Digital Transformation in Government: A Bibliometric Scoping of African Aspirations and the Realities

African countries have persistently ranked poorly in the United Nations E-Government Development index (EGDI). This study therefore sought to make sense of the nature and form of digital transformation (DX) in African governments. It used a bibliometric analysis and a critical realist lens to explore some of the underlying structures and generative mechanisms that influence DX. The key findings from 606 scholarly publications over the three decades of DX research reveals marked sharp contrasts, with South Africa dominating the research on DX, an underrepresentation of DX research from most African nations, and some influence from non-African nations, particularly the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. These realities reflect deeper underlying structures including economic power dynamics, infrastructural disparities, and potential neocolonial influences. Challenges such as digital literacy, data sovereignty concerns, and the absence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the discourse highlight tangible obstacles. Despite these complexities, DX\u27s primary objective, improving lives and delivering efficient government services, remains integral to its potential success. The study underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of DX\u27s multi-faceted nature in Africa, advocating for future research to explore economic power dynamics, capture underrepresented experiences, address digital literacy, and integrate AI into the DX discourse

Development of a web-based interface for a wireless sensor network monitoring system

In the recent past, wireless sensor technology has undergone advancements in its autonomous data collecting aspects, and has become an area worth investigating in relation to structural monitoring applications. The system described in this thesis aims at acquiring, storing and displaying overhead transmission line related data collected from a wireless sensor network. Open source tools were used in its development and implementation. The inherent linearly aligned topology of transmission line monitoring devices is not without shortcomings; hence analysis of linear node placement, hardware and software components was carried out to determine the feasibility of the system. Their limited data processing capabilities has motivated the development of a post processing wireless sensor application in order to present any collected structural data in an understandable format

NEMISA Digital Skills Conference (Colloquium) 2023

The purpose of the colloquium and events centred around the central role that data plays today as a desirable commodity that must become an important part of massifying digital skilling efforts. Governments amass even more critical data that, if leveraged, could change the way public services are delivered, and even change the social and economic fortunes of any country. Therefore, smart governments and organisations increasingly require data skills to gain insights and foresight, to secure themselves, and for improved decision making and efficiency. However, data skills are scarce, and even more challenging is the inconsistency of the associated training programs with most curated for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Nonetheless, the interdisciplinary yet agnostic nature of data means that there is opportunity to expand data skills into the non-STEM disciplines as well.College of Engineering, Science and Technolog

What Can Design Laboratories Do?

Part 4: PannelsInternational audienceThe distinction between design and use is getting blurred in severalways as products and services increasingly are co-created in use, and use andusers proliferate and diversify. This has led to a growing interest in stagingwhat we here will call design laboratories that both involve future users incodesign and incubate emergent everyday practices of design in use. Very littlecan be said about novel designs or technologies before it is seen what the usersmake of it. This is particularly the case when considering mobile technologiesand social media where products seem to act more as an infrastructure fordesign in use than as a provision of well defined services. At the same timeenvisioning such new designs without being in close dialogue with the peoplewho are to appropriate them in new everyday practices may easily lead todisappointing results. This has led to a renewed interest in codesign and userinvolvement in such formats as living labs and codesign workshops. This panelbrings together researchers from some of the environments that most vigorouslyhas pursued this line of inquiry. Some of the panelists have suggested theconcept of design laboratories as a platform for open-ended explorations of theco-evolution of artifacts and practice. They see the design laboratory as aconfined space of controlled experimentation with what can be collaborativelyimagined, scalable through its rehearsals of experimental practices. With thisdefinition of these new collaborative formats the panel asks what it is thatconstitutes a successful design laboratory and what we can expect designlaboratories to accomplish in a world of diversity