bridging the digital divide – access. content and skills

Nirvesh Sooful

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

African Ideas

Interactive Community Access Network

Node (ICANN) Bridging the digital divide – access. content and skills

Discussion Document Produced for the Western Cape Government (WCG), South Africa

Innovation Development Empowerment Action Solutions

African Ideas – who we are

• Strategic consultancy helping Governments to accelerate the benefits of ICT enabled change through transformation of the public sector and the wider economy. Operates primarily in the ICT4D space.

• Key projects

– Western Cape Broadband – Strategy & Digitisation Readiness Advisory Service

– Western Cape Municipal ICT roadmap

– Municipal Shared Service Solution (Cloud based)

– ICAN Centres (Digital Inclusion)

– WIFI Mesh (Rural – Saldanha, Urban – Khayelitsha & Mitchells Plain)

– Rethinking Libraries (Libraries of the future)

– Community spaces of the future

– E-enabling Education (utilising broadband)

“dropping a stone, or even a drop of water, in a pond causes ripples to

emanate from the source, getting bigger and bigger the further away from

the source they get.

This is a powerful example of small changes causing large and far-

reaching effects”

At African Ideas, we specialise in working with our clients to identify these „big

lever‟ projects – the projects which, when embarked upon, will set the

necessary ripples in motion to drive change and transformation throughout an

eco-system. In this way we aim to have a profound effect on the society in

which we operate.


ICT-related knowledge, skills and competences (e-Skills)

is important

• The development of the knowledge-based and innovation-driven economies and a society is not possible without having highly ICT-skilled (e-skilled) knowledge workers and digitally literate (e-literate) citizens (as consumers, clients, participants, friends, families and communities).

• ICT-related knowledge, skills and competences are critical for the growth of “new age” economies that indispensably require innovation and aggregation of resources, to achieve global competitiveness.

• In the South African context, e-skills are broadly defined as the ability of people to use and create all forms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to

– achieve equitable prosperity and global competitiveness in general, and

– to improve their life opportunities in:

• (i) personal and educational space,

• (ii) work environments,

• (iii) community interactions and

• (iv) participation in government processes.”

• 2012 National e-Skills Plan of Action (NeSPA)


Public Access is important

• Public access centres have been established worldwide to serve disadvantaged communities, and many countries have deployed a plethora of models in a bid to address digital divide issues.

• The Census 2011 indicates that the majority of South Africans do not have access to the internet. Important findings from the recently released New Wave Report provide a clear rationale for an expanded public access centre programme. The findings in this report indicate that “for most of those without access at home or work (about four out of five new users) our data shows that Internet cafés, and (to a lesser extent) schools and colleges, are often important point of access that may address some of these limitations of the mobile Internet and enable users to widen the range of online services that they use online”.

• A recently released report from the University of Washington Technology & Social Change Group found that public access venues play a critical role in extending the benefits of ICTs to large sections of the population, despite the expansion of mobile telephone access.

• They also state that “public access enables change in personal, social, economic, and other realms of life, by providing the technological and human tools (basic or advanced) that open up the information society to individuals”


Findings: Connecting Communities: Gap

• In the Metro, there are 44 (of the 110) wards that do not have libraries, so do not have Smart Cape (public ICT facilities)

• Other districts (and municipalities reflected left

• Gap across Western Cape on wards = 44 + 189 = 233

• Represents 60% of all wards

• International metric & Statistic SA data – +/- 1,500 to 2,700 Telecentres needed

• National Target - Public ICT Access within a 2 km radius of anyone by 2019

• – implies much more than 2700.

• Not achievable, affordable or sustainable in PGWC context.

• Therefore as phase 1, chose wards (386) as a starting point


Connecting Communities • This is a project to integrate and expand shared public access to ICT facilities to

all communities in the Western Cape. Public ICT access facilities (e.g.

telecentres, Smart Cape, Cape Access, etc.) are a very important tool to provide

poor people with access to technology. It is being used extensively in both

developing countries and developed countries.

• A phased approach will be adopted

• Phase 1 will ensure that there are public ICT facilities in every ward by 2014.

There are 388 wards in the Western Cape, 233 (60%) of which do not currently

have public ICT facilities.

• Phase 2 will extend the public access footprint

to every voting district by 2018. There are

currently 1576 voting districts in the Western

Cape.

• Phase 3 will evaluate the situation post-Phase

2, determine the gap with the national targets at

that stage and put in place a strategy to close

the gap.

Across all three phases, sustainability models for

the public access facilities (including entrepreneur

driven models) will be explored.


ICANN

• These centres (ICANNs – Interactive Community Access Network Nodes) will be established along the principles of the Smart Community Knowledge Production Centres as articulated by the e-Skills Institute.

• Leverage insights from existing public access models, as well as entrepreneur models

• The WCG is driving the creation of an interactive community access network

(ICAN) as a network of spaces (community centres, public internet facilities,

schools, libraries, FET Colleges, Open Learning Centres, etc.) where the

community can leverage the online environment.

• Two new pilot centres (ICAN nodes) will be established as anchors of the

interactive community access network.


ICANNs

• They will be open spaces for learning, innovation and knowledge production.

• A key issue for these centres is the exploration of the social

entrepreneurship model.

• In this model government partners with local entrepreneurs to establish and

maintain public access centres.

• In this way business opportunities are created and the maintenance and

sustainability of the infrastructure is delegated to the entrepreneur.

• The objective of the pilot will be to design and test a model/framework aimed

at establishing stakeholder partnerships (establishing an ecosystem) with a

view of enhance and accelerating the delivery of e-skills initiatives in

communities i.e. get to mass scale.

• The medium term intention is that the ICAN will reach every ward in the

Western Cape and that existing facilities (Cape Access, Smart Cape,

Thusong Centres, FET Colleges, schools, etc.) will be integrated into the

ICAN.


What is an ICANN?


ICAN Community & Commercial Services zone The ICAN Community and Commercial Services zone is

the core of the centre. It provides all of the support and

shared services to the other zones. At a minimum, it

consists of:

• Public ICT Access Facilities (minimum of 10

computers)

• Community space (with free wifi access). This will

include open seating and could incorporate a coffee

shop/ food court type of environment. This must allow

for a “bring your own device” (BYOD) model. This

space will also have TV facilities. Note: as far as

possible, the centre must promote the use of non-

propriety technology and utilise open standards.

• Services - Faxing, printing, lamination, binding,

Copying, Certification, etc.

• Facilities for other Commercial Services – ICT sales

and support, Courier (Postnet type of services),

Community Telephone, Airtime Sales, web sites for

local businesses, CV development, Digital photography

and Videoing, etc.

• A longer term objective would be the support of

mechanisms related to buying and selling electronically

(supported by a logistics solution provider) to open up

market opportunities for communities (both physical

and digital services).

• Management services – staffing, security, logistics, etc.


ICAN Study zone The ICAN Study zone is specifically equipped to

support learners and members of the community

who are studying. It is intended to be a quieter,

more study oriented space. It is also intended that

this is a supervised zone and that a linkage with the

schools in the area would be established. This

zone is also necessary to prevent the school

learners from overwhelming the facilities once

school ends (as is currently being experienced). It

consists of:

• Kids homework/ tuition area - Desks & other

Communal homework space

• Research PCs (minimum 10)

• Informal seating (beanbags, etc)

• Digital Library (electronic collections). Note that

this is intended to be a virtual collection that

would serve the entire centre, and eventually,

the entire ICAN. For the pilot, this would be a

demonstration of the concept utilising resources

that are freely available. Discussions would

need to be had with Library Services about

incorporating paid-for electronic collections.


ICAN Learn zone

The ICAN Learn Zone is intended to support

various community learning initiatives. It is

essentially a training centre incorporated within the

ICAN centre, It will be shared between school

learners and the rest of the community. It will

consist of:

• Classroom based Training facilities (2 x training

rooms/ virtual classrooms, 20 computers each)

• Computer based training (CBT) facilities for e-

learning (individual facilities) – 10 dedicated E-

Learning workstations

• Testing and accreditation centre – 2 computers


ICAN Create zone

The ICAN Create zone is a space for community

innovation, local knowledge creation and

entrepreneurship. It will consist of

• Local Content creation lab - Recording facilities,

sound, multimedia, video production, etc. – 6

specialised workstations (at least 1 sound

studio).

• Innovation space (touch, human interaction

technologies, motion enabled computing, etc.)

• Workshop space (with video conferencing).

Note that video conferencing must be integrated

throughout the facility. The workshop space just

needs to have the facility for group based video

conference facilities. Also note that the intention

is not to make a high end, professional video

conference facility available – it is rather to use

a low cost, freely available solution like Skype or

Google Hangouts. A high end video conference

facility could be a commercial opportunity

should the market need arise.

• Incubation space (with fee based WIFI)


ICAN Play zone

The ICAN Play zone is a gaming lab. Research is

starting to indicate that the right type of video

games and interactive media can have a positive

impact on self-efficacy which

increases resilience, optimism, and motivation.

The ICAN Centres are about digitisation – it is

about getting mass adoption of technology to

improve people’s lives. It is also about access,

content and skills. It is focussed on driving

adoption of broadband enabled solutions at

community level.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/resilience

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/optimism

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation


Possible site – community centre in Cape Town

Township


Possible site

10

metres x

24metres

Double

Volume

small

hall Existing Smart

Cape and small

gaming lab (not

full building)

Side Entrance -

not being used


Possible site


Safmarine Container Sports Centre


Possible site

Ground Floor (half) - Study

Zone & Public Internet Access

Ground Floor (half) – Play

Zone

Mezzanine (half aprox 10 x 10

metres i.e.100 sqm) –

Workshop/ meeting space

Mezzanine (half aprox 10 x 10

metres i.e.100 sqm) – Create

Zone

Outside + Containers –

Community Plaza &

Commercial Zone

Coffee shop, commercial

services, incubation space, e-

learning pods, data centre, etc.

Learn Zone (training centre)

Contact Details: [email protected], www.slideshare.net/nsooful

Interactive Community Access Network

Node (ICANN) Bridging the digital divide – access. content and skills

Thank You & Discussion

21

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bridging the digital divide – access. content and skills

Business

cape access

public ict access facilities

shared public access

public access venues

important point of access

digital divide access

public sector

ictrelated knowledge