IST-Africa 2008 Conference & Exhibition

07 - 09 May 2008, Windhoek, Namibia

Welcome

Hosted by the Government of Namibia, through the Ministry of Education, the IST-Africa 2008 Conference & Exhibition took place 07 - 09 May 2008 in Windhoek, Namibia. Part of the IST-Africa Initiative, which is supported by the European Commission under the ICT Theme of Framework Programme 7 (FP7), IST-Africa 2008 was the third in an Annual Conference Series which brings together senior representatives from leading commercial, government & research organisations across Africa and from Europe, to bridge the Digital Divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice and discussing policy related issues.

IST-Africa 2008 was opened by Honourable Nangolo Mbumba, Minister of Education on behalf of His Excellency, Hifikepunye Pohamba, President of Republic of Namibia.

IST-Africa 2008 was a great success, attracting significant Ministerial participation and over 460 delegates from 51 countries and four continents. Many of the European presentations in this year's conference programme were funded under FP6 and FP7.

Plenary speakers included Ministers of Science and Technology/ICT from Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, Director-Generals from DG Information Society and Media and DG Research of the European Commission and DST South Africa, Directors from the African Union Commission, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and SADC Secretariat. A high-level Round Table on the Implementation of the Africa-EU Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space took place during the Opening Plenary session, which was highly successful.

The Conference Report provides an overview of the findings of the conference.

Pre-Announcement of IST-Africa 2009

Hosted by the Government of the Republic of Uganda through the Ministry of ICT, Supported by the European Commission and Technical Co-Sponsored by IEEE, IST-Africa 2009 will take place 06 - 08 May 2009. IST-Africa 2009 is the fourth in this Annual Conference Series.

The Call for Papers will be published during August, with a closing date of 09 November for online submission of full papers and workshop proposals.

IST-Africa 2008 Best Paper Award

The Best Paper Award was presented "Semantic Integration of Medicinal Data" authored by Juha Puustjärvi, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland & Leena Puustjärvi, The Pharmacy of Kaivopuisto, Finland by Honourable Joel Kaapanda, Minister of ICT, Namibia.

The Runner-up Best Paper Award was presented to "Mobile Payments: A Comparison between Philippine and Ugandan Contexts" authored by Ali Ndiwalana, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda & Oliver Popov, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden by Honourable Willem Konjore, Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport & Culture, Namibia.

IST-Africa 2008 Best Demonstration Stand Award

The Best Demonstration Stand Award was presented to WirelessInfo Rural Living Lab (Karel Charvat, WirelessInfo, Czech Republic) by Honourable Abraham Iyambo, Ministry of Fisheries & Marine Resources, Namibia.