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ISSUE NO 61 AFRICA'S DIGERATI

AMOS MALEKA ON 3piCOM’s SMART CARD

Amos Maleka wants to develop a smart card product aimed at South African township users. He currently works for Amandla Waste Creations that makes arts and crafts from waste products and sells them through the Garage Gallery which he also runs. He is working with a team of technical advisers who work in some of the larger IT companies. A fanciful idea? Well that’s how many products started their life. 3piCom’s smart card could have the same impact as the first pay-as-you-go cell phones. Read his outline below and make your own judgements.

The historically disadvantaged areas of South Africa, in particular the black townships have gained some access to telephone communication, but there is an almost complete absence of access to computer technology and the internet. Email communication and access to the internet would help township residents in areas such as: job finding opportunities, providing access for interest groups such as youth groups, religious organisations, women’s groups and help link individuals to ideas and like minded people and organisations in other countries.

The 3piCOM is a personal prepaid Internet service registered as company in South Africa. The company’s mission is to provide services to ordinary people, for personal and business use, for students and youth in particular. Our concept is to place computer terminals with internet access using pre-paid smart cards at outlets in townships in South Africa. The pilot programme will take place in Soweto. The computer terminals will be placed in existing public telephone centres, alongside pre-paid smart card machines. The smart cards will allow users to use unexpired computer access at any of the many 3piCOM terminals in Soweto and at the 3picCOM Automatic Computer Terminals that will be placed in shopping malls and other secure centres around South Africa.

This concept could change the face of small business and individual computing in South Africa. It involves the establishment of a unique Service provider, online services on a "One Stop shop" basis .In addition it uses a Smart card that is rechargeable which make it easy to access these services, user friendly and secure.

We are currently organising funding and we are in negotiations with major partners to strengthen the team that will deliver the product. Our communities don’t know about information and technology. They are therefore not realising its full potential or taking advantage of the opportunities available by access to technology and information. E-mailing and access to the internet is currently expensive for us. It is a complicated luxury in our communities whereas it should be a simple necessity!

For further details contact Amos Maleka (amaleka@yahoo.com )

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