The RIA Podcast RIA Podcast

This podcast focuses on the concept of “smart cities” – a label which has been critiqued by researchers due to its intrinsic connection to technology, the presence of which does not necessarily guarantee equitable uptake (or uptake at all), especially in the unequal societies of the Global South.

The podcast is an output of the second phase of RIA’s Digital new deal for Africa – Governance in the Age of Digitalisation and Datafication Project  , funded by the International Development Research Centre. The main project objective is to understand the nature and scale of digitalisation and datafication in Africa and the associated impacts. By developing the evidence base, RIA provides technical assistance and support to state and regional institutions, civil society and the private sector who are engaging in public interest international governance. Phase 2 of the project aims to develop governance frameworks to harness the benefits associated with global public good dimensions while mitigating accompanying risks.

The podcast was produced by Heeten Bhagat, with the assistance of Nawal Omar, RIA’s Information Systems and Data Manager.

On this 8th episode of the RIA podcast we are discussing COVID-19 contact tracing with Dr. David Johnson from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Cape Town. David has recently conducted research on contact tracing which he will be discussing, as well as South Africa’s new contact tracing app, COVID Alert.

In it we talk about contact tracing at both technological and non-technological levels. First we will discuss what contact tracing is, then we will discuss technological approaches to contact tracing. We will then discuss both the technological limits of, and access barriers to contact tracing. We will also discuss South Africa’s previous mobile-location based contact tracing approach, and the WhatsApp and USSD based COVID information app.

Finally we discuss the Google Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) protocol, as well as the new GAEN-based South African App, COVID Alert.

David is a telecommunication consultant and adjunct senior lecturer in the Computer Science Department at the University of Cape Town specialising in community network access models and RIA Senior Associate. He received his PhD in Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2013 and was recently a visiting IT policy fellow at the Centre for Information and Technology Policy at Princeton.

David has published more than 60 articles in the areas of computer networks, wireless connectivity and ICT for Development and has 15 years experience developing networking solutions for the African context using open source technology.He has led a number of connectivity projects in the area of small cell, mesh technology and edge-hosted services in Zambia and South Africa.

He has also led policy work on broadband expansion and spectrum management for the South African government, including contributing to South Africa’s finalised TV white space regulation and modelling future high demand spectrum for the new National Wireless Open Access Network. His current research interest is in Cellular White Space technology, blockchain, mesh networks and community network micro-clouds.

This podcast is hosted and produced by RIA Researcher, Alex Comninos.

Download the COVID Alert South Africa App on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

The music for this podcast is “Nobody Think Nomo” by Chimurenga Renaissance (feat. Mall Saint).

We apologise for the poor sound quality at the beginning of this podcast. It does improve a few minutes in.

Is South Africa’s digital economy continuing with existing patterns of extraction and exploitation? Or are there alternative models for economic development that foster economic and social inclusion?

These are the questions that RIA’s Fazila Farouk put to Prof. Barry Dwolatzky, founder of Tshimologong, a start-up incubator established as Africa’s answer to Silicon Valley, which is embracing innovation and entrepreneurship to deal with SA’s triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment; and Fairuz Mullagee, a social entrepreneur leading a team at the University of the Western Cape in the establishment of a platform co-operative.

Next week South Africa is to phase from Level 4 to Level 3 of the national lockdown. In the fourth episode of the RIA Podcast we have an in depth discussion about contact tracing to combat the spread of COVID-19. We look at the technical basis for contact tracing, International examples of contact tracing, the new South African regulations on contact tracing, as well as the human rights aspects of contact tracing.

In many of the mature economies, the data protection aspects of COVID-19 contact tracing are managed by their Information Regulators. In South Africa, a designated COVID-19 judge, Justice Kate O’Regan, has been somewhat innovatively appointed to oversee this process by the Department of Health to ensure the protection of individual rights in the mass surveillance of the population. There’s been some confusion about whether this overrides earlier mobile data collection clauses from the Department of Communications and Digital Communications (DCDT), some which have been subsequently scrapped.

We discuss this, together with how these relate to the Information Regulator’s contact tracing guidelines, why she was not included in the management of contact tracing, how these regulations differ from other existing interception and surveillance legislation, and importantly, to the Bill of Rights.

This podcast episode is produced by Alex Comninos and hosted by Dr Alison Gillwald, Executive Director at Research ICT Africa (RIA) and Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town. It features as guests from the RIA team, Alex Comninos, Gabriella Razzano, Andrew Rens and Anri van der Spuy.

The music for this podcast is "Nobody Think Nomo" by Chimurenga Renaissance (feat. Mall Saint).

In the third episode of The RIA Podcast, we talk about #COVID-19, South Africa under lockdown, working from home in South Africa, digital inequality, alternative access strategies, lost opportunities in the communications landscape, why internet access is important during lockdown, advanced technologies and COVID-19, privacy and COVD-19, digital inequality and the 4IR.

For more on COVID-19, digital economy, and digital inequality, see the article "How COVID-19 exposes the defects in South Africa’s digital economy" by RIA Principal Researcher and Economist, Shamira Ahmed.

This podcast is produced and hosted by Alex Comninos and features Dr Alison Gillwald, Executive Director at Research ICT Africa and Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town.

The music for this podcast is "Nobody Think Nomo" by Chimurenga Renaissance (feat. Mall Saint).

Research ICT Africa's Alex Comninos talks to Professor Joseph Cannataci, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy.

We talk about the challenges posed to privacy by AI, privacy as informational self-determination, privacy as an enabling right, privacy and security (can they be balanced or is it a false dichotomy?), South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, and surveillance legislation in South Africa. We even talk about blockchain too!

Convention 108 (Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data)
"Convention 108+"
Necessary and Proportionate

The music for this podcast is "Nobody Think Nomo" by Chimurenga Renaissance (feat. Mall Saint).