Love from Finland: the conclusion of an academic journey

Filed under SAFIPA capacity building by Kerryn on 31 January, 2011 at 12:37 pm {no comments}

Alexi and Fiona brave the snow in the city center of Helsinki.

It is almost time for the two students who have been living and studying in Finland for the past six months to return home to South Africa.  The SAFIPA editorial team caught up with Fiona Wilson and Alexandros (Alexi) Yeratziotis to ask them to reflect on their experiences, the practices that they have learned and how this knowledge exchange has created impact in their lives.

What has been the most memorable moment – either professionally or socially – for you during this knowledge exchange which has seen you relocate to Finland for the duration?

Fiona: Whilst it is pretty difficult to single out anything specific, I would say that the overall experience has been incredibly memorable. Professionally, I think one could learn quite a lot from the way in which the working space at the Strategic Usability Research Group is set up: in terms of the physical space, the professional setup and the social interaction.  It’s welcoming, relaxed and also very productive. There is also a Design Factory where students work on projects and this is a very impressive space – creative, fun and very well resourced.

Alexi: Considering it from the social perspective, it was memorable in Winter to walk on the sea which is actually frozen and covered with snow. Seeing people walk deep into the frozen ‘sea’ and doing activities such as walking, skiing and fishing on this thick ice was amazing.

If you could, what academic process that is practised in Finland would you choose to take home with you to incorporate into your university?

Fiona: There are quite a few that could be beneficial. Each year, doctoral students set aside about a month to take a fresh look at their literature review and to update themselves on any new developments in the field. Students here also work on real world projects all the time and this is a good way of getting experience of working with companies and implementing methodologies that have been learned on courses. Course work, combined with project work, is really a crucial aspect of studying usability and should definitely form a significant part of a university programme.

Alexi: There are a few processes that would be beneficial to postgraduate students and staff back home. One that stands out for me is the electronic system used in Finland for writing papers and articles. The author(s) of a paper or article submit related information about the article into the system; information such as author, purpose and the conference or journal where it is to be submitted. Therefore, there is a clear indication as to what each person is currently working on and what research contributions will be made in a particular period. This also creates the possibility for other researchers to jointly participate in the paper that is being written.  Alternatively, an author may also request assistance via the system as well to which other researchers can then respond. It is an effective tool for collaboration and producing a high number of papers and articles. (more…)

Leaking taps and SimCity … the relevance of ‘i3dlos’ and 3d simulations to Africa

Filed under ICT and Education by Kerryn on 31 January, 2011 at 12:15 pm {no comments}

The Naledi3d Factory, located at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria uses Virtual Reality (VR) to create visual learning content. VR enables the creation of learning material that is both content- as well as context-rich, in realistic, engaging three-dimensional environments.

As Dave Lockwood, Naledi3d project lead states,

We believe that its potential for learning and skills development in Africa is boundless, and luckily, today we can bring this powerful visual communication medium to modern PCs and to many communities.”

interactive 3D graphics like this one can show residents how easy it is to replace washers and taps.

In Africa, where poor literacy skills and language barriers pose huge challenges to learning and skills development, VR comes into its own. It’s intensely visual nature transcends literacy and language barriers by being able to “show” as opposed to the more conventional “approach of telling”. VR has a distinct and powerful edge over other more traditional approaches which ignore the intensely powerful visual nature of the human brain.

A global first in Africa

Interestingly, the Naledi3d Factory is unique globally in its work exploring this innovative approach, namely, using VR to communicate concepts to people in developing communities. Over the ten years that the Naledi3d team has been developing these ideas, they have built an enviable track record and reputation for their work. For example, their work with emerging farmers in Zimbabwe was selected by the World Summit Awards (WSA) in 2009 for a special mention as “one of the most outstanding examples of creative and innovative e-Content” (selected from 20 000 nominations from 157 countries!).

Used correctly, VR can easily address the need to present locally relevant knowledge in a way that is compatible with local value systems and local needs.

The visual appeal of inteactive3d learning objects

As part of their work in this domain, the Naledi3d Factory has also pioneered the concept of VR-based “interactive3d learning objects” (i3dlos) – a new, effective learning tool that marries interactive visual communication with the concept of the learning-object.

The key to the success of i3dlos lies in the interactive nature of the medium. Other, more traditional digital learning approaches rely on video and animation – which tend to be passive and one-way in nature. The visual, interactive nature of i3dlo’s means that the learner continually engages, which leads to higher levels of comprehension and knowledge retention.  A visual approach to learning is also underpinned by how learning actually takes place (i.e. the neuro-cognitive system) which responds most effectively to visual stimuli and mental images. Therefore, “by using VR to show concepts and knowledge in a visual way, we can dramatically enhance the level of understanding of any subject.” So said Eli Gudza, who is the executive director of World Links Zimbabwe in September 2007.

(more…)

CampusNet signs strategic agreement with PEACE Foundation

Filed under ICT and Education by Kerryn on 31 January, 2011 at 11:45 am {no comments}

The view inside a flexibly designed training pod; one of the CampusNet solutions.

An innovative and holistic approach to providing education and training to South Africans has been conceptualized by South African company CampusNet. The pilot initiative, which is being supported by SAFIPA, aims to deliver effective, low cost education, training, information and communication services to a network of geographically dispersed community college and study centres around South Africa.

There are a number of challenges commonly recognised by stakeholders working in the South African educational context, namely, access to materials, especially in a digital format, affordability for the project itself in terms of rolling out and implementation, and for the end-user in terms of their own financial capacity to engage with technologies. It follows that often sustainability of initiatives is often the most problemmatic.

CampusNet’s system involves a variety of innovative solutions to meet these problems. This includes finding solutions for areas where there are no resources whatsoever. Thus along with providing for the development and sharing of educational materials, and the provision of administrative support, the CampusNet solution even includes establishing the physical spaces where the technology can be housed.

The 360 degree solution

CampusNet has conceptualized Study Centres which are ‘points of presence’ within communities which will include communications networks to facilitate the distribution of content to these centres.

An additional layer to the project is the centralised technological distribution hub from which student, financial and administrative systems will be run to all the centres. Included are education and training course materials from a variety of sources throughout Africa. The system allows the delivery of a variety of educational programs including online live instructor-led sessions, and is backed by a comprehensive library of courseware and content.

CampusNet also aims to provide opportunities to entrepreneurs who will be involved in both the ownership and management of the educational and training centres.

CampusNet is committed to establishing 450 community colleges and study centres over the next five years.

In meeting their mandate, CampusNet will actively promote the virtues of study, wisdom, hard work, and cultural pride by developing each learner’s own abilities in becoming responsible and independent citizens through participatory citizenship and social entrepreneurship.

Partnership with PEACE

CampusNet is pleased to announce that it has signed a MOA with the PEACE Foundation South Africa, the aim of which is for CampusNet as one of the implementation partners to install the CampusNet MIS at nine existing PEACE centres located in the Limpopo and Kwa Zulu Natal provinces.

The Foundation is a non-profit organisation that aims to alleviate rural poverty through sustainable Local Economic Development (LED) via The P.E.A.C.E. Model. This model facilitates the provision of centralised community access to information, with a focus on the cooperative model and improved educational standards. The model also aims to include the provision of converted containers known as PEACE Pods supplied by Thorne Container Solutions.

Nora Tager, the Executive Director of the PEACE Foundation and an Ashoka Fellow, comments that the provision of the CampusNet educational facility, including a large range of content and centralised administrative and financial control, will greatly enhance the lives of the communities in which the foundation operate. She adds that the stand alone provision of MindSet material to school students in these communities last year led to overall pass rates increasing from 10% to 73%.

The symbiotic partnership between CampusNet and PEACE promises to enable both these initiatives to meet their goals.

Infopreneurs®: A new paradigm in understanding how ICT enabled networks can enhance development actions

Filed under Inclusion, Accessibility and Community Connectivity, Uncategorized by Kerryn on 31 January, 2011 at 11:21 am {no comments}

Rensie and Infopreneur® Phophi on location, discovering the breathing stone in the Nzhelele valley.

Working within the CSIR Meraka Institute’s stable of innovators and scientists is a team of accomplished practitioners involved in the CSIR Citizens Information Services (CSIR CIS). This programme undertakes research, development and implementation (RDI) of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the African development context.  The team, led by Johann (Rensie) van Rensburg, has spent the better part of twenty years investigating solutions to empower South Africa’s marginalised communities through the use of information and communication technologies.

In recent years, the team’s combined expertise has evolved a fundamental shift within the ICT4D arena.  Development solutions have moved beyond the identification and creation of technological tools and processes as the foundations for development, to a prioritisation of the actions of individuals, enterprises and organisations who together form a network through which local skills and resources emerge and grow to deliver on the developmental mandate.  This paradigm shift has resulted in the creation of what is termed the Infopreneur® network wherein people are  the key to expanding the economic value chain to create opportunities for new entrants.  According to a paper collaboratively written in 2010 by van Rensburg and his colleagues, Braam Cronje and Uys du Buisson,  the importance now is to “validate and understand an ICT-enabled, sustainable network of enterprises.”

The networked community

Since 1994, the team has undertaken research and development in South Africa’s developing economy with emphasis placed on the deployment of services and resources for rural communities.  It has been over the last six years, however, that a business model for sustained delivery – which includes active involvement by stakeholders at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) – has been implemented and tracked.  Van Rensburg’s team is currently investigating how the networked community which is involved in delivering economic and social solutions within their communities, can be scaled-up and sustained.

The concept of the community Infopreneur® – a person who facilitates partnerships and processes between community actors and service providers within the value chain – works  in harmony with the notion of so-called Living Labs. Over the years, the team has experienced the benefits of the Living Lab approach which draws all stakeholders into a real-world context where there is both shared risk in terms of the research and commercialisation processes as well as shared success.   Similarly, the idea of the Community Infopreneur®  is to be an active, sustainable approach to rural empowerment, where the Infopreneur® is a key change agent who is embedded into the network to support the creation and facilitation of products and services.  According to van Rensburg et al, Infopreneurs® act as “information highway bridge builders …  [with the aim of] eventually enabling ‘intelligence-based’ niche production and export.”

The Infopreneurs® and the value chain

Infopreneurs® are local people living in – and understanding – local conditions and dynamics.  They are supported by a strong chain of stakeholders, including a back office which is set up by the CSIR.  The back office provides start-up resources and establishes strategic partnerships with public-sector departments and private corporations where necessary.  In close contact with the back office is the Regional Infopreneur® (RIP) who is supported directly by the CSIR Meraka Institute. The RIP not only has a wide skills-set and qualifications to manage the diverse relationships along the value chain, but will depend on the income generated by the network for services people are prepared to pay for.   The Community Infopreneur®, working closely with enterprises and people at the community level, is supported and guided by the Regional Infopreneur® and also has to build a set of income-generating services to justify their own existence. (more…)

YESA: A passport for improved STEMI skills in South Africa

Filed under ICT and Education by Daniela White on 27 January, 2011 at 11:00 am {no comments}

If Dr Ron Beyers could give the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, some advice on how to improve the Matric pass rate for 2011, especially in Mathematics and Science, he would urge her to instill the youth of South Africa with a love of these subjects, taking a holistic, long-term approach that includes the broader community, such as parents. “I believe that far too often the problem is addressed by looking at it through a straw. A Grade 12 result is not based on a year’s work but is the culmination of a lifetime of schooling up to that point. Addressing the problem has to take into consideration factors as far back as pre-school where often a learner’s interest in STEMI may be stimulated or simply not activated.”

The long-term uptake of Maths and Science by South African youth is of particular interest to Dr Beyers, as his SAFIPA funded-project, Young Engineers and Scientists for Africa (YESA) is aimed at increasing the pipeline of Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Innovation (STEMI).

A Science and Maths passport for all children

YESA initiatives are targeted at children from Grades 0-12 and are designed to supplement the national curriculum in a stimulating and challenging environment to promote creativity and innovation.   All interventions are aimed at addressing the gaps in the development stages of their education, providing support to learners through a broad range of activities, and to encourage learners to continue studies in the field of Science after they have matriculated.

The two major projects currently being undertaken by YESA are My YESA Passport and FabKids. My YESA Passport is a digital platform that allows children to track their participation in Science- and Maths-related activities over the course of their school career. They register and populate the site (their ‘passport’) with their information, and set goals for what they hope to achieve over the next five year. Their participation in events, both formal and informal, such as SciFest, are recorded on the platform, with the view to gathering “360-degree evidence of learning” in both formal and informal environments, that are accumulated to create a ‘lifetime record’ that reflects their involvement and interests in STEMI activities. (more…)

Geeks gather at the SAFIPA-Meraka Code Sprint

Filed under ICT and Education by Daniela White on 26 January, 2011 at 5:12 pm {no comments}

Attendees of the 2009 SAFIPA-Meraka Code Sprint

The 2011 SAFIPA-Meraka Code Sprint Programme is currently underway, having kicked off on 10 January with fourteen students from around the country gathering at the Meraka Institute in Pretoria to test and strengthen their coding skills and gain insight into software development for more formal or commercial projects.

A 2009 Accenture Benchmarking report found that seven out of ten companies believed that tertiary institutions did not provide students with sufficient technical skills required in the market place.  Thus, Meraka’s Code Sprint Programme was developed to introduce students to real-world coding scenarios, where they can contribute to affect positive change in society through developing and deploying new local applications and frameworks.

A code-sprint, also known as a ‘hackathon’, is popular in the development of software in the Open Source community. It provides the perfect opportunity for students with a range of skills to work closely together in a short period of time on a defined project, while being guided and mentored by experienced technical leads, ultimately producing a significant amount of code that is contributed back to the Open Source community.

During this year’s event, the participants will tackle three major sprints. The first sprint is Beachcomber, which is a BEarer Agnostic CHatter COMBiner and is part of the research and development objectives of the Internet of Things Engineering Group (IoTEG).  Dr Louis Coetzee, who is the Code Sprint Programme leader, explained, “Beachcomber allows humans to communicate with physical ‘things’ using a wide variety of Internet technologies. The Beachcomber code-sprinters will be writing various utilities to enable Beachcomber to be used to catalogue and monitor trees on the CSIR campus.”

The second sprint, called Afrimesh, focuses on assisting citizens in developing countries to communicate with each other using wireless mesh-networks and other technologies. Dhiren Seetharam, the Code-Sprint Programme project manager,  elaborated, “Over the next month the sprint team will be looking at problems experienced by South Africans living in rural areas and identify specific human relationships that can help to address those problems. By building information and communications channels to foster and support these relationships we hope to help rural communities do much more with the limited means at their disposal.” (more…)

SAFIPA presents capacity building programme for ICT entrepreneurs

Filed under SAFIPA capacity building by Thiru Swettenham on 26 January, 2011 at 4:40 pm {no comments}

Group photo of attendees of the ICT and Mobile Business Building programme

In November 2010, SAFIPA embarked on an initiative co-hosted by the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) to present  an ICT capacity building programme. This programme was specifically designed after soliciting feedback from SAFIPA project leaders and to fulfill SAFIPA’s mandate to develop institutional capacity for existing and emerging ICT entrepreneurs.  The ICT and Mobile Business Building Programme aims to assist existing and emerging entrepreneurs with insight, skills and training opportunities so that they are more equipped with the essentials of engaging in successful entrepreneurial activities. The programme consists of five separate modules presented over a five to six month period, thereby providing an opportunity for participants to embed and implement their learning after their training sessions.  The modules consist of both business (entrepreneurship) and technology skills development, in addition to two sessions focussing exclusively on the mobile sector.

Every effort has been made by the SAFIPA and RIIS to ensure that the content provided at these training sessions are relevant to emerging entrepreneurs in the developing country context and that there are local examples, resources and networks that the participants can engage with. The first session on Technology Entrepreneurship in November and the second on Funding Opportunities in December were well attended with a total of 110 participants. We have also observed a core group of participants who are developing strong linkages, networks and are discussing areas of collaboration thus also fulfilling the third component of SAFIPA’s strategy in developing an extensive ICT institutional network. (more…)

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The SAFIPA Newsletter

The final SAFIPA Newsletter, Spring 2011

This is the final edition of the SAFIPA newsletter. The month of November 2011, marks the conclusion of this dynamic initiative.



This newsletter pays tribute to the SAFIPA programme in the form of commentary and insights gathered during the very successful SAFIPA 2011 Conference. Project partners from the MFA, DST and CSIR Meraka Insitute applaud the programme. And SAFIPA supported projects have a final opportunity to showcase their innovations and processes.



[Download the PDF version ]



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