Browsing by Author "Abrahams, Lucienne"

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A critical review of academic practice and integrated edtech use at a South African University: The ‘real’ level
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Hoosen, Nazira; Agherdien, Najma; Abrahams, Lucienne
This study aimed to investigate and understand how academics’ digital competence and critical digital pedagogy (CDP) knowledge shaped pedagogical practice. Freire (1970), Bhaskar (1978), Archer (1995) and Shulman (1987) were the main authors drawn upon in the literature. A qualitative research paradigm and a multiple case study methodology were employed by drawing on critical realism (CR) and social realism (SR) as a theoretical analytical framework. This entailed exploring structural, cultural and agential emergent properties to examine how each construct developed over time prior to synthesis. The analysis demonstrated that the form of agential mediation to which academics were exposed explained why some of them in the same social structures and culture enacted CDP practices, while others did not. Consequently, three crucial dimensions of CDP knowledge and enactment were made visible through this study’s data and theoretical analytical framework, namely digitally-enabling structures, digitally-informed cultures and digitally-capable agency. From a pragmatic perspective, to enact CDP practice, academics need to connect the digital reality to knowledge work and epistemic practice. In this process, academic agency and digital agency would intersect, requiring reflexive and reflective practice. However, while reflection assists in recognising the need for CDP knowledge and enactment, it is insufficient on its own: embodied action and mindful critique of the world are required. From a theoretical perspective, the concept of ‘critical’, in the literature, is related mainly to the level of social relations. This study demonstrated that there is a socio-cultural stratum and a psychological-cognitive stratum. Both these strata need to be considered as mechanisms that interact with each other to produce the outcomes of CDP practice within a digital reality. Collectively, these contributions do not translate to accepting the digital reality as a predestination. Instead, it highlighted that academics functioned in a layered HE system that required, not a singular, but a unified and pluralistic (collective) vision. Individuals and institutions are limited in their capacity to respond proactively to external change and internal complexity. Therefore, the HE system requires a rerouting from the traditional path, critically reframing learning and teaching through transformative foresight, where all parts within the system work co-terminously. One significant outcome of this study is a developmental higher education systems thinking framework focusing on the promotion of CDP practices.
Brief Overview: The State of Tech Hubs in South Africa
(2017-08-31) Kedama, Yolisa; Abrahams, Lucienne
Briefing Note: People-Centered Internet Global Forum at Stanford: Beginning a Network of Networks
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), 2015-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Hanna, Nagy
Conceptual Design of a Cybersecurity Resilience Maturity Measurement (CRMM) Framework
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2019-05-28) Mbanaso, Uche M.; Abrahams, Lucienne; Apene, Oghenevovwero Zion
African countries are at high risk with respect to cybersecurity breaches and are experiencing substantial financial losses. Amongst the top cybersecurity frameworks, many focus on guidelines with respect to detection, protection and response, but few offer formal frameworks for measuring actual cybersecurity resilience. This article presents the conceptual design for a cybersecurity resilience maturity measurement (CRMM) framework to be applied in organisations, notably for critical information infrastructure (CII), as part of cyber risk management treatment. The main thrusts of the framework are to establish, through assessment in terms of quantitative measures, which cybersecurity controls exist in an organisation, how effective and efficient these controls are with respect to cybersecurity resilience, and steps that need to be taken to improve resilience maturity. The CRMM framework we outline is conceptualised as being applicable both pre- and post-cyber attack. Drawing on the NIST cybersecurity framework (NIST CSF) and other relevant frameworks, the CRMM approach conceptualised in this article would be able to depict an organisation’s cybersecurity practices and gauge the organisation’s cybersecurity maturity at regular intervals. This CRMM approach is grounded in the idea that, by quantifying an organisation’s current practices against established baseline security controls and global best practices, the resulting status measurement can provide the appropriate basis for managing cyber risk in a consistent and proportionate fashion. The CRMM framework defines four cybersecurity resilience quadrants (CRQs), which depict four different degrees of organisational preparedness, in terms of both risk and resilience.
Editor's Introduction: Informatics and Digital Transformations
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2016-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
This thematic introduction briefly discusses the importance of pursuing research in informatics and digital transformations in Africa.
Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 13
(2013-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Ochara, Nixon
Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 14
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2015-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
Editorial Note to AJIC Issue 15
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), 2015-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
Editors' Comment
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2010-02-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Gray, Eve
Editors' Comment
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2011-02-15) Kupe, Tawana; Abrahams, Lucienne
Information and Communication Technologies for African Development: An Assessment of Progress and Challenges Ahead, edited by Joseph O. Okpaku Sr., 2003: Book Review
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2003-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
Innovation and Scaling by Tech Hubs and Their Hosted Startups: Three South African Cases
(2021-12-16) Abrahams, Lucienne
Innovation Entanglement at Three South African Tech Hubs
(2020-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne
This study explores innovation modalities at three South African tech hubs: Bandwidth Barn Khayelitsha and Workshop 17 in Cape Town, and the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Johannesburg. The study finds that tech start-ups’ ability to scale is generally enhanced by their participation in the hubs. Furthermore, it is found that scaling by start-ups, and by the tech hubs hosting them, is enhanced when they actively drive the terms of their “entanglement” with exogenous and endogenous factors and external entities—a conceptual framework first developed in an earlier study of university research linkages (Abrahams, 2016). This present study finds that innovation entanglement by the hubs and their start-ups allows them to work through the adversity and states of complexity prevalent in their innovation ecosystems.
Municipal Broadband: The 'Next Generation' and the 'Last Mile'
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2007-12-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Bakker, Brian; Bhyat, Mohamed
The article raises two related questions, the strategy question of whether South Africa should focus on universal access to the Internet in the next 10 years for all cities and towns and the operational question of how SouthAfrica can migrate to a high speed, high-bandwidth environment for all citizens and SMEs in the next10years. The diffusion of Internet access to South Africa’s cities and towns has been slow and the diffusion of broadband even slower. A number of municipalities, mainly the large metropolitan areas, and a few smaller towns, have been developing models for ‘municipal broadband’ provisioning. The article responds to these two questions by reporting the findings of a series of interviews on municipal broadband in South Africa, comparing lessons from the US and ending with a set of four perspectives on future choices and approaches for municipalities. It argues that the metropolitan Governments surveyed have already embarked along the road of ubiquitous citizen access to the Internet through selecting ‘digital cities’ approaches. The challenge is to identify workable operational and financing models for municipal broadband across varying types of municipalities – metropolitan, smaller cities and towns. This is being digested in the learning experiments currently underway.
Regulatory Imperatives for the Future of SADC’s “Digital Complexity Ecosystem”
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2017-12-23) Abrahams, Lucienne
This article uses a “digital complexity ecosystem” framing to delineate the challenges facing regulation of the digital economy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The digital complexity ecosystem approach, grounded in the field of complexity science – and in particular the study of complex adaptive systems (CASs) – is used to illuminate the sources of uncertainty, unpredictability and discontinuity currently present in the SADC digital sphere. Drawing on examples from three regulatory areas, namely mobile financial services, Internet of Things (IoT) network and services markets, and e-health services, the article argues that SADC regulatory bodies will themselves need to adopt highly adaptive, nonlinear approaches if they are to successfully regulate activities in the digital ecosystem moving forward. Based on the findings, recommendations are made on SADC regional regulatory agendas and, at national levels, matters of concurrent jurisdiction.
Research Productivity-Visibility-Accessibility and Scholarly Communication in Southern African Universities
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2010-02-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Burke, Mark; Mouton, Johann
The project for the revitalisation of Southern Africa’s higher education sector is dependent on, among other things, the capacity of the region’s universities to produce research, to communicate that research to a broad public audience and to use the research output in the process of educating future generations of graduates. Given this context, research output in the great majority of Southern African universities is barely visible. While the introduction of new digital media may offer greater accessibility and expanded opportunities for the visibility of scholarly communication, this may be insufficient to meet the needs of the many scholars and other actors who seek to build on existing bodies of knowledge, whether to advance society or in order to create knowledge for its own sake. This article reports the findings of two 2008 studies – The state of public science in the SADC region and Opening access to knowledge in Southern African universities. Working within a frame which understands knowledge produced in universities as a public good, this article examines the issues at play in terms of the productivity-visibilityaccessibility of scholarly communications in regional higher education. The conclusion discusses a possible approach to improve such productivity-visibility-accessibility, through the adoption of a strategic vision of open access to knowledge and through consideration of two breakthroughs pertinent to achieving a vision of revitalised higher education in the region.
Reviews of Mastering Digital Transformation (Hanna, 2016) and Digital Kenya (Ndemo & Weiss, 2016)
(LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2016-11-15) Abrahams, Lucienne; Goga, Kevin
Socio-technical factors impacting youth perspectives on digital transformation in resource-constrained environments: A study of Diepsloot youth
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Matanda, Lorraine; Ochara, Nixon Muganda; Abrahams, Lucienne
There has been a proliferation of tech hubs in Africa, with more than 80 in South Africa, forming a foundation for more inclusive digital innovation. However, we do not sufficiently understand the relationships between tech hubs, digital inclusiveness and poverty. This study explores the sociotechnical factors influencing access and use of the Internet to achieve social inclusion in resource-constrained environments. The literature reviewed focused on social influences on digital adoption, tech hub infrastructure, digital skills, and trends in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) policies. The study’s findings are categorised into themes using the sociotechnical systems (STS) theoretical framework. Each of the seven STS theoretical components (goals, culture, people, processes, infrastructure, technology and environment) were used as a lens to explore the social and technical factors that influence the perspectives of the youth on digital transformation. These themes were then mapped to the four dimensions of the research questions (social influence of digital adoption, institutional infrastructure for access, digital skills, and ICT policies for digital enablement) to highlight key findings and interpretations of the study. Under social influences, the youth demonstrated resilience driven by a need to improve their standard of living in a challenging environment. The institutional infrastructure, designed to support youth to access digital technologies, is constrained by a lack of resources. Tech hubs are using creative ways with the limited resources to cater to all their patrons, although there is room for improvement. In terms of digital skills, four youth profiles are highlighted to demonstrate a solid existence of digital skills and pursuit of tangible outcomes among the youth. In addition, the youth want to pursue entrepreneurship, meaning that tech hubs can potentially become mass training centres for digital entrepreneurship. Finally, a review of ICT policies revealed a chasm between the ICT policy objectives and activities on the ground, pointing to a lack of implementation and monitoring of ICT policies. Acting as a platform for digital foundations, tech hubs in marginalised environments must engage policymakers and reinforce their role in digital empowerment to influence policy development. This research is located in the qualitative interpretivist paradigm. A total of 21 in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 youth, with an equal representation of male and female, and three tech hub managers. Based on the researcher's analysis, access to the Internet offers the resilient youth a view into "a new world" that make them feel they can achieve anything they want. The high literacy level among the youth puts them in good stead for digital upskilling, and they are motivated to participate in the digital economy. However, ICT policy objectives concerning universal access look good on paper, but in reality, poor people are still offline. They are still excluded.
The effect of digital transformation on the business models of solutions providers: A perspective on South African firms
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Moodley, Andrew Jaycee; Abrahams, Lucienne
In this interdisciplinary study, we examine the global shift of commercial models from ownership to as-a-service in technology, which forms the foundation for the solutions provider product and service capabilities. The democratisation of digital technology access paves the way for new players and diverse competitors in their landscape. Investigating deeper, we uncover four dimensions—servitisation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and open innovation—that exert significant influence on the business models of South African the solutions provider. The research problem gains meaning through the lens of the dynamic capabilities framework. Rooted in social constructivism, the researcher explores interactions and connections that foster the creation of knowledge and meaning. To understand the solutions provider category comprehensively, the researcher conducted one-on-one interviews with various industry experts, including vendors, systems integrators, telecommunications operators, resellers, independent software vendors, and enterprise customers. This process unveils that a pivotal element in achieving successful digital transformation lies in adopting an alternative business model that facilitates continuous adaptability. This study showcases how organisational ambidexterity lenses equip these companies with the ability to create, deliver, and capture value. Internally, servitisation and entrepreneurship empower the solutions provider to redefine their intellectual property and leadership strategies. Externally, sustainability and open innovation emerge as levers they employ to ground responsible transformation and elevate value propositions. The research emphasises that these providers must focus on developing intellectual property as their core offering. This involves leadership cultivating the adaptive skills necessary to facilitate effective collaboration. Furthermore, giving precedence to digital sustainability emerges as an enabler in shaping the persona of the solutions provider as an innovative company. Ultimately, this study establishes the fundamental role of the solutions provider as a catalyst for enterprise digital transformation, enriching our theoretical understanding of this category.