Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, at the launch of the Soweto Meraka Institute
Open Source Centre
12 May 2006
Programme Director,
President and CEO of the CSIR, Dr Sibusiso Sibisi,
Executive Director: Linux International, Mr Jon Hall,
Open project leader, Dr Ntsika Msimang,
The Director of NICRO and staff,
Ladies and gentlemen
The launch and official opening of the Meraka Institute Soweto Satellite
Office is a significant step in South Africaâs attempts to bridge the
technological divide and to confront, in a direct way, the pressing
technological needs of our country.
This satellite office of the Meraka Institute is intended to make a
significant contribution towards our national efforts to dismantle the mindset
that technology is something that is incomprehensible, and distant from the
lives of ordinary South Africans. It bears testimony to the reality that
cutting edge innovative information and communications technology (ICT)
research and development can and does take place wherever people live.
Significantly, todayâs launch requires us to rethink conventional conceptions
of the relationship between science and technology, or where such relationships
are likely to be played out.
The Meraka Institute Open Source Centre does not subscribe to the often
cited ICT skills shortage in South Africa, especially among young Black people.
A workshop held in Soweto in August last year, confirmed to the Meraka staff
that theirs was a healthy scepticism. That workshop revealed the extensive ICT
talent and expertise that exists in Soweto. In many ways, that workshop led to
our gathering here today.
The Meraka Open Source Soweto office seeks to harness the untapped ICT
talent in this area. The office recognises the importance of developing
scientific and technological know-how in places where researchers live.
In discussions about the skills-shortage in science and technology, and the
development of strategies to ensure that our people benefit from the generation
of such knowledge, we often erroneously assume that such knowledge can only be
developed in laboratories located exclusively at large industries or
institutions of higher learning. People who live in places like Soweto are
generally considered as only the consumers of knowledge and expertise developed
and fine-tuned elsewhere. But this centre is intended to chart a different path
through which the people of Soweto should experience first hand, and enter the
terrain of technological advancement.
This centre now invites us to move away from that logic because its
commitment is to mine and harness the vast talent available among the many
high-calibre people who are developing, writing and using Open Source Software
in Soweto. It epitomises the objective of one of South Africaâs leading science
councils, the CSIR, whose commitment is to nurture our peoplesâ depth and
potential in innovative research discoveries and developments. It also marks an
important intervention in our science and technology landscape to make the
research processes to produce richer and faster benefits.
How can Open Source applications benefit research on the smart card
development for e-Government?
The Soweto office will also develop Open Source distributions for scientists
and computer-based software training for Open Office and Linux. The benefits of
the work done here will translate into various significant developments. In the
information age, service delivery requires connectivity. The research
undertaken here will address issues of how such connectivity can be maximised
to produce a mesh that is both affordable and sustainable, and one that
directly impacts on the effectiveness of e-Government to speed up service
delivery. Efforts are already underway to test the possible inroads a wireless
mesh can make in improving internet connectivity in Soweto. Researchers at this
Soweto office are already testing the internet as a service delivery channel in
e-Government, and have innovatively avoided some of the usual limitations of
such tests by investigating the possibility of operating on a license-free
frequency band.
In the light of this, it is particularly fitting that Soweto has been chosen
as the location.
We all know that ânecessity is the mother of inventionâ. The enormous
challenges we face in addressing questions of access to resources, poverty and
service delivery provide enough motivation why innovation should exist in
abundance in places like Soweto. The workshop of August 2005 also revealed that
ICT innovation already exists in pockets of Soweto. The Meraka Institute and
its partners then responded by establishing this centre, which will co-ordinate
such isolated efforts to maximise the benefits of a more streamlined ICT
initiative.
The location of the Soweto Meraka Open Source Center at The National
Institute for the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO) is particularly suitable
for the generation and use of scientific and technological knowledge, since
NICRO already supports an established extensive network for organisations and
businesses in the area. The Soweto office can, therefore, readily contribute
towards the development and enhancement of the work of this centre.
The Soweto satellite office also dovetails with the vision of NICRO
Director, Isaac Meletse, to have an information technology (IT) programme that
is able to produce a successful transfer of skills that NICRO has been enjoying
regarding its delivery of building and plumbing courses. These courses have
proved so successful that its learners and apprentices were usually offered
employment even before they completed those courses. We understand that thus
far, The NICRO has been frustrated by its inability to match those success
rates regarding their IT programmes.
Soweto is also an appropriate location for an endeavour of this kind by
young Black scientists. Thirty years ago, the students of Soweto began a
revolution against the evil system of Bantu education. Therefore, if we are to
maintain the existence of a forward-thinking and savvy youth that is able to
take leadership on the most pressing issues of the day, then we need leadership
that is appropriately skilled and informed to meet the challenges of the
knowledge age. The activities undertaken within the Soweto Meraka satellite
office are meant to nurture a tradition of progressive and innovative youth
leadership that has contributed significantly in bringing us to where we are
today.
I have no doubt that this office will also make a significant contribution
towards the effort to improve South Africaâs competitiveness in the information
age by harnessing the existing wealth of innovativeness in software
development, and by assisting the people of Soweto to participate in the
current IT industry boom. The Soweto Meraka office is the first step in
pursuance of this goal because it contributes directly towards the development
of an infrastructure for IT and job creation.
In line with South Africaâs legislation, which outlaws the patenting of
computer programmes, the Meraka Institute Open Source Centre seeks to encourage
innovation in software by encouraging entrepreneurs to abstain from patenting
software since software patents kill innovation. They make it impossible for
people to write new computer programmes since they might unwittingly be sued
for infringing on some other personâs or companyâs patents. Freedom to innovate
is absolutely essential for the continued development of cutting-edge products
and services.
The plans by the Meraka Institute to house the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Africa Resource Centre in Soweto will also serve to fortify
some of the endeavours and effects I have already outlined. It is also the
Meraka Institute Open Source Centre that currently hosts the Free Software and
Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) secretariat. On this note, I would
like to recognise the presence of Anna Badimo, who is finishing her PhD in
computer science at Wits University. She is investigating Linux clusters that
can help accelerate the rate of anti-retroviral roll out. Anna is one of the
founders of Linux Chix Africa, an executive member of FOSSFA and a member of
the Kasi Open Source Society. As we know, women are a great minority in the
Open Source and information technology industries. We sincerely hope that
Soweto will play a significant part in changing this anomaly. It is really
exciting to think about a Soweto base, not only for developing innovative mesh
networks for South Africa, but also for a wider network for Africaâs
transformation initiatives.
This launch establishes Soweto as one of the places where knowledge is
created. Talent for innovation also abounds in other townships. We hope that
the lessons derived from the operations of this centre will be used to unlock
similar potential elsewhere in our country.
I thank you
Issued by: Department Science and Technology
12 May 2006
Source: Department of Science and Technology (www.dst.gov.za)
