Subscribe

Showing the WiFi way

Everyone can take a leaf out of the City of Tshwane's WiFi hubs, which are starting to look beyond enabling connectivity.

Tyson Ngubeni
By Tyson Ngubeni
Johannesburg, 01 Oct 2014

Even though SA is being hit by welcome waves of free WiFi hubs, not all of them have struck a delicate balance between bridging the access gap and fuelling meaningful, long-term engagement on their platforms. But every now and then, you see something that reminds you getting connected is just a small step in the grander scheme of things.

My first glance at the City of Tshwane's supplementary online portal was my 'light bulb moment'. Dubbed Tobetsa, the portal - which grants unlimited access to users - gives school pupils access to digitised learning material and enables people to use its job search functionality through Gumtree. In a stroke, the city is pushing to cater for the younger population, while aiming to promote online channels for job-seekers.

It's a pity no one has coined the saying: "Give a man WiFi and you feed him a few Web sites and apps. But if you teach that man how relevant this connectivity can be to his immediate context, you'll grow your WiFi hub and trigger sustained engagement," so I'll do it. This saying - which should form part of the 'Unwritten Book of Tech Proverbs' - is what I think Tshwane may have stumbled upon with this portal.

Where's the value?

But let's backtrack a bit. After piloting the free hubs around the city last year, technology partner Project Isizwe developed Tobetsa in partnership with ICT education companies Siyavula and Fundza Mobile Reading, online classifieds platform Gumtree, as well as the city's e-government platforms.

Speaking to ITWeb just after the portal was unveiled, Tim Human, Project Isizwe's content and communications manager, said Tobetsa was developed "in order to curate the useful parts of the Internet".

While that has some merit, what can also be seen is a non-profit organisation (NPO) tapping into SA's shifting device landscape. Much has been said about the impact of mobile on Internet connectivity across the continent, and judging from industry observers, these are good times for network operators and manufacturers as devices reflect a growing number of newer models.

Give a man WiFi and you feed him a few Web sites and apps.

SA's growing pool of low-cost smartphones demonstrates a conscious effort by manufacturers to cater for price-sensitive emerging markets, while boosting the smart computing capability across the continent. And the enhanced connectivity potential has not gone unnoticed - hence the emergence of the free hubs.

Even the transport industry is on board with this. From Wi-Taxi's effort to connect SA's minibus commuters, to Metrorail's plans to include WiFi as part of its revamped passenger experience, organisations are stepping up to cater for a range of data-hungry commuters.

Lofty ambitions

Meanwhile, Project Isizwe has noted there's still more to see of Tobetsa, with the platform set to be available in other areas where it runs WiFi hubs. At the end of August, the NPO was involved in the Western Cape's expansion of its connectivity project, connecting thousands of pupils across eight schools in Atlantis and Robertson.

So maybe the question is - where is the true value and emphasis placed in the different WiFi hubs? Granted, sometimes all I want is just to ease the burden on my data bill and soak up as much free browsing and downloading as I can, but the Tobetsa portal shows we can look further than that.

It's still early to gauge impact, but the signs are encouraging. Project Isizwe is saying: here's the connectivity, but - more importantly - this is why it's relevant to you. The value proposition goes beyond enabling connectivity and that gets my two thumbs up.

Share