- oAfrica : Tracking Internet Progress (2016) (Nairobi, Kenya ; South Africa)
Warning: no substantive updates to this site since January 2016. "...this site offers contributions on African Internet technology news from around the continent in English and relevant web links. Each country is also profiled on an annual basis. "...a showcase of the dynamic African digital landscape...Our site covers information on how people in each African country are using the Internet – a daunting task. We routinely post news summaries, analyze data, and scour social media channels to find the latest information."
--See especially:
Status reports on ICT progress in Africa
- Acacia Project in Africa and the Middle East--Document and Project Archive (IDRC--International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada)
- This site is available in English or in French. "Our mission is to support research on ICTs that improves lives and livelihoods."
- ACA2K--Access to Knowledge in Africa: The Role of Copyright (2010) -- Claremont, South Africa : Juta and Company Ltd. ; Toronto, Canada : IDRC, 2010.
- The open access, electronic book version of a 2010 final report. "[ACA2K]...is probing the relationship between national copyright environments and access to knowledge in African countries. This project, supported by Canada's IDRC and South Africa's Shuttleworth Foundation, and managed by the Wits University LINK Centre in Johannesburg, begun in October 2007 with legal researchers in five African countries (Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda) preparing initial 'environmental scans' of the copyright contexts in their countries."
- AIS 2018--Africa Internet Summit, April 29--May 11, 2018, Dakar, Senegal.
Co-sponsored by The Internet Society, AFRINIC, AfNOG, and the Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications, Posts and Digital Economy of Senegal.
--See especially: AIS 2018 Meeting Report
- African Digital Library In association with NetLibrary (Technikon South Africa Gold Fields Library and Information Centre, Florida, South Africa)
Note: US libraries with NetLibrary subscriptions may also have access to this e-book collection.
"[Established in 1999]...a collection of electronic books that can be accessed and used free-of-charge by any person living on the African continent [with registration]."
- "African Digital Research Repositories: Survey Report." (2016). By Anna de Mutiis and Stephanie Kitchen. Originally published in Africa Bibliography (2015) ; via International African Institute, London, UK.
18 pages in PDF format
--See also: August 2019 Update
- AfriNIC: The Internet Numbers Registry for Africa (Mauritius)
'In 2001, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved a Criteria for the Establishment of New Regional Internet Registries...AfriNIC has been proposed by the African community for the purpose of managing the IP addressing in the continent. It is expected that African organizations that presently obtain IP address space from RIPE or the ARIN will in future obtain IP addresses space from the AfriNIC.' See also: the
French version of this website.
--
AFRINIC-16: Workshop and Meetings of AfriNIC and AfNOG, May 6-18, 2012, Serekunda, The Gambia
- AfNOG: Africa Network Operators' Group (via Computer Frontiers International, Kampala, Uganda)
"...AfNOG is a forum for the exchange of technical information, and aims to promote discussion of implementation issues that require community cooperation through coordination and cooperation among network service providers to ensure the stability of service to end users."
- AfricanBrains (The Brains Network, London, UK)
A portal for news about events, programs, and trends. "Our overall aim is to promote greater investment into education in Africa and stimulate key sectors for information, communications, technology, innovation, scientific research and e-business. Central to this strategy is the development of long-term multi-stakeholder partnerships and encouragement of private sector technology transfer."
- "African Digital Research Repositories: Survey Report." (2016). By Anna de Mutiis and Stephanie Kitchen. Published in Africa Bibliography (2015) ; via Cambridge University Press.
19 pages in PDF format
- African languages in a digital age: challenges and opportunities for indigenous language computing. (2010) By Don Osborn. -- Ottawa, Canada: International Development Research Centre, 2010. --via IDRC Digital Library ; 167 pages in PDF format
- African Online Digital Library (Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan)
A website about a 20 year long digital library program (begun in 2000/2001) at Michigan State University, l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, and the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal. The site includes thus far: materials relating to West African history and cultures mostly from the private archives of individual scholars: selected photographs, unpublished research papers and conference proceedings, field notes, and short audio files of informants and interviews with scholars.
- The African Peering and Interconnection Forum: 9th AfPIF, August 21-23, 2018, Cape Town, South Africa. Co-sponsored by The Internet Society, Internet Service Providers' Association of South Africa, & African XIP Association.
- African Technology Forum -- Archives (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- "African Technology Forum is the premier source of information on science and technology in Africa. We provide practical information to corporations, individuals and institutions in the US, Africa and the rest of the world." Note: This site includes electronic versions of "feature articles" only from selected back issues of ATF's journal, "Forum". The printed version of this journal has been suspended.
- For selected current articles and web links, see: ATF Consulting Office Website
- "African telecommunication infrastructures for information access." by Muriuki Mureithi. UDT occasional paper, no. 3. (Online) July 1997. (via International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, France)
"Muriuki Mureithi has been in the telecommunication industry for the last 15 years, for 12 years as senior manager in International Relations of Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation and later as Deputy Managing Director of Telecommunication Foundation of Africa. Presently Mr. Mureithi is the Director of Summit Strategies based in Nairobi, Kenya."
- "African Undersea Cables" (July 2019) Many Possibilities (Steve Song, South Africa & USA)
- African Virtual University (Nairobi, Kenya ; The World Bank, Washington, DC)
- The web site includes information for the public about the programs. Note: User registration is required to access curriculum materials. "The African Virtual University (AVU) is a first-of-its-kind interactive-instructional telecommunications network established to serve the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The mission of AVU is to use the power of modern information technologies to increase access to educational resources throughout Sub-Saharan Africa ... training world-class scientists, technicians, engineers, business managers, health care providers, and other professionals."
- Université virtuelle africaine
- Afrique IT News--Archive, 2016 (Inaota, Dakar, Sénégal)
Les actualités des Startups et de la technologie en Afrique.
--Veuillez voir aussi: Afrique IT News in English (2016)
- AITI-KACE: Advanced Information Technology Institute--Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (Accra, Ghana)
"Our dynamic team works to stimulate the growth of the ICT Sector in ECOWAS. Established in 2003, through a partnership between the Government of Ghana and the Government of India, this state-of the-art facility provides an ideal environment for innovation, teaching and learning as well as practical research on the application of ICT4D in Africa."
- ARIMA: Revue africaine de la recherche en informatique et mathématiques appliquées. (Online) -- Paris, France: Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (INRIA), 2002--. --via Episciences.org
<< La revue est née d'une collaboration scientifique Nord/Sud menée depuis plus de dix ans dans le sillage des activités
CARI (Colloque Africain pour la Recherche en Informatique). >>
- Association for Progressive Communications (San Francisco, California)
"...to empower and support organisations, social movements and individuals in and through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)...APC members are groups and individuals working in their own countries to advance the same mission as APC. As of April 2017, APC had 51 organisational members and 30 individual members active in 75 countries."
--See especially:
APC Publications on Internet and ICTs in Africa
- Balancing Act news. (Online) -- London, UK: Balancing Act, 2002-
A weekly e-newsletter. Balancing Act seeks to be the primary source for information on the telecoms, Internet and broadcast media industries in Africa. The website/newsletter also includes links to free (and fee-based) reports on
African Internet Connectivity issues in individual countries and regional trends, as well as the
archive of newsletter issues only since 2007.
- Batik: bulletin d'analyse sur les technologies de l'information et de la communication. (Online) -- Dakar, Sénégal: Observatoire sur les Systèmes d'Information, les Réseaux et les Inforoutes au Sénégal (OSIRIS), 1999-
'Batik est une lettre d'information électronique mensuelle qui traite de l'actualité des TIC au Sénégal.' Sur ce site, on peut lire (en version HTML ou en PDF) les numéros depuis avril 1999.
- Bisharat! A language, technology, and development initiative (See below)
- Centre for African Studies, University of Edinburgh: CAS Annual Conference 2010--"ICT: Africa's Revolutionary Tools for the 21st Century?," May 4-5, 2010 (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)
- CIPESA: ICT Policy Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa (Kampala, Uganda)
"Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is one of two centres established under the Catalysing Access to Information and Communications Technologies in Africa (CATIA) initiative, which was funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID)."
--
CIPESA publications and other resources
- CODESRIA: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa: Conference on Electronic Publishing and Dissemination, 2004-2008 (Dakar, Senegal)
The web site offers full text copies of most of the papers (PDF format) presented at these workshops.
- Directory of Research Data Repositories in Africa (2017) (UK)
"...developed by Chevening Research Fellow Oluwaseun Obasola in 2017 with support from Chevening and the British Library in the United Kingdom. DODRIA provides links to data portals, brief description of each portal, publishing organisations, areas covered and access policies (open, licensed and enclaved data) on available datasets from each country in Africa."
- East African Communications Organisation (Kigali, Rwanda)
"...EACO was established in 2012, as a regional autonomous organization with international legal personality...brings together national ICT regulators, operators, services providers (in the telecommunication, broadcasting and postal sub-sectors), ICT training institutions and other stakeholders in the communication sector within Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda."
- EduTech: "Surveying ICT use in education in Africa." (Sept. 2015) by Michael Trucano. A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education (Washington, DC)
--See also: All "Africa" articles, 2009 to present
- ELDIS on ICT for Development Resource Guide (Electronic Development and Environment Information System, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK)
This web page, part of a larger site, provides links to current news and online reports on ICT development in individual countries and on a regional level, including Africa.
- e-Learning Africa (Berlin, Germany)
An annual conference and exhibition on ICT and education in Africa. "...includes core dialogues, discovery demos, knowledge exchange sessions, knowledge factories, panel discussions, panel talks, plenary sessions, pre-conference events and poster presentations on specific topics and informal networking opportunities."
--See especially:
14th International Conference & Exhibtion on ICT for Education, Training, and Skills Development, October 23-25, 2019, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
--
Past Conferences
--
eLearning Africa News (Current)
- Electronic journal of information systems in developing countries. (Online) -- Hong Kong ; Omaha, Nebraska: City University of Hong Kong and the University of Nebraska, 2000-
- Food and Agriculture Organization--Sustainable Development Dimensions: Knowledge--Communication for Development in Africa -- via Columbia University Libraries.
- Groupe Pour l'Etude et l'Enseignement de la Population (GEEP) (Dakar, Sénégal)
- Highway Africa: African media and the global sustainability challenge (Grahamstown, South Africa)
- How to Cite Internet Resources (via Columbia University Libraries)
- Iafric: Le développement Internet NTIC en Afrique (Cotonou, Bénin?)
- ICT4 Democracy in East Africa Network (2011-2015) (Kampala, Uganda)
"...a partnership of organisations which are actively involved in enhancing civic empowerment for improved governance, accountability and engagement with leadership. Founded in 2011, with seed funding from the Swedish Program for ICTs in Developing Regions (Spider)...In 2013, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) provided support to further the work of the network during 2014 and 2015."
--See especially: Downloads: presentations and reports
- "Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) in Africa – A Status Report (Sept. 2002) by Mike Jensen. International Telecommunications Union; via Google; 16 pages in Word format
- Institut Panos -- Afrique de l'Ouest (Dakar, Senegal)
- << Informer et communiquer pour une culture de la démocratie, de la citoyenneté et de la paix. >> Sur ce site, on peut lire les nouvelles à propos des programmes du Institut en Afrique de l'Ouest et ses publications. Il y a aussi beaucoup de liens à autres sites de PANOS et ceux sur les médias.
- Publications sur la "migration digitale" et "les migrants dans les médias"
- Projets sur "les droits des femmes et des minorités sexuelles" et sur les "reporters des frontières"
- International Telecommunication Union -- Africa Region (Geneva, Switzerland)
- ICANN--Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, 1-5 December 2004
- Internet and Computing in Africa (Compiled by Karen Fung, Hoover Institution, Stanford University)
An extensive list of links to important networking resources.
- Internet Service Providers Association, South Africa
- The Internet Society in Africa (Reston, Virginia; Geneva, Switzerland)
- IST-Africa 2011 Conference & Exhibition, 11-13 May 2011, Gabarone, Botswana (Government of Botswana, Department of Research, Science and Technology; supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission)
"Regional Impact of Information Society Technologies in Africa": this site includes previous conference years, with downloadable reports. "IST-Africa 2011 will focus on the Role of ICT for Africa's Development and specifically on Applied ICT research topics addressing major societal and economic challenges, which is part of the European Commission's Information Communications Technologies (ICT) Theme of FP7."
- ITEdge news.com. (Lagos, Nigeria)
The electronic version of a weekly magazine on the ICT sector for Nigeria and Africa in general. The archive contains older articles from thelast three months only!
- ITNews Africa (Gauteng, South Africa)
African technology news and events announcements in English, especially about trends in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
- 2016 ITU Forum, Nairobi, Kenya, September 6-8, 2016 -- "Global ICT Capacity Building Symposium (via International Telecommunication Union, a UN specialized agency, Geneva, Switzerland)
- "The Symposium is being organised by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and hosted by the Communications Authority of Kenya, under the theme 'Embracing Capacity Building Opportunities in the Digital Era'. Previous Africa ICTs have taken place in Johannesburg in 1998, Cairo in 1994 and 2008, Harare, Zimbabwe in 1990, and Nairobi, Kenya in 1986.
- See also: Africa Telecom '98: May 4-9, 1998, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
- Languages of Africa and the Internet -- Research
- African Languages Technology Initiative--ALT-I (2004) (Ibadan, Nigeria)
- "African Languages Technology Initiative (Alt-I) was set up to facilitate development of the necessary resources that will enable the engagement of information communication technologies (ICT) in African Languages. ...to appropriate various aspects of human language technology (HLT) such as speech synthesis, speech recognition, natural language understanding, machine translation and many others..."
- Projects--corpus development, Yoruba keyboard, speech synthesis, etc.
- ANLoc--The African Network for Localization (Pretoria, South Africa)
A program dedicated to localization or the adaptation of ICT for African languages. This wiki site includes information about research projects and conferences, a forum for project partners and other researchers---with downloadable presentations and other documents; plus related links.
- Bisharat! A language, technology, and development initiative (The Netherlands)
- klnX: The Open Swahili Localization Project = Mradi wa kuswahilisha programu huria (University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; IT+46, Sweden)
The website about the joint effort to provide computer operating software in Kiswahili.
- "Le traitement informatique des langues africaines" (novembre 2003). Par Marcel Diki-Kidiri, Edema Atibakwa Baboya, et Christian Chanard. Cahiers du Rifal; no. 23. (via Carrefour International Francophone de Documentation et d'Information, Paris, France)
Ce document comprend une liste des sites étudiés dans l'annexe de 50 pages. Voir aussi, le site principal des
Cahiers du Rifal qui est publié au Canada.
- "Traitement informatique des langues africaines: problèmes et perspectives" (décembre 1995). Par Emile Camara [...et alli.] (Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France)
--via Horizons Pleins Textes, Institut de recherche pour le développement.
- Unicode Consortium (Mountain View, California)
- "The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization originally founded to develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard, which specifies the representation of text in modern software products and standards."
- Language and scripts already encoded
- University of California--Berkeley, Department of Linguistics: Script Encoding Initiative (Berkeley, California)
- "The goal of the project is to fund the development of script proposals that will be successfully approved by the Unicode Technical Committee without requiring extensive revision or involvement of the committee itself. A secondary goal for certain scripts is to produce freely-available fonts, both for publication of the standards and for end-users."
- Lists of language scripts not yet encoded
- Leland Initiative Program of the US Agency for International Development (via "USAID on Africa", Columbia University)
- Marrakech : Le rôle et la place des médias dans la société de l'information en Afrique et dans les pays arabes -- Conférence internationale de suivi du sommet mondial sur la société de l'information, du 22 au 24 novembre 2004 Sommet Mondial sur la Société de l'Information, Genève 2003 -- Tunis 2005. (Maroc, Ministère de la Communication, Rabat)
- MediaAfriq Bibiographie sur les Médias et les Nouvelles Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (1999) (Multimania, France)
- MED-IT 2017: Salons d'affaires sur les spécialisés IT (Informatique, Internet, & Télécoms): Skhirat, Maroc (du 28 au 29 novembre 2017) Organisé par Label France, XCOM, et UBIFRANCE--Agence française pour le développement international des entreprises.
<< Ces rencontres d'affaires comprennent une exposition, des conférences et l'organisation de rdv planifiés. Les entreprises peuvent y rencontrer d'une part leurs homologues, acteurs des technologies de l'information (partenaires, revendeurs potentiels) et d'autre part les acteurs économiques locaux à la recherche de compétences ou de solutions innovantes >>.
- National Universities Commission of Nigeria: Nigerian Virtual Library (2003--) (Abuja, Nigeria)
The website --under construction-- includes selected Nigerian publications in wide variety of disciplines, links to Nigerian newspapers, and information on Nigerian universities. "The National Universities Commission is a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Education charged with the responsibilities of orderly development of universities in Nigeria."
- Netcafeguide.Com: A directory of Internet Cafés in Africa. (See World66 below)
- oAfrica: Tracking ICT Progress (Tim Kattic, California, USA)
This site offers ICT news, maps, statistics, and links to information and commentary on Africa's connectivity issues...compiled mostly from Internet sources.
- Open Access 2009 -- 7th International Conference on Open Access, Accra, Ghana, 2-3 November 2009 (University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana)
The site includes excerpts from the OA Programme...in PowerPoint and PDF formats.
- OpenNet Initiative on SubSaharan Africa -and- Middle East & North Africa (The Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto; Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University; Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge; and Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, UK)
"Our aim is to investigate, expose and analyze Internet filtering and surveillance practices in a credible and non-partisan fashion."
- OSIRIS: Observatoire sur les Systèmes d'Information, les Réseaux et les Inforoutes au Sénégal (Dakar, Sénégal)
"OSIRIS est une association à but non lucratif créé en mars 1998 qui se propose de produire des analyses, d'informer et de sensibiliser sur tous les sujets relatifs à l'utilisation et à l'appropriation des technologies de l'information et de la communication au Sénégal."
- Open Access 2005, 3rd International Workshop, 10-11 May 2005, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique
-- Program and downloadable papers
- PADIS in 1994-95: Pan African Development Information System (via University of Pennsylvania)
- PIAC: The Project for Information Access and Connectivity (2002) (Nairobi, Kenya)
General information about the project, reports, and useful institutional links. "The Project for Information Access and Connectivity (PIAC), which is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, was established in 1998."
- PICTA: Partnership for Information and Communication Technologies in Africa (UN Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Bellanet, Ottawa, Canada)
- This site provides general information on the activities of various agencies involved in the development of communication technologies in Africa, including the Internet; plus downloadable reports and a searchable database of projects and activities. "PICTA is an informal group of donors and executing agencies committed to improving information exchange and collaboration around ICT activities in Africa. It builds on the work of the African Networking Initiative (ANI) and the African Internet Forum (AIF)."
- PICTA bulletin. (Online) -- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: PICTA, 2001-
- Research ICT Africa! -- The researcher's network (Link Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
- News and research reports on ICTs in Africa; plus related links. "...seeks to provide the research base needed to support continental and international initiatives to reduce the digital divide. This will include examining the broad nexus of social, economic, developmental and policy issues surrounding information and communications technologies, including ICT infrastructure development, policy and regulation."
- Policy Briefs, Papers, and Other Publications on ICT Policy, Access, and Usage in Africa (2019)
- Towards an African e-Index: SME e-Access and Usage in 14 African Countries (2006) -- Johannesburg, South Africa: Research ICT Africa, 2006. PDF format
(The countries covered include Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.)
- Science and Technology in Africa (via Columbia University Libraries)
- Technology times. (Online). News Service of the Nigerian ICT Industry. -- Lagos, Nigeria: Technology Times Media Network, 2004-
This online magazine offers articles on selected developments in the ICT sector of Nigeria.
- TelecentresAfrica: rural community service delivery (2012) (Brussels, Belgium)
Project news and related links. "...was an ICT4D programme implemented by CTA and InfoBridge Foundation in collaboration with African partners in 2008-2012 in support to rural community service delivery in Africa."
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: Dakar Symposium -- Digital Opportunities for Africa: Community Multimedia Centres, 12-17 June 2003, Dakar, Senegal
(New York)
- United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force -- African Stakeholders Network (2002-2006) (UN Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
- UNRISD: UN Research Institute for Social Development: Information Technologies and Social Development -- Unpublished Papers on ICTs in Senegal and Internationally, 2001-2005 (Geneva, Switzerland)
Note: several of the papers are available only in French.
- US Agency for International Development on Communications & the Internet in Africa (via Columbia University)
- Voice of Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya)
"...a
citizen reporting project based in Kibera (one of the largest slums in Africa). The project is an initiative of
Map Kibera and uses the Ushahidi platform to aggregate and map reports...
The Voice of Kibera Editorial Board was formed in May 2010. The Editorial Board is responsible for the site administration, including verifying incoming messages. The Board members also act as SMS reporters within their community, sending in messages to let Kibera and the world know what's happening around them."
- 9th West Africa Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF), July 27-28, 2017, Cotonou, Bénin
An annual workshop sponsored by ECOWAS--Economic Community of West African States.
- WiderNet Project (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
General information about the program to make available electronic resources (through the "e-Granary project") where there is low Internet bandwidth and download capacities, especially in developing countries in Africa and Asia.
- The World Bank: ICT Projects & Reports on Africa (Washington, DC)
- World Digital Library on Africa -and- The Middle East and North Africa (Paris, France)
This site offers a relatively small selection (122 items for Africa and 157 for the Middle East/North Africa) of digitized rare books, maps, and documents which can be downloaded. UNESCO, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, The Library of Congress of the USA, and many other institutions have partnered to launch this project.
- World Summit on the Information Society, Tunis, Tunisia, 16-18 November 2005 = Sommet mondial sur la société de l'information, Tunis 2005 (International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland)
- World66 Netcafeguide.Com for Africa (World66, USA)
Search for listings of Internet cafés or "cybercafés" in Africa by selecting a country in the Choose country box.
- WoYaa! Search Engine for Africa: Internet (WoYaa.Com)
Part of a larger portal and search engine for Africa. The site is also available in French.