Design and implementation of a network revenue management architecture for marginalised communities
- Authors: Tarwireyi, Paul
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Computer network architectures -- South Africa -- Design and construction , Computer network protocols -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Design and construction , Revenue management , Computer networks -- Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11374 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/72 , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Computer network architectures -- South Africa -- Design and construction , Computer network protocols -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Design and construction , Revenue management , Computer networks -- Social aspects
- Description: Rural Internet connectivity projects aimed at bridging the digital divide have mushroomed across many developing countries. Most of the projects are deployed as community centred projects. In most of the cases the initial deployment of these projects is funded by governments, multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations. After the initial deployment, financial sustainability remains one of the greatest challenges facing these projects. In the light of this, externally funded ICT4D interventions should just be used for “bootstrapping” purposes. The communities should be “groomed” to take care of and sustain these projects, eliminating as soon as possible a dependency on external funding. This master thesis presents the design and the implementation of a generic architecture for the management of the costs associated with running a computer network connected to the Internet, The proposed system, called the Network Revenue Management System, enables a network to generate revenue, by charging users for the utilization of network resources. The novelty of the system resides in its flexibility and adaptability, which allow the exploration of both conventional and non-conventional billing options, via the use of suitable ‘adapters’. The final goal of the exploration made possible by this system is the establishment of what is regarded as equitable charging in rural, marginalized communities - such as the community in Dwesa, South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Development of a web-based interface for a wireless sensor network monitoring system
- Authors: Gumbo, Sibukele
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Wireless LAN , Sensor networks , Wireless communication systems , Web sites -- Design , User interfaces (Computer systems)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11372 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/68 , Wireless LAN , Sensor networks , Wireless communication systems , Web sites -- Design , User interfaces (Computer systems)
- Description: In the recent past, wireless sensor technology has undergone advancements in its autonomous data collecting aspects, and has become an area worth investigating in relation to structural monitoring applications. The system described in this thesis aims at acquiring, storing and displaying overhead transmission line related data collected from a wireless sensor network. Open source tools were used in its development and implementation. The inherent linearly aligned topology of transmission line monitoring devices is not without shortcomings; hence analysis of linear node placement, hardware and software components was carried out to determine the feasibility of the system. Their limited data processing capabilities has motivated the development of a post processing wireless sensor application in order to present any collected structural data in an understandable format.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Rural internet connectivity: a development in Dwesa-Cwebe, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Mandioma, Martin
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: Internet -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11376 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/78 , Internet -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This thesis presents aspects of Internet connectivity in rural South Africa. The work looks at government initiatives being undertaken to connect rural communities to up-to-date information networks. Various projects that seek to connect rural areas of South Africa, as well as other remote areas around the world, are discussed. These projects present many novel ideas that have been successfully used to link rural communities in remote areas with the information age. In particular, wired and wireless access technologies that can be implemented to connect remote communities to the Internet are discussed. A field test utilizing GPRS, VSAT and WiMAX was implemented in Dwesa-Cwebe, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. VSAT proved to offer better Internet connectivity in terms of throughput and latency. WiMAX was then successfully implemented to relay the signal over the remote area of Dwesa-Cwebe, thus effectively providing Internet connectivity to an area with limited cell phone coverage and no telephone lines.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Development of methodologies for deploying and implementing local & medium area broadband PLC networks in office and residential electric grids
- Authors: Tinarwo, Loyd
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Broadband communication systems , Power transmission , Telecommunication lines
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11375 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/83 , Broadband communication systems , Power transmission , Telecommunication lines
- Description: The use of electrical networks for telecommunications has a long history. It has been known since the beginning of the twentieth century [Ahola03]. The idea of using electrical networks for broadband communications arose in the 1990s [Hrasnica et al 04]. Recent and growing research interest has indicated that PowerLine Communications (PLC) is the threshold for achieving broadband delivery particularly in very dispersed and low teledensity areas. Currently, there are numerous PLC trials and commercial deployments underway inside and outside South Africa. Nevertheless, these PLC deployments are very isolated, done without clear methodology and performance remains bound to the physical layout of the electrical network. Because of that high bandwidth broadband PLC systems are prone to poor performance and this in turn limits the acceptance and deployment of this emerging alternative broadband technology. Though, PLC technical challenges are being addressed, there has been little analysis and research work that is focused on the “Development of Methodologies for Deploying and Implementing Local & Medium Area Broadband Power Line in Residential and Office Electric Grids” that would lead to broadband PLC being adopted and be of greater use to non-broadband communities of South Africa. PLC is a term describing several different systems using electrical grid distribution wires for simultaneous distribution of data by superimposing an analog signal [Hrasnica et al 04]. The research proposed and presented broadband PLC methodologies for typical medium voltage and local voltage PLC networks. These methodologieswere implemented and experimented with in configurations which closely mirrored residential and office settings through laboratory and multibuilding experiments using commercial 2nd Generation Mitsubishi Electric PLC technology. Research results presented not only serve to provide insight into broadband PLC but also how it handled broadband applications (communications), competed and compared with other technologies such as Ethernet LAN. In combination with networking communication theories, the research explored and analyzed the extent of PLC in providing broadband communication to residential and office electric grids at the University Fort Hare, Computer Science Department.
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- Date Issued: 2008
Implementing a robust, cost effective, e-commerce platform for a disadvantaged community of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Njeje, Sicelo Given
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Computer network architectures -- South Africa -- Design and construction , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet marketing , Business enterprises -- Computer networks , Electronic commerce
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11373 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/75 , Computer network architectures -- South Africa -- Design and construction , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet marketing , Business enterprises -- Computer networks , Electronic commerce
- Description: The development of electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the most visible business use of the World Wide Web. The primary goal of an e-commerce site is to sell goods and services online. This project deals with developing an e-commerce platform for marginalized communities of the Eastern Cape region, South Africa. An online “shopping mall” to support the marketing of art and crafts from disadvantaged communities is presented, with Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) as the development environment. Free and Open Source Software has been chosen to develop the virtual shopping mall system because the use of Open Source allows easy localization and extensions to the system developed and long term sustainability, as the source code is available. Also, it might start a “virtuous” circle, whereby young members of the communities hosting art and craft makers become involved in maintenance, and then production, of software systems. One important design constraint from the e-commerce platform presented in this thesis is the possibility for the art and craft makers to manage their shops directly, from the initial loading of their wares to the day-to-day maintenance, such as changes of price or items. The user requirement elicitation and initial field testing were conducted in Dwesa, an area on the wild coast, South Africa. The system currently comprising two shops is live at the time of writing this thesis at www.dwesa.com.
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- Date Issued: 2008
A comparison of open source object-oriented database products
- Authors: Khayundi, Peter
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Object-oriented databases , Relational databases , Database management , Database selection , Database searching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11384 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/254 , Object-oriented databases , Relational databases , Database management , Database selection , Database searching
- Description: Object oriented databases have been gaining popularity over the years. Their ease of use and the advantages that they offer over relational databases have made them a popular choice amongst database administrators. Their use in previous years was restricted to business and administrative applications, but improvements in technology and the emergence of new, data-intensive applications has led to the increase in the use of object databases. This study investigates four Open Source object-oriented databases on their ability to carry out the standard database operations of storing, querying, updating and deleting database objects. Each of these databases will be timed in order to measure which is capable of performing a particular function faster than the other.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Cultural and linguistic localization of the virtual shop owner interfaces of e commerce platforms for rural development
- Authors: Dyakalashe, Siyabulela
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: User interfaces (Computer systems) , Electronic commerce -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Computer architecture -- Design and construction
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11379 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/276 , User interfaces (Computer systems) , Electronic commerce -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Computer architecture -- Design and construction
- Description: The introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for rural development in rural marginalized societies is vastly growing. However, the success of developing and deploying ICT related services is still in question as influential factors such as adaptability, scalability, sustainability, and usability have great effect on the rate of growth of ICTs in rural environments. The problem is that these ICT services should be maintained and sustained by the targeted communities. The main cause for rural marginalization is the fact that some communities situated in rural settings are educationally challenged and computer illiterate or semiliterate in comparison with urban communities. An ICT for development (ICT4D) intervention in the form of an e-Commerce platform that targets the social and economic growth of rural marginalized communities has been developed and field tested at Dwesa, a rural community located on the Wild Coast of the former homeland of Transkei in the Eastern Cape Province. The e-Commerce platform is known as “buy at Dwesa” and can be visited at this URL, http://www.dwesa.com. The aim of the e-Commerce platform is to motivate small entrepreneurs in rural areas to market their products and themselves to the global market as they lack the skills and resources for marketing their art and crafts. Virtual stores are created for a small group of entrepreneurs who will maintain and sustain the stores on their own. These entrepreneurs are often elderly women with limited education and little to no computer literacy - meaning that sustaining the stores may prove difficult for them. In this research we discuss the re-design and re-development of the virtual shop-owner interfaces of the e-Commerce platform to make them more culturally and linguistically localized. The virtual shops allow shop-owners to upload their artifacts to advertise and sell on the customer’s end of the e-Commerce platform. For multilingual and multicultural communities, adoption of the software interfaces to the user’s cultural and linguistic needs and modes of expression is important as failure to do so may reduce the level of benefits of e-Commerce initiatives.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Implementation of a rewards based negotiation module for an e commerce platform
- Authors: Jere, Nobert Rangarirai
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Computer network architecture -- South Africa -- Design and construction , Internet in public administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Electronic commerce -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Business enterprises -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11378 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/267 , Computer network architecture -- South Africa -- Design and construction , Internet in public administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Electronic commerce -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Business enterprises -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been widely deployed in developmental programs and this has lead to the creation of a new field – ICT for Development (ICT4D). Within the context of ICT4D, various e-services are being developed, including e-Commerce, e-Government, e-Health and e-Judiciary. ICT4D projects allow Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in rural areas to increase sales and gain a market share in the global market. However, many of these ICT4D projects do not succeed, because they fail to bring enough financial value to SMMEs due to the form they currently have. An obvious example is e-Commerce, which should be a source of revenue for business organizations, but most often is not. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a rewarding and negotiation application for a shopping portal to improve the marketing of products for rural entrepreneurs. The shopping portal has been set up for the Dwesa community, a marginalized area in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The proposed system, called the Dwesa Rewarding Program (DRP) enables customers buying online to get points for some of the activities carried out on the shopping portal. It also allows customers to negotiate and make offers whilst purchasing and get rewarded for buying online. The novelty of the system is in its flexibility and adaptability. One achievement of this system is the establishment of negotiation rules which allows fairness in rewarding customers. This should in turn lead to increased sales on the e-Commerce platform in marginalized areas and subsequently increased effectiveness of ICT4D for socio-economic development
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- Date Issued: 2009
Implementing an integrated e-government functionality for a marginalized community in the Eastern Cape South Africa
- Authors: Jakachira, Bobby Tichaona
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet in public administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11377 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/273 , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet in public administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: Traditional methods of providing public services to disadvantaged rural communities in South Africa have, over the years, proven to be inefficient and in most such communities, simply non-existent. Although the South African government has taken initiatives to make these public services cheaply and conveniently available online at national level, access at local municipal level is still lacking. The goal of this study is to develop a cost-effective e-government system that will contribute to improved provision of public services to the Dwesa area, a rural community in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, by the government. A prototype construction approach was used, to develop a cost-effective four-modular web application. Interviews were conducted in the field, resulting in four e-government system modules, based on open-source software, developed and integrated to form a single, dynamic web component that will act as a one-stop shop for Dwesa community members. These are the Dwesa Online Application Centre (DOAC) to apply for important government documents and grants, the Dwesa Online Reporting Centre (DORC) to report various grievances to the responsible agencies, the Dwesa Forum Corner (DFC), a digital community, and the management back-end module. The Dwesa e-government portal was developed using Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) technology, a Zoop framework to model the individual components and a JQUERY JavaScript library to increase the responsiveness of the user interfaces. The most significant contributions of this thesis have been the development of a cost-effective, integrated e-government functionality, applicable to disadvantaged communities, and the greater understanding this has given of the tools and methodologies that can be used to deliver public services efficiently to citizens. The final evaluation of this e-government system gives significant evidence that the e-government portal provides a solid foundation that will allow e-government implementation to raise the provision of public services to a higher level.
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- Date Issued: 2009
A P2P middleware design for digital access nodes in marginalised rural areas
- Authors: Wertlen, Ronald
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Software design , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- Simulation methods , Computer networks , Data transmission systems , Electronic data processing -- Distributed processing , Middleware -- Development , Computer software
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11391 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/254 , Software design , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- Simulation methods , Computer networks , Data transmission systems , Electronic data processing -- Distributed processing , Middleware -- Development , Computer software
- Description: This thesis addresses software design within the field of Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICTD). Specifically, it makes a case for the design and development of software which is custom-made for the context of marginalised rural areas (MRAs). One of the main aims of any ICTD project is sustainability and such sustainability is particularly difficult in MRAs because of the high costs of projects located there. Most literature on ICTD projects focuses on other factors, such as management, regulations, social and community issues when discussing this issue. Technical matters are often down-played or ignored entirely. This thesis argues that MRAs exhibit unique technical characteristics and that by understanding these characteristics, one can possibly design more cost-effective software. One specific characteristic is described and addressed in this thesis – a characteristic we describe here for the first time and call a network island. Further analysis of the literature generates a picture of a distributed network of access nodes (DANs) within such network islands, which are connected by high speed networks and are able to share resources and stimulate usage of technology by offering a wide range of services. This thesis attempts to design a fitting middleware platform for such a context, which would achieve the following aims: i) allow software developers to create solutions for the context more efficiently (correctly, rapidly); ii) stimulate product managers and business owners to create innovative software products more easily (cost-effectively). A given in the context of this thesis is that the software should use free/libre open source software (FLOSS) – good arguments do also exist for the use of FLOSS. A review of useful FLOSS frameworks is undertaken and several of these are examined in an applied part of the thesis, to see how useful they may be. They form the basis for a walking skeleton implementation of the proposed middleware. The Spring framework is the basis for experiments, along with Spring-Webservices, JMX and PHP 5’s web service capabilities. This thesis builds on three years of work at the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL), an experimental testbed in a MRA in the Mbashe district of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Several existing products are deployed at the SLL in the fields of eCommerce, eGovernment and eLearning. Requirements specifications are engineered from a variety of sources, including interviews, mailing lists, the author’s experience as a supervisor at the SLL, and a review of the existing SLL products. Future products are also investigated, as the thesis considers current trends in ICTD. Use cases are also derived and listed. Most of the use cases are concerned with management functions of DANs that can be automated, so that operators of DANs can focus on their core business and not on technology. Using the UML Components methodology, the thesis then proceeds to design a middleware component architecture that is derived from the requirements specification. The process proceeds step-by-step, so that the reader can follow how business rules, operations and interfaces are derived from the use cases. Ultimately, the business rules, interfaces and operations are related to business logic, system interfaces and operations that are situated in specific components. The components in turn are derived from the business information model, that is derived from the business concepts that were initially used to describe the context for the requirements engineering. In this way, a logical method for software design is applied to the problem domain to methodically derive a software design for a middleware solution. The thesis tests the design by considering possible weaknesses in the design. The network aspect is tested by interpolating from formal assumptions about the nature of the context. The data access layer is also identified as a possible bottleneck. We suggest the use of fast indexing methods instead of relational databases to maintain flexibility and efficiency of the data layer. Lessons learned from the exercise are discussed, within the context of the author’s experience in software development teams, as well as in ICTD projects. This synthesis of information leads to warnings about the psychology of middleware development. We note that the ICTD domain is a particularly difficult one with regards to software development as business requirements are not usually clearly formulated and developers do not have the requisite domain knowledge. In conclusion, the core arguments of the thesis are recounted in a bullet form, to lay bare the reasoning behind this work. Novel aspects of the work are also highlighted. They include the description of a network island, and aspects of the DAN middleware requirements engineering and design. Future steps for work based on this thesis are mapped out and open problems relating to this research are touched upon.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Building a semantic web-based e-health component for a multipurpose communication centre
- Authors: Hlungulu, Bulumko
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet in medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Telecommunication in medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Health -- Computer network resources
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11380 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/374 , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet in medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Telecommunication in medicine -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Health -- Computer network resources
- Description: Rural communities have limited access to health information which is made available on the internet. This is due to poor infrastructure (i.e., lack of clinics or Internet access) and that gives them problems in accessing information within the domain of health. The availability of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in a rural community can provide the community with a number of beneficial solutions to their problems as they maximize the potential of knowledge sharing and delivery. This research seeks to make use of ICTs deployed in the community of Dwesa, in order to contribute to improving the health standards of the community. It seeks to accomplish this by carrying out an investigation and literature review with the aim of understanding health knowledge sharing dynamics in the context of marginalized communities. The knowledge acquired will then be used in the development and implementation of a semantic web-based e-Health portal as part of the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) project. This portal will share and deliver western medical knowledge, traditional knowledge and indigenous knowledge. This research seeks to make use of a combination of Free and/or Open Sources Software in developing the portal to make it affordable to the community.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Developing SOA wrappers for communication purposes in rural areas
- Authors: Samalenge, Jimmy
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Computer network architectures , Computer architecture , Computer software -- Specifications , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Web services , System design , Technological innovations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11386 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/320 , Computer network architectures , Computer architecture , Computer software -- Specifications , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Web services , System design , Technological innovations -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: The introduction of Web Services as a platform upon which applications can communicate has contributed a great deal towards the expansion of World Wide Web technologies. The Internet and computing technologies have been some of the factors that have contributed to the socio-economic improvement of urban and industrial areas. This research focuses on the application of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services technologies in Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) contexts. SOA is a style used to design distributed systems, and Web Services are some of the common realizations of the SOA. Web Services allow the exchange of data between two or more machines in a simple and standardized manner over the network. This has resulted in the augmentation of ways in which individuals in a society and in the world communicate. This research aims to develop a SOA-based system with services that are implemented as Web Services. The system is intended to support communication activities of Dwesa community members. The communication methods identified as the most commonly used in the Dwesa community are Short Message Services (SMSs) and voice calls. In this research we have identified further methods (i.e. Multimedia Message Service, Electronic mail and Instant Messaging) to augment communication activities in Dwesa. The developed system, therefore, exposes SMS Web Service, MMS Web Service, Email Web Service and IM Web Service that are consumed in machine-to-machine, machine-to-person and person-to-person types of communication. We have also implemented a one-stop communication shop, through a web portal which provides interfaces to the different communication modules. Elaborate functional and usability testing have also been undertaken to establish the viability and end-user acceptance of the system respectively. This research has provided the initial validation of the effectiveness of the SOA-based system in ICT4D contexts
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- Date Issued: 2010
Investigation and development of an e judiciary service for a citizen oriented judiciary system for rural communities
- Authors: Scott, Mfundo Shakes
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , User interfaces (Computer systems)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11390 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/275 , Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , User interfaces (Computer systems)
- Description: One of the factors that contribute towards slow rural development is the presence of the digital divide. An area where the digital divide is still prevalent is the administration of justice within traditional contexts. One of the areas affected by this problem is the Dwesa rural community, situated on the Wild Coast of the former homeland of Transkei, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. To address this problem for the Dwesa community, a research project on developing and implementing an e-Judiciary service was undertaken. The primary objective of this project was to develop a web application to support traditional justice administration in the Dwesa community. Due to the lack of a proper legal environment in this community, the e-Judiciary service acts as a portal for safe-keeping of judicial information. Such a system also serves as a platform for the administration of minor offences that are solved by the traditional courts. Furthermore, it provides a better working environment for traditional judicial leaders and eliminates the difficulty of accessing legal information by the rest of the community. Through the availability and use of the service, community members are provided with understanding and knowledge about judiciary operations and services in their community.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Developing a help-desk system for a multi-purpose ICT platform in a marginalised setting
- Authors: Makombe, Farai
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Computer industry -- Customer services , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Case-based reasoning , Telecommunication -- Technological innovations
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11381 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/315 , Computer industry -- Customer services , Rural development projects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Case-based reasoning , Telecommunication -- Technological innovations
- Description: Attempts to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural Information and Communications Technology (ICT) users have led to the deployment of ICT platforms in remote rural areas. This puts an increased demand for skilled support in rural ICT platforms to assist users in resolving technical problems that they face on a daily basis. A web based help desk system is developed and implemented to allow knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst users and experts as a way of ensuring the technical sustainability of the Siyakhula Living Lab, a remote rural based Information and Communications Technology (ICT4D) intervention. The research describes the use of Transactional and Innovation & Creative knowledge management strategies and their associated applications such as case-based reasoning (CBR) methods and collaborative knowledge approaches to develop a help desk support system for a geographically distributed multipurpose ICT centre in Dwesa, a rural remote area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The system implemented in this study has been validated for functional adequacy and usability within the Siyakhula Living Lab. The results of the evaluation are presented in this thesis to provide the initial validation of the effectiveness of the help desk system. Keywords: ICT4D, ICT, Case-Based Reasoning; Collaborative Knowledge, Technical Sustainability, Help Desk Systems, Siyakhula Living Lab Forums, Issue Tracking, Rural Users, South Africa
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- Date Issued: 2011
Development of an M-Payment system prototype for a marginalized region (Dwesa case study)
- Authors: Mpofu, Handsome C
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Electronic commerce -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Mobile communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Home banking services -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural poor -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11387 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/458 , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Electronic commerce -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Mobile communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Home banking services -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural poor -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: Wireless technologies, such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), are making it easier to provide the much needed telecommunications infrastructure in marginalized areas worldwide. These technologies enable the rapid deployment of network services as well as their redistribution throughout these marginalized areas. The ability to bring Internet connectivity to previously underserviced and marginalized areas has the potential to leap-frog socio-economic development and improve participation in the global knowledge economy. This study investigated how wireless access technologies, such as WiMAX and WiFi, can be integrated and used to deliver ubiquitous distributed Internet connectivity with increased capillarity in rural areas. The research was undertaken within an ICT for Development (ICT4D) intervention called Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) which is based in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The research further eliminated the accessibility constraints associated with long distances and remoteness from the Digital Access Nodes (DANs) and provided increased penetration in the network in contrast to the traditional Telecentre model which has been used extensively in ICT4D interventions. This was achieved by deploying WiFi hotspots around the DANs and extending the existing SLL WiMAX backbone to increase the network footprint to neighboring communities. The technical result of the research has been the provision of increased capillarity on the network and service redistribution throughout the entire Dwesa community. Consequently, this has given local community members an opportunity to access network services easily and ubiquitously. Finally, the research investigated and presented the benefits of such wireless network deployment configurations on ICT4D activities in marginalized areas.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Development of isiXhosa text-to-speech modules to support e-Services in marginalized rural areas
- Authors: Mhlana, Siphe
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Xhosa language -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Text processing (Computer science) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Literacy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Mobile communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Transmission of texts -- Data processing , Electronic publishing -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11388 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/495 , Xhosa language -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Text processing (Computer science) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Literacy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Mobile communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Transmission of texts -- Data processing , Electronic publishing -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects are being initiated and deployed in marginalized areas to help improve the standard of living for community members. This has lead to a new field, which is responsible for information processing and knowledge development in rural areas, called Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). An ICT4D projects has been implemented in a marginalized area called Dwesa; this is a rural area situated in the wild coast of the former homelandof Transkei, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. In this rural community there are e-Service projects which have been developed and deployed to support the already existent ICT infrastructure. Some of these projects include the e-Commerce platform, e-Judiciary service, e-Health and e-Government portal. Although these projects are deployed in this area, community members face a language and literacy barrier because these services are typically accessed through English textual interfaces. This becomes a challenge because their language of communication is isiXhosa and some of the community members are illiterate. Most of the rural areas consist of illiterate people who cannot read and write isiXhosa but can only speak the language. This problem of illiteracy in rural areas affects both the youth and the elderly. This research seeks to design, develop and implement software modules that can be used to convert isiXhosa text into natural sounding isiXhosa speech. Such an application is called a Text-to-Speech (TTS) system. The main objective of this research is to improve ICT4D eServices’ usability through the development of an isiXhosa Text-to-Speech system. This research is undertaken within the context of Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL), an ICT4D intervention towards improving the lives of rural communities of South Africa in an attempt to bridge the digital divide. Thedeveloped TTS modules were subsequently tested to determine their applicability to improve eServices usability. The results show acceptable levels of usability as having produced audio utterances for the isiXhosa Text-To-Speech system for marginalized areas.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Exploring user-driven telephony services in an information and communication technology for development context
- Authors: Kunjuzwa, Dumani Tau
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information society -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Telecommunication -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11383 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/546 , Digital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information society -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Telecommunication -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: There is a great difference that exists between people who have access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and those who do not. As a developing nation, South Africa is badly affected by the so-called Digital Divide. Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) interventions are rapidly increasing in marginalized and rural communities in striving to bridge this digital divide. This research project is undertaken within the context of the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) which is an ICTD intervention at Dwesa rural community. This research investigates how audio-based services can be applied locally for communication and information sharing. This research aims to develop a user-driven telephony framework which will enable users to construct customized audio-based services. This aims to empower the Dwesa community for skill development and supports the user-driven innovation. The Internet and Telephones are the most popular technologies that are widely used in our daily life for purposes of communication and information access. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) integrates these two separate technologies (Internet and Telephones) to produce real-time multimedia communication services such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems. In addition, the ability of VoIP presenting information through voice plays a crucial role, more especially to those who do not have web visual access or those who are computer illiterate.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Improving the robustness and effectiveness of rural telecommunication infrastructures in Dwesa South Africa
- Authors: Ranga, Memory Munashe
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information networks -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Computer networks -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11382 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1001113 , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information networks -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Computer networks -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: In recent years, immense effort has been channelled towards the Information and Technological development of rural areas. To support this development, telecommunication networks have been deployed. The availability of these telecommunication networks is expected to improve the way people share ideas and communicate locally and globally, reducing limiting factors like distance through the use of the Internet. The major problem for these networks is that very few of them have managed to stay in operation over long periods of time. One of the major causes of this failure is the lack of proper monitoring and management as, in some cases, administrators are located far away from the network site. Other factors that contribute to the frequent failure of these networks are lack of proper infrastructure, lack of a constant power supply and other environmental issues. A telecommunication network was deployed for the people of Dwesa by the Siyakhula Living Lab project. During this research project, frequent visits were made to the site and network users were informally interviewed in order to gain insight into the network challenges. Based on the challenges, different network monitoring systems and other solutions were deployed on the network. This thesis analyses the problems encountered and presents possible and affordable solutions that were implemented on the network. This was done to improve the network‟s reliability, availability and manageability whilst exploring possible and practical ways in which the connectivity of the deployed telecommunication network can be maintained. As part of these solutions, a GPRS redundant link, Nagios and Cacti monitoring systems as well as Simple backup systems were deployed. v Acronyms AC Access Concentrators AMANDA Automatic Marylyn Network Disk Archiver CDMA Code Divison Multiple Access CGI Common Gateway Interface.
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- Date Issued: 2011
Investigating wireless network deployment configurations for marginalized areas
- Authors: Ndlovu, Nkanyiso
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Wireless LAN -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information networks -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , IEEE 802.16 (Standard) , Telecommunication wiring -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Globalization -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11385 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/463 , Wireless LAN -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information networks -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Information technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , IEEE 802.16 (Standard) , Telecommunication wiring -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Internet -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Globalization -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: In recent years, immense effort has been channelled towards the Information and Technological development of rural areas. To support this development, telecommunication networks have been deployed. The availability of these telecommunication networks is expected to improve the way people share ideas and communicate locally and globally, reducing limiting factors like distance through the use of the Internet. The major problem for these networks is that very few of them have managed to stay in operation over long periods of time. One of the major causes of this failure is the lack of proper monitoring and management as, in some cases, administrators are located far away from the network site. Other factors that contribute to the frequent failure of these networks are lack of proper infrastructure, lack of a constant power supply and other environmental issues. A telecommunication network was deployed for the people of Dwesa by the Siyakhula Living Lab project. During this research project, frequent visits were made to the site and network users were informally interviewed in order to gain insight into the network challenges. Based on the challenges, different network monitoring systems and other solutions were deployed on the network. This thesis analyses the problems encountered and presents possible and affordable solutions that were implemented on the network. This was done to improve the network‟s reliability, availability and manageability whilst exploring possible and practical ways in which the connectivity of the deployed telecommunication network can be maintained. As part of these solutions, a GPRS redundant link, Nagios and Cacti monitoring systems as well as Simple backup systems were deployed. v Acronyms AC Access Concentrators AMANDA Automatic Marylyn Network Disk Archiver CDMA Code Divison Multiple Access CGI Common Gateway Interface.
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- Date Issued: 2011
A feasibility study of wireless network technologies for rural broadband connectivity
- Authors: Twele, Nombulelo
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Wireless communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Local area networks (Computer networks) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Broadband communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc (Computer Science)
- Identifier: vital:11396 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1016167 , Wireless communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Local area networks (Computer networks) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Broadband communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: The adoption of wireless broadband technologies to provide network and Internet connectivity in rural communities has conveyed the possibility to overcome the challenges caused by marginalization and many other characteristics possessed by these rural communities. With their different capabilities, these technologies enable communication for rural communities internally within the community and externally on a global scale. Deployment of these technologies in rural areas requires consideration of different factors - these are in contrast, to those considered when deploying these technologies in non-rural, urban areas. Numerous research show consideration of facts for deployment of broadband technologies in urban/ non-rural environments and a little has been done in considering facts for deployment in rural environments. Hence this research aims to define guidelines for selection of broadband technologies and make recommendations on which technologies are suitable for deployment in rural communities, thereby considering facts that are true only within these rural communities. To achieve this, the research determines the metrics that are relevant and important to consider when deploying wireless broadband technology in rural communities of South Africa. It further undertakes a survey of wireless broadband technologies that are suitable for deployment in such areas. The study first profiles a list of wireless communication technologies, determines and documents characteristics of rural communities in Africa, determines metrics used to declare technologies feasible in rural areas. The metrics and rural characteristics are then used to identify technologies that are better suited than others. Informed by this initial profiling, one technology: mobile WiMAX is then selected for deployment and further evaluation. A technical review of mobile WiMAX is then carried out by deploying it at our research site in the rural, marginalized community of Dwesa (Eastern Cape, South Africa). The final section of this research provides recommendations that mobile WiMAX, LTE and Wi-Fi are the best suitable technologies for deployment in rural marginalized environments. This has been supported by extensive research and real life deployment of both Wi-Fi and mobile WiMAX. This research also recommends consideration of the following facts when seeking deployment of these technologies in rural communities: the geographical setting of the target terrain, the distances between sources and target customers and distances between target communities, weather conditions of the area, applications to be deployed over the network, social well-being of the community and their financial freedom as well.
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- Date Issued: 2013