Technology Alliance
Publisher: The World Bank
Date (published): 13/12/2011
Date (accessed): 15/12/2011
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"Under what conditions can information and communications technologies (ICTs) enhance the well-being of poor communities? The paper designs an alternative evaluation framework (AEF) that applies Sen’s capability approach to the study of ICTs in order to place people’s well-being, rather than technology at the center of the study. The AEF develops an impact chain that examines the mechanisms by which access to, and meaningful use of, ICTs can enhance peoples “informational capabilities” and can lead to improvements in people’s human and social capabilities. This approach thus uses peoples’ human capabilities, rather than measures of access or usage, as its principal evaluative space. Based on empirical evidence from rural communities’ uses of ICTs in Bolivia, the study concludes that enhancing people’s informational capabilities is the most critical factor determining the impact of ICTs on their well-being. The findings indicate that improved informational capabilities, like literacy, do enhance the human capabilities of the poor and marginalized to make strategic life choices to achieve the lifestyle they value. Evaluating the impact of ICTs in terms of capabilities thus reveals that there is no direct relationship between improved access to, and use of, ICTs and enhanced well-being; ICTs lead to improvements in people’s lives only when informational capabilities are transformed into expanded human and social capabilities in the economic, political, social, organizational and cultural dimensions of their lives."

Title: Report of the Uganda Internet Governance Forum 2011 : Harnessing Internet Development in Uganda
Pages: 6 pp.
Publisher: Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)
Date (published): 27/09/2011
Date (accessed): 14/12/2011
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (doc)
Abstract:
"This report presents the proceedings and key issues that emerged from the Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF) held on August 10, 2011 at Hive Colab Nakawa, Kampala. The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), in conjunction with Hive Colab and the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), organised the Forum under the theme “Harnessing Internet Development.”
…
Issues Arising From the Online Discussions
* Following on from last year, there was a renewed call for investment in local content development and creating awareness of local content development.
* Broadband internet access in Uganda remains broadly undefined. It is unclear whether the nation reached the 256 Kbit/s mark. According to the Uganda Broadband Infrastructure Strategy 2009, National position paper, broadband in Uganda was estimated to be doubling from 256 Kbps in 2009, 512 kbps in 2010 and 1,024 kbps in 2011.
* Call for multi-stakeholder partnerships in the implementation of the recently effected cyber laws. There is a need for all parties to work with authorities to have these laws fully operational. Indeed, there are insufficient human, financial and technological resources to enforce these laws. The enforcement authorities should invest in a digital forensics lab and actively engage academia in cyber security research. Furthermore, the citizenry should be sensitized about the existence of these laws and their implications.
* Mobile phone security remained paramount in the discussions. Whereas some telecommunications providers have embarked on registering mobile phone subscribers with little clarity on the process, it was raised that Sim card registration should be integrated with a functional national ID system. Uganda does not have national IDs.
* There is lack of synergy in databases amongst different government ministries as it is not clear how the different personal data collected by different ministries is used.

Way forward
* The profile of the national IGF needs to be raised beyond just enthusiasts. It was suggested that a Uganda IGF website, newsletter and an IGF handbook detailing key issues and progress, should be developed. Given that IG issues are at the heart of NITA-U and MoICT, these institutions should contribute to the funding pool for national support IGF processes.
* All national Internet Governance recommendations should be implemented at the regional level.
* Remote participation in national, regional and the global IGF forums should be enabled. People who are unable to attend would benefit greatly from facilities such as live streaming and java chat windows."

Title: Towards a cyber security aware rural community
Authors: Marthie Grobler, Zama Dlamini, Sipho Ngobeni, Aubrey Labuschagne
Pages: 7 pp.
Source: Proceedings of the 2011 Information Security for South Africa (ISSA) Conference
Date (published): 10/08/2011
Date (accessed): 13/12/2011
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"A large portion of the South African rural community only have intermittent access to computers and are not familiar, nor entirely comfortable, with the use of internet communication or electronic devices. The research conducted by the authors of this paper confirms that this lack of awareness, combined with the inherent dangers posed by the internet, expose local communities to cyber threats. Especially rural communities are not always empowered to deal with these threats.

In an effort to prevent innocent internet users from becoming victims of cyber attacks, a cyber security awareness campaign is developed to educate novice internet and technology users with regard to basic cyber security. The motivation for this awareness project is to educate all South Africans on the safe use of the internet, in an attempt to strengthen the cyber security awareness level concerning the South African network. The hypothesis is that if there are local communities that are not properly educated, their technology devices may remain unprotected. This may leave the South African internet infrastructure vulnerable to attacks, posing a severe threat to national security and eventually affecting communities other than those directly involved.

This research paper focuses on promoting cyber security awareness towards the newly released broadband capability and knowledge transfer within rural communities by means of a voluntary community based training program. This program can be adapted in any environment other than rural communities, but the current focus has been in the rural areas. The program takes on an informal work session approach with presentations and discussion sessions. The cyber security awareness program modules are divided into four main themes: physical security, malware and malware countermeasures, safe surfing and social aspects of cyber security.
These themes are developed in such a way to cover a wide range of topics, including practical advice on phishing attack avoidance and more advanced topics such as preventing social engineering attacks. This paper will introduce the development of the cyber security awareness program, and emphasize the importance for including these specific themes at the hand of international cyber security incidents."

Title: Analysis of the factors affecting the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives
Author: Mario Marais
Pages: 21 pp.
Source: 5th IDIA Conference: ICT for development: people, policy and practice, Lima, Peru, 26 - 28 October 2011
Date (published): 29/11/2011
Date (accessed): 13/12/2011
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"The sustainability of ICT for Development (ICT4D) initiatives remains an enduring concern, and projects typically have a high rate of failure. ICT4D is in flux and the trends are analysed to show how sustainability issues have changed from requirements for external support via governments or funding agencies to self-sufficiency (mainly) based on economic viability. Sustainability is typically defined in terms of financial, social, institutional, technological, and environmental aspects. The major factors influencing the sustainability of ICT4D projects in poor rural areas are summarised via a systems analysis. The questions posed by this analysis may be partially addressed by strategies based upon the concept of human scale development. Two ICT4D initiatives that are concerned with enterprise development are used to illustrate the practical realisation of aspects of such a strategy."

Title: Community Multimedia Centres in Mozambique: a Map
Editors: Isabella Rega, Lorenzo Cantoni
Pages: 13 pp.
Publisher: NewMinE Lab: New Media in Education Laboratory of the Università della Svizzera Italiana, University of Lugano
Date (published): 09/12/2011
Date (accessed): 12/12/2011
Type of information: white paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf, needs registration)
Abstract:
"Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) in Mozambique have been setup for a decade and represent the most common model of public access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) venues in the country.

This report briefly presents the history and typologies of CMCs in Mozambique, as well as an updated map of their current number and location. Finally, it casts a closer look to a sample of 10 CMCs, one per each province of the country, describing their context, cluster of services, technical instruments, group of people who manages CMCs and people who access them.
The information provided on the paper has been collected mostly in March – April 2011 within the field work of the project RE-ACT: social REpresentations of community multimedia centres and ACTions for improvement, a research and development project run by the NewMinE Lab: New Media in Education Laboratory of the Università della Svizzera italiana, University of Lugano, Switzerland, in collaboration with the Centre for African Studies and the Department of Mathemathics and Informatics of the University Eduardo
Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique.

This report is addressed to researchers and practitioners in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) field, as well as to policy makers working in the area."

Title: The State of Research and Education Networking in Africa
Author: Boubakar Barry
Source: Educational Technology Debate
Date (published): 30/06/2011
Date (accessed): 10/12/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Research and education networks (RENs) are dedicated networks for the research and education community. Unlike the “general” Internet, often referred to as commodity Internet, they carry only data related to education and research.

RENs were first established more than 20 years ago in developed countries in Europe and the Americas to support bandwidth-intensive applications in research, when it became evident that using the commodity Internet on demand for these applications, and for moving large quantities of data between institutions within a country, between countries, and between continents was not feasible. An example is the transport of data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider to various research centers worldwide.

RENs have also been places of innovation in networking technologies and have substantially fostered scientific collaboration at national, regional and international levels.

Why are research and education networks crucial for Africa?
RENs have a huge potential for improving the quality of education and research. The gain in productivity through access to high-speed networks for teaching, learning and research activities is obvious. For Africa, access to such networks through RENs is even more important for various reasons:

African researchers are isolated. There are very few institutions that have the critical mass of researchers in any particular field to allow them to collaborate and carry out research activities with world standard outputs. Having an adequate NREN infrastructure can enable remote collaboration and the building of the needed critical masses;
Resources are scarce in Africa, and some equipment and applications are too costly for single institutions: NREN infrastructure provides a means of sharing such resources. In fact, RENs can even provide a more efficient mean of sharing human resources by using video-conferencing tools for remote lecturing while at the same tile avoiding expensive and sometimes risky travel;
Cutting-edge research is increasingly carried out by multiple, inter-disciplinary research teams located in various countries of the world: coordination, data exchange and even experiments are mostly done using the global REN infrastructure. Not being part of this global community means that African researchers cannot participate in such global research projects;
In most African countries, higher education faces a big challenge called massification: due to lack of investment in infrastructure and equipment during the last two decades, universities and other higher education institutions cannot efficiently meet the high demand for access to higher education. Here again, REN infrastructure can support e-learning applications and blended learning models that can help reduce the pressure on the universities’ physical infrastructure and address the increasing legitimate demand for higher education..."

Title: Overselling Broadband: A Critique of the Recommendations of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development
Author: Charles Kenny
Pages: 19 pp.
Publisher: Center for Global Development
Date (published): 08/12/2011
Date (accessed): 10/12/2011
Type of information: essay
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"The Broadband Commission for Digital Development is an ITU (UN International Telecommunications Union) and UNESCO–backed body set up to advocate for greater broadband access worldwide. The commission’s Declaration of Broadband Inclusion for All and other reports call for governments to support ubiquitous fixed broadband access as a vital tool for economic growth and to reach the Millennium Development Goals. Examining the evidence, however, shows that the benefits of broadband are being oversold. Several points stand out: (i) the evidence for a large positive economic impact of broadband is limited;
(ii) the impact of broadband rollout on achieving the MDGs would be marginal;
(iii) there is little evidence ubiquitous broadband is needed for ‘national competitiveness’ or to benefit from opportunities like business process outsourcing;
(iv) the costs of fixed universal broadband rollout dwarf available resources in developing countries; (and so)
(v) the case for government subsidy of fixed broadband rollout is very weak.

There are, however, some worthwhile policy reforms that could speed broadband rollout without demanding significant government expenditure."

Title: Undersea cables set to launch African bandwidth explosion
Author: Rowan Puttergill
Source: memeburn
Date (published): 28/11/2011
Date (accessed): 09/12/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Many years ago, I worked for UUNET Internet Africa in South Africa. I remember sitting in the Operations room and looking at an international undersea cabling map, which showed each and every cable connecting the different continents of the world. It used to amaze me that South Africa’s connection to the rest of the world was so fragile. If I remember correctly, we really relied on one or two undersea cables at the time. I believe one of them was SAT-2, which had a total bandwidth of 560Mbps to carry all of our international telecommunications and internet traffic. Meanwhile, up in the northern hemisphere the sea-bed was positively littered with cables connecting Europe and North America in a multitude of ways.
Things have changed though, and it seems that Africa is finally catching up. This week, Wasace Cable Company announced that it intends to lay fibre-optic cable that will connect four continents, including Africa, with a total bandwidth of 100Gbps.
This year has seen a massive surge in efforts to improve the undersea cabling that connects Africa to the rest of the world. Earlier in the year, work started on the WACS cable, a 14 000 km cable that will link South Africa to London. Its 15 terminal stations running up the West Coast of Africa will provide additional bandwidth to a number of countries, and will become the first direct connection to the undersea cable network for Namibia, the Congos and Togo. WACS should go live early in 2012, and will increase South Africa’s bandwidth by an estimated 23%.
But WACS isn’t alone..."