Closing the Digital Divide in Africa with Open Technologies
Access to high-speed, reliable internet is crucial for education, healthcare, employment and small business growth. Join us for a 2-day workshop on inclusive, open technologies to address the digital divide in Africa.
High speed and reliable internet access is the gateway to employment, small business growth, effective health care and engaging education. Unfortunately, for many people in Africa, these opportunities are not available due the challenges in closing the digital divide. There is a wide variety of technologies that are commonly used in data centres, cable-free networks and research level prototypes that could be creativity (re)purposed to tackle these challenges. We invite you to join us for a two-day workshop focused on open technologies and inclusive approaches to closing the digital divide in Africa.
The aim of this focussed, two-day workshop is to bring together people working on various facets of this challenge so that they can share their technical or academic progress, lived experiences, and novel ideas. A core intended outcome from this workshop is to build a community that will develop interesting approaches and attempt to converge on a way forward to close the digital divide and share these outputs with the world. Following this workshop, we will continue to build momentum in open technologies and work with a wide range of partners to build a framework for open communication standards and technologies that both service providers and local communities can use to close the digital divide.
Logistics
The workshop is financially supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering - Engineering X. There is no charge for the event, hotel, food or social activities at the workshop venue. However, we ask for attendees to cover their flight costs to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport.
The workshop will be hosted at the Ivory Tree Game Lodge in the Pilanesburg National Park. Transfers to and from Johannesburg will be arranged on the 28th and 31st of August, respectively. The meeting point for the transfers to the event will be the Southern Sun Hyde Park Hotel on the morning of 28th of August. Attendees are welcome to arrive earlier or stay after the workshop. Based on interest, visits to the University of the Witwatersrand or local attractions in Johannesburg can be organised.
We are happy to provide further guidance about travel arrangements and logistics.
RSVP
Please contact Mitchell.Cox@wits.ac.za if you would like to attend, and how you see yourself contributing to the event.
The Organisers
Mitchell Cox (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) (Mitchell.Cox@wits.ac.za)
Martin Lavery (University of Glasgow, UK) (Martin.Lavery@glasgow.ac.uk)
Andrew Ellis (Aston University, UK)
Andrew Forbes (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)
