The development of a wireless community hub, giving individuals and small businesses in Johannesburg ubiquitous wireless access, is one of the city's core IT projects as the nation builds up to the 2010 World Cup.
This is according to Patrick Mayaba, the city's CIO, who outlined his department's strategic vision during ITWeb's Connect IT: Joburg 2010 conference, in Sandton last week.
"The objective of this [community hub] project is to provide a central ICT hub and regional broadband wireless network to enable communities to access information and technology - this project is a joint venture with the CSIR," he told delegates.
"The City of Johannesburg's IT department has attained the necessary ICASA approvals and licences to deploy wireless technologies," noted Mayaba.
Neil Fraser, an urban revitalisation expert from Urban Inc Consultants, previously stated that: "The objective here is to provide broadband wireless Internet access to SMEs located in under-developed [urban] areas. This would encourage ICT and business skills development and support the local community by providing 'one-stop' ICT capacity and services."
Practically speaking, added Fraser in a discussion column on the city's Web site, the hub would provide the hardware and software tools, and networks from which the community could establish a telecentre providing the local community with phone, fax, e-mail and Internet facilities.
Vision
The city will embark on a partnership-based service delivery model as it seeks to introduce innovation to improve the city's business environment, and leave a legacy "beyond the direct [2010 World Cup] football opportunities".
"The City of Johannesburg's IT vision is to provide a robust, IT delivery environment, which supports the city's service delivery vision in a more economical manner," Mayaba told delegates.
The main areas to be addressed over the coming years are the creation of robust and flexible architecture and infrastructure, an enterprise resource planning programme, a skills agenda, a wireless strategy, and a 2010-specific programme.
E-city strategy
"The first step in building and delivering digital city infrastructure is to deploy a metro network to serve as the backbone for information sharing within a local government.
"The city centralised data centre can then connect to the metro - maintaining a safe environment by ensuring privacy and safeguarding confidential information," he said.
Mayaba believes the city must constantly evaluate and introduce innovative technologies to solve its business problems, and also to reduce the costs of government and improve service delivery.
He added that partnership-based service delivery models, for deployment, would be used, in order to leave a legacy of IT development beyond the 2010 event.
The IT strategy should also assist in the growth and development of new and existing ICT businesses, as well as improve the marketability of Johannesburg, noted Mayaba.
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