Much ado about nothing?

By Christelle du Toit, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 08 Sept 2008

It will be "business unusual" as usual for the Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development (PIAC on ISAD), as it prepares to work with a new administration from next year.

This was one of the key messages at the eighth gathering of the council this weekend, in Hoedspruit, Limpopo; the second last before the general elections in mid-2009.

According to public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, president Thabo Mbeki's theme of business unusual will be echoed in PIAC's work for the next couple of months, as it prepares to hand over to the next government administration.

She said PIAC would do its work with "tenacity", a sentiment echoed by Esther Dyson, chairman of US-based EDventure Holdings and PIAC advisor since the council's inception.

According to Dyson, she is "encouraged" by the progress PIAC has made of late, especially as the latest PIAC has been marked by more concrete targets.

These include:

* A PIAC coordinator has been appointed and a CEO of the e-skills council will be appointed within the next three months.
* It was agreed that advisors will work with Trade and Invest SA to ensure SA continues to improve investment in ICT.
* Advisors will form a group to advise government on energy saving, particularly in the ICT sector.
* A local CEOs' Forum will assist in the implementation of PIAC's decisions.
* Advisors indicated their readiness to assist SA in maximising the economic benefits of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
* A scorecard to indicate progress of ICT goals will be developed and finalised shortly.

Officials did not expand on these objectives during a press conference yesterday.

The council emphasised the importance of increasing the uptake and use of ICT by government, business and citizens.

PIAC was established in 2001 and was later streamlined to focus specifically on the needs of the information society.

It led to the creation of an e-skills council, which, in turn, led to the establishment of an e-skills academy, sponsored by industry.

Complete unknowns

According to Mbeki, PIAC has played a central role in the progress the country has made since 2001, progress he described as "significant".

Mbeki said that, when PIAC was first conceived, "so poor was our knowledge of this area [ICT] that we could not even know what we did not know".

He added that it is now possible to draw up a scorecard of where the country is as far as issues such as connectivity are concerned, "and you don't have to explain first what is meant with connectivity". The scorecard Mbeki referred to is a previous PIAC initiative.

A deadline of eight weeks has now been set for industry to give input into a draft scorecard that has been sub-sectioned into connectivity, skills, government and the economy.

Milestones

According to Fraser-Moleketi, this scorecard should reflect that PIAC has played a key role in developments such as:

* The introduction of a second fixed-line operator in the country;
* The introduction of four pay-TV players;
* The enactment of the Electronic Communications Act;
* More efficient use of spectrum; and
* Liberalisation of the ICT sector.

On the topic of liberalisation, Dyson said members of the council brought up the recent milestone Altech court ruling.

The ruling found that value-added network services are allowed to build their own telecommunications networks and, according to Dyson, was a godsend as far as opening up the industry for competition.

Dyson was also satisfied that PIAC, although slow in finding its feet, was starting to yield results. The appointment of a PIAC coordinator in the presidency was one of the results generally welcomed.

Advisors present at this PIAC meeting included Dr Henry Chasia, deputy chairman of the Nepad eAfrica Commission; Gordon Graylish, VP of Intel; and Veli Sundb"ack, executive VP and member of Nokia's group executive board.