Lorenzo Dalvit et al.
realised and implemented as part of research project by young researchers and postgraduate students. A considerable research output has already been generated. Such output contributes to obtaining institutional support in the form of infrastructure, resources and expertise by the two universities.
TeleWeaver can also draw on the international academic network to attract contributors as occasional programmers or visiting researchers. As an open‐source middleware for marginalized communities in Africa, TeleWeaver can act as a catalyst to build a community of quality developers committed to ICT4D.
The initial test bed for the software is a specific Living Lab( LL). The LL approach to the co‐creation of services in partnership with an actual community of prospective users is established practice in developed countries and is gaining momentum in developmental contexts( James 2010). The site of the LL is a coastal rural area in South Africa. The area is characterised by endemic poverty and lack of services and infrastructure. It is representative of many African marginalized realities and has been the site of extensive ethnographic research( Palmer 2002). Since 2005, it has been the site of an ICT4D project to explore the potential of ICT for the social and economic upliftment of the area. Over time, such efforts have attracted the interest of various partners( industry, local government, NGOs) which created the complex ecosystem of which Reed House Systems( RHS) is an integral part.
The Siyakhula Living Lab Management Unit( SILLMU) completes the ecosystem of which RHS is part. This management unit acts as an interface between RHS and the LL which coordinates the logistics of deployment and associated research projects and channels important feedback, suggestions, innovations and user experiences from the community. The unit is instrumental in managing the relationship between academia, government, industry and community. Government bodies at the local, provincial and national level support the initiative, as it is aligned with their developmental goals. Industry partners see this as an exploration of telecommunication deployment in a potentially profitable but relatively untapped market( African National Congress 2009). Either directly or indirectly, the two stakeholders provide funds that support the testing and development of TeleWeaver in a real‐life marginalized context.
A strong, two‐way relationship with the local community has been a distinctive feature of the ecosystem. Schools in the LL act as points of presence for the project and for access of the respective communities. These schools are connected to the Internet( via VSAT and WiMAX) and receive technical support as well as skills transfer and development. Most of the schools have computers, either for administrative use or clustered into a computer lab. A considerable number of educators, learners and community members have acquired the necessary skills to operate a computer and access e‐services and have taken the initiative in training others. As evidence that ICT is becoming part of the life of the community, a group of local entrepreneurs started marketing art and craft products through e‐commerce. Providing the tools for a distributed, effective and socially responsible sharing of costs and revenues is an integral part of the TeleWeaver solution.
The goal of the ESTIMA project was the establishment of a commercial software venture with a specific ICT4D focus. In terms of revenue generation and sharing, serving the interests of the whole ecosystem is the distinctive feature of the TeleWeaver solution. Different stakeholders( academia, a community of target users as well as developers, government and industry) can contribute and benefit in different ways. The construction of TeleWeaver was necessary for RHS to take shape and to build sustainability for the venture beyond ESTIMA.
Most similar ventures seem to rely on one of two sets of business models. On the one hand, external funders( government bodies and industry partners) provide grants for the development of marginalized areas or the exploration of new markets. In the immediate future, RHS is in a strong position to attract this type of funding. Grants, however, are generally not a sustainable solution in the long run and limit the scale and so the impact of the activity. A second model followed by most ICT4D initiatives follows established models within the industry( Breest 2006). The idea is that, although individual contributors in marginalised communities are by definition poor, extending the project to a large number of users, and maximizing infrastructure utilization can result in a sustainable revenue‐generating stream. In such cases, telecommunications solutions are usually deployed in areas with recognised potential for economic development.
The business model that TeleWeaver proposes is a third one( although the first and second just mentioned are pursued too). In this one, the income will come from entities that have a direct interest in accessing the communities where TeleWeaver is deployed, through a monthly payment, or a per‐transaction payment, to
154