The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC)

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https://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/19251

The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC) is an academic journal published by the LINK Centre, School of Literature, Language and Media (SLLM), Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), AJIC is an interdisciplinary, open access journal concerned with Africa’s participation in the information society and digital network economy. The journal does not impose author processing charges. AJIC's predecessor, The Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), was published from 2000 to 2008, before becoming AJIC in 2010.

Corresponding Editor: Lucienne Abrahams. AJIC Submissions

ISSN: 2077-7213 (online version)

ISSN: 2077-7205 (print version)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/19251

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Browsing The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC) by Author "Abrahams, Lucienne"

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    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, Nagy
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    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 Zion
    African 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.
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    Editor's Introduction: Informatics and Digital Transformations
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2016-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
    This thematic introduction briefly discusses the importance of pursuing research in informatics and digital transformations in Africa.
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    Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 13
    (2013-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Ochara, Nixon
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    Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 14
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2015-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
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    Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 15
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), 2015-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
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    Editors' Comment
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2011-02-15) Kupe, Tawana; Abrahams, Lucienne
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    Editors' Comment
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2010-02-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Gray, Eve
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    Innovation Entanglement at Three South African Tech Hubs
    (2020-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
    This 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.
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    Regulatory Imperatives for the Future of SADC’s “Digital Complexity Ecosystem”
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2017-12-23) Abrahams, Lucienne
    This 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.
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    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, Johann
    The 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.
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    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