Deconstructing the ‘Digital Divide’ In Africa

The debate about whether the digital divide between Africa and the developed world is narrowing or widening has intensified over the last five years. Some believe that access to technology is positively correlated to economic development and wealth creation, however, since the dawn of the last century, the gap between the rich and the poor within and between developed and developing countries has continued to grow. The protagonists in this debate do not seem to appreciate the notion that the digital divide is not about a single technology, and is driven by a complex set of factors that exist beyond wires. This paper attempts to deconstruct the concept of the digital divide beyond access to PCs, telephones, Internet, cable TV, etc… The authors argue that the phenomenon as currently conceived is misleading and flawed, and so are the indices for its measurement. Suggestions that a new model for mapping the phenomenon is made in order to bridge the divide between developed and developing countries. In deconstructing the digital divide, the authors use the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on Information Society and the indices used to measure e-readiness, information society, digital opportunity, and e-government.

Direct Taxation and E-Commerce

E-commerce poses significant challenges for existing tax rules. One of the most important effects of e-commerce has been to de-emphasise the significance of the place where economic activity is carried out, which makes it difficult to determine which jurisdiction has the right to tax. It has also blurred the traditional distinction between the form of delivery and the substance of what is delivered. Thus, the specific tax implications of e-commerce and the threat it imposes on the established tax systems can be examined by reference to how much e-commerce tends to disrupt the concepts and principles of direct taxation and international tax treaty rules. This article explores the effect of e-commerce on the principles of direct taxation. The question is should the tax system of the future be developed at a national or an international level?

Digital Economy and Knowledge Economics

The digitization of information has been one of the greatest stories of the last two decades. This paper seeks to explain the meaning of this process and how it affects already established models concerning trade and knowledge economics. This paper is based on the simple premise that knowledge is the most important resource, without which nothing can be done. The paper starts by looking at the competitive advantage theory that was largely promoted by Michael Porter whose works have greatly influenced the first part of this paper. The paper then discusses the ever more important role of knowledge due to competitive advantage theory and the digitalization of information. Finally the implications and discrediting the comparative advantage theory, this theory has no place in modern economic thinking. As we have more tools in our disposal, we must investigate the importance of wave theory as well as the true meaning of competition. It also looks into the greater role collaboration will play in the future. The paper briefly discusses the effects that the digitization of information will have over time.

Universal Broadband

A new digital divide is emerging both within and between nations that is due to inequalities in broadband Internet access. To bridge the global broadband divide, organizations and individuals must collaborate to provide broadband access to a converged high-speed Internet for both rich and poor citizens worldwide. The authors argue that addressing this global problem is an ethical imperative that requires bridging the perspectives of multiple stakeholders and applying their collective resources, power and will. This paper develops a comprehensive framework, using stakeholder theory, which identifies the global stakeholders as well as the roles and responsibilities that these stakeholders must assume to balance their self-interest with serving the common good. The authors’ framework also highlights relationships between key stakeholders, namely governments and their citizens, businesses in the information and communication technology (ICT) industries, and other organizations. This paper makes four important observations that can guide governments and other stakeholders in bridging the broadband divide in pursuit of the common good.

Bridging the Digital Divide by Open Source

The study is motivated by the context encountered in a development aid project with the aim to develop and implement an academic registration and information system (ARIS) for Mozambican universities. The ideas and findings presented here are based on a theoretical literature review in order to build a theoretical model of best practice in the context of North-South collaborations.

Digital Divide in India

Existing studies of the digital divide reveals the gap that exists between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not create exclusion, endanger social integration and hamper economic growth. The digital divide has many dimensions and can be categorized as global, regional and national. At national level, there is no single divide, but multiple divides: for instance, within countries, between men and women, young and elderly, rich and poor and most importantly rural and urban. The present paper is mainly focused on India and tries to explore the problem of digital divide mainly in rural-urban India. In the context of the present paper digital divide essentially means tele-density, mobile and Internet divide between the rural and urban areas. In this paper, the author reveals that obstacles such as illiteracy, lack of skills, infrastructures, and investment in rural areas must be tackled if India is to diminish the gap of the digital divide. The government should work toward connectivity provision, content creation, capacity augmentation, core technologies creation and exploitation, cost reduction, competence building, community participation and commitment to the deprived and disadvantaged to bridge the digital divide.

Opportunities and Challenges of Emerging Technologies in Higher Education

Recent unprecedented advances in digital technologies and their concomitant affordances in education seem to be a great opportunity to adequately address burgeoning demand for high quality higher education (HE) and the changing educational preferences. It is increasingly being recognised that using new technology effectively in HE is essential to prepare students for its increasing demand. E-learning is an integral component of the University of Botswana’s teaching and learning culture, however, teachers who are from a traditional educational system are often ill-prepared to change their role from the all-knowing “sage on the stage” who operated under the “transmission” model, to the “guide on the side” which adopts new technologies effectively for student learning. Therefore, this paper argues that one of the ways to achieve substantial pedagogical innovations is to bring a significant change in the understanding of the processes of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). This paper explores new directions for conducting scholarly activities at the University of Botswana (UB) to address the needs of today’s students, concluding with a call for a collaborative approach to teaching, research, and publishing to enhance student learning experience in diversified and socially rich collaborative learning contexts.

University Education and Intellectual Property in the Digital Era

The national level of Intellectual Property Law covers national legislation and policy as well as common law, while at the international level it covers international treaties and conventions to which Botswana is a signatory. The Mission of the University of Botswana is to advance the intellectual and human resource capacity of the nation and the international community. In this regard, the goal of this paper is that the University plays a central role in the development of intellectual property law and policy and in the protection of intellectual property at the University and the nation at large. The University must articulate its position on intellectual property issues so as to influence national policy and legislation as well as international developments in intellectual property in the digital era. The area that greatly affects the University of Botswana in its core business is copyright. Accordingly, this paper focuses mainly on issues arising in copyright especially in the digital era and how they affect the University’s core business. The paper covers the duration of copyright, licensing agreements, the cost of digital information, the preservation of digital information, distance learning, the protection of indigenous knowledge systems, and the development of intellectual property education.

Knowledge Management Solution to Challenges of Higher Education in South Africa

This article presents challenges facing higher education in South Africa and how knowledge management can be applied to ameliorate the situation. Some of these challenges include internal and external pressures for accountability and transparency in the management of the institutions; declining state subsidies; stiff competition from global counterparts; low graduate throughput; declining enrolments; inadequate facilities (e.g. space, ICTs and equipment); ill-prepared graduates for the job market; limited partnership with industry and government; brain drain; bureaucracy and general poor service delivery. The authors submit that South African universities have largely not embraced knowledge management practices and argue that KM integration within the universities’ strategic processes and operations can help address the challenges facing them. The paper is largely based on authoritative secondary and primary sources complemented by the authors’ experiences working within university environments in Southern Africa.

Supply Chain Management in the Context of Economic Area

This study introduces geographical viewpoints for supply chain management (SCM) focusing on the branch of information communication technology (ICT) in the case of city and region of Oulu. The City of Oulu is a remarkable planning and administration centre of ICT branch in Finland. In this study we - instead of using commonly used cluster or resource dependence theories - utilize SCM framework to describe the development and path-dependence of knowledge-intensive geographical area, which is specialized in high tech or actually ICT business. In the context of geographical analysis, or of geographical economics, SCM is less-used viewpoint. This case study shows that SCM, and especially strategic level SC endowment viewpoint (introduced initially in Rusko, Kylänen & Saari, 2009), is valuable and useful tool in analysing the geo-economic development and path-dependence of a high tech centre. As a result, we notice that the development of Oulu is based on the development of SC endowment connected with amounts of talents and also multi-dimensional coopetition. One essential result is the observed erosion in the SC endowment of high tech Oulu, which sets remarkable challenges for city planning.