LINK Centre (Learning Information Networking Knowledge Centre)
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The Wits LINK Centre is a leading African academic research and training body focused on ICT ecosystem policy and practice. Based at the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, LINK engages in knowledge production and capacity-building for the broad communications and information and communications technology (ICT) sector in Africa. Its focus spans across policy, regulation, management and practice in telecommunications, Internet, broadcasting, digital media, e-government, e-transformation and e-development, all with an emphasis on economic and social implications in African and other developing-world contexts. LINK publishesThe African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC), which is accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Director: Dr. Lucienne Abrahams: luciennesa@gmail.com
For technical questions regarding this collection, contact Nina Lewin, nina.lewin@wits.ac.za, who is the responsible librarian.Browse
Browsing LINK Centre (Learning Information Networking Knowledge Centre) by Author "Abrahams, Lucienne"
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Item Brief Overview: The State of Tech Hubs in South Africa(2017-08-31) Kedama, Yolisa; Abrahams, LucienneItem Briefing Note: People-Centered Internet Global Forum at Stanford: Beginning a Network of Networks(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), 2015-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Hanna, NagyItem Conceptual Design of a Cybersecurity Resilience Maturity Measurement (CRMM) Framework(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2019-05-28) Mbanaso, Uche M.; Abrahams, Lucienne; Apene, Oghenevovwero ZionAfrican countries are at high risk with respect to cybersecurity breaches and are experiencing substantial financial losses. Amongst the top cybersecurity frameworks, many focus on guidelines with respect to detection, protection and response, but few offer formal frameworks for measuring actual cybersecurity resilience. This article presents the conceptual design for a cybersecurity resilience maturity measurement (CRMM) framework to be applied in organisations, notably for critical information infrastructure (CII), as part of cyber risk management treatment. The main thrusts of the framework are to establish, through assessment in terms of quantitative measures, which cybersecurity controls exist in an organisation, how effective and efficient these controls are with respect to cybersecurity resilience, and steps that need to be taken to improve resilience maturity. The CRMM framework we outline is conceptualised as being applicable both pre- and post-cyber attack. Drawing on the NIST cybersecurity framework (NIST CSF) and other relevant frameworks, the CRMM approach conceptualised in this article would be able to depict an organisation’s cybersecurity practices and gauge the organisation’s cybersecurity maturity at regular intervals. This CRMM approach is grounded in the idea that, by quantifying an organisation’s current practices against established baseline security controls and global best practices, the resulting status measurement can provide the appropriate basis for managing cyber risk in a consistent and proportionate fashion. The CRMM framework defines four cybersecurity resilience quadrants (CRQs), which depict four different degrees of organisational preparedness, in terms of both risk and resilience.Item Editor's Introduction: Informatics and Digital Transformations(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2016-12-15) Abrahams, LucienneThis thematic introduction briefly discusses the importance of pursuing research in informatics and digital transformations in Africa.Item Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 13(2013-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Ochara, NixonItem Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 14(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2015-12-15) Abrahams, LucienneItem Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 15(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), 2015-12-15) Abrahams, LucienneItem Editors' Comment(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2011-02-15) Kupe, Tawana; Abrahams, LucienneItem Editors' Comment(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2010-02-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Gray, EveItem Information and Communication Technologies for African Development: An Assessment of Progress and Challenges Ahead, edited by Joseph O. Okpaku Sr., 2003: Book Review(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2003-12-15) Abrahams, LucienneItem Innovation and Scaling by Tech Hubs and Their Hosted Startups: Three South African Cases(2021-12-16) Abrahams, LucienneItem Innovation Entanglement at Three South African Tech Hubs(2020-12-15) Abrahams, LucienneThis study explores innovation modalities at three South African tech hubs: Bandwidth Barn Khayelitsha and Workshop 17 in Cape Town, and the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Johannesburg. The study finds that tech start-ups’ ability to scale is generally enhanced by their participation in the hubs. Furthermore, it is found that scaling by start-ups, and by the tech hubs hosting them, is enhanced when they actively drive the terms of their “entanglement” with exogenous and endogenous factors and external entities—a conceptual framework first developed in an earlier study of university research linkages (Abrahams, 2016). This present study finds that innovation entanglement by the hubs and their start-ups allows them to work through the adversity and states of complexity prevalent in their innovation ecosystems.Item Municipal Broadband: The 'Next Generation' and the 'Last Mile'(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2007-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Bakker, Brian; Bhyat, MohamedThe article raises two related questions, the strategy question of whether South Africa should focus on universal access to the Internet in the next 10 years for all cities and towns and the operational question of how SouthAfrica can migrate to a high speed, high-bandwidth environment for all citizens and SMEs in the next10years. The diffusion of Internet access to South Africa’s cities and towns has been slow and the diffusion of broadband even slower. A number of municipalities, mainly the large metropolitan areas, and a few smaller towns, have been developing models for ‘municipal broadband’ provisioning. The article responds to these two questions by reporting the findings of a series of interviews on municipal broadband in South Africa, comparing lessons from the US and ending with a set of four perspectives on future choices and approaches for municipalities. It argues that the metropolitan Governments surveyed have already embarked along the road of ubiquitous citizen access to the Internet through selecting ‘digital cities’ approaches. The challenge is to identify workable operational and financing models for municipal broadband across varying types of municipalities – metropolitan, smaller cities and towns. This is being digested in the learning experiments currently underway.Item Regulatory Imperatives for the Future of SADC’s “Digital Complexity Ecosystem”(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2017-12-23) Abrahams, LucienneThis article uses a “digital complexity ecosystem” framing to delineate the challenges facing regulation of the digital economy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The digital complexity ecosystem approach, grounded in the field of complexity science – and in particular the study of complex adaptive systems (CASs) – is used to illuminate the sources of uncertainty, unpredictability and discontinuity currently present in the SADC digital sphere. Drawing on examples from three regulatory areas, namely mobile financial services, Internet of Things (IoT) network and services markets, and e-health services, the article argues that SADC regulatory bodies will themselves need to adopt highly adaptive, nonlinear approaches if they are to successfully regulate activities in the digital ecosystem moving forward. Based on the findings, recommendations are made on SADC regional regulatory agendas and, at national levels, matters of concurrent jurisdiction.Item Research Productivity-Visibility-Accessibility and Scholarly Communication in Southern African Universities(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2010-02-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Burke, Mark; Mouton, JohannThe project for the revitalisation of Southern Africa’s higher education sector is dependent on, among other things, the capacity of the region’s universities to produce research, to communicate that research to a broad public audience and to use the research output in the process of educating future generations of graduates. Given this context, research output in the great majority of Southern African universities is barely visible. While the introduction of new digital media may offer greater accessibility and expanded opportunities for the visibility of scholarly communication, this may be insufficient to meet the needs of the many scholars and other actors who seek to build on existing bodies of knowledge, whether to advance society or in order to create knowledge for its own sake. This article reports the findings of two 2008 studies – The state of public science in the SADC region and Opening access to knowledge in Southern African universities. Working within a frame which understands knowledge produced in universities as a public good, this article examines the issues at play in terms of the productivity-visibilityaccessibility of scholarly communications in regional higher education. The conclusion discusses a possible approach to improve such productivity-visibility-accessibility, through the adoption of a strategic vision of open access to knowledge and through consideration of two breakthroughs pertinent to achieving a vision of revitalised higher education in the region.Item Reviews of Mastering Digital Transformation (Hanna, 2016) and Digital Kenya (Ndemo & Weiss, 2016)(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2016-11-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Goga, Kevin