Monday, February 27, 2006
Monitoring local elections and Microsoft Vista - Beta version
Hello good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – a weekly window on what’s happening on the internet. I am your Cyberhost, Steven Lang.
It’s only two days to go before the local elections, so I have had a sweep through a number of sites that will be monitoring the elections.
The first stop must be the Independent Electoral Commission’s web site at www.elections.org.za – the problem is that the site has been up and down over the last week. This is particularly disappointing because in previous elections the IEC site has been quite reliable and informative. The site appears to have taken a downturn.
It has a special section on the 2006 municipal election – but this section does not have a complete list of candidates – in fact I couldn’t find a complete list anywhere – this is a problem because I am sure that the IEC does have such lists – so why not put them on the Internet?
Next stop was the Department of Provincial and Local Government – the government department is supposed to monitor the implementation of several municipal acts. The site is functional, but the news section has very little that is relevant to the current election. However, it does have links to two very practical guides to establishing ward committees. These committees are supposed to be the bedrock of local involvement in government – but of course most of us have no idea about the role of ward committees and whether we should get involved or not.
Go to the DPLG site at www.dplg.gov.za and you will find very good background information on wards.
As far as news goes, the DPLG follows the example of most government sites and simply puts up the speeches of the minister and a few press releases.
A site that offers some interesting news about the elections and anything to do with government is the Bua news service which you will find at……http://www.buanews.gov.za/
Let’s leave elections for a brief moment because this week Microsoft made an important announcement about its new operating system. For a long while it was called Longhorn, but the system that will eventually replace Windows XP is now known as Vista. According to the announcement, precisely 500,000 copies of a beta version will be sent to customers for testing with a final version set for release late this year.
The software giant says that together with Internet explorer seven – which is in advanced beta testing – Vista will provide a more secure environment for users.
If the new operating system makes it out on schedule it will have been half a decade since it released its previous OS – five years – that’s a long time in the internet world.
And with that we wrap up today’s edition of Cybersurf – remember to check for results on the sabcnews.com site or you can dial 082 152 for audio results in four different languages.
Thanks for listening and do join me again next Monday for more on the best of the web.
It’s only two days to go before the local elections, so I have had a sweep through a number of sites that will be monitoring the elections.
The first stop must be the Independent Electoral Commission’s web site at www.elections.org.za – the problem is that the site has been up and down over the last week. This is particularly disappointing because in previous elections the IEC site has been quite reliable and informative. The site appears to have taken a downturn.
It has a special section on the 2006 municipal election – but this section does not have a complete list of candidates – in fact I couldn’t find a complete list anywhere – this is a problem because I am sure that the IEC does have such lists – so why not put them on the Internet?
Next stop was the Department of Provincial and Local Government – the government department is supposed to monitor the implementation of several municipal acts. The site is functional, but the news section has very little that is relevant to the current election. However, it does have links to two very practical guides to establishing ward committees. These committees are supposed to be the bedrock of local involvement in government – but of course most of us have no idea about the role of ward committees and whether we should get involved or not.
Go to the DPLG site at www.dplg.gov.za and you will find very good background information on wards.
As far as news goes, the DPLG follows the example of most government sites and simply puts up the speeches of the minister and a few press releases.
A site that offers some interesting news about the elections and anything to do with government is the Bua news service which you will find at……http://www.buanews.gov.za/
Let’s leave elections for a brief moment because this week Microsoft made an important announcement about its new operating system. For a long while it was called Longhorn, but the system that will eventually replace Windows XP is now known as Vista. According to the announcement, precisely 500,000 copies of a beta version will be sent to customers for testing with a final version set for release late this year.
The software giant says that together with Internet explorer seven – which is in advanced beta testing – Vista will provide a more secure environment for users.
If the new operating system makes it out on schedule it will have been half a decade since it released its previous OS – five years – that’s a long time in the internet world.
And with that we wrap up today’s edition of Cybersurf – remember to check for results on the sabcnews.com site or you can dial 082 152 for audio results in four different languages.
Thanks for listening and do join me again next Monday for more on the best of the web.
