The development of the African Information Society holds significant potential for furthering the aims of sustainable development for the people of Africa. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that information and communications technologies (ICT) - if applied appropriately - offer significant opportunities for improving the social, economic and cultural lives of all.

It is disconcerting that there are indications that African countries are not progressing rapidly enough in terms of accessing and exploiting the opportunities created by the Information Age. This condition is often referred to as the “digital divide”, which is characterised by, among other things, the disparate access to ICT infrastructure and the uneven ability of people to derive social, economic and cultural benefits from information-intensive activities.

Africa faces a number of challenges in its response to “bridging the digital divide”. These challenges cover a broad range of political, regulatory, social, economic, technological, and environmental considerations.

The CSIR remains committed to its mandate to leverage science, engineering, and technology to better the lives of the people of South Africa and the African continent. The development of the African Information Society as a means of leapfrogging traditional development stages associated with industrialisation, and uplifting Africa onto the global economic scene, is therefore an important focus area for the CSIR.

The CSIR’s strategic unit responsible for information, communications and space technologies, icomtek, is spearheading this effort.

CSIR icomtek has identified a number of technology focus areas, and amassed a wealth of experience in ensuring that technology responds effectively to the broad range of issues and challenges identified and that ICT does play its important role in the service of Africa’s development.

Success Stories and Services

Through innovation in science and technology and appropriate partnerships, the Information Society Technologies Programme contributes to the provision of appropriate and cost-effective ICT solutions. Examples of recent success stories in this space, include:

• The Government to Citizen e-Governance project – This three-year project is aimed at research and development to overcome non-connectivity barriers to accessing electronic government services. The project is undertaken in collaboration with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Fokus Institute and is investigating and developing solutions to extend service delivery independent of citizens’ language, culture or level of education by using human language technology (HLT) and service-orientated middleware. The project team is working closely with stakeholders such as the Centre for Public Service Innovation, the Link Centre and others. The outcome of this research is already making a significant impact on service-delivery strategy in the country.
• The Digital Doorway project – This project is positioned in the educational domain, and aims to test the viability of minimally-invasive education in South Africa. It is specifically looking at introducing technology literacy without the intervention of formal education and training. The initiative seeks to verify results in the South African context, of research conducted in India, indicating that children possess the cognitive ability to acquire functional computer skills without formal training. The project entails providing access to a multimedia kiosk (terminal), which provides access to various applications, including the Internet. Similar findings in South Africa could serve to inform policies and methodologies to introduce alternative mechanisms for computer literacy. It could also suggest another pathway towards building human capacity in support of the advancement of the Information Society in South Africa.

Although the Centre for Logistics and Decision Support has been active in a variety of fields and industry sectors, the field of crime prevention has particularly benefited from the analysis and decision-support skills of this group of specialists in the last year. Projects include:

• A technology-intensive project that unified data capture, data retrieval, crime analysis, and decision support systems (DSS) for the South African Police Service (SAPS). Particular successes followed in crime scene mapping.
• With its business intelligence expertise, icomtek provided decision support for more effective court management. It assisted the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in developing methods to monitor and measure court performance through a court operations centre. Better service delivery in the administration of justice through a dedicated operations room where people have information readily available, is now a reality.
• Decision support for fleet management - scheduling of vehicles between depots for a major South African producer.
• Mathematic modelling for predicting South Africa’s General Election results.
• An executive information and monitoring system for the Office of the State President.
• Freight logistics solutions for Spoornet, the country’s national railway provider.

A major success story for the CSIR was a partnership with the Boeing Company that invested R 45 million (US$ 5 million) to fund the first Ka band Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) facility worldwide at SAC:

• The facility was inaugurated in February 2003. The new antenna system, erected at SAC, can track, command and monitor the Spaceway satellites(the next-generation communication satellite system) as they are placed into orbit. The Spaceway satellites will be launched over a period of several years and will provide bandwidth-on-demand direct to the office and home, with the initial service roll-out in the USA. The Boeing Company is erecting two other ground stations - both in the USA - to monitor and control the satellites during their 15-year design lifetime - with the CSIR station the first to be completed.
  The Boeing Company and the CSIR joined forces in project managing the design and implementation of this Ka band facility. Ka band refers to very high frequencies that have not - until now - been used for operational TT&C tasks and therefore partnering on this cutting-edge project remains a challenging and exciting experience.
• Over many years, The Boeing Company has repeatedly selected the CSIR to keep a watchful eye on its own and its satellite customers' orbiting assets:
  • During the 1990s SAC supported Boeing's Delta II and Delta III launch vehicles;
  • In 2001, SAC modified certain of its existing systems to support the XM Radio satellites;
  • From 1998 onwards, SAC has rendered ground support for numerous satellites in Ku/DBS band including PAS-10, DTV and Bonum;
  • In 2002 SAC was also officially contracted to render ground support for Boeing’s new Delta IV launch vehicles.

Specialised services offered by SAC (see www.sac.co.za):

SAC’s telemetry, tracking and command service include:

• Launch support
• Transfer orbit support (TOS) or launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) support
• Emergency support
• In-orbit testing
• Daily routine support
• Remote sensing imagery download.

SAC staff members have expertise in all aspects associated with designing, procuring, establishing, commissioning, operating, and maintaining satellite antenna systems for TT&C stations, teleports, and VSAT networks. Project activities that can be performed throughout southern and central Africa include:

• Project management and administration
• Systems and RF engineering
• Civil and mechanical works
• Electrical works
• Infrastructure
• Antenna systems component integration
• Installation
• Acceptance testing and validation
• Hand-over to operations and training of customer support staff.

Earth Observation
The current portfolio of earth observation sensors offered by SAC covers NOAA 16 & 17 (archive from 1985), SeaWifs, Landsat 7, Landsat 5 (archive 1989-2002), Landsat MSS (archive 1972-1993), SPOT 1, 2, 4 & 5, ERS 1 & 2, EROS 1A, RADARSAT 1, IKONOS, Quickbird, and Russian KVA 1000. SAC is upgrading its facility for MODIS reception and processing; data will be available from December 2003.

In most cases, satellite data are directly received and downloaded daily - in some instances alternative arrangements are in place and SAC acts as a licensed reseller of the data. These activities have been conducted by SAC as part of a sustained programme of earth observation data reception, archiving, processing and distribution since 1972, starting with Landsat MSS data. The historical archive and daily reception represent a unique digital environmental information asset for the entire southern African region

The group uses earth observation and other data sets together with GIS technologies to produce spatial information for decision support purposes. These activities are project-based and address various applications including agriculture, land cover mapping, water resource monitoring, change detection, population estimations, settlements mapping, and environmental monitoring.

The earth resources information supplied by SAC serves as important input to decision makers in food security, ocean resources, water management, disaster management & mitigation, housing development, utilities & infrastructure planning, mining safety, national safety & security, and others.

The EO training group offers training courses in support of remote sensing and applications development for Africa. It aims to encourage and support the growth and scope of indigenous remote sensing techniques and capabilities. Training is a necessity in appropriately addressing local and regional issues, through skills development and technology transfer.