Developing social innovators and social entrepreneurs through a creative and innovative programme

In today's increasingly interdependent and rapidly changing world, understanding the transformations of the 21st century that are characterized by uneven development, accelerated globalization, economic uncertainty, entrenched and complex social problems requires an academic approach that is interdisciplinary and focused on both innovation and commercialisation. This paper will focus on the development of a Social Venture Builder (SVB) programme at the University of Northampton; an example of a course that aims to develop the skills of the innovators and entrepreneurs whilst at the same time developing sustainable social ventures. We will place this in a wider context of the University of Northampton’s institution wide strategy around social enterprise and how this is developing from one that concentrates on developing social enterprises to a more embedded strategy that develops creative and socially entrepreneurial students. Ultimately, as a University we believe we have to develop a creative learning environment that nurtures talent as well as engages with communities and neighbourhoods whilst connecting us with other local, regional, national and international networks

A Web 2.0 GIS G-Government website for the Gauteng City-Region

As the world advances towards an increasingly connected and spatially enabled Internet society, governments need to adopt new Web GIS technologies to become more efficient and connected with their citizens. Responding to this need, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) GIS website was developed to provide a g-government application for Gauteng City-Region (GCR), using a combination of GIS and Web 2.0 technologies. The website visualises governmental data in new dynamic ways, using a rich Internet application (RIA) viewer that integrates data from various sources including Google Maps. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to determine the success of the GCRO g-government website by measuring user acceptance at the prototype and implementation stages of the project. High acceptance scores were achieved by the GCRO GIS website, thus confirming that the GCRO staff and local and provincial government in the GCR are ready to utilise g-government

Developing a web 2.0 GIS website for the Gauteng city-region

Successful Web GIS (Geographical Information System) applications are achieved by the right combination of GIS layers symbolised in a visually dynamic way, with an easy to use application, that is stable and responsive and meets the user requirements of both GIS and non-GIS users. Web 2.0 has produced a flood of development starter kits, sample viewers and APIs (Application Programming Interface), with the result that almost anyone involved in GIS or IT (Information Technology) – even with limited or no programming experience – can build a GIS website. This has lead to an exponential growth of Web GIS applications and data, which although a necessary step in increasing accessibility to spatial data and GIS applications, may result in online mapping applications that do not satisfy user requirements. The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) identified a business need to develop a Web 2.0 GIS website to enable users to attain a better understanding of the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). The website makes use of data mashups to integrate data from various sources, and is one of the first government GIS websites in South Africa to utilise open datasets such as Google Maps to provide the base data. The website was built using rich Internet application (RIA) technology provided by the ESRI Adobe Flex viewer to offer an enhanced user experience, with popup windows and dynamic graphs linked to the maps. A five step Web GIS development methodology was employed to build the GCRO GIS website. This paper will examine each of the GIS development design steps that were followed to ensure an optimal functioning application, with responsive and secure map services. Specific Web mapping optimisation techniques, such as applying specific cartographic techniques and map designs to assist in overcoming the additional layer of Web design complexity introduced by spatial data will be reviewed

Developing a tool to select priority wards in Gauteng

Government efforts to focus public funding expenditure and improve community livelihoods and service provision are often fraught with difficulties. A key challenge is how to spatially target expenditure where it is needed most. The information required to make robust and defensible decisions on which areas should be prioritised over others is frequently not available. In support of the Gauteng Provincial Government’s aim to prioritise areas for development interventions or service delivery upgrading, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory investigated a method of identifying wards where development priorities should be focussed. The analysis was based on a range of indicators, with the goal being to move away from mainly income-based indicators towards indicators that provide a more holistic view of the development needs of each area. The paper describes the process that was followed to generate the indicators, presents the sources of data utilised as well as the geospatial analysis tools that were applied, and describes the subsequent development of an indicative mapping and decision support tool. The tool provides users with the option to manipulate the weighting of indicators and generate associated maps of the priority wards within Gauteng province, depicting their selected indicators. The results are hosted on the GCRO interactive GIS website and are freely available for anyone to use

Fraudulent Aggregation: The Effect of Daimler and Walden on Mass Litigation

This Article examines the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisdictional tightening in Daimler and Walden on mass litigation. This Article shows how the Supreme Court’s changes to general and specific jurisdiction, considered together, end the practice of tactically allocating non-diverse plaintiffs across state lines to defeat diversity jurisdiction in nationwide litigation, a doctrine this Article terms fraudulent aggregation. This Article places the doctrine of fraudulent aggregation in the context of fraudulent joinder, the emerging doctrine of fraudulent misjoinder, and other attempts to avoid federal court jurisdiction through artful pleading. Examples from recent products liability litigation show both the application of the doctrine and the challenges facing its adoption—chiefly whether lower courts attempt to recreate general jurisdiction under the guise of expanded specific jurisdiction

Enabling g-government in the Gauteng city-region

The term g-government, a subset of e-government, was first introduced in 2000 as the convergence of geographical information systems (GIS) and the Internet to create more effective government interaction with citizens. More recently, it has been revised to describe the combination of GIS and Web 2.0 technologies that can enhance government services and delivery. Most government data is spatially based and can be visualised and interpreted using a Web GIS mapping application, but this data is often not available to other government departments, or the general public, frustratingly so. In South Africa, problems with accessing spatial data continue to exist. The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) recognised that g-government remains a challenge within the Gauteng city-region (GCR), and in 2010 developed a GIS website for the GCRO and Gauteng Provincial Government. This article is presented in the context of the global shift to fully connected governments through technologies such as Government 2.0 and g-government. It provides a specific focus on the GCRO GIS website and how it enables g-government by providing local and provincial government with the spatial data and tools required to better understand the city-region, and to make informed decisions about future development in the city-region. The article also reviews Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) scores measured at the launch of the website. Finally, monthly website visits are examined. This confirms that local and provincial government are ready to utilise the g-government website

Modelling urban spatial change: a review of international and South African modelling initiatives

August 2013Urban growth and land use change models have the potential to become important tools for urban spatial planning and management. Before embarking on any modelling, however, GCRO felt it was important to take note of, and critically assess lessons to be learnt from international experience and scholarship on spatial modelling, as well as a number of South African experiments that model future urban development. In 2012, GCRO initiated preliminary research into current international and South African modelling trends through a desktop study and telephone, email and personal interviews. This Occasional paper sets out to investigate what urban spatial change modelling research is currently being undertaken internationally and within South Africa. At the international level, urban modelling research since 2000 is reviewed according to five main categories: land use transportation (LUT), cellular automata, urban system dynamics, agent-based models (ABMs) and spatial economics/econometric models (SE/EMs). Within South Africa, urban modelling initiatives are categorised differently and include a broader range of urban modelling techniques. Typologies used include: provincial government modelling initiatives in Gauteng; municipal government modelling initiatives; other government-funded modelling research; and academic modelling research. The various modelling initiatives described are by no means a comprehensive review of all urban spatial change modelling projects in South Africa, but provide a broad indication of the types of urban spatial change modelling underway. Importantly, the models may form the basis for more accurate and sophisticated urban modelling projects in the future. The paper concludes by identifying key urban modelling opportunities and challenges for short- to long-term planning in the GCR and South Africa.Written by Chris Wray, Josephine Musango and Kavesha Damon (GCRO) Koech Cheruiyot (NRF:SARChI chair in Development Planning and Modelling at Wits

State of the Gauteng City-Region review 2011

This report is associated with an online interactive website which provides the State of the Gauteng City Region review 2011 in full. Link to http://2011.legacy.gcro.unomena.net/This 'State of the GCR' Review aims to contribute to ideas around how to build an integrated, sustainable and globally competitive city-region which provides more equal opportunities and a better quality of life for all its residents. The Review offers image- and map-rich representations of the considerable datasets and information that GCRO has collected and produced on the GCR, providing an overview of the key dynamics and trends affecting the economy, society, governance and environment of a city-region that is predicted to be the twelfth largest in the world by 2015. The State of the GCR is intended as both an information base and a platform for debate for all stakeholders in the region – government, business, academics and residents – around how to build on the region’s advantages and address its challenges, including rapid urbanisation and migration, poverty, and unequal distribution of wealth. GCRO’s 2011 State of the GCR Review was formally launched on Monday 17 October 2011. A second review, State of the GCR Review 2013, was launched in October 2013.Gauteng City-Region Observatory: the city-region review 2011 © GCRO / Authors: David Everatt, Graeme Gotz, Annsilla Nyar, Sizwe Phakathi and Chris Wray with editorial support from Maryna Storie. Conceptual design and execution ITL Communication & Design./The GCRO is a partnership of the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the Gauteng Provincial Government

Mobility in the Gauteng City-Region

July 2014 - Edited by: Chris Wray and Graeme GotzMobility in the Gauteng City-Region has been written in a remarkable moment in the history of transport development in Gauteng. On the one hand the region appears to be in a new ‘golden era’ of transit infrastructure design and investment, as well as long-term planning for ever-growing commuter transport needs. On the other hand, the transport difficulties faced by the Gauteng City-Region’s (GCR) fast-growing population, as well as the many financial, spatial, social, economic and environmental challenges that flow from the region-wide architecture of this population’s daily commuting, appear to be growing ever more acute. It is, therefore, important to delineate the existing flows of traffic across the GCR; to understand the challenges of transport efficiency, access and affordability; and to gauge the impact of key transport interventions like the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Programme and associated e-tolling, and municipal Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) infrastructure. The report is structured as follows: a summary of recent transport infrastructure projects and key transport challenges are described in Chapter 1 written by Graeme Gotz and Chris Wray. The second and third chapters, by Prof Christo Venter and Willem Badenhorst, provide an in depth analysis of the 2011 Quality of Life survey transport questions, including the generation of a Quality of Transport Index. In Chapter 4, GCRO researcher Guy Trangoš provides a multi-scalar analysis of the public space design around four existing Gautrain stations – valuable research to be considered by authorities should the proposed extensions to the Gautrain go ahead. An often ignored but, from a sustainability perspective, an increasingly important aspect of transport is non-motorised transport (NMT). The report concludes with two NMT chapters by GCRO researcher Christina Culwick, exploring the state of NMT in the GCR and portraying the challenges and potential opportunities for the future of NMT in the city-region. It is not within the scope of a report such as this to review every strategic intervention, nor critically assess every challenge. However, a wide-ranging analysis of the current ‘state of mobility’ in the GCR, and the impact of key infrastructures – or the consequences of their absence – is warranted. Within the frame of the enormous scale of transport planning and infrastructure development underway, as well as the GCR’s many deep and enduring transport challenges, it is hoped that this report will make a contribution to understanding past and current trends, the impact of and (missed) opportunities in key infrastructure investments, and some of the key current priorities that need more attention in this new ‘golden age’ of transport planning.Written by Graeme Gotz et al for GCR