Unlike the realities in Brazil and Korea, where thousands of people around the country connect to each other online using LAN houses or Open cafés, in South Africa, Internet cafés are still few and far between. Many tourists even struggle to find a café where they can check their mail while visiting the country – wireless hot spots in coffee shops and airports are more common.
There are many reasons for this, none of which are new to people discussing ICT development in South Africa. First, and probably most importantly in the case of Internet cafes and LAN houses. According to research by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the cost of a standard four Mbps ADSL connection in South Africa with a three GB usage limit costs over R500 a month, which is more than double the average cost of uncapped ADSL or cable connection in other members of the OECD.
Theft of the copper wires that are used to create network connections is also a huge problem in the previously disadvantaged areas in South Africa, both rural and urban. Hundreds of kilos of copper wire are stolen every month, which leaves subscribers without telephone or Internet access. Theft of equipment and hardware is another stumbling block to bringing Internet access to previously disadvantaged areas.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are a few pockets of really exciting activity and advocacy taking place around the country, and one of these is the Open Café in Potchefstroom, a small university town in the north-west of the country. We spoke to Anna Dani, the open source queen of the North-West province, about the challenges and rewards of running an open project in South Africa.
How did Open Café come into being? Did you have to fund the projects yourselves, or was there input from donors and the community?
We started experimenting with ideas long ago - in 2002. We registered a domain (potchnet.co.za) and dedicated office space and time for the creation of a help desk that would provide people with guidance and tips on using computers and the Internet. We were not quite sure who would be interested and for a long time we had very few clients. All we wanted to do was be there and support people who get stuck with using computers. We wanted to provide support both online and offline.
In 2003 we decided to submit a proposal for the setup of an open source Internet café to the Shuttleworth Foundation. The proposal was accepted and we received seed capital from the Foundation that helped us with buying all the workstations, all the hardware, and also to organise an official launch - for which we invited people from local schools and universities, members of local government and local businessmen.
Apart from this seed capital - all our projects are funded entirely by us through our software development company, Reedflute Software Solutions.
The café functions as an Internet café which also generates some funds.
What community does Open Café serve?
Though Potchefstroom is a small town - our clients come from all walks of life - from the local universities, local high schools, primary schools, local businesses, local NGOs, sportsmen and women from all over the world, all the local townships - everyone has a different question to ask.
Could you give an example of one or two of the projects you've run? Are they all educationally focused, or do you do advocacy and software development work as well?
The idea of the café is really just to provide a space where people can come up with ideas. We try to help them with starting their projects and give them tips on how to run the projects once they started. Our main focus is open source advocacy, we spend time introducing people to Linux and open source software - this forms a basis for all other activities in the café which might have an educational focus, and sometimes the focus is on artists.
The café itself is the main project - to maintain and run it needs skills and patience. The café is there for people as an Internet café where you can do all the tasks you'd do in any other Internet café.
The café is also there to introduce people to open source software, we don't have Windows in the café, everything runs on Ubuntu Linux, faxing, scanning, music, and everything else is runs using Linux. This way people can test Linux and if they like it they can take CDs and try it at home or come to our open days and we can help them install it and answer any questions they might have.
We also have a Freedom Toaster, which makes it possible to distribute open source software easier. Another project we are busy with is called Art Market Online - which is a support system for artists from all over the world. We work with a small group of artists, many of them from different parts of Africa. We help them use the Internet in various ways to connect with their audiences, market their works, set up their own blogs, and to publish books. We also spend time explaining to them about Creative Commons licences. Everything we do as part of this art project is done using open source software and we try to use open content materials whenever possible.
Are all your machines running open platforms?
Yes all work is done on Ubuntu Linux, using programs like OpenOffice, Gimp, Firefox etc.
What do you see as being Open Café's mandate within the community?
The official list is:
a) Developing successful open source users through peer-to-peer training.
b) Development of general IT related technical skills with ongoing mentorship and support.
c) Distribution of open source software via the Internet café.
d) Introducing everyone to the open source project model and encourage everyone to start and run their own open source style projects
e) Installation of open source based computer laboratories at schools
f) Involving the public and university students in the setup of open source based school laboratories
g) Introducing the local audience to the online databases of freely available courseware, lesson plans, books, music and other material licensed under Creative Commons licences
h) Train everyone to be able to choose the appropriate Creative Commons licence for their works and add them to these online databases.
The Open Café model seems to be the most logical one for South Africa, where access to hardware and the web is limited and prohibitively expensive. And yet, somehow, there don't seem to be than many Open Cafés in the country. What do you think may be the challenges or difficulties faced by communities who want to start their own cafés?
Starting and maintaining a café is quite challenging - since most people are still not familiar at all with Linux. Even if you have the software and hardware it takes lots of patience to make sure everything works when you want it to work. Having an effective support system is crucial and is normally not possible to get access to. We are a small initiative - our main objective is to make sure the cafe functions and serves as an example - we are busy finding ways to make it possible for others to set up their cafés - so far it has been a problem to find people that have the time and energy and the willingness to tackle all the challenges one faces daily to make sure we are always online, and to make sure all hardware is in working condition.
If you had limitless funding, what would your vision be for Open Cafés in South Africa?
The ultimate aim for this project is to have cafes within walking distance - or as close as possible to most in the communities and serve as an Internet café and a type of community center where people share projects, skills, ideas, network on a daily basis. In a way the café is meant to be an offline version of the net, providing a venue for networking and sharing just like one does with blogs, and with the Wikipedia, CCmixter, Sourceforge, Facebook, communities.
It is also meant to become a digital library with the help of the Freedom Toaster where all content is based on the community's needs.
Each café would be different and would always evolve and change based on the projects it is running, the audience it has.
tags: johannesburg south africa education local-context-global-commons open-access open-source ict-development internet-cafes
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