Address by Minister of Science and Technology Honourable Mosibudi Mangena at the launch of the second phase of the Digital Doorway at Entshongweni Sport field, Durban

Programme Director
Executive Mayor of eThekwini, Councillor Obed Mlaba
Representatives of the Meraka Institute
Distinguished guests
Learners, educators and parents
Ladies and gentlemen

Let me first register my pleasure that we have again secured a mutually suitable date to launch this Second Phase of the Digital Doorway here in eNtshongweni.

The spirit and intent of this launch can best be captured in the words of Bill Beatle, "The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men".

We have now reached a stage in our mission where we are in a position to deliver technologies that promote the development of people. What is particularly pleasing about the technology we are launching today is that it brings benefits, which include access to learning instruments and information on a number of social development issues such as government services, to both young and old.

This technology platform has been appropriately named the 'digital doorway'. And we are very pleased that the municipality of eThekwini has agreed to host us here at the eNtshongweni Sports field for the launch of the second phase of this national programme.

While Information Communication Technology (ICT) remains one of the key platforms in our National Research and Development Strategy, the sad reality is that as South Africa makes advances in this field, many of our young learners have never touched a computer in their lives. The situation is even bleaker when it comes to our older citizens. South Africa has the biggest and most modern economy in Africa. Yet the majority of our children are growing up in a computer-illiterate environment.

In today's job market, however, computer skills are a pre-requisite in all professions, and are becoming increasingly important for many unskilled and semi-skilled jobs as well. Computer skills have generally become essential to basic survival in the world.

Many governments agree that this technology can help bridge the development divide within societies. Through the computer and the internet, poor people and young job seekers can gain access to information about existing opportunities, and students, irrespective of where they live, can gain access to educational material from anywhere in the world. That is why, in 2005, my department decided to utilise the services of the Meraka Institute, located within the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), to implement the Digital Doorway initiative.

The Digital Doorway is modelled along the Indian "Hole in the wall" initiative. Our own "Hole in the wall" experiment was conducted by Professor Sugatra Mitra of the National Institute for Information Technology (NIIT). Professor Mitra developed the concept from observing that despite never having interacted with a computer before, children were very quick to master basic computer skills such as typing, mouse movements, opening and closing applications.

We are especially pleased that the Digital Doorway initiative investigates the ability of children and adults to teach themselves basic computer skills, without any formal instruction whatsoever, through the approach known as the Minimally Invasive Education (MIE).

In terms of this approach, robust internet connected three-terminal computer kiosks, loaded with open source operating systems, and a broad range of open source educational programmes and content, are placed in suitable public spaces to provide free and open access to communities. And I hope that the organisers of the launch today have set aside enough time for the demonstration of the Digital Doorway itself, as well as its operating systems.

Some of you are probably asking why I have referred to this as the second and not the first launch. The first Digital Doorway was piloted in the rural community of Cwili Village near Kei Mouth in the Eastern Cape in December 2002. What we learnt from this pilot is that children do indeed teach themselves how to use a computer, and that they derive so much learning and pleasure from the digital doorway that they cannot wait for school to be over so that they can be first for a turn on the computer. After the successful pilot of this Digital Doorway, Department of Science and Technology supported the deployment of additional units in different parts of the country with greater focus on rural and township areas.

The Digital Doorway initiative has progressed well since its inception. That first installation was supported by a server and the computer which was run on licensed software and operating system from Microsoft. This meant that every time we needed to upgrade the operations of the computer we had to buy new licenses. As the source codes of these new programmes are protected under licences, it also means that many of our people will never be able to create new computer programmes that are better aligned to address their needs.

We have since moved the entire collection of Digital Doorway software to Open Source, and that decision was based on the following reasons:

* There are substantial monetary savings because we now eliminate purchase and licensing costs.
* This is in line with government's drive for open source awareness.
* We benefit as a country from skills development in open source operating systems.
* As the source code is not held through licences, the source code for modification is available for free.
* Open source software is available in a number of languages, which extends the use of computers to many more people.
* The advantage of the open source software is that it introduces more stability in the operating system.
* This is also particularly suitable for remote management.

Today we are launching the second phase of the Digital Doorway initiative, which will now focus on the clustering of additional units that are being deployed, using a wireless mesh network. This approach is being tried elsewhere in the world, and the main benefit is that these mesh networks will enable communities in remote settlements to share information between and among themselves.

This will be done using various applications such as chat programmes, e-mail or voice-over Intellectual Property (IP) (telephone over the internet). A meshed network can eventually be connected to the internet, enabling communities to share in the information and other opportunities available to the rest of the world.

Here in the rural area of eNtshongweni, five units of the Digital Doorway have been clustered using a wireless mesh network. Four units have been installed in four of the schools in the community, and one unit has been installed in a community resource centre. Teachers and pupils from these schools can communicate with each other on this community network through emails and chat-rooms. This is an important dynamic, especially for a rural community.

The mesh network will provide opportunities for communities and schools to have full access to mindset content by using the normal computer only, as well as other content on the Digital Doorway, without having to install a satellite dish and other mindset equipment.

Ladies and gentlemen, it should be clear that the Digital Doorway intervention does not in any way replace the need to equip our schools with computer labs, remove barriers to accessing the internet from home or make computers affordable so that more families can own a computer. It is rather an alternative mechanism that supplements the computers in schools, and provides access to computers and the internet to adults and children who are not exposed to these at home or while at school.

Thus each Digital Doorway serves as a tool for computer literacy development, as well as a source of information on a range of subjects, including:

* Open Office Suite
* educational games and programmes;
* introduction to computer terminology
* scientific software
* 10 000 books from project Gutenberg
* snapshot of the Wikipedia
* mindset health and curriculum-based educational videos
* interactive science simulations
* numerous other applications for children and adults.

In addition, each Digital Doorway is equipped with a Satellite receiver, and a GPRS, which is a mobile communications technology designed for transmission of data, rather than voice backhaul connection for updating content, and real-time monitoring and user feedback.

If any of us here feels that they do not understand the computer language that I have alluded to in my speech, have no fear because the Digital Doorway is here precisely to address such challenges, and bridge the digital divide affecting particularly our rural communities.

We are committed to promoting an information society through making investments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as we have seen today. A very exciting commitment we are making is to go into a remote rural area where there is no electricity, and where we will pilot a Digital Doorway in a container that will have a solar panel attached to it. The free solar energy will be used as a source of energy to drive the unit.

Finally, it is now my singular privilege and pleasure to officially launch the Second Phase of the National Digital Doorway Programme.

Education is what we owe to future generations. I wish the children, teachers, leaders and all members of the community of eNtshongweni many happy hours of learning on the Digital Doorways we leave you with today.

Through this facility, the children and adults of this area now have, literally at their fingertips, a tool by means of which they can open the vistas of new knowledge.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
4 September 2007