Gabriel Kabanda

Collaborative Opportunities for Icts Development in a Challenged African Environment

The emergence and convergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has remained at the centre of global socio-economic transformations. The required ICT revolutionary technological change or productivity levels in Southern Africa is a function of both skilled labour (high technical competence) and capital for investment. Technological progress in Southern Africa can be measured as an index composed of measures of personal computers, Internet hosts, fax machine, mobile phones and television, etc., across the various member countries. The paper presents a synopsis of the ICTs indicators for Southern Africa and the opportunities therein, together with an analysis of technological progress and opportunities for ICTs development in Southern Africa. A regional ICT collaboration strategy is proposed, underpinned by best practice elements. The proposed Regional ICT Collaboration strategy largely depends on human resource development, information sharing platforms, and the degree of development of the ICTs industry and support services in the individual member countries. The design of virtual collaborative systems is a useful paradigm for the development and sustainability of virtual collaboration for Southern African countries, so that higher levels of collaboration may be achieved among geographically dispersed work groups. Knowledge may be shared between people through face-to-face or through technology, either asynchronously or synchronously, commonly known as virtual collaboration.

An IT Project Management Framework for Assessing the Dynamism of Culture under Globalization: Evidence from Zimbabwe

Culture has been analysed in information systems IS projects as one of the soft issues that cause project failure. Increased outsourcing and collaboration call for an understanding of the dynamism of cultures in the wake of global influences as a first step towards managing cross cultural Information Technology IT projects. In this study, the authors propose a way of assessing cultural dynamics in the context of trans-national collaboration in IT projects. Using a mixed methods approach consisting of survey and semi-structured interviews for collecting evidence in Zimbabwe, a framework for assessing the current state of communalist culture is proposed. The study showed that in spite of the inroads of Westernization and Commercialization, a culture of sharing prevails although it is affected by sensitivity to cost burden and inroads of individualism.

Using Livelihood Profiles for Assessing Context in ICT4D Resarch: A Case Study of Zimbabwe's Highveld Prime Communal

The importance of context specific ICT4D innovation has been highlighted in Information Systems research by the short‐comings of a‐contextual innovation. This has often been accepted without due understanding of how to develop context specific interventions. There is therefore a need for a framework that elucidates ICT4D contextualisation and guides the development of context specific interventions. This should be useful to practitioners that are constantly advised to develop context specific artefacts without any clarity of how to do so. Using evidence from Zimbabwe this paper proposes the use of livelihood profiles for identifying the livelihood issues that matter in a particular locality and Sens Capability Approach for assessing the opportunity freedoms to exploit the local livelihoods. This is presented as a systematic way of establishing the context under which ICT4D interventions will be deployed. The study uses focus groups under an interpretivist paradigm to investigate contextual issues in Zimbabwe Highveld Prime Communal livelihood zone. The study found a politically polarised contextual setting characterised by poor agricultural finance, ineffective crop and livestock markets, unrewarding labour markets against a good agricultural climate that is affected by cyclical droughts. As a result the study posits that ICT4D innovations for the zone must be designed to operate under these realities and limitations.

Pedagogic possibilities of ICTs and technology affordances in an increasingly networked environment in support of sustainable development

The research project seeks new opportunities/ directions of learning and teaching in an increasingly networked world, and how they can benefit people in developing countries in support of sustainable development. The research agenda is aimed at studying how interconnected information and communication technologies (ICTs) can expand the reach of educational opportunities and improve learning outcomes as technology affordances. The main research question is - What are the pedagogic possibilities of ICTs and technology affordances in an increasingly networked environment that can impact/ benefit participative collaborative inclusive communities of learning in support of sustainable development? Key words: ICT, technology affordances, sustainable development, pedagogic possibilities.