published by dwesaadmin on Tue, 06/04/2013 - 17:57
This year, the IST-Africa Conference and Exhibition was hosted at the Safari Park Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya on the 29th to the 31st of May 2013. The event, which was the 8th of its series, and was attended by approximately 400 delegates, mainly from Africa and Europe. It featured 11 exhibition stands and 45 Parallel Sessions with representatives from public, private, education and research organisations in 40 countries (22 African and 18 European).
Mathe and I (Sibukele) attended on behalf of the Siyakhula Living Lab. Our contributions towards towards this conference were as follows:
I made a short Siyakhula Living Lab presentation in an intervention session on Tuesday the 28th in the Annual Living Labs Working Group Meeting. This group meeting was intended to discuss the potential of leveraging Living Labs methodologies for socio-economic development.
Two Siyakhula Living Lab papers were presented at the parallel sessions at the conference. Mathe presented a paper entitled ‘A Look into Classification: Towards Building an Indigenous Knowledge Platform for Educational Use’ in the Technology-Enhanced learning session, while I presented ‘eSkills Training on Communal Fixed Infrastructure as an Activator of Personal Use of Mobile Internet’ in a Living Labs to Support Skills Development session.
More information on the conference is available here.
published by dwesaadmin on Thu, 05/02/2013 - 07:26
On behalf the Siyakhula Living Lab rural communities and university researchers, I would like to humbly thank the presence of attendees from national, provincial and local government, industry, academia and other entities, at the celebration in Dwesa. The huge turnout, support and vibrancy (in the rain and cold) meant quite a lot to us.
Some online articles so far are available at the following links:
published by dwesaadmin on Sat, 03/30/2013 - 11:56
It is our pleasure to invite you to the Siyakhula Living Lab celebration now finally confirmed for the 18th of April 2013, in Dwesa, in the former Transkei of the Eastern Cape. The official invitation, draft programme and information guide has also been attached for your convenience. The event will be an opportunity for:
relevant government and industry bodies to visit a ICT telecommunications deployment, based on fixed and mobile WiMAX, VSAT, open source software and thin clients, in a marginalized community;
individuals to gain a hands-on understanding on what the concept of ‘deep rural’ means;
showcase the fieldsite from which the Telkom Centres of Excellence in ICT4D and Distributed Multimedia derives their research projects.
published by dwesaadmin on Wed, 01/16/2013 - 08:49
The declaration by Communications Minister, Dina Pule underpins the initiative called the Siyakhula Living Lab, launched in 2006 by Rhodes University and the University of Fort Hare in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Development in a marginalised rural community in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.The 20 000 people who are part of this community live in what is known as ‘Dwesa’ in the Mbashe Municipality, close to the Wild Coast’s Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve. ....
Click here to read more on the Siyakhula Living Lab stakeholder experiences in this recently published 64 page document, courtesy of the Department of Marketing and Communication at Rhodes University.
published by dwesaadmin on Tue, 11/27/2012 - 11:14
By Adrienne Carlisle Source: Daily Dispatch, 19 November 2012
RHODES University’s Professor Alfredo Terzoli has won the 2012 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Technology award in the human resource development category. The awards recognise individuals and organisations that significantly contribute towards technology development and innovation in South Africa, Rhodes University said in a statement.
Terzoli, who heads the Telkom Centre of Excellence in distributed multimedia in the Computer Science Department at Rhodes University received the award for the centre’s ‘Mobile Services for Ubiquitous Communication and Multimedia Delivery’, or MobiSer, project at the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre in Kimberley last week.
published by dwesaadmin on Tue, 11/27/2012 - 10:06
Neziswa "Pinky" Mcinga was 23 years old and at a dead end when computers came to her community in the deep rural region of Dwesa on the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast. "I completed my matric in Dwesa in 2001 and afterwards I worked here and there as a domestic worker in East London, but what i really wanted to do was study, " explains Mcinga.Her prospects for tertiary education were nonexistent because her father, Fundile Mcinga, who raised her and who lives in Dwesa, is unemployed and lives on a disability grant...
Read more of this interesting article, featured on the 4th of November 2012, in South Africa's national newspaper City Press by clicking this link.
published by dwesaadmin on Fri, 09/14/2012 - 15:38
The Southern African Telecommunication, Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), this year celebrated its 15th anniversary. This Telkom Centre of Excellence (CoE) flagship event was held at Fancourt, in George, Western Cape, South Africa, from the 2nd to the 5th of September 2012. The theme, “The Internet of Things – Smart Homes & Cities" … Evolution or Tsunami, attracted 399 delegates from industry, operators, government and academia. SATNAC presents a platform to discuss the progress achieved in ICT applied research, an opportunity to share challenges affecting this industry and a chance for postgraduate students to network with leaders in the ICT industry.
published by dwesaadmin on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 10:47
An interactive Living Lab in Southern Africa workshop was hosted at Cape Town’s Clara Anna Fontein private game reserve on the 15th and 16th of May 2012. It was attended by over 25 delegates and featured presentations from the Department of Communication’s eSkills Knowledge Production Hubs and various European and South African Living Labs, including the Siyakhula Living Lab.
published by dwesaadmin on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 15:49
Look out for the recently released LED Progress South Africa 2011 publication which features the Siyakhula Living Lab as its 4-page front cover story! This 100+ page bi-annual LED SA bumper edition looks into the impact of ICT on poverty alleviation in rural areas, in the form of new ICT applications appropriate for rural areas.
This year, the IST-Africa Conference and Exhibition was hosted at the Safari Park Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya on the 29th to the 31st of May 2013. The event, which was the 8th of its series, and was attended by approximately 400 delegates, mainly from Africa and Europe. It featured 11 exhibition stands and 45 Parallel Sessions with representatives from public, private, education and research organisations in 40 countries (22 African and 18 European).
On behalf the Siyakhula Living Lab rural communities and university researchers, I would like to humbly thank the presence of attendees from national, provincial and local government, industry, academia and other entities, at the celebration in Dwesa. The huge turnout, support and vibrancy (in the rain and cold) meant quite a lot to us.
It is our pleasure to invite you to the Siyakhula Living Lab celebration now finally confirmed for the 18th of April 2013, in Dwesa, in the former Transkei of the Eastern Cape. The 
See below the Xhosa lyrics, as composed and sung by pupils from Lower Ngwane SPS ;-)....
Neziswa "Pinky" Mcinga was 23 years old and at a dead end when computers came to her community in the deep rural region of Dwesa on the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast. "I completed my matric in Dwesa in 2001 and afterwards I worked here and there as a domestic worker in East London, but what i really wanted to do was study, " explains Mcinga.Her prospects for tertiary education were nonexistent because her father, Fundile Mcinga, who raised her and who lives in Dwesa, is unemployed and lives on a disability grant...
