Association of Computer Instructors

Africa: Using Information Technology to Tackle HIV/AIDS

In African countries, where tens of millions of adults live with HIV and infection rates among young people of 15 to 24 are alarming, the need for HIV/AIDS education and prevention activities remains daunting.

A pilot project of the World Bank and World Links Organization is using information and communications technologies (ICT) to reach students and teachers across Africa, and complement other campaigns that target youth about HIV/AIDS.

The project connects students and teachers from various schools and countries who use e-mail to exchange questions and answers, and hold discussions. This on-line project has grown steadily since 2000, when 15 schools in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe participated with support from the U.S. magazine, WIRED. The number of schools rose to 25 in 2001, and included some 200 teachers and students. In 2002 more than thirty schools, totaling some 300 teachers and students, enrolled in the project, which was expanded to include new partners and schools from additional countries—Botswana, Kenya, the U.S., and Zambia. The project is also getting more educational materials into schools.

Overall, the project has raised awareness of HIV/AIDS issues among students, enhanced research skills, and helped integrate HIV/AIDS education into school curricula, say teachers involved in the project.

“This project has really taken me to another stage in my life. I’ve learned to help my friends and relatives whenever they are in need,” says Strive Mazunga, a student from Zimbabwe.

It also prompted students to become more proactive. After participating in on-line activities, students of the Namilyango College in Uganda interviewed various authorities in their community. “We really liked the field visit that we made to various places, finding more about the opinions of other people on HIV/AIDS, interviewing elders and challenging them, and being asked our opinion on the struggle [against AIDS] by our elders,” e-mails one student.

While the project has been successful in raising awareness among urban youth, its next challenge will be reaching out to rural youth who lack access to computers and the Internet.

Talking computers boost Ghana's blind

By Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
BBC, Ghana

In a small, tidy air-conditioned room with about 10 computers, the users have headphones on, but their heads aren't bobbing to an MP3 download of the latest Afro-Jazz hit.

Blind students need computer skills too
The computer screens have a glare all right, and the script is of regular characters; but the six people engaged on the keyboards do not see what they are typing out.
A special screen-reader software enables them to listen, rather than see, what they are generating on the screen.
Because they are blind.
This is the Computer Learning Centre of the Ghana Society for the Blind (GSB), the umbrella organisation which looks out for the interests of unsighted people in Ghana.
The centre is located within the premises of the Accra Rehabilitation Centre, a state-funded instittution which provides facilities for people with disability in the country.
The centre was funded by the GSB itself through its fundraising activities, and received additional support from several local charities, and Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin III, a particularly socially-conscious local chief and patron of the Society for the Blind.
Keyboard skills
"We set up this place because there are blind professionals and students who need computer skills just like everybody else," said Jeanne Wright, an African-American volunteer teacher at the centre.
"Computer skills will make blind professionals more attractive on the job market, if we can get rid of prejudice from employers, that is."

Cephas Torkonoo was a high-flying banker until he lost his sight
Trainees are vetted for proficiency in English and braille; keyboard skills are an advantage.
"We have to go through a selection process, unfortunately, because the facilities are limited, and we restrict the size of each class to eight. And even then we run two shifts of four each," says Peter Obeng Asamoah, manager of the centre, who is himself blind.
One of the new students is Cephas Torkonoo, 31, a staff of the treasury department of a well-known bank in Accra until two years ago when he lost his sight to meningitis.
"I lost my sight, I lost my job, I lost my fiancee, and I'm about to lose my place at the university too," he said.
The university authorities decided Cephas could not manage further studies in accounting.
"But I can. I have a talking calculator; I'm re-learning how to use the computer as a blind person, and I've bought a new laptop with the screen-reader software, but nobody wants to listen to me," laments Cephas.
"I'm educated, I can't just sit there and do nothing."
Browsing
Alima Abdulkarim has had better luck. She teaches education at the Accra Teacher Training Centre where all her students are sighted.
Alima says the computer centre has been especially useful to her because she teaches six classes, each consisting of dozens of students.

The school wants an internet connection
"I'm able to prepare my notes on the computer, and print them out and hand them to the students, because I can't write it out and they too can't read braille," explains Alima who is in her early thirties.
The Society would like to expand the centre and bring in more computers so that they can train more blind people.
"Also," says Asamoah, "we'd like to have an internet connection here so we can have an internet cafe so that we too can browse. We understand there's a software that can do it."
They're working on raising funds to achieve that dream.
Says Torkonoo: "I'm optimistic about the future for all blind people. I can see light at the end. With technology we can do a lot."
Society may have shoved the blind into a dark tunnel that's lacking in opportunities.
But the light and sound from computer screens may well point them towards a new direction.

Africa Can Seize Share of IT Outsourcing Market

By ECT News Syndication Desk
07/18/04 5:49 PM PT

There are many areas in which African countries, eager to move into this space, can carve out a niche for themselves. The lucrative call center sector is one such area. Creating an environment that makes offshore outsourcing in Africa attractive can have many positive spin-offs for the continent as a whole, not just in terms of increased employment, additional revenue and new skills, but also in terms of changing the perception the developed world has about Africa.

With the rising cost of local production and labor in developed countries like the United States, many companies, especially in the IT arena are looking to the developed world for answers -- and finding them. Countries like India have successfully positioned themselves as niche providers of outsourced labor in IT and are reaping the benefits. And, as analysts continue to predict a growth in this type of outsourcing, the opportunity is ripe for other developing countries to tap into this lucrative market. The question is: Can Africa capture a share of the offshore IT market?

US research firm Gartner Ine is predicting that the outsourcing segment will continue to outperform the western European IT services market overall, growing by 3.1 percent in 2004, then rising steadily during the next three years to an annual increase of 8 percent in 2007. Moreover, as a result of global outsourcing trends, Gartner predicts that up to 25 percent of traditional IT jobs in many developed countries today will be situated in emerging markets by 2010.

The move to offshore outsourcing is spurred on by increasing pressure on companies in the developed world to generate profits and reduce costs. Anton Groom of MBS Outsourcing says there is also a drive to follow the sun, to allow them to offer services 24/7 (24 hours, seven days a week). "It therefore makes sense to have offices located in the three primary time zones," says Groom.

He adds that with a client base expanding globally, it also makes sense to provide clients with a global delivery model. As the developing world gains momentum in creating pools of qualified, skilled talent, outsourcing to these regions becomes more attractive.

Source: Technews Word

Survey Results Show Few Linux Security Problems

By Elizabeth Millard
LinuxInsider
07/28/04 11:56 AM PT

Other research companies, such as Denmark-based Acunia, have released surveys that report very different results found by those at Evans. Some of these reports note that Windows and Linux are equally secure. Petreley called these findings "erroneous." Petreley noted that the problem with many of these other surveys is the lack of questions about what made the Linux systems insecure, and how a vulnerability was exploited.

Evans Data today released survey results showing that 90 percent of Linux systems have never been infected by a virus, and nearly 80 percent have never been hacked.

The survey of 500 Linux developers worldwide was conducted earlier this month. The respondents' answers were compared to another survey done by Evans in the spring, the North American Development Survey. In that comparison, 3 in 5 non-Linux developers reported a security breach and 32 percent experienced three or more breaches.

Evans' Linux analyst Nicholas Petreley told LinuxInsider that the results showed the most common mechanism by which a Linux machine can be compromised is by users inadequately configuring security settings. Other compromises came from vulnerability in Internet service and Web server flaws.

"Ironically, the other flaws that crackers use to compromise Linux servers are flaws in applications which run on competing operating systems, so those vulnerabilities are not specific to Linux," Petreley said.