The City of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) have invested R15 million to establish and equip the Institute for the Information Society, a research, practice and policy development centre to support the emerging information society.
At a press conference today, representatives of the Western Cape`s largest university (an amalgamation of the previous Peninsula Technikon and Cape Technikon) and the municipality said the intent is to provide a committed effort to research, evaluate and teach to empower communities through the use of technology, media and self-reliance skills.
Marcus Balintulo, CPUT interim vice-chancellor, says the Institute for the Information Society will be a vehicle for a multi-stakeholder effort for all issues facing civil society in emerging information and knowledge societies.
He says the institute will complement the City of Cape Town`s Smart City programme, which will involve the installation of 500 access points around the municipality by year-end.
As part of the collaboration effort between the two, the city will host the Community Informatics Research Network, the Civil Society Colloquium and the WWW application conference to be held from 22 to 31 August during the Information Society Week. The Provincial Government of the Western Cape and the national Department of Communications will also be involved.
City of Cape Town manager Wallace Mgoqi says it is part of the municipality`s role to bridge the digital divide by bringing more people into the formal economy.
"One of the ways in which we are seeking to do so is by increasing the access that poor Capetonians have to key aspects of the new economy such as computers and the Internet," he says.
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