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The world attention focuses on local innovation in information and communications technology (ICT) during the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 9 to 13 December. The delegation from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), lead by the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Dr Ben Ngubane, and the CSIR, will be exhibiting and showcasing three projects during the summit.

The exhibition will focus on three CSIR icomtek's research projects that are being funded by the DST which are: developments in human language technologies (HLT), ICTs for rural development, and the Digital Doorway.

The exhibition forms part of the enormous ICT for Development Platform exhibition and conference programme - the largest multi-stakeholder event during the WSIS.

This summit is of the same stature as the World Summit for Sustainable Development that was held in South Africa last year. The WSIS focuses specifically on the implications of the emergence of a new-networked economy and a knowledge-based information society enabled by technological and other advances and the ways in which these affect how people live, learn, work and relate to one another.

In line with ICT being identified as one of the key technology missions in South Africa's National Research and Development Strategy, it receives strong support from the DST. The department's aim in this arena includes harnessing the benefits of ICT for sustainable development, nurturing an appropriate ICT capacity for South Africa, and using ICT tools to preserve and promote cultural diversity.

The gist of the three CSIR icomtek initiatives exhibited during the WSIS is:

ICTs for rural development - The appropriate use of technology can ensure that rural communities may benefit from the ICT revolution by accessing information that is of specific relevance to their daily lives, their overall development process and their small business development programmes. CSIR icomtek developed a wireless network system that provides a fast and cost-effective solution for the rollout of communications infrastructure to rural communities. At a pilot installation in the Eastern Cape, the wireless technology provided point-to-multi-point connectivity within two villages linking a school, clinic, hospital, police station, and a community telecentre, thus forming a community Intranet.

Digital Doorway - the use of minimally invasive education (MIE) for large-scale computer literacy to support the advancement of the information society. The project assesses, in the South African context, the results of research conducted in India which indicated that people - especially children - have the cognitive ability to acquire functional computer skills with minimal teaching intervention, given access and motivating content.

HLT - Speech and language technologies have broken through several barriers in the developed world, but many of the benefits have not yet impacted on the developing world. CSIR icomtek looks at developing and deploying HLT to the benefit of developing countries, especially ones with a multilingual and multicultural heritage. Examples of current projects include:
* HLT-enabled e-Government service delivery: the provision of access to government services through the use of the extensive telephony infrastructure in South Africa.
* The Local Language Speech Technology Initiative: a collaborative effort involving India, the UK, Nigeria, and South Africa, aimed at developing an open source toolset for the effective development of a text-to-speech (TTS) system in any language of the world - the South African effort will develop an isiZulu TTS system as a first pilot.
* An assistive and augmentative communication device: hardware components and an innovative system design are used to create an affordable device for people with speech disabilities. The challenge is to minimise cost and ensure flexibility of language and content.

For more information please contact: Nhlanhla Nyide, Chief Director: Communication
Tel: (+27 12) 337 8555
Fax: (+27 12) 337 8011
Cell: +2782 871 6767
Email: Nhlanhla.nyide@dst.gov.za

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology

11 December 2003