Master's students graduate

Two of the Master's students on our project have graduated. Congratulations to Nalukui Malambo and Daniel Mutale.

Both were awarded MCom degrees by research at the graduation on the 27th March 2018.

 

Nalukui Malambo

Ms Malambo's thesis was titled: "Adoption of Smart City Agendas: Exploring the cases of Cape Town and Nairobi" and was supervised by Prof Judy Backhouse. Ms Malambo has since been appointed as a lecturer in Information Systems at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Daniel Mutale

Mr Mutale's thesis was titled: "Continued use of e-government services: An expectation confirmation theory and trust theory approach" and was supervised by Jean-Marie Bancilhon.


We are all very proud of their results.

Congratulations to Masters student Malefa Topo

Congratulations to Malefa Topo who graduated on the 7th July with her M.Com. Her dissertation was titled: "Explaining the use and non-use of smart cities services in Johannesburg: resident's perspectives".

Malefa was our Masters bursary recipient and project manager for 2015.

Data collection: A tale of two African cities

Intrepid master's student Nalukui Malambo has been completing her data collection and writes here about the experience...

Nairobi (Kenya)

My data collection trip in Nairobi was conducted over a period of 14 days from the 6th to 19th of April 2016. Being the first time in Kenya and not knowing anyone or where I was going, a quick realisation that bravery was on call kicked in immediately.

The data collection was more of an adventurous process than usual, the pace started out a little slower, the first few days involved orienting myself to the city, sorting out tech (buying a sim card, registering on the local network, and finding the right power adapters took a whole day), learning how to navigate the local transportation networks and routes, finding suitable accommodation, restaurants, local supermarkets and understanding the basic words in the commonly spoken local language Swahili.  Although Kenya's official language is English, local languages are still widely spoken. Navigation around the city was made easier by the assistance of a student guide (extremely important if you are there for the first time).

I conducted a total of 11 interviews within and around Nairobi with various stakeholders identified for the research.  The first set of interviews were conducted in Machakos county, specifically in an area called Konza. Konza is situated 60 kilometres outside Nairobi, earmarked to be a new Smart city by the government of Kenya to be built from scratch, locally referred to as “Konza Technology City”. 

"Getting around was interesting..."

Getting around was interesting. My trip from Nairobi to Konza started out on a Friday at 6am using local public minibuses known as matatu. It took approximately 3 hours and 3 matatus to Konza, as there is no direct route to Konza using public transport. Access into the residential area from the main road required the use of a local motor-bike (boda-boda) to the area chief’s office. Before conducting the interviews, permission from the current Chief was requested and granted. Stakeholders interviewed at Konza included: the area Chief, a former Councillor, the secondary school principal and local residents, as well as a site visit to the construction area where the city structures are to be constructed. At the time of my site visit, the Konza project team had just broken ground a week before.  On observation, Konza is a beautiful area and strategically located on Kenya’s main highway leading from Nairobi to Mombasa. The land still remains pretty much virgin land, with an abundance of all sorts of wild animals, a swampy patch and plenty of vegetation.

Interviewing the Konza area Chief

Back in Nairobi, some of the interviews were conducted at the Konza administrative offices. The Konza project office (KotDA) was established to oversee the implementation of the Konza Technology City project tasked with managing the new Smart City project under the directorate of CEO John Tanui. Overall, data collection in Nairobi took on an unstructured approach, partly because of the nature of the research being exploratory, as well as the nature of key informants that snowballed from informant to informant. In addition, I spent most of my free time (which included weekends) collecting information on the smart city agenda from pedestrians, noting construction activities and taking photographs. I also interviewed representatives of organisations that are indirectly involved in the Smart City agenda such as the United Nations, IBM, Cisco, University of Nairobi etc.

Cape Town (South Africa)

My data collection trip to Cape Town started out on the 7th to 12^th February 2016. In contrast to Nairobi, the trip was short and structured. Before leaving for Cape Town, I had diarised eight interviews and managed to secure an extra four while in Cape Town. I conducted at least three interviews per day with the various stakeholders involved in the Smart City initiatives of Cape Town.

My way around Cape Town was simple. The city has well run and organised, structured public transport. I used Uber for most of my morning rides (to avoid arriving late at my meeting destinations) as my accommodation was situated 11 kilometres out of the way of public transportation.  It was easy to find my way around the city even though this was not my first time in Cape Town. I hopped on and off public transportation for my afternoon ride (train, taxi and buses) to the hotel and any other meeting places I had to get to.

I would like to think my data collection trip to Cape Town prepared me to some extent for my Nairobi trip from a research point of view, but the experience was very different and I was not prepared for the differences in how the cities worked. 

From this, I learnt that a certain comfort with ambiguity is necessary to conducting research in an African city, which most often comes with the upside of learning creative problem solving skills. I learnt that information is available, but not necessarily in the places you expect to find it. Most importantly, I learnt that you have to be brave, patient and flexible to collect data in African cities.

Bursary for MCom studies in 2016

The Information Systems for Smart Cities in Africa project has a bursary for a student to complete a full-time Master of Commerce by research in Information Systems during 2016.

The bursary is valued at (South African rand) R40 000 and can be used towards fees and living expenses. The research project will also cover expenses incurred in conducting the research. The successful student will be provided with shared office space and the tools needed to complete the research. In return they will be expected to take responsibility for aspects of running of the research project and to participate in seminars and departmental activities. More information about postgraduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand can be found at http://www.wits.ac.za/prospective/postgraduate.

Interested applicants should have a good honours degree (4-year bachelor’s degree) in information systems with solid research experience. Please apply online (https://www.wits.ac.za/applications/portal/index) for entry into the MCom degree and also send a complete CV and a letter motivating your selection to the project to Professor Judy Backhouse (judy.backhouse@wits.ac.za). Applications close on the 15th January 2016. You can contact Professor Backhouse by e-mail or on +27 11 717 8161 for more information.

Paper presented at CIRN Conference, Prato

Malefa Topo traveled to Italy last month to present a paper and a research poster titled "Explaining the Use and Non-Use of Smart Cities Services in Johannesburg: Residents’ Perspectives" at the 12th Prato Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) conference. The paper was based on preliminary results from her master's research that examined what makes residents use or not use Smart Cities services, to try and identify ways that will ensure that all residents have the privilege of using the provided Smart City services. Preliminary results showed that existing models that explain use and non-use need to be expanded to take account of issues of awareness, access, and trust that arise in a developing country context.

Malefa Topo with her research poster

The conference, hosted by Monash University at their centre in Prato, ran from the 9th to the 11th November 2015. Topics relating to information and knowledge sharing and how the production of information and knowledge can reflect unequal distributions of power and privileges were discussed at the conference. The conference also included a workshop on ethics, diversity, and inclusion that aimed to move towards approaches that ensure that ICT facilitates social inclusion and equal privileges.

 

Malefa Topo networking with other researchers

A copy of the paper can be downloaded here:
Topo and Backhouse (2015). Explaining the use and non-use of Smart City services in Johannesburg: Residents' perspectives. Paper presented at the 12th Prato CIRN Conference 9-11 November 2015, Prato, Italy.

Master’s students share their research plans

There are three master’s students currently part of the Information Systems for Smart Cities in Africa project. Here they share some information about their research.

Malefa Topo

I propose to conduct a study that seeks to identify the factors hindering the take-up and use of the provided e-services that address identified information needs and demands in the cities in Gauteng. The success of the smart cities initiatives depends on residents’ participation and use of the provided e-services. While there seems to be evidence of a well formulated set of e-services developed and implemented to address residents' information needs and preferences, residents still express a need for these e-services. It is unclear why residents continue to express a need for services that are already being provided. Literature suggests that there might be factors hindering the take-up and use of the current e-services (Carter & Belanger, 2005). Smart City initiatives may not work unless local governments understand the factors that make residents use or not use the e-services that are offered.

My research study will contribute to practice by providing guidance to the city management as to what e-services are used by the residents. This means that the local government will be able to use this study as a guide when attempting to understand the residents’ use of the provided e-services.  The research will further identify the factors hindering the use of e-services. This will enable the local governments to direct attention to different approaches that can be adopted to address these barriers, and ensure that the Smart City services developed to meet the residents’ needs do not become obsolete.

Nalukui Malambo

 

My practical concern with the future of African cities has directed my research interest regarding the continent and how information systems are currently being used by cities of Africa, and how cities are developing and implementing solutions that are responsive to pressing issues sparked by the escalating rate of urbanisation exerting pressure on local socio-economic services, environmental and institutional structures.

The purpose of my research is to explore how African cities are adopting smart city agendas.  The study focuses on three key objectives which are to (i) identify factors contributing to the adoption of smart city agendas in Africa (ii) determine the objectives for developing smart city agendas in Africa and to (iii) identify the approaches adopted in implementing smart cities in the African context.  The research method of this study will be qualitative in nature and will be conducted using a comparative case study design and purposively selected two cities in Africa.

The findings of this research will be unique to the socio-economic context of each city and may not be generalizable to other cities.  However, the study will contribute towards understanding and documenting smart city initiatives in Africa and further knowledge on how the smart cities concept is being adopted and implemented by African cities.

Daniel Mutale

My study aims to identify and examine the factors which influence residents’ intention to continue using e-government services within developing countries. It has a particular focus on factors relating to technology, user satisfaction, trust and engagement. E-government services facilitate digital interactions between citizens and their respective governments.

The first step toward realising e-government success and long-term viability is the initial acceptance of e-government services. Continued use of e-government services by residents will enable its long term success. The acceptance of e-government services within developing countries is still a challenge. The majority of adoption research on e-government services within developing countries focuses on initial acceptance. The current study extends the current knowledge on e-government services by conducting an individual level study which will focus on residents’ intention to continue using e-government services. The quantitative research approach will be used in this study. Data will be collected from residents of South Africa and Kenya.

The study will provide guidance to governments in understanding whether the continued use of e-government services can be explained in terms of trust, satisfaction, engagement and technology factors. This can be used during and after e-government implementations to identify focus areas for achieving the continued use of e-government services. This will ensure that governments can successfully implement e-government services and achieve long-term e-government and Smart City success.

Meet Malefa Topo, researcher and project manager

Malefa Topo is the recipient of our Master’s bursary for 2015 and she joins the project as a full-time master’s by research student and project manager.

Malefa is a Wits graduate, having completed her B.Com (honours) degree in the department of Information Systems in 2014. During her honours program, Malefa researched the use of Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR) in health facilities, and health consumers’ satisfaction with the quality of health services. In her application letter for the project bursary she said that doing research in her honours programme “helped me develop a strong passion and enthusiasm to carry out further research studies”.

Her long term career goal is to be a project manager in the information systems field.

Although a South African, Malefa grew up in Lesotho and completed a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at the National University of Lesotho. She attended school at Holy Family High School where she was Head Girl. She describes herself as an extrovert and is a natural leader.

We are delighted to have her join the project. She has already contributed to our research plans for 2015 and her excellent organising has made a positive impact on the project.