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ISSUE NO 69 AFRICAN WEB NEWS AND USEFUL SITES

BMW’S SOUTH AFRICA SITE GETS ZERO SECURITY RATING

BMW South Africa’s Web site received a zero-rating for security from local security Web site 2600.co.za’s SECSI (secure e-commerce site initiative) department this week - the first zero-rating it has ever issued.

(source: htpp://www.itweb.co.za)

MAURITIUS’S WWW.TANGAZA.COM OFFERS HOSTING AND WEB DESIGN

Based in Mauritius, Tangaza.com was launched on the 23 May 2000 with the objective to provide African companies hosting and web design. impact web design and efficient customer support. Tangaza works exclusively through a network of local resellers, who are themselves, web design firms or advertising companies. Tangaza programmers support their resellers with the most up-to-date scripts Php4, Perl tailor made to fit clients need at a competitive price and an unbeatable customers service. Co-founder of Tangaza, Pasquale Goder, says "Our aim is to make the impossible become possible at a striking price".T angaza own site has more than six hundred hits per day, and its resellers network continues to grow. Tangaza is also interested to study join-venture possibilities with Africans with an internet business plan.

HIV/AIDS INTERNET ACCESSIBLE DATABASE LAUNCHED

ATCnet has launched an easily accessible Internet database for the African Health and HIV-AIDS Crisis to consolidate information about organizations and individuals that are working to combat the crisis.

http://www.atcnet.org

DIGITAL LIBRARIES PROJECT DELIVERS MATERIALS FOR AFRICA

The Payson Centre for International Development and Technology Transfer of Tulane University has been collaborating with several partners on a digital libraries project which offers access to several development libraries through its website: http://www.humanitylibraries.net It also delivering materials via CD-Rom to more than 20 partner institutions in Africa. It is now working on using the library software (Greenstone) for semi-illiterate and illiterate users, as well as creating specific libraries (like its latest one for Complex Emergencies and Disaster Management in Africa under USAID’s auspices).

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY TO OFFER MATERIALS ON INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Since April 2001, Nuffic/CIRAN and the Uganda Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) have been in partnership on the development and maintenance of the Indigenous Knowledge site on the Global Development Gateway, and act as multiple Topic Guides in this field. The purpose of this site is to further stimulate the recognition, utilization and exchange of indigenous knowledge in the development process. The site aims to function as a platform for local communities, NGO’s, development practitioners, policy makers, and academia interested in indigenous knowledge (IK). Over the past few weeks 73 resources have been added to the page, which are now on-line: <http://www.developmentgateway.org/topic/?page_id=3677>.
For other IK information on the Internet see also the Nuffic/CIRAN IK Pages
(<http://www.nuffic.nl/ik-pages/>)

BLACK BRAZILIAN WEB SITE LOOKING FOR PARTNERS

www.blacknews.com.br is a Brazilian-based afro newspaper that is aimed at people who are interested in black culture: its roots, black music like like samba, axé music, afro dancing, carnival etc....It provides coverage of Black history in Brazil. It wants to develop e-commerce business selling products that have anything to do with black culture. The company publishes a newspaper as well as operating the web site and "is prepared to enter into this type of business or even make a joint venture with a foreign company." Contact Dr.Carlos Augusto Senra, President via its web site.

CAPE TOWN UNIVERSITY’S CITANDA - R & D TESTING THE BENEFITS OF ICT

Dr Paul Licker explains the work of the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Information Technology and National Development in Africa (CITANDA).

CITANDA is a development and research program central to our Doctoral program and was officially opened in June of 2000. Many policy analysts, government leaders, industry pundits and development specialists look to Information Technology (IT) for assistance in achieving national social, economic, political, cultural and human resource development goals nationally, regionally, or in terms of an industry sector.

CITANDA brings together researchers, projects, funders, and programs to look at the evaluation of the use of information technology in the service of national development. Our goal is to become the centre of development and research activity for this important effort in Africa. CITANDA is also affiliated with our doctoral program in information systems and national development.

CITANDA actively seeks partners for research and development exercises that complement our existing educational and research programs. In particular we are particularly interested in (but not limited to) contract research and international development exercises in the following areas: Development Project Evaluation, IT Field Trials in Southern Africa, Community Informatics Animation, E-Commerce Trials and Evaluation, NGO consulting, IT User Education. Currently we have several projects funded from a variety of sources

nGOFORIT: This project, headed by Tony Hoffman, a Doctoral Associate, is intended to set up an ongoing panel of NGO informants on issues involving IT andNGO activities.In addition to acting as a research "site", nGOFORIT (nGO FORum on IT) will provide IT information to NGOs through a website and create a means for NGOs to speak to one another through a common forum. This research is funded from the University of Cape Town.

Extending the benefits of e-commerce: Funded by a grant from the Canadian NGO, the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the Extending the Benefits project looks at how Electronic Commerce can be construed as a means of improving business in Africa as well as models for development of effective use of E Commerce specifically for Africa. A variety of subprojects are included in this one:

- E-Commerce and Marginalisation (P. Licker)
- E-Commerce Readiness and E-Commerce Success (A. Molla)
- E-Commerce Migration Paths (J. Rhodes)
- An E-Commerce website for the development of micro-business venture capital (A. van der Bijl)
- E-Commerce in the (Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique) Growth Triangle (J. Rhodes)
- MicroBusiness and E-Commerce Lecture Series (J. Rhodes)

Another project looks directly at e-commerce and marginalisation, collecting data on the question of who could potentially lose, among consumers and business operators, in the rush to e-commerce in southern Africa. Taking off from the original pilot work of the IDRC project, this research is funded by the NRF.

Transcultural Technology: An experiment to evaluate the contribution of cultural values to use and perception of electronic meeting systems by participants. This project is funded by the NRF and is directed by myself.

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