Thought Up

Measuring the measures which measure Community Informatics knowledge

laban78 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:12:40 +0000

A historical European city where every stone shout a bit of a human adventure; an Italian end of autumn with threats of inundation, and an economical and political seism: that was the stage and the atmosphere for the conference.
CIRN Prato 2011 conference was an opportunity for gauging the edge of understanding and innovation in the field of Community Informatics (CI), as it theme was suggesting: To measure or not to measure?
The conference was held, between the 9th and 11th of November 2011, at the Monash University Centre in Prato situated in the historic centre of the city. Sessions were divided in the various rooms with very Italian names like Sala Grolo, Veneziana or Toscana. The program included a Phd Colloquium chaired by Dr. Peter Day; an insightful workshop directed by Dr. Peter Brodie Miller on how to set up Telecentres and CTC; and a very exciting Unconference event which interrogated how to go about delivering CI using indigenous knowledge, theories or instinct chaired by Dr. Aldo de Moor.
The organisers, chaired by Larry Stillman and Aldo de Moor, brought us Prof. Geoff Walsham and Dr. Andy Williamson who delivered key notes speeches respectively around the elements of institutionalisation in digital inclusion projects in developing countries; and around the fact that UK government is playing catch ups with suitable legislation and eParticipation uptake, and that there is a need for a civil servant championing e-engagement processes.
Participants came from around the world: UK, USA, Ireland, Switzerland, Italia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon (for those I can remember).
Refereed stream contributions went to tackle the issue of measurement touching the use of theories, hypothesis testing, case studies, storytelling, benchmarking and other maturity models, for issues related to digital inclusion, innovative interactive media (public display), activism, development, and eParticipation.
Dr. Day who was coming from Kenya where he runs a CI program as a visiting Professor, subjugated the audience with pictures and clips of local communities getting to championing their own way to go about spreading ICT for development initiatives around. And Prof. Fiorella de Cindio visited the venue and added her voice to the common feeling of the need to look for and develop community champions for the uptake of ICT.
The gathering to get some answers has created more questions, thrusting debate to continue beyond this year Prato event, amongst CI practitioners and academics; until next year when progress will be again garnered in order to envision a new way forward, new questions.

MELISSA project final event

laban78 — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:52:12 +0000

The MELISSA team

It was during one of these sunny days ending Spring, on the 7th of October 2011 at The Auditorium of the Bellville Campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT); the MELISSA project (Measuring E-Learning Impact in primary Schools in South African disadvantaged areas) was having an event closing a year of research work. Cape Town school teachers who took part in the project were acknowledged for their achievements made during the whole process.

For the occasion, Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni from the Università della Svizzera italiana (University of Lugano, Switzerland) was visiting the country and shared his depth on the meanings, importance and benefits of eLearning for individuals, their communities, educational institutions and teachers. In addition, Madame Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, eLearning researcher and former deputy president of the Republic of South Africa attended the event and shared with the audience her experience conducting empirical research in various places including Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape.

: Prof. Cantoni

Madame Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

: Prof. Chigona

: Prof. Bytheway

Leading researchers in the MELISSA project, Professor Wallace Chigona of UCT, and Professor Andy Bytheway of CPUT chaired the session. Prof. Chigona in his address pointed out the importance of the context in the spread of eLearning in Africa; while Prof. Bytheway presented the findings unveiling unexpected outcomes including the fact that one of the major accomplishment of the project was teacher’s achievement of confidence in using ICT which is a strong determinant to it adoption.

The event ended up with the distribution of certificates, photos and a sumptuous lunch.

Attending the first ACSEAC 2011

laban78 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:58:47 +0000

The opportunity to attend to the first African Conference on Software Engineering and Applied Computing or ACSEAC 2011 was offered to me and I grabbed it. The event was held in Cape Town at the Ritz hotel in Sea Point between 19th and the 21st of September 2011. Delegates came from all the world including Madagascar, Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda, India, USA, UK, Cameroon and Kenya. The cultural mix was great and every one tasseled an understandable English for the other to understand.

The program comprehended a Doctoral symposium, papers presentation and tutorials. It was all design to add to curricula followed by African students some exposition to cutting edge development to which they lack an access to. An emphasis is given to women empowerment in research with a travel grant to encourage them to follow that career.

Contributions reflected the African perspective on Software Engineering, showing off a creative and dynamic environment where passion still holds.

The conference is supported by leading Universities, organisations and societies in software Engineering like the University of Cape Town, IEEE, Microsoft Research, Google, or Springer.

As a young initiative, any other support from African countries and others might be of great help to position the continent as a destination for Software Engineering knowledge.

The next event will take place next year in Nairobi – Kenya, the ACSEAC2012.

Hope to see you all there.

ZAWWW2011 at Witts Business School

laban78 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:50:42 +0000

The South African conference on World Wide Web applications was held last week between 13 and 16 of September 2011. The annual event was at it 13th tenure and for this time, it was held in Johannesburg, at the Witts Business School. As usual, academics and aspirant academic flocked and discussions exploded around e-Government, e-Society, e-Learning, The Internet of things, the latest trend on the web, and more topics and creative contributions.

Key note speakers from the industry, government and other related field of study like paleontology brought lights on some curiosity which wouldn’t have got a relevance to ICT anywhere else.

International delegates were also part of the event and enjoyed the South African cuisine and the tour at the Cradle of man kind museum.

Next year is full of promises where a new breath is to be found for the conference as the changes on the web and on societies are growing.

The Oracle 2010 SAOUG conference

laban78 — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:52:31 +0000

The South African Oracle User Group conference was held from the 31^st of October to the 2nd of November 2010 at the Cape Town International conventional Center (CTICC).

Delegates came from around the world to discover Oracle new offers and solutions for enterprise resource planning (peoplesoft), middleware (Fusion), IT service management, cloud computing, data warehousing and storage systems (software and hardware).

Speakers were numerous and various origins as delegates; and from Oracle or from its partners

Most Oracle South Africa partners were present and exhibited their services. They were represented by high level management ready to catch up opportunities and turn them in business on the go.

The novelty and important value were on the technology advances on cloud computing, security and governance compliance.

The CPUT – Faculty of Informatics and Design IDEA 2010 conference: little report on the event

laban78 — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:45:28 +0000

From 29th to the 30th of October 2010 was held within the faculty of Informatics and Design, the first Informatics and Design Evolutionary Advances (IDEA) conference. The venue was the Mark building on Roeland Street. It was a wrap up seminary organised under the Dean’s patronage, gathering all postgraduate (Masters’ and Doctorates) students of the faculty as well as their supervisor. The two days program of presentation, posters presentation and panel discussions, was high in colours with artistic minds meeting with computing thoughts to unfold a human touch that take over ICTs (mobile, Internet, WWW, etc), use of technology (Information systems, IT service management, eGovernment, etc) and design (interior, environmental, industrial, graphic …).
Fellow researchers were expected to make a presentation or a poster on their research work progress and their personal experience in the exercise. More than 30 came along and shared insights.

There were 5 keynote speakers: The Dean Prof. Johannes Cronje who opened the event around the still unavoidable Burrell and Morgan (1979) paradigms of social theory quadrant, then came Anton Delen emphasizing crucial points in home base health care systems design, then Byron Qually shared his experience in the industry fuelling his research around, then came Taurai Chikoti who talked about his life as a student running after the requirements of the masters degree, and finally Laban Bagui covered the delicate roles of eParticipation in government for South Africa.
The posters were on display on the walls and showed off creative expressions of research.

Other presentations were streamlined in two sub-venues (dance floor and board room) and organised in main topics.
Prof. Andrew Bytheway moderated the panel discussions at the end of every day.

Best presentation and poster were awarded to the industry well known lecturer and IT consultant Roderick Lim Banda talking about ” the adoption of Agile Practice in an implementation and to Francois touching on greening design.

The conference closed on a happy note: it will definitely become custom and will improve over the years, making it an enticing platform to rooting research within the faculty.

The organising Committee was constituted by:
Prof. Cronje J. (Initiation, supervision and advice)
Prof. Pieter van Brakel (Supervision and advice)
Dr. Retha De la Harpe (Supervision and advice)
Mrs Alettia Chisin (Supervision and advice)
Miss Mary Maina (Conference executive chair)
Miss Adelina kikonga (Conference secretary)
Mrs Fahimeh Foudazi (Conference executive secretary)
Miss Julia (Facilitator)
Miss Connie Mpiti (facilitator)
Mr Courtley Pharao (facilitator)
Mr Mohammed Osman (facilitator)
Mr Godwishes (Session chair)
Mr Laban Bagui (Conference chair)

Burrell, G.; & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis: Elements of the sociology of corporate life. London: Heinemann.

The 2010 ZAWWW Internationnal conference in Durban

laban78 — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:30:14 +0000

That was the face I was showing when arrived at Durban to attend to the ZAWWW2010 international conference. I was comming to present my paper: “Listening to the ground: web and mobile technology options for public participation in government.” The paper was about Critical success Factors for e-Participation initiatives.

Numerous speakers talked about various topics from report about India impacted with Internet, Egypt eGovernement implementation successes, Pick and Pay dealing with it online venue issues, Ernst & Young engaging on KingIII, and other cyberwarfare and electronic extensions or supplement to physically impaired people. The University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN), Wesville Campus, Graduate School of Business (GSB).

The campus is sited on top of a hill and allow a unique view of surroundings, just like being on top of everything.

We were offered the opportunity of a visit of the port.

Enriching conference, nice trip on an inspiring boat … and it was done of the 2010 ZAWWW international conference.

We are looking forward going to Johannesburg next year at the Witwatersrand University.

2010 ICSE in Cape Town

laban78 — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:41:17 +0000

The 32nd International Conference on Software engineering was held in Cape Town at the International convention center. It was from the 2nd to the 8th of may 2010.

The event was great and delegations came from all around the world to show off best and last of breed in the domain.

The Cape IT Initiative exposed the software industry in an impressive exhibition show case figuring an ecosystem where trees were bearing posters of success stories of the Capetonian entrepreneurs and their businesses.

It was also a place for students to discover the field and the careers opportunities available.

Here is a presentation prepared for the occasion: Expanding your horizon: Becoming the next mobile technology mogul

Next year, 2011 ICSE will take place in May 21-28, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

Looking forward to attend that event

The third IEEE Software Engineering Colloquium in Cape Town

laban78 — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:58:49 +0000

Jenny an Me

It was a great event very well organised by CITI (the Cape IT initiative). The issues disscussed were around the recognition and acknowledgment of experience, as well as innovation.; The skills crisis, the industry marketing of the industry to the world as best of breed destination, the launch of the ‘heroes’ campaign’ which will tell the success stories of South African software entrepreneurs; and more others. There are pics of the end of the event:

The public of engineers and academics

The organisers

The Betavine developper day in Cape Town

laban78 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:52:56 +0000

Hello all,
On Tuesday the 10th of March, Cape Town was hosting the first Betavine developer day. stephen Wolack was there, flanked with people from Praekert Foundation and of course Vodacom.
The event started around 10:00 am (Pretoria time) with various presentations from sponsors and social entrepreneurs. Marlon Parker, for the Reconstructed Living Lab emphasized the opportunity of mobile technology in reaching people lives and bringing positive change in there, in his presentation “The social revolution: Rise of the mobile phone”.
Preakert foundation unveiled innovative ways of using technology like with their project called Masiluleke which educate people by sending messages in miss calls. We even learn from them various other use of USSD (Unstructured Service Supplementary Data) service.

Then came the challenge time with the present public asked to give solutions to problems depicted on the Betavine BSX website. There were prices and 11 teams. Four (4) teams were rewarded for their work.

And the day finished around a bottle of beer and a nice talk