Media & ICTs

The ACS has released results from its ACS Women Members Survey, which revealed women in the ICT sector still feel undervalued, have fewer careers opportunities compared to men, and feel the need to achieve better work life balance.

Although 70 per cent of women believed they received equivalent pay to their male counterparts, the remainder felt this was not the case, and many more respondents felt they did not get the same recognition or promotion opportunities as their male colleagues.  

The African continent is one of the least connected - and when it is connected the costs tend to be higher than in most other parts of the world.

In May 2008, the Association for Progressive Communications released the results of the study - The Case for "Open Access" Communications - Infrastructure in Africa: The SAT-3/WASC Cable. The briefing report, written by Abiodun Jagun, summarises the results of the study, conducted in four African countries, Angola, Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, which examined the impact of the SAT-3/WASC cable on communications markets.

The SAT-3/WASC cable is a submarine cable running from Portugal to South Africa, landing in a number of west African countries, including the four studied. It was built in 2002 by a consortium of communications companies in each of the countries that the cable lands, which were, at the time the cable was constructed, largely protected state-owned monopolies.

HOPES that greater competition and lower prices would finally stir up the long-stifled telecommunications sector have been quashed unexpectedly by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

The minister has chosen to challenge a judgment giving hundreds of companies the right to build their own networks instead of having to rent from Telkom, Neotel or a cellular operator. That ruling, on an application by Altech, had been hailed as a massive but belated leap towards liberalisation.

The gender inequality among developers and supporters of free software is stunning. Less than 2% of us are women, according to studies conducted for the European Commission. Why? The evidence says we’re driving them away. There are even some pretty good published guidelines on how not to drive them away. What’s missing is a practical implementation strategy: here Terry Hancock presents ten relatively simple changes in how you run your project, to make it more attractive to would-be contributors—especially women.

This handbook offers a guide to those who want to help media professionals provide reliable information about public health issues.  It is based upon experience from the 'other side' of the news desk.

The telecoms regulator has begun issuing new licences that will permit operators to build their own networks, just a week after a court victory clarified the law and opened the sector up to hugely increased competition.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) will hand out two types of licences to replace those that became defunct when the Electronic Communications Act was promulgated.

The most valuable version should ultimately be issued to about 300 internet service providers and other voice and data carriers, thanks to a court case instigated by Altech.

Is there a direct connection between empowerment and access to information and communication technologies? Patricia Litho interrogates this question through the CEEWA ICT project case study in rural Uganda. She examines the conceptualisation of empowerment, and its relationship with infrastructure, skills, connectivity, access and participation.