LINK Centre Annual Report 2002 - 2003

Highlights of 2002 - 2003

The first years of LINK's establishment were characterized by the design and presentation of training courses at post-graduate level, a significant investment in developing education and training programmes and local content, as well as investment in research on policy issues in the South African context. During 2002, both the research and education and training components of LINK's work increased significantly, laying the foundation for the establishment, in 2003, of longer term research programmes and the design of a full learning progression from post-graduate certificate through Masters level and PhD programmes.

The integration of LINK's work into the programmes of the Graduate School of Public and Development Management and the collaborative programme with the Wits Business School and the Schools of Information and Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Economics and Business Science have created an environment in which LINK is able to make a growing contribution to the broader university community and mission. LINK continues to use the web as an important tool for disseminating research as well as for providing learning support materials to students, both through the LINK website as well as via the WebCT facility which allows students to download course materials and to post their written assignments for comment and marking.

RESEARCH CONSULTING
Research presented to ICASA in 2002 (Gillwald and Benjamin) included presentation of (1) A Framework for Underserviced Area Licences, (2) A Framework for addressing Community Service Obligations and Universal Service Obligations and a Framework for achieving Universal Access and (3) Universal Service Fund Regulation. The work, originally commissioned by ICASA, was co-funded by the IDRC which required that the research results be published. This was done in 2003 with the publication of Policy Research Paper No 3, which was quoted by the USAL Group and the DBSA in their submissions to ICASA. The availability of funding from local and international networks, to support both the research and publication components of LINK's work, has proved essential to promoting the utilization of research results by a broader audience and has improved the contribution that LINK can make to public interest research.

The Centre produced a discussion paper for the Development Bank of Southern Africa (Gillwald, Kane, Moodley, Wilson and Abrahams) to focus debates on ICT for Sustainable Development in order to inform the Bank's strategic endeavours to be forward looking in the area of ICTs. This is one of the focus areas within the Bank's mandate and scope of operations that is critical to the attainment of sustainable development. The commissioning of the discussion paper was also prompted by the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in August 2002 and the need for the Bank to contribute to the determination of the Johannesburg Plan of Action (JPoA) that arises from it.

Facilitation and management of the production of a series of Acacia videos was conducted by LINK Centre (Lewis) with a number of community activitists and consultants developing the scripts, and Kagiso Television producing the videos. The Acacia video series includes 5 videos on - ICTs empowering schools, ICTs empowering activists, ICTs empowering communities, ICTs empowering entrepreneurs and ICTs empowering rural development. The videos illustrate a range of lessons regarding "real access criteria" for ICTs as conceptualized in the bridges.org study 2002, Spanning the Digital Divide: Understanding and tackling the issues, which define criteria that are essential to ensure that people are able to access ICT. The videos illustrate that non-technological innovation and community leadership can be added to the existing list of "real access criteria". The video series has already provided valuable material for a 2003 study entitled Citizen Access to E-Government Services conducted by the LINK Centre, SangoNet and Mohlaleng Strategy Consultants in 2003. The videos and CD-Rom versions of the videos are being distributed through NGO and CBO networks in South and Southern Africa and abroad.

The ARISE (African Research for Information Society Emergence) project (Kane) resulted in the establishment of the ARISE website www.ariseafrica.org which gives access to a limited database of ICT practitioners and champions in Africa and which hosted an interactive discussion series in October - December 2003 on the topics of ICTs and Governance, ICT Infrastructure, E-Government, ICTs and Employment, ICTs and Small Business, ICTs and Rural Services, and ICTs and Gender. The discussion series was hosted by LINK staffers and ICT practitioners in South Africa and Africa. All interaction was conducted in French, Portuguese and English and the discussion series is accessible on the website. The project aimed to produce an initial database and network of Africans with skills and expertise in social aspects of the Information Society, including economics, development work, policy analysis, gender studies, sociology, law, indigenous knowledge, linguistics, education, health and more. While the initial results were limited in terms of the development of an active network, the discussions sessions raised five cross-cutting research themes for attention: development of appropriate human capital to unlock the development potential of ICT; application of "best practice" models to African country realities; the need for an "audit" of ICT sector activity on the continent; strategies to attract investment to the African ICT sector and encouraging the participation of women in the information society. Research on these 5 themes is being conducted through the Research ICT Africa! programme.

In the community informatics area, Merridy Wilson produced the Alexandra Township and The Alexsan Kopano Resource Centre: Background Report, and the Participatory gender-oriented information and learning needs assessment of the youth of Alexandra, prepared for UNESCO. The reports were a contribution to the community needs assessment project entitled Developing Open Learning Communities for Gender Equity with the Support of ICTs. In 2003, two key research consulting activities in the community informatics and e-government arena are the Content Development and Management Project for the Umsobomvu Youth Fund (Abrahams) conducted jointly with ITSD Consulting. and the design of a Communications, Information and Community Participation project for the Ugu District Municipality Kwa Zulu Natal conducted with Working Solutions International (Oyomno). The Umsobomvu project addresses the need for empowerment through information and on-line services, while the Ugu district project aims to build a platform for participatory local governance using ICT and information-based applications.

RESEARCH THEMES AND OUTPUTS
LINK's ongoing research is becoming more thematic, with the following ICT Research Network Themes being developed in 2003. In the past, LINK's research programme consisted of a variety of individual short and medium term projects in response to funding opportunities in the areas of 1) policy and regulatory issues driving telecom reform and infrastructure development; 2) ICT services development and applications, with a particular focus on e-government. It included South African, Southern African, African and international projects. These projects were essentially once-off projects that have not permitted the accumulation of knowledge in a consistent or coherent manner. The institutional funding from the South Africa ICT Research Network, combined with continued research consulting activity, has allowed LINK to plan a more coherent research programme accumulating knowledge around certain specific areas of priority for South Africa, and the research capabilities at LINK. The following ICT research network priority themes for 2003 were established:

ICT Sector Governance. Next generation regulation for the South African network economy requires a focus on broader issues of governance, and the role of governance and direct telecom regulation in stimulating investment in infrastructure, services and applications, and in meeting public interest objectives in a rapidly changing environment. A number of policy research papers, were produced in the context of this research theme.

Policy Research Paper No 2: Assessing Telkom's 2003 Price Increase Proposal, Professor William H. Melody
Policy Research Paper No 3: Under-serviced Area Licences in South Africa, Alison Gillwald
Policy Research Paper No 4: National Convergence Policy in a Globalised World: Preparing South Africa for Next Generation Networks, Services and Regulation, Alison Gillwald and
Policy Research Paper No 5: South African Telecommunications Sector Performance Review 2003, Alison Gillwald and Sean Kane

ICT Driven Institutional Restructuring, for effective performance in the South African network economy, where information and knowledge are increasingly important resources. There are three priority areas under this theme A) Institutions of higher education restructuring to deliver the higher education and training needed for the network economy; B) Selected government institutions attempting to apply ICTs for more effective service delivery through e-government; C) Trade Union and labour force restructuring in the ICT sector with a particular focus on telecommunications. A contribution to an advocacy paper on the role of higher education institutions in the network knowledge economy is being prepared in collaboration with the SA University Vice-Chancellors Association, SAUVCA and the Committee of Technikon Principals, CTP, following on a series of presentations to Vice-Chancellors, Deputy VCs and Executive Deans and Registrars (Abrahams and Melody). In relation to e-government, research was conducted and a report prepared for the Centre for Public Service Innovation in early 2003, entitled Citizen Access to E-Government Services (Abrahams and Wilson). Further research is being conducted in the area of e-government and health services. A case study on Internet diffusion in South Africa has been prepared for publication as a chapter in a forthcoming book Negotiating the 'Net to be published by the University of Maryland (Lewis).

Expanding on this theme of ICT Driven Institutional Change is research currently being conducted for the Free State Premier's Economic Advisory Council, PEAC (Abrahams and Oymono). In particular, the research project aims to present a perspective on the global knowledge economy context and its implications for the Free State and to present a strategic and institutional framework for knowledge-based economic development and growth. Under the third priority area, a presentation We, the Workers: Unions and ICT in South Africa was made to the International Conference on the Impact of ICT Applications on Relocation of Work, Working Conditions and Workers, in Brussels (Lewis).

Human Capital. The supply and demand for different forms of human capital in the South African network economy, and the implications for the education and training needs of institutions in particular areas. Priority areas within this theme include skills essential for effective governance and regulation, for new multi-disciplinary programmes and methods of service delivery of higher education institutions, and for successful implementation of new e-government programmes. It will also include the changing skill sets required by users and consumers of new ICT services so as to realize their full value. Work on this theme has come closest to creating the direct link with the education and training environment through preparing lecture materials for presentation at courses and conferences, inter alia teaching on the Wits CIO programme (Gillwald and Abrahams) offered by the Wits Business School with the School of Information and Electrical Engineering, the School of Computer Science, the School of Economics and Business Science and the LINK Centre in May 2003 and the presentation at the August 2003 Government Online conference "Boosting your e-government process by developing effective skills transfer and human capital to achieve efficient online service" (Abrahams).

The three research themes are defined as components of an inter-related research programme. Research on projects in each theme is already beginning to yield knowledge beneficial to the research on the others, thus permitting the accumulation of knowledge in an integrated programme. Funding from the SA ICT Research Network has provided the foundation for this integrated research programme, and additional project-based funding is being leveraged to build on this foundation. This research programme will feed into the curriculum development and into the availability of locally-based and locally-applicable research for the Masters of Management and PhD programmes offered through the Graduate School of Public and Development Management with whom the LINK Centre is associated.

The third edition of the annual academic journal The Southern African Journal of Information and Communications was published in 2002 and includes articles from LINK staff Melody, Moodley, Kane and Wilson. LINK is applying for accreditation of the journal with the Department of Education.

SAICTRN OUTPUTS - POLICY PAPERS & PUBLIC SEMINARS
The position of Visiting Professor was filled during the period September 2003 to August 2004 by Professor William Melody, and funded by the Vodacom Foundation. Professor Melody and Research Director Ms Alison Gillwald initiated the LINK Policy Research Series, aimed at presenting analyses of a variety of aspects of the telecommunications and ICT policy environment and disseminating the papers to a South African audience. Papers are distributed at the public seminars, are mailed to key policy and decision-makers in government and further provide a critical research and publications foundation in support of the PhD programme and the Masters of Management programmes currently being developed.

The majority of the papers and lectures listed below are available on the LINK website at http://link.wits.ac.za. Professor Melody gave his inaugural address titled "The Triumph and Tragedy of Human Capital: Foundation Resource for the Network Knowledge Economy" on 18 September at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management.

The LINK Public Seminar Series commenced in February 2003 and provides a platform for presentation of LINK research in a public forum, thereby inviting debate and comment. The aim of this series is to make available an array of information, insights and policy perspectives to the South African telecommunications and ICT and general policy networks, and to provide a platform for discussion and learning. The lectures are based on the experiences of South African, African and international presenters.

Lecture titles have included: Next Steps in Mobile Market Competition and Regulation: Do recent UK and EC Developments have Implications for South Africa and other Developing Countries? presented by Dr Ewan Sutherland, Executive Director, International Telecommunications Users Group (INTUG), Brussels; Wireless Technology, Spectrum Policy and Opportunities for Rural Network Development presented by Dale N. Hatfield, Adjunct Professor and former Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications, University of Colorado; Stimulating Investment in Information Infrastructure Development after the Dot.com Collapse: the Roles of Policy and Regulation presented by William H. Melody, Vodacom Foundation Visiting Professor LINK Centre, London School of Economics and Technical University of Denmark; Making Underserviced Area Licences Work presented by Alison Gillwald, Research Director, LINK Centre; and Information and Communication Technologies for African Development, A report on the contents of a book recently prepared for the UN ICT Task Force presented by Dr Joseph O. Okpaku, President and CEO Telecom Africa Corporation.

The public seminar on national convergence policy held in July gave the author the opportunity to incorporate valuable comments into Policy Research Paper No 4, which was then distributed at the Convergence Policy Colloqium convened by the Department of Communications.

Institutions participating in the seminar series included the Wits Business School, the Department of Communications, the Financial Mail, ISPA, Telkom, Vodacom, Gauteng Provincial Government, The Industry Magazine, New Media Publishing, Mail and Guardian, Association of Progressive Communications, ICASA, Siemens, Johnnic e-Ventures, Transtel, Communication Workers Union and African Legend, to mention a few.

LINK staff have participated in a number of South African and international events including participation and input to the Management Capacity Development Programme of SAUVCA/CTP on The Role of Higher Education Institutions in the Knowledge Economy (Abrahams, Melody); Utility Privatisation: Too Skills-Intensive for Developing Countries? presented at the TIPS Conference on Privatisation, Competition and Regulation in South Africa (Melody); International Trends in Telecommunications Restructuring presented at the TIPS Conference (Melody); South Africa in the Global Knowledge Economy presented at the WISER/P&DM seminar series "The State We're In", Wits University (Abrahams); Developing the Information Infrastructure for South Africa's Information Society: How Markets and Regulation are Shaping Network Development and Access Opportunities also presented at the WISER/P&DM seminar series (Melody) and Stimulating Investment in Information Infrastructure in Africa presented at the IDRC Acacia conference, Networking Africa's Future: Lessons of Empowerment for Communities conference (Melody).

LAUNCH OF RIA - RESEARCH ICT AFRICA!
Launched in 2003 with funding from the IDRC, the Africa wide initiative builds on the funded national research programme run from the Centre. The project aims to improve interaction among African centres and a range of leading research centres and networks on other continents, in particular the international network of universities conducting research for the infoDev initiated and ITU supported World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies project; to allow for the development of Africa's first Masters and PhD programmes in the ICT field; to hold periodic face-to-face and on-line seminars, workshops and conferences; to set up a network website that will support research and provide access to research materials and to promote publication of research results in both electronic and print media. The first African research partners workshop will take place in September 2003. Participants will include the Universities of Ghana, Makerere (Uganda), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya), Rwanda, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) and the University of Zambia, as well as institutions from Senegal and Nigeria.

TRAINING AND CUSTOMISED COURSES
During 2002, the Centre offered a one-week programme - ICT Leadership in the Public Service to participants from 4 provinces - Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga and North-West Province - under the auspices of the S A Management Development Institute, SAMDI. Course materials were written and the course was presented by Gordon Oyomno and Joel Ramatlhape. LINK offered its annual 3-week Telecommunications Policy, Regulation and Management programme and a 3-week Information and Knowledge Management for the Public Service programme for the Free State Department of Housing and Local Government. The Free State programme is specifically tailored to the needs of local government, using the municipal IDPs as a starting point for information and communications strategy design and participants come from a number of the local municipalities. LINK also offered a 3-week Public Information and Communications Policy and Management programme for communications officers in government in collaboration with the GCIS.

In 2003, only the TPRM and IKMPS (Free State) programmes were offered, with much attention being paid to the preparation of submissions for two new P&DM degrees.

Centre staff designed and presented a number of customized training courses including the course Introduction to Regulation to Carribbean regulators and ministry staff in Trinidad in April 2002, to TRASA regulators in Zambia in June/July 2002, and to East African regulators in Kenya in December 2002. A customised Workshop on Interconnection was presented to TRASA regulators and SADC operators in Jo'burg in January 2003. These customized training programmes were sponsored and funded by the ITU and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation. A number of further requests for customized training have been received from institutions in Southern Africa, but have not been taken up by the Centre due to lack of funding on the client side.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES MM P&DM
Over the 2002 - 2003 period, the Centre has contributed to teaching on a significant number of P&DM academic programmes including convening and teaching selected modules and electives on the Masters of Management programme in Public and Development Management. These modules include the global graduate seminar on Globalisation and the Information Society presented by Assistant Professor Derrick Cogburn of the University of Michigan School of Information and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies. Other modules and electives include E-Government, ICTs for Development, Information and Knowledge Management for the Public Sector and Managing Information and Communications.

NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES
Masters of Management programmes
The LINK Centre has prepared submissions for two new academic developments - a Masters of Management in ICT Policy and Regulation and a Masters of Management in Public and Development Management with a specialization in ICT.

The Masters of Management in ICT Policy and Regulation is being developed for both a South African and an African continental audience. In relation to presenting the Masters programme to Southern African regulators, the LINK Centre is participating in a collaborative programme working with four South African and four African universities (Fort Hare, UNISA, UWC, Dar Es Salaam, Zambia, Botswana and AFRALTI training institute) and four US-based universities engaged in curriculum development - the Nettel@Africa partnership. The Nettel partnership programme is funded by USAID. The LINK Centre has conducted the development of the e-learning module on Universality and Quality of Service Regulation.

The Masters of Management (Public and Development Management) with a specialisation in ICT will be offered as a means to tooling and retooling managers for the new paradigm in public and development management, in which new knowledge, innovation, ICT applications and new skills are driving policy implementation in governments, public institutions and development agencies across the globe.

The disciplinary foundations of the proposed ICT specialisation are management, strategy, leadership, policy, economics, governance and OD as in the current MM (P&DM) - reformatted to act as a basis for presentation, discussion and analysis of the new paradigm of public and development management, which is characterised by the application of ICT - and addition of top-up curriculum content focused on ICT, innovation and new approaches to HRM (knowledge and skills).

The Masters programmes have been approved by the various levels of the university academic decision-making structures and engagement will now take place with the Department of Education, the Council on Higher Education and SAQA. Current research conducted by LINK will provide a sound basis of local research content for these and other academic programmes. LINK has developed its knowledge portfolio across a broad range of content areas in the ICT policy and ICT management fields, and is therefore able to develop curriculum content and offer academic programmes that are rich in content and scope for academic development.

PhD Lecture Series: Information and the Network Economy (8 seminars)
The aim of the PhD lecture series, run by Visiting Professor Bill Melody and held between September and November 2002, was to create the foundation for a telecommunications and ICT focus to the existing PhD programme offered by the Graduate School of Public and Development Management, to market the LINK Centre as an institution offering PhD supervision in these fields and to canvass potential PhD candidates.

The lecture guides were made available to participants in the series through the WebCT facility offered by the LINK Centre and are all available online to previous and future participants in the PhD programme. The lectures were: Introduction to the Network Economy, Critique of Markets and Regulation, Institutional Change and Economic Growth, Achieving Universal Access/ Service: Assessing Different Approaches, Mobile Service Markets: Imperfections and Regulation, Restructuring Telecom Institutions for the 21st Century and Independent Regulation in a Developing Country Environment. A number of participants including LINK staffers presented first drafts of PhD proposals for comment. One prospective candidate has presented her proposal to the P&DM PhD proposal panel. Two further proposals were referred to the LINK Centre for supervision but could not be accommodated with existing academic resources.

PUBLIC PROCESSES AND APPOINTMENTS
Alison Gillwald continued to chair the Digital Broadcasting Advisory Body, established to advise the Minister of Communications on the introduction of digital radio and digital terrestrial television until its final recommendations were presented in 2002. Luci Abrahams was appointed to the E-Strategy Task Team, established to advise the Minister of Communications in terms of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002.

STAFF
Full-time academic and research staff in 2002 included Research Director Alison Gillwald, Lucienne Abrahams who took up the position of Director in September 2002, senior lecturers Gordon Oyomno and Peter Benjamin, lecturer Charley Lewis and researchers Merridy Wilson, Sean Kane and Sagren Moodley. The Centre employed two administrative staff - research network administrator Boitumelo Molefe and course co-ordinator Ntomboxolo Currie.

In order to address the need for young researchers in the ICT policy and management fields, LINK has advertised an annual scholarship to prospective Honours-level students who wish to pursue a career in the field of ICT policy and regulation. Students in the fields of economics, law, engineering or multi-disciplinary areas such as international relations, development studies or public policy are invited to apply for 2004.

FINANCES
Unaudited Financial Statements for the year ending 31/12/2002
2002
Income
Interest 44,464.80
Fees received 606,306.43
IDRC Note 1 1,522,642.76
Vodacom 500,000.00
SAICT Research Network 350,000.00
LIRNE 77,669.00
ICASA 271,437.50
USAID (Nettel) Note 2 94,071.42
SAMDI 203,200.00
SAUVCA 19,681.85
DBSA 50,000.00
Department of Science & Technology 7,000.00
3,746,473.76
Expenses
Accommodation & Travel 193,177.79
Advertising & Marketing 132,130.25
Books & Journals 6,936.21
Catering & Refreshments 66,266.76
Consulting Fees 143,492.12
Conference Attendance Fees 7,150.00
Cost Recoveries( School and University ) 960,020.61
Academic Expenses 450.00
Communication 95,913.23
Printing & Stationary 110,485.10
Repairs & Maintenance 1,053.73
Staff Training & Development 16,400.00
Sundry Expenses 60,689.38
Capital Expenses 51,521.66
Production (Website, Videos, Journal ) 256,053.05
2,101,739.89
Personnel Costs
Academic Benefits 323,694.67
Academic Salaries 1,851,733.12
Support Service Benefits 70,607.14
Support Service Salaries 277,603.35
2,523,638.28
Total Expenses 4,625,378.17
Surplus/(Deficit) for the Year -878,904.41
Accumulated Funds/ (Deficit ) Brought Forward from Previous Year 150,775.54
Accumulated Funds / (Deficit) at the end of the Year -728,128.87

Note 1. Final payments to the estimated value of R173 000 included (depending on exchange rate)
Note 2 Final payments to the estimated value of R40 000 not included