Andrew Lewis, from UCT’s ICTS department, presented a paper, titled Considerations of User Engagement in New Site Designs at the recent IST-Africa 2010 conference held from 19 – 21 May at the Durban International Convention Centre. The paper, co written with Dr Bruce Becker from the Meraka Institute, discussed the issues surrounding user engagement during the development of e-Infrastructures in Southern Africa.
IST-Africa 2010, the largest IT conference in Africa, was hosted by the Department of Science and Technology and technically co-sponsored by IEEE and the Computer Society of South Africa. The focus was on the Role of ICT for Africa's Development and specifically on Applied ICT research in the areas of eHealth, Technology Enhanced Learning and ICT Skills, Digital Libraries, Technology Transfer, Open Source Software, ICT for eInclusion and eAccessibility, eInfrastructures, RFID and ICT for Networked Enterprise and eGovernment and eDemocracy.
The conference attracted delegates and IT portfolio ministers from African and European countries, including the Director General of the Department of Science and Technology and the European Commission's Director General for Information Society and Media. The Hon. Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology, South Africa delivered one of the key note addresses.
The goals of the IST-Africa Conference Series are community building to facilitate EU-African research cooperation and the successful exploitation of research results, to stimulate take-up of Research and Technology Development (RTD) results by industry and the public sector, to promote knowledge sharing between commercial, government and research organisations, and to exchange experiences about the current state of eAdoption at a sectoral, national or regional level,
This was a fantastic opportunity for UCT’s IT staff to engage with other IT experts and share their views on the challenges and opportunities presented by large scale e-Infrastructure.
