Evolving an Efficient and Effective Off-the-Shelf Computing Infrastructure for Rural Communities of South Africa

Siebörger, Ingrid; Terzoli, Alfredo; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl

Title: Evolving an Efficient and Effective Off-the-Shelf Computing Infrastructure for Rural Communities of South Africa
Creator: Siebörger, Ingrid
Creator: Terzoli, Alfredo
Creator: Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2020
Date: 2020
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/430990
Identifier: vital:72734
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52014-4_5
Description: Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have diffused into al-most every area of life for citizens living in the Global North. Data is seen as a key element in the fourth industrial revolution and is the foundation of Information, Knowledge and Wisdom. Knowledge has become the new “make or break” asset and an inability to access the world’s data and technologies that facilitate access, synthesis and inter-rogation of data places one at a disadvantage. In 2013, the Department of Communications in South Africa announced a new national broad-band policy to promote the reduction of a digital divide and sup-port citi-zens and the economy in digital interactions. Implementation has thus far not been successful. Furthermore, the Broadband policy does not address how South Africans are to access the Internet once available. The Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) provides an example of a computing infrastructure model for the introduction of ICTs into rural communities. Through the deployment of “broadband islands” and low-cost compu-ting infrastructure to promote both knowledge creation and consump-tion, access to the proposed ubiquitous Internet connectivity can be un-locked. However, the initial computing infrastructure deployed to the SLL suffers from a single point of failure. In this paper, we discuss al-ternative computing infrastructure configurations that were tested and deployed within the SLL in order to determine a more appropriate com-puting infrastructure model for the SLL and potentially other rural South African communities; such that learners, teachers and community members can be active contributors and consumers of data, infor-mation, knowledge and wisdom.
Format: 14 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: International Development Informatics Association Conference
Relation: Siebörger, I., Terzoli, A. and Hodgkinson-Williams, C., 2020, March. Evolving an Efficient and Effective Off-the-Shelf Computing Infrastructure for Rural Communities of South Africa. In International Development Informatics Association Conference (pp. 63-77). Cham: Springer International Publishing
Relation: International Development Informatics Association Conference volume 2020 number 1 63 77 2020 978-3-030-52014-4
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions)

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Terzoli, Alfredo (Prof)

Sieborger, Ingrid (Dr)

RU Department of Information Systems

RU Department of Computer Science

SDG 09. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

SDG 10. Reduced Inequalities

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