‘Business Unusual’

Whether business usual or unusual…too little too late but progress has been made.

2007 has come and disappear so will 2008, what is at stake remain contested among analysts and commentators. The ICT industry has experience positive development despite lot of SMEs being heavily affected. South Africa is poised to be the next biggest destination for ICT entrepreneurial development, of high concern in 2008 is the high level mergers and acquisitions, threatening the very existent of fair competition and complicated buy-outs.

 

Issues to look for in 2007;

Global ICT mergers and acquisitions,

Digital Broadcasting in public debate

ICT Executive changing posts, as buyers reshuffles

Aspects of IT going green: a new global movement

Business Process Outsourcing

Open Source debates

ICT Skills to reach a promising level in South Africa

 

Globally;

Google continues to own the internet (“Google is my life”)

The rise and fall of Yahoo!

Microsoft gain momentum,

More security concerns on social networking tools

Blogsphere gains more popularity

 

Like any other year, 2008 will be historical in the making, lets hope is business ‘unusual’ as planned; my hands are already on the desk.

 

Hope a great year!

 

Opportunities for young researchers in Africa

We are calling all young people in Africa and the rest of the world to submit their researched article/writings to the email shown below as part of an effort by young South Africans to write about the New Media technologies and Society. The journal will be firstly published online, with the title ‘ICT in Society’. Please regard this as urgent and perhaps send some questions to the project coordinator, Mr. Phuti Mosoame on 011 809 0009 or mobile on 076 191 0405, email:phutism@gmail.com Issues covered; Internet as a key facilitator to the knowledge economy- Economy, Newspapers and the NET, Advertising and the Internet ,Internet and Digital Divide, Online journalism, Is blogging journalism, art and culture, e-commerce, e-governance, e-health, Internet and AIDS: getting the message, Internet and the environment-reducing global warming?, Science and technology: the relationship, and many more. Yours truly, Phuti Mosomane, Southern Africa Initiative.

The WiMAX Africa Development Summit 2007

“Still making waves” you remember the book, yeah something like that, The WiMAX Africa Development Summit is ‘making waves’ through to our dairies as the hottest ICT gathering in 2007. Journalists have already booked their places, ICT researchers are concluding their presentations, and government leaders are preparing to meet the experts.

The summit is scheduled to be on the 6-7 and 8 August 2007 at the Southern Sun Grayston in Sandton, Johannesburg. The initial dates have been changed from the 25-26 June to 6,7 and 8 August due to a number of organsisations interested in participating in the event.

To explore prospects, innovations, development and challenges on the standard based technology; WiMax. The theme for this year’s summit is The Next Big Thing Broadband: WiMax’-prospects and challenges a perspective from the south.

The year 2007 has been crowned ‘season Broadband’, yet not much has been spoken and debated on the African soil about the extend to which WiMax will impact, revolutionarise or alter Africa’s dream of universal Access. A body of growing studies is emerging in developed world; institutes are being refocused on WiMax and its potential. None of this exists in emerging markets; is Africa going to miss another ‘lift’ to an information superhighway? This summit draws the attention of the world to the development of WiMax in developing world. However, in this context, we focus primarily on Africa.

As the producer of the Summit, I wish to extend a warm welcome to each one of you and hope that we will makes this event an interactive forum for debates, engagements and consultations. Lab Epitomy is proud to host the summit, while Computer Society of South Africa is promoting the summit on behalf of the ICT industry practitioners and the Information Technology Association (ITA) will endorse the summit. The Department of Communications will give a presentation, hence ICASA is expected to give a review of some regulatory challenges.

Download the registrations form here: Book Your Place

Let me know

Visit the Summit Online here

‘A ride into the Information Age’

Review by Phuti Mosomane

Welcome to 2007-major technological developmets are yet to take place this year! Apple revealled iPhone. Companies across the world continue to invest and deploy WiMax-a standard based technology headed by the WiMax Forum. Motorola sign a deal to help SA ‘s SNO , Neotel to carry the WiMax network in South Africa, as Intel partner with Telkom. Lab Epitomy will host a conference on Wimax title “The next Big Thing Broadband:WiMax Prospects an d Challenges a perspective from the South” in August 2007. Look on this site in early March for the full programe and vanues! Similar conferences were held in Asia, Europe and USA, but this one is the fisrt ever on the AFRICAN soil.

The Online Summit takes place in Kempton Park, South Africa-leading experts reveals challenges facing the online industry. This conference is attended by leading experts such as Arthur Goldstuck-a pioner on the use of technologies by business, and an MD of research firm World Wide Worx . NETucation takes to the consumers the first ever training course on “Social Networking”, the Parent’s Guide to MXit contine to received attention from IM users as the company (NETucation) that produced the Guide goes to high schools for public talks. This year NETucation lunch an Internet Cafe Directory, to help narrow the digital divide.

A winner of Highway Africa on the best innovative use of New Media in Africa, The Media columinist, regular TV commentator and my life time lecturer Prof. Tawana Kupe is appointed a new Dean of Humanities. The year 2007 will be a year in which ICT sector experience a boom that will extend well into 2010.

Picture Source: Office of Continuing Education, University of Wisconsin.

The Parent’s Guide to MXit

Do you believe that MXit is the cause of All evil?

There are debates about how MXit is promoting or creating cyber crime. Do you believe that this is true? Why?

Latest News in the World of Technology: MXit

Society and its people are increasingly living in an information age deeply characterized by information overload, that is transforming individual behaviors online. To live with this information Highway, we must guide our personal behaviors on how we engage with each other online. The reason why what you resist will persist is because social change is inevitable. The recent media debates about Mxit do not encourage innovations, they all relate to the how a new South African Technology breakthrough Mxit impact negatively on young mobile South African community. The issues at contest are not of black and white, though some may includes incidents of racial hatrate, hate speech, strong language and sexuality, Addiction, Abuse (cyber-bullying), Exploitation by Sexual Predators, Unregulated chat rooms. The report are quite unbalanced!!

 

It is disturbing that the media has chosen to focus only on the negative aspects and create an impression that MXit is the problem. The actually problem is how people use MXit.The issues at hand are of child protection against pedophiles and others, like any other Instant Massaging tool the sole aim of Mxit is to deepen social networking among mobile community by providing cheap communicative tools through chartroom. The second reasoning is that, Mxit remain an alternative media or grassroots form of communication tool, on which mobile South Africans can exchange their own views on local, national and global topics.But still, Mxit like many technology some use it to advance their own narrow minded objectives to harm and hurt others.

The reality is that , no doubt Mxit is revolutionaring the lives of many people particularly the youth, like with Cellphone or Internet banking users should avoid divulging their personal details, must always refuse personal chart instead should seek to remain on the open chartrooms where everybody can comment. It is on this point that most young people loss it all together, some users agree to go one on one chart privately and forget that on all virtual communities people are always strangers, they use fake identities, and false information about their life in general, one should however not be fearful of creating new friends, because thats the aim of chartrooms; create a virtual community on which all shall enjoy the freedom to exchange opinions on everything everywhere.

 

It all go back to the question of user responsibility, users chose to be addictive, i do not see a direct link between Mxit and users ‘ personal responsibility. Mxit as a content provider cannot be held responsible for users behaviour.The responsibility cannot either be on the network providers.Who has the responsibility? The answer is very very simple; the user.