Synchronised smart phones: The collision of personal privacy and organisational data security

The purpose of this study was to explore the organisational and individual motivations for incorporating personally-owned smart phones into the workplace and challenges arising from use; privacy and data security concerns of involved parties in the organisation. This study uses exploratory case study method and investigates privacy and security regarding personally-owned smart-phone usage in workplace. The study found that convenience, ease of use and access to emails were motives behind employees’ use of personal smart phones in the workplace. Further, employees have higher privacy expectation. Sample for this study was small to provide statistically meaningful results, Further research is needed to cover a larger case study spanning multiple organisations in other sectors. Mobile devices are creating challenges to organisational data security and employees’ right to information privacy. This study suggests that organisations need to reconsider data security and employees’ privacy policies to address possible conflict between data security and employees’ privacy

Synchronised smart phones: The collision of personal privacy and organisational data security

The purpose of this study was to explore the organisational and individual motivations for incorporating personallyowned smart phones into the workplace and challenges arising from use; privacy and data security concerns of involved parties in the organisation. This study uses exploratory case study method and investigates privacy and security regarding personally-owned smart-phone usage in workplace. The study found that convenience, ease of use and access to emails were motives behind employees’ use of personal smart phones in the workplace. Further, employees have higher privacy expectation. Sample for this study was small to provide statistically meaningful results, Further research is needed to cover a larger case study spanning multiple organisations in other sectors. Mobile devices are creating challenges to organisational data security and employees’ right to information privacy. This study suggests that organisations need to reconsider data security and employees’ privacy policies to address possible conflict between data security and employees’ privacy

Digital technologies and youth mobility in rural Zimbabwe

The adoption and use of digital technologies (DTs) in rural communities have an impact on several aspects of the society. Using empirical evidence from selected villages of Beitbridge district in Zimbabwe, this study examines the relationship between DTs and youth mobility. The different types, causes, and motifs associated with youth mobilities are explored using qualitative research methods including focus group discussions and community visioning workshops. Study findings reveal challenges facing youths in trying to be mobile including social (mainly gender) inequalities. Thus, women were found to be less mobile. Lack of infrastructure was found to be another key challenge impacting youth mobility. The study however found that DTs are being adopted and this has led to virtual mobilities, which is redefining youth mobility. The opportunities and challenges of integrating virtual mobilities and physical mobilities were explored. The study findings are critical to various actors including ICT, education, and other sectors in that they show opportunities that need to be expropriated to enhance youth mobility, which is key to socio‐economic well‐being of youths, as well as the challenges that can be faced through the ubiquity of DTs

South Africa's Socio-Techno Divide: A critical disourse analysis of government speeches

This paper aims at contributing to the debate about the digital divide. We first focus on what to us constitutes the root problem: the typical approaches to the development of people through and by the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). In contrast to governmental, political and technological attempts that focus almost exclusively on providing access to digital communication technologies, and expect "development" naturally to flow from that, we argue for a focus on "development" which is based on our notion of sustainable socio-economic development. We refer to "technocentric approaches" when the approaches propose and pursue technological interventions and show little regard for the actual needs of the people involved. At the other end of the scale, where the focus is on people and their developmental needs, we will speak of "sociocentric approaches". This presents us with a different divide, which we will refer to as the "socio-techno divide". We argue that it is this divide that has to be addressed - not the digital divide - and then present an analysis of the socio-techno divide. This analysis takes the form of two types of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), namely Foucauldian and Habermassian. The analysis of the South African government's rhetoric illuminates the issues that need our attention and indicates an agenda for constructive engagement about the use of ICT for development in the Third and Fourth worlds

The Uses and Gratifications of Mobile Internet among the South African Students

Mobile Internet is a relatively new innovation. Many see mobile Internet as a way of providing for those who cannot afford the traditional means of accessing the Internet (International Telecommunications Union 2004). Although much research has been conducted on the adoption of related technologies such as mobile phone and m-commerce, little focus has been placed on mobile Internet. This is particularly true for South Africa (SA). There is, therefore, a lack of understanding on how and why people use the technology. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to investigate how and why people use mobile Internet. This study focused on the SA market. The topic for the study required the authors to define the term 'mobile Internet'. Mobile Internet can best be described as a means of 'wireless access to the digitized contents of the Internet via mobile phones' (Chae and Kim 2003). When the Internet is accessed, a request is sent by an Internet browser to a Web server, which responds by sending the information to display on a screen (Beal 2006). Since voice calls and SMSs do not query Web servers, they cannot be classified as mobile Internet. There are four main ways of using mobile Internet : e-mail, access to general information, instant messaging services, voice-over-Internet-protocol. Mobile phones offer a wide variety of functionality, however, this research was only confined to mobile Internet functionality. This included use of the mobile Internet for communication, entertainment and information purposes. It specifically excluded m-commerce as this is a topic on its own. In addition, the focus was on mobile Internet access that is provided by mobile phones and not other mobile devices such as PDAs. This limitation allows for the words 'mobile' and 'cell phone' to be used interchangeably. Uses and gratification (U&G) was used as the underpinning theoretical framework for the study. U&G allows for investigating the motivations for consumption of media products. It is noted that there is a dearth of U&G studies focusing on mobile Internet. The research instrument for the study was therefore based on U&G studies on related technologies such as traditional Internet as well as mobile phones. This allowed an investigation into the gratifications obtained from using mobile Internet and the intersection of motivations for using the traditional Internet and those from using mobile telephony

South Africa’s Socio-Techno divide: a critical discourse analysis of government speeches

This paper aims at contributing to the debate about the digital divide. We first focus on what to us constitutes the root problem: the typical approaches to the development of people through and by the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). In contrast to governmental, political and technological attempts that focus almost exclusively on providing access to digital communication technologies, and expect “development” naturally to flow from that, we argue for a focus on “development” which is based on our notion of sustainable socio-economic development. We refer to “technocentric approaches” when the approaches propose and pursue technological interventions and show little regard for the actual needs of the people involved. At the other end of the scale, where the focus is on people and their developmental needs, we will speak of “sociocentric approaches”. This presents us with a different divide, which we will refer to as the “socio-techno divide”. We argue that it is this divide that has to be addressed – not the digital divide – and then present an analysis of the socio-techno divide. This analysis takes the form of two types of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), namely Foucauldian and Habermassian. The analysis of the South African government’s rhetoric illuminates the issues that need our attention and indicates an agenda for constructive engagement about the use of ICT for development in the Third and Fourth worlds

The use of blogs for political campaigning in a developing country context: the case of South Africa

All over the world, the use of the digital platform for political campaigning is growing. This development has the potential to empower the electorate to engage in political debate. This exploratory research aims at investigating the impacts and implications of blogging in the 2009 election campaign in South Africa. The study attempts to answer the following questions: What is the nature of the campaign blogosphere? What are the key issues addressed in the blogs? This study employed content analysis to identify the key concepts in the blogs posted during South Africa’s 2009 National and Provincial Elections. Data was gathered from the blogs of four different South African web log feeds. The coding method used in this study is priori coding, based on the concept of Cornfield, Carson, Kalis & Simon (2005), and Stanyer (2006). Findings show that, in South Africa, the use of blogging for political campaigning is still in its infancy. South African bloggers are mainly politicians, journalists and other media personnel who discuss high level political issues. The study notes a limited participation by ordinary citizens in political blogging. Keywords: blogs, blogging, content analysis, political campaign, South Africa Disciplines: Information Systems Studies, Communications Studies, Political Studie

Navigation Tools for Text Embedded within Complex-Shaped Area Features and Meandering Linear Features

Abstract: By presenting textual information within the space of corresponding images, the concept of DUAL-USE OF IMAGE SPACE (DUIS) eases the mental integration of textual and pictorial information. This paper applies the DUIS approach which was initially developed for area features to linear features. Moreover, we enhance the DUIS approach with new tools to navigate within embedded texts: The sidebar, the information petals and navigation bars. These tools provide the context as well as the structure of the entire textual information space at a glance thereby reducing the cognitive overheads associated with navigating within large texts

Changing mindsets: The attitude of pre-service teachers on technology for teaching

In a context where there has only been limited success with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education, this paper explores attitudes towards the use of ICTs in South African pre-service teacher education. In particular, it looks at how cognitive and affective attitudes towards technology determine visions and scenarios of technology integration into teaching and learning practice. This note presents the results of an in-depth qualitative study involving exceptionally motivated pre- service teachers from two higher education institutions. Findings indicate strong intentions to integrate ICT in future teaching and the constant inclination to keep updated with technological evolution. Pre-service teachers view themselves as users of technology in order to keep up with what they perceive to be a technologisation of life and education. The integration scenarios envisioned by participants demonstrate a changing mindset where technology is not only an additional tool, but enables the advancement of new teaching and learning models centred on the active role of the student. A critical look at the study findings compels us to give accrued importance to how living and learning in a developing area determines meaningful articulations of pro- technology attitudes