To date, Telkom could do everything and a consumer received chain of services, infrastructure and devices from them.
To horizontal licensing:
Will be tiers of licences that are “tech neutral” and open for competitors.
But: radio spectrum use is not neutral.
Policy problems:
Infrastructure is one thing;
Applications is another;
Eg. signal distribution, ISP, ecommerce;
Digital content is something else.
Apps can be tech neutral – go on diff infrastructure
Content can ride on various apps & infrastructure
But historically, providers of content via airwaves (unlike newspapers) have conditions: local content, watershed periods, electoral obligations
Under new law?:
Suppose SABC is licensed as content provider (via airwaves) …
Does not need license for its website.
But what when the same website content travels on wireless?
Licensing of websites???
Is diffs between broadcast push & internet pull significant? (even wrt webcasting?)
What impact for future?
Or: will all content producers need licenses? Even newspapers with sites, or stand-alone sites, or bloggers? And not just audio-visual, but text content producers?
Or will those other than “spectrum-hogs” be exempted as a class?
Point: content licenses should not be relevant to channel (i.e. airwaves, but how this vehicle is used) = not tech neutral!
…. Until digital broadcasting comes along.
Telecoms industry:
Telkom: SDC, Malaysians.
Universal service targets but failure.
USA levy but failure.
Cellular operators success.
Vodacom (Telkom, Vodafone)
MTN, Cell-C
Predicted <500 000, now 18 million
African business expansion
Broadband blues
Telkom: ADSL
2nd national operator – 2 years overdue (Transtel, Esitel)
Sentech: 3G
Evolution: content, other
SMS – 17 a month per user
Voice services
Costly to use GPRS
MTN going into M-commerce.
Journalists & ICTs
Barely use cameraphones.
Poorly skilled at web research.
Inadequate access in newsrooms.
Under-researched content in general.
Not multi-skilling, SABC bi-media reversed.
Negligible convergence of native & online newsrooms.
SECTION 3: NEW MEDIA LAB
Rhodes New Media Lab
Teaching
Research
Development
Highway Africa
1996-1998: phase 1
1998-2001: phase 2
2002-2004: Phase 3
Multimedia: 3 sites
2004: NML’s cms in Cuemedia
Work flow tracking
Performance monitoring
Automated online publishing
Time management
Going open source:
SECTION 4: HIGHWAY AFRICA
NML 2004 vision:
We see African journalists, empowered by the skills, understandings and access to technology, contributing to a communication and information enriched community, country and continent.
NML 2004 Mission:
Educate and train journalism students and the media industry;
Advance knowledge through research and dissemination of that research;
Innovate and experiment with technology;
Engage with industry and relevant interest groups.
2005-2008
Highway Africa history:
2001: all African countries connected
Highway Africa history:
2001: all African countries connected
1997: HA commenced – 65 people
2004: 430 external delegs, 17 sponsors
Aims:
Raise awareness
Impart skills
Bridge industry-academy
Continental networking
HA themes:
HA themes:
HA themes:
For HA, Info Society spans:
freedom for new & old media.
quality of information, African voices, policy issues.
global ICT potential.
And: it frames this big picture.
Highway Africa since 2000:
Website, daily paper
Radio, TV, cellular output.
Newsroom of the Future
Award for innovation
Exhibitions
2004: Highway Africa vision:
A vibrant & growing network of African journalistsempowered to advance democracy & development through understanding & use of appropriate technologies.
Highway Africa mission:
sensitize journalists on role of ICT in society & media;
train journalists & journalism teachers in understanding & using technology to access, generate and distribute information;
network journalists, & link them with key stakeholders (academics, policy makers, civil society etc)
Networking examples
Highway Africa mission cntd:
Advocate for a media & technology environment which enables journalists to play their full role in democracy and development
Research the use and impact of ICTs in Africa with particular ref to the media
Publish and disseminate research and information across a range of platforms
Celebrate innovation & excellence & to promote better practice thru peer review
Celebrate example - awards:
Highway Africa programmes:
Five complementary interventions:
Research
Training
Policy reform
Information
Conference
1. HA research
Viability of newssites;
Web software used;
Coverage of IS policy in
Ethiopia, Senegal, DRC, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, (SA still under way);
Use of ICTs in 9 African countries.
05: Content management in 6 states.
Research …
Results 04 ICT reporting:
Reproducing press releases
Reactive reporting
Uninformed, uneducated on ICTs
Silence on policy and WSIS
Results 04 ICT Use:
Poor access
Email use, only 50% for research
Low research skills
Newsrooms lack policies
2. HA training
Conference workshops x 20 p.a.
2003: 10 day intro course;
2004:
Intro course (22 journos)
Advanced course to IS (26);
2004: Advocacy (Kenya)
2005: Zim online, short courses.
Training: to report on, and use
Digital tech
Policy
Internet governance
Intellectual property
Indigenous knowledge
ICT reporting
3. HA advocacy
Objective: to expand media role as stakeholder in IS policies:
Conference Declarations
“03 Media & the Info Society”
WSIS prepcoms
IS policy database
4. Information - HANA
HANA history:
2002: WSSD x 15
2002: launch of African Union x 15
2003: WSIS – prepcoms, Geneva x 25
2004: Africa Telecoms, WSIS prepcom, Aitec, Marrakesh, Icann. x 20
2005: Accra prepcom, Tunis in Nov
200 outlets …
Hana’s horizons:
Highly skilled journalists reporting ICT issues to African audiences;
Promoting informed ICT policy and practice around continent;
Becoming a commercially viable agency over a three-year period
5: Conference:
Pulling it all together:
Conference objective: To create a platform for sharing information, knowledge and experience in media and ICTs and to celebrate excellence
Research feeds training, and conference;
Training feeds HANA;
All feed advocacy.
media2020?
SECTION 5: CONCLUSION
Context: information society
Africa and South Africa
New Media Lab
Highway Africa
Prognosis:
Media role and content will significantly shape the Info Society.
Interventions are needed if we want degree of positive integration of Africa, and a common comms space.
