Cybersurf

Hello good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – your weekly window on the web. I am Steven Lang.

It is not often that a web site actually begins to churn out money – in fact if you ever decide to invest your life-savings in a web site – be careful, be very careful – the Googles and e-Bays of this world are very few and very far between.

There are however success stories, and they are encouraging, so in today’s Cybersurf, I want to talk about some of the successes.

Let us start with site that was originally conceived as a platform for venting.

In the “about” section of MYADSL.co.za it says, that the site - also known as MyBroadband - was formed in 2003 to serve the South African broadband and IT community. It provides visitors with up-to-date coverage of local and International IT and Internet related news, and gives them a place to give their views and share information on these issues – end of quote.

You could say that its main objective is to discuss broadband in South Africa, but you could also say that it is a forum where geeks complain about how Telkom is strangling development in this country.

MYADSL.co.zawas set up in 2003 by Rudolph Muller – a university lecturer who is passionate about getting affordable broadband access to all South Africans. He has managed the site so successfully that it currently generates more online traffic than most well-financed news web sites in South Africa.

Myadsl is supported by a number of high profile sponsors that appear to be devoting a considerable amount of money and time to the web site.

Last week, a conference organized by MyADSL, attracted a broadband who-is-who to participate in discussions about the future of broadband in South Africa. Top speakers from Sentech, iBurst, MTN, Neotel, and Vodacom compared WiFi, to WiMax, extolled the virtues of HSDPA over Three G and shared at least some of their strategic plans for the future.

The only missing player was Telkom.

Sentech was often the target of harsh criticism at the MYADSL conference so that Winston Smith – the company spokesman on broadband – only half jokingly put on a construction worker’s hard hat to protect himself.

But at another venue – Sentech fared much better – At the African ICT Achievers Awards held in Sandton at the weekend Sentech’s CEO Sebiletso Mokane-Matabane was named Top ICT Business Woman in Africa 2006.

Other category winners included three candidates who had previously featured on Cybersurf – Translate.org.za winner of the Top Civil Society to Bridge the Digital Divide in Africa category – was on this program about three years ago.

Glory Mushinge - from the ICT Network for Development in Zambia won for her Excellence in ICT Journalism in Africa. Glory was on AM Live during the highway Africa conference in September.

And Nomfundo Nguse – managing director of Shesha Technologies – was named Top ICT Youth Innovator in Africa. And she was on Cybersurf just a few weeks ago.

So congratulation to the winners, thanks for listening to Cybersurf and do join me again next week, same time same place for more on the best of the web.

// posted by Steven Lang @ 11:50 pm