The countries below contain a historic archive of information on the
state of the internet that is now three years old. For some
countries, the information has remained largely the same whereas for
others considerable change has occurred. However it can still be used
to identify organisations involved in developing the internet and to
understand the historic development of the Internet in Africa. For
up-to-date (but "pay-for") information click here:
There are special rates for students and universities.
DOWNLOADS ZONE
This is an area where you can download longer articles and reports of
interest. These will be updated as new material becomes available.
Download 1 (Word format, 875kb)
This IDRC-supported research study looks at how complaints by African consumers in the telecoms and Internet sectors are dealt with and what input consumer organisations are able to make into policy for these sectors. It is based on a survey of 30 African countries and includes detailed case studies of Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.
Download 2 Word document (255kb)
This chapter from the ITU's Global Trends in Telecommunications
Reform 2005 examines the market and regulatory implications of the
shift to IP networks and outlines the different types of responses
regulators are making to VoIP calling.
Download 3 (pdf format, 310kb)
Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop, Subbiah Arunachalam look at the use of Open
Access archiving as a way of improving scientific capacity building.
COMING SOON: THE INTERNET IN NAMIBIA AND E-COMMERCE AND
PRIVACY
Mali is a classic example of an African country where the
internet would appear to have little relevance. It has only 30,000
telephone lines and it takes 3 months to get one. Nonetheless
the number of people with internet access has gone from 500 to
5000 over two years. Emmanuel Dabou, one of the country's ISP
operators explains how things are changing.
If our correspondent is "off the mark" or you have
factual amendments, mail them to us and we will include them
in subsequent News Updates. If you'd like to contribute, write
and let us know.
If you need information about a particular place or issue, just
send your questions in. We are always happy to follow up on readers
concerns.
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MALI: INTERNET ACCESS INCREASES TENFOLD FROM TINY BASE
The Malian National Telecommunication Company (SOTELMA) started
providing internet accessn in 1992 with an X.25 access in 1992
line and the first client for this service was the ORSTOM, a
French development aid agency. ORSTOM used the X25 line to provide
email service through the RIO.
Two year later, two private companies (BINTTA and SPIDER) also
begun to provide an internet e-mail service. BINTTA's service
was with RIO and SPIDER's was based on the FIDOnet/Internet email
service.
In 1996, USAID, through the Leland Initiative, helped SOTELMA
provide a full internet service by financing satellite bandwidth
acquisition for 3 Years and by training SOTELMA's technicians.
SOTELMA then gave four licenses to the private sector in Mali
to provide full Internet Service. These first companies were:
BINTTA, SPIDER, DATATECH and CEFIB.
Whereas in the developed world, the web is the most popular service
with e-mail as its poorer cousin. the reverse true in Mali. E-mail
is most popular because it allows everybody to have a very low
cost method of communication. My own company is issuing more
and more email addresses and the number of the Internet users
in Mali has increased from 500 to 5000 in two years. This
is very good for a country like Mali where we have only 30,000
telephones lines for the whole country and where a computer is
very expensive (a computer that cost US$700 in the US, currently
costs US$2200 in Mali).
Mali now has four new ISPs coming on stream this year bringing
the total to 8 and 5 others will come on stream in the next 5
months. All of these ISPs provide all of the services available
on the Internet.
There are many problems in the development of Internet access
in Mali. The first is the telephone system. The second is the
cost of the computers and the third is getting across sufficient
information to people. They need to know and believe that a communication
tool like internet is also a development tool. With the internet
we can develop many sectors such as the agricultural sector in
Mali, medical sector and others. Internet access tools must be
cheap (Computers for example) and the national telco must also
make telephone access easy. Right now, it takes an average three
months to get a phone line.
Furthermore, Internet access is still expensive, ranging from
US$30 to US$100 for end users. This is due to the high cost of
bandwidth from the national telco, SOTELMA as the monopoly provider:
it charges a premium to its ISP customers. The ISPs have begun
providing a wireless Internet access (another solution for the
problem of telephones lines) however it is much more expensive
at US$300-US$1000/month.
The Simputer is a sub-US$200 internet device to help non-literate
users: In an effort to bring the Internet to the masses in India
and other developing countries, several academics and engineers
have used their spare time to design a sub-$200 handheld Net
appliance, writes Bangalore-based John Ribeiro of IDG News Service
(June 23).The device was designed by professors and students
at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore, and engineers
from Bangalore-based design company Encore Software. A prototype
of the appliance will be available in August.The Simputer is
built around Intel's StrongARM CPU, with Linux as the operating
system. It will have 16 MB of flash memory, a monochrome liquid
crystal display (LCD) with a touch panel overlay for pen-based
computing, and a local-language interface. The appliance will
have Infrared Data Association and Universal Serial Bus interfaces,
and will feature Internet access and mail software.Its designers
expect the Simputer to be used not only as a personal Internet
access device, but also by communities of users at kiosks. A
smart-card interface to the device will enable the use of the
device for applications such as micro- banking. Later versions
will also offer wireless technology.The intellectual property
for the device has been transferred free to a non-profit trust,
called the Simputer Trust, and both the software and the hardware
for the appliance have been offered as open source technology. http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,17401,00.html
(Source: Bytes for All)
Net Freedom of Expression in Zimbabwe has web site that registers
opposition to the bill passed in Zimbawe on March 8 2000 that
will give the Government the power to view any email message
coming in and out of Zimbabwe. This bill creates a bad precedent
for other countries in Africa who may also adopt this kind of
legislation. AgiNet is a lobby against the bill through the power
of images. When words fail, action speaks. When action fails,
images silently speak more than a multitude of words. The web
site is a powerful use of images to convey a message with a powerful
resonance about the need to exercise the right of individual
expression. Details can be found on: http://www.hivos.nl
(source: Africa Web Content)
* US CONGRESS GIVES GO-AHEAD TO ICANN
An investigative arm of Congress said Friday that the Clinton
administration had done nothing wrong when it transferred power
to ICANN. Even ICANN's abortive attempt to attach a $1 tax to
domain name registrations turns out to have been legal. Congress
did limit ICANN to recouping to its operating costs. Some Congresspersons
are expected tokeep moaning about the government"ceding
control of the Internet toan international body." An international
group gets to control aportion of the international Internet;
how unfair.
Wired News best explained why the reviews have been mixed. Turns
out it may not be legal for the government give ICANN control
of the "root server," said Declan McCullagh - "the
master list of the allowable top-level domains." Without
such a handoff, the Feds will be responsible for approving new
domains like .biz and .web - a process that's already moving
at government speed. The ICANN board will recommend the new domains
at a meeting in Japan next week; and McCullagh wrote that "the
new domains could be activated by the end of the year."
We'd love to believe it. (Source: Jen Muehlbauer, The Standard)
* DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO DRIVE UP WAP USE
Owners of WAP mobile phones, which can send and receive e-mails
and surf special websites, can now rest assured that they have
bought into a flourishing technology: the first WAP pornography
sites have been established. Although the sites offer only grainy
and less than detailed pictures-assuming that the phone accessing
them can show pictures at all--theyare a key step for the wireless
applications protocol technology on whichmobile phone companies
have lavished billions. The article claims that sociologists
have long recognised that the key to predicting whether a new
technology will take off is to determine if it offers pornography.
"The usage of the internet via these phones has actually
been negligible," Mr Birch of Consult Hyperion said. "Who
knows--maybe this will increase sales." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/Digital/Update/2000-07/wap080700.shtml
USEFUL WEB SITES AND DISCUSSION LISTS
* ETHIOPIA SPECIAL
Following last issue's article on Ethiopia, a bumper selection
of Ethiopian sites. Ethiopia Online features stories from The
Mirror plus links to the Ethiopia Computer Standards association,
the Ethiopia Economics Association, Ethiopian News Online, Development
Studies Associates and Addis Ababa University. (http://etonline.netnation.com/)
ECoSA has a directory of computing projects that address address
the particular difficulties posed by Eithiopia's languages including
the ideographic amharic language. Active research projects include:
stemming Amharic text for information retrieval, Ethiopic support
in Babel for translation, integrating ethiopic into Java and
a Windows file conversion tool.
(http://EthiopiaOnline.Net/info/projects.htm)
Ethiopia on the Web has a new business and technology section
that includes a market for internet and ICT freelances offering
web design, programming, database development and marketing.
(http://www.ethiopians.com/)
Poet Laureate Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin is featured with a biography,
comments and responses to his work and autobiographical vignettes.
(http://ethiopians.com/tsegaye/)
Cyber Ethiopia has a wide news selection from sources including
the Addis Tribune and Ethiopia News Agency and sections on human
rights, business and investment and computers and technology.
The site is fully operational but is currently being redesigned.
(http://cyberethiopia.com)
The most fascinating discovery. The first ever amharic windows
based computer game designed as edutainment: in other words you
enjoy it and it does good. If only all of life was like that!
You can download a demo from the site. (http://www.enkokilish.com/)
* Information about the Zimbabwe International Book
Fair 2000 can be found on their web site. (http://www.zibf.org)
Not many Zimbabwean publishers seem to have web sites except
SARDC-Southern African Regional Documentation Centre (http://www.sardc.net)
that is closely linked to ZPH (Zimbabwe Publishing House) and
Baobab (http://www.media.zw.com)
* A new discussion forum has been launched to bring
together all those working and living with HIV/AIDS in South
Africa. AIDS-RSA supports cooperation and debate around national
HIV/AIDS-related issues, explores ways to improve working relationships
and promotes a broader approach to the epidemic. AIDS-RSA is
free of charge, and could be joined by sending an email to: majordomo@kendy.up.ac.za
with the command `subscribe aids-rsa' in the text of the message
* The British Council has an extensive international
programme of work in human rights, including many initiatives
in children's rights. Details of recent activities and general
information about the British Council's work in this regard can
be found at http://www.britishcouncil.org/governance/jusrig/lawact/childright/index.htm
DIGITAL TOOLBOX
* SHIFT FROM BANNER ADS TO AFFILIATE MARKETING?
dot.coms are turning to "affiliate marketing," an online
marketing strategy that allows e-commerce companies to place
links on hundreds or thousands of related sites without paying
for these links up front. The merchant provides either a flat
fee or a commission (usually 10% or less) to the affiliate
sites for every purchase that results from the links. For example,
a site devoted to skiing contains links to retailers that sell
ski equipment. If a Web surfer clicks on the link and buys merchandise
from the retailer, the retailer pays the content provider a commission
on the sale."From the advertiser's standpoint, it is Nirvana,"
says Jim Nail, a senior analyst at market research firm Forrester
Research. "You get the exposure, but you don't pay a dime
for it unless you make a sale." "Affiliate marketing"
is
picking pace faster in Europe than in the US, although Europe
presents specific challenges to companies setting up networks
of affiliate marketers. According to Gordon Hoffstein, president
and chief executive of Be Free, an online marketing concern that
manages affiliate marketing programs, in the U.S., one retailer
deals with 250 million people while in Europe, a company may
have six or seven different offices that deal with the same number
of people. "It makes building an affiliate network more
challenging." In spite of these challenges, analysts predict
that partnerships between Web sites in
the form of affiliate programs will play an increasingly important
role in the online marketing landscape, posing a threat to online
Web banner ads. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR:
Sarah Ellison] (http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB963163700502011981.htm)
(Source: The Benton Communications Policy Mailing List 10/7/00)
* BAD SPELLING HELPS GROWTH OF BANNER ADS REVENUE?
A free SpellChecker is being offered by SpellChecker.net. It
can be added to your bulletin boards, web based e-mail, chat
and other community features and they claim make money at the
same time. It offers a web based SpellChecker that is customized
to match the look and feel of your site plus receive a revenue
share on the banners appearing in the SpellChecker window. Pay
per use and licenses are also available. It is currently used
by ezboard.com, Network54.com, BigMailBox.com and 700+ other
sites. Visit http://www.SpellChecker.net/
* SMILE MAKES MULTIMEDIA EASIER
The W3C group has now released their third draft of the new SMIL:
"Boston" standard for streaming any audio-visual file
across the web. SMIL: <http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/>
To enable simple authoring of TV-like multimedia presentations,
W3C has designed the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
(SMIL, pronounced "smile"). The SMIL language is an
easy-to-learn HTML-like
language. Thus, SMIL presentations can be written using a simple
text-editor.A SMIL presentation can be composed of streaming
audio, streaming video, images, text or any other media type.
PEOPLE AND E-JOBS
* Regional Internet Registry AfriNIC has two "listeners"
to the ICANN Address Council. Mouhamet Diop and Dr Nii Quaynor,
both of whom are well known for their contributions to the development
of the internet in Africa.
* UK-based Zimbabwean Batsirai Mike Chivhanga becomes
co-moderator of the African Web Content forum with Cameron Smith
(author of Shona language web site article in issue 14). This
forum will be supported and owned by a new company that has recently
been formed by Mike - Comology Ltd which is geared towards improving
web based information services in Africa through web development,
Internet consultancy, training, research and development, project
initiation (mainly on ICTs), development, implementation and
development.
* The Senior Director for Development, Satellife
has both hands-on fund raising responsibility and certain limited
managerial duties. S/he is expected to raise increasing amounts
of private funds from individuals, corporations, foundations,
and other organizations with emphasis on securing
gifts of six and seven figures. S/he reports directly to the
Executive Director.
Contact: Holly Ladd hladd@usa.healthnet.org
http://www.itweb.co.za
* SANGONET is looking for a Managing Editor
for Africa Pulse. It is involved in building capacity and supporting
accessibleweb-based information dissemination in the SADC region.
We are looking for a dynamic Managing Editor to co-ordinate the
development of the Africa Pulse project.
The successful applicant will be responsible for: Management
of the overall Africa Pulse project; Editorial decision-making
around content; Develop and implement Africa Pulse information
and content activities; Networking and liaison with content partners
in the SADC region; Overseeing the technical development of the
project; and Assessing training needs in the region. Closing
date: 21 July 2000. Enquiries to: David Barnard. Mail to:
recruit@sn.apc.org
* THE INTERNET AND AFRICAN SCHOLARSHIP, ZIBF,
HARARE (4 AUGUST 2000)
As part of the the Zimbabwe Book Fair, there is a day-long event
on Marketing African Scholarship organised by the Southern Africa
Book Development Education Trust. It will be held at the Holiday
Inn Crowne Plaza Monomotapa Hotel, Harare. Of particular interest
to News Update readers will be The Internet and African Scholarship
(13.30-15.00) The event is open to all ZIBF2000 participants
and interested parties free of charge. Of particular interest
to academics, scholarly publishers, academic and university booksellers,
university librarians, researchers, students. No advance
registration is needed. You may attend for the whole day or for
particular sessions. For further info, mail to: margaret.ling@geo2.poptel.org.uk
* WRITING DIASPORAS ,SWANSEA UNIVERSITY, UK (20-23
SEPTEMBER 2000)
Keynote speakers and panelists include: Annabelle Sreberny Arne
Ruth Avtar
Brah Balasubramanyam Chandramohan Hamid
Naficy Mary Chamberlain Pamela Petro Petra Kuppers Paul Birt
Pnina Werbner
Ronnie Frankenberg Tom McArthur Wayne Parsons
Plenary panels:
* The Global Politics of Literature Since the Rushdie Affair
* Writing (Against) Diasporas: Axial Literary Maps
* Re-inventing Wales? Becoming a Diaspora
* Limits of Diaspora: Lingua Francas and Idioms of Identity
* The Politics of Literary Translation
* Re-inventing Belonging and Transnational Citizenship
News Update is a free e-letter covering African internet content
and infrastructure developments published by Balancing Act. The
latest issue and all previous issues appear on the Kabissa.org
web site (www.kabissa.org),
which is a Balancing Act pilot project. For further information
about Balancing Act and its pilot projects, contact Russell Southwood
on southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk.
All material is copyright but can be used if permission is sought.
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Please send them to Russell Southwood, News Update
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