Profiles of Speakers
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3.1. Profiles of Speakers Gillian Marcelle Gillian Marcelle has been active in the telecommunications and ICT policy arena for the past 12 years. She has worked as an academic, a regulator, in the private sector and as a consultant to NGOs, private sector companies, national governments and international organisations. Gillian is a member of the High Level Panel advising the United Nations on ICT and development issues in preparation for the 55th session of the General Assembly. Gillian trained as an economist at the University of the West Indies, and obtained an MBA from George Washington University. She is currently reading for a Dphil in Science and Technology Policy at Sussex University. Bill Melody Bill Melody is Course Director of the Master of Business Telecommunications programme, and the Telecom Regulatory Training programme at Delft University, the Netherlands. He is also Guest Professor and Chair, International Advisory Board, Centre for Teleinformation, Technical University of Denmark. Professor Melody is editor contributing authority to Telecom Reform, which is used in more than 100 countries for education and training, He is also editor of the journal Telecommunications Policy. Peter Benjamin Consultant: Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre, Graduate School of Public Development, University of the Witwatersrand. Peter has qualified for a BSc Physics (Hons), Oxford University and MSc Information Technology, De Montford University, UK. He is currently registered for a PhD in Community use of ICT with scholarship from Aalborg University, Denmark. Some publications: • Community Development and Democratisation through Information Technology, in Richard Heeks (ed.) Reinventing Government in the Information Age, Routledge, London, 1998. • Multi-purpose Community Centres in South Africa, NITF, Johannesburg, 1998. • Telecentres in South Africa, In Hmgombelo (ed.) Telecommunications for Business in Africa, IOS Press, Amsterdam, 1997. Experience in training: • Telecommunication Policy and Regulation • Management of IT for Government (for Government officials) • Management of telecentres (for Universal Service Agency) • IT for research and policy analysis • Project management and Information system design • Basic Information Literacy (for community organisations) • PC packages including Word, MS Project, E-mail, Web searching, PowerPoint, Excel • Computer programming. Summary of relevant experience: • Peter worked as Software Engineer (in C and Modula-Z0 with British Telecom on maritime telephony projects, 1989 - 1990. • Peter was involved with the Manchester Host information system, working from 190 to 1994 in a co-operative offering telematics services - electronic communications and information in a worldwide network. This service was offered primarily to community groups in Manchester, UK. • From 1994 to 1995 he was Project Manger of the capacity building unit of SANCO (Gauteng). His role involved needs analysis, planning, designing, delivery and evaluation of various training courses and workshops for SANCO. • From 1995 to 1996 he was the Co-ordinator of the Secretariat Gauteng RDP Core Group. This role involved the co-ordination of the logistics, consultation and managerial aspects of organising the Vista 2 conference on community organisation for the RDP. • From 1996 to 1998, Peter was the co-project leader of a research programme into Multipurpose Community Centres sponsored by the IDRC. • Peter was seconded from October 1997 to March 1998 to the Universal Service Agency as Senior Manager: Administration. He was involved in internal management and support for the telecentre implementation planning and relations with the Department of Communications. • He has been actively involved in the National Information Technology Forum, the South African secretariat for the Information Society and Development conference and is involved with a large range of community computing initiatives. Meddie Mayanja Meddie Mayanja ([email protected]) is the project officer of Nakaseke Multi-purpose community Telecentre in rural a community in Uganda. He was involved in the startup of the Telecentre and establishment of its applications to date. Mr. Mayanja has written and presented several papers on ICTs and rural access. He has also published articles on the potential of ICTs as catalysis in Africa development and the lessons learnt from Nakaseke Telecentre. He is a member of the ICT Policy Task Force in Uganda and also serves on the Telecentre Reference Group. He is a social scientist by profession. Mike Jensen Mike Jensen is an independent consultant with experience in over 33 countries in Africa, assisting in the establishment of information and communications systems over the last 15 years. A South African, based in Port St Johns in the East Cape, he sent his first email 20 years ago while studying rural planning and development in Canada. He subsequently returned to South Africa to work as a journalist in Johannesburg and then moved back to Canada in 1985 where he co-founded the country’s national Internet service for NGOs, called coincidentally, The Web. Mr Jensen is a trustee of the African IT Education Trust, was part of the support team on the African Connection Rally last year and was a member of the African Conference of Ministers High Level Working Group which developed the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) in 1996. Aki Stavrou Aki Stavrou has been a development researcher and policy analyst with 15-years of professional experience in the private, academic and NGO sectors, working in: development policy analysis; social, economic and marketing research; development monitoring and projection evaluation. Aki has designed, co-ordination and implementation the above in the academic, non-governmental and private sectors. Between 1987 and 1997 worked extensively on Social Policy in the Telecommunications Sector in South Africa. Over the past 15 years he has written extensively on development issues and presented papers at various international fora. He has also been involved in four Green and White paper processes in telecommunications, broadcasting and E-commerce in South Africa. He has been an advisor to National Government Ministries in South Africa (Communications) and Swaziland (Economic Affairs and Tourism). He is currently involved with the Organisation of African Unity, UNICEF and a number of other international organisations on a programme to eradicate the use of Child Soldiers in armed conflict. International experience includes: development research and policy analysis work in Southern, Central and Eastern Africa, (incl. The Indian Ocean Islands) and market research in Southern and Eastern Asia and North/Central Europe. Aki who has a Masters Degree in Development Studies, is currently Managing Partner at DRA-Development, a development research and policy analysis think tank. He is also a Research Associate at the LINK Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of Witwatersrand and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the school of Development Studies, Department of Architecture and the University of Natal. Esme Modisane Ms Esme Modisane is from Mamelodi Community Information Services (MACIS), a telecentre based in Mamelodi township, outside Pretoria. Tel: +27 12 805 1294 Fax: +27 12 805 1293 Mobile: 082 930 0267 e-mail: [email protected] Alison Gillwald Alison Gillwald is the director of Learning Information Networking and Knowledge Centre at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management , Wits University. Prior to starting the Centre which had run as the successful ICT for Development Programme for a number of years, Alison served on the inaugural Council of the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). Before being appointed to the Council, Alison established the Policy Department at the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Alison has lectured in Politics and Journalism for many years and was also a journalist and sub-editor on the Rand Daily Mail and Sowetan among other titles. Anton Harber Anton Harber, 41, was founder of the Weekly Mail newspaper, now the Mail & Guardian, which he edited for 12 years. He previously worked as a journalist on The Sunday Post, The Sowetan and the Rand Daily Mail, where he was political reporter when it was closed in 1985. He was then part of the small group of journalists who pooled their retrenchment pay to start The Weekly Mail. As editor of The Mail & Guardian, he was prosecuted numerous times under the state of Emergency and served with a personal restriction order. He was co-editor of the paper when it was closed briefly by the government in 1988 and led the legal battle against closure and numerous incidents of confiscation of the newspaper by the state. In 1988, Harber was a joint winner of the Pringle Award, the premier South African award for contributions to press freedom. In 1995, The Mail & Guardian was named Newspaper of the Year at the International Press Directory Awards, and Harber was cited in the International Editor of the Year category. In 1984, Harber was vice-president of the South African Society of Journalists. He served as an executive member of the SA Press Council in 1994/5, the Freedom of Expression Institute in 1993/4 and the Anti-Censorship Action Group in 1988-1994. He was chairman of the South African Conference of Editors for 1996 and co-chaired a task group with the Black Editors Forum which in October 1996 brought both bodies into a new