Hanging by a thread

A funny thing happened to me this weekend - the electricity at my home failed for no other reason than a faulty connection between something and something else. There was electricity to the plug points, but no lights, certainly no hot water, and a great deal of inconvenience once daylight faded.

We`ve all seen presentations come undone because the projector needed some adjustment, and we`ve all waited, in silence tinged with embarrassment, while the less adept fumble around getting it fixed.

Basheera Khan, journalist, ITWeb

I`m not the most technically minded of folk, so I did the next best thing - I called up the electrician, who was, of course, in Durban. It didn`t help that I was on a deadline, and had taken work home. Trust me on this one - computing by candlelight is not as romantic as it sounds.

It strikes me as rather analogous of the bandwidth infrastructure in this country. We have the bare bones of the infrastructure, which could theoretically feed the greediest demands for bandwidth, and content providers who though hobbled by pipe restrictions, no doubt weep for the marvelous products they could feed to the consumer, if only broadband access were available, and cheaply at that.

Of course, broadband is on its way - just when the South African Internet community will see it is another story altogether. As to the power failure, it`s given me a much-refreshed respect for among other things, electricity and hot water on tap - something I think is far too often taken for granted in this developing country.

By now, news of Woolworths` R25 million acquisition of inthebag has reached everyone with an interest in the e-tailer, or in the e-commerce industry in general.

What was slightly more surprising is news of inthebag`s CEO Jessica Knight`s upcoming move out of the inthebag business. It`s understandable that Woolies would have to understand where the e-tail business fits into its own structure, and make sure there is as little overlap in function as possible, but it strikes me as just a bit illogical to get rid of the person who brought inthebag to its current position.

Which is to say, high profile, and very slowly creeping up in profitability. Of course, there is the other question of what exactly one needs to do on a Web site to justify spending R26 million. Perhaps this is the reason Knight is moving on, perhaps not. I suppose only time will tell whether inthebag can be run as successfully, and perhaps on a lower operating budget as within the Woolworths stable.

The Gautengonline initiative that was launched last week is surely one of the biggest steps forward in providing Internet access to children in townships and rural areas in the province. Unfortunately, one can`t help but feel that the provincial government is putting the best face on a half-baked project that hasn`t yet finalised business or channel partners - for reasons unknown to most observers.

Perhaps it`s my mile-wide cynical streak speaking, but a pretty dressing on a rotten cake doesn`t do much to improve its palatability. Surely, there`s nothing like empowering the helpless - but what if the helpless are those that hold ministerial positions?

We`ve all seen presentations come undone because the projector needed some adjustment, and we`ve all waited, in silence tinged with embarrassment, while the less adept fumble around getting it fixed.

But that is probably nothing compared to that part of the demonstration which involved the premier`s attempts at sending an e-mail to all the kids at Ikaneng Primary School, where the initiative was launched. Suffice it to say, he experienced difficulty in doing so.

I could be the only one outraged at the fact that even if he doesn`t regularly use e-mail (as most businesspeople of a certain bent tend to do) his spin team didn`t adequately prepare him beforehand. Is that any way to secure confidence in technology, and the government`s efforts to make it more accessible? What ever happened to the concept of leading by example?