Tag: infrastructure
Open Access Infrastructure and the Cost of Mistrust
Recently I’ve been writing about the relationship of openness and trust in open movements which has led me to think more about the strategic role of trust in general. Now I find that almost every problem I try to analyse...
AfTerFibre – GitHub, KML, and finally a plan
The idea for AfTerFibre is simple enough. Distribute the load of gathering information on terrestrial fibre optic cable projects in Africa by creating an online resource that anyone can contribute to. When I conceived of this project, I just assumed...
A Gentle Plea to Telkom’s CEO
We recently sent a request to Telkom to send us a map of their terrestrial fibre network in South Africa. This request was in the context of the AfTerFibre Project, which is attempting to crowdsource a comprehensive map of terrestrial fibre...
Open Access, Africa, and Yochai Benkler
Since the announcement of the EASSy undersea cable in 2005, Open Access has been a term of significant debate in the development of undersea cable initiatives and in the general strategic development of communication infrastructure in Africa. Yet, it is...
The Death of Fixed Lines in Africa
Today I want to push back a little (just a little) against the conventional wisdom that mobiles are the only communications infrastructure future for Africa. There is an implicit understanding in ICT4D work in Africa that mobiles are the future...