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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif">Dear Colleagues<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif">The
<a href="http://africanopenscience.org.za/">African Open Science Platform</a> had the opportunity to participate in the recent
<a href="http://www.ist-africa.org/conference2018/">IST-Africa2018</a> conference, and we would like to share some brief feedback.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif">The message shared during the
<a href="http://www.ist-africa.org/home/">IST-Africa2018 conference</a> in Botswana from 9-11 May 2018 was that researchers and government are committed to turn research into knowledge products, implementing policies to strengthen human resource development,
towards sustainability and more people becoming entrepreneurs and creating jobs. A condition for this to be successful is however stable Internet connectivity and sufficient bandwidth. Unfortunately too often Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on the African
continent have monopolies, which makes Internet connectivity almost unaffordable.
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">The pan-European GÉANT network</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif"> calculated that citizens from Mali would
be charged more than 1 mill. Euro per month, should they want to have Internet access at 300Mbps, something for which a citizen from the Netherlands would pay only 67 Euro per month. Through the
<a href="https://www.africaconnect2.net/Pages/Home.aspx">AfricaConnect 2</a> project,
<span style="color:black">G</span></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">É</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black">ANT is making great progress
in bringing affordable Internet to African countries. </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">By collaborating with AfricaConnect2, the pan-European GÉANT network strengthens Europe's links
with the African continent and provides African research and education communities
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">with a gateway for global
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">collaborations – also a requirement for successful
research data sharing.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Themes covered during the conference included mHealth, mHealth4Africa, technology-enhanced learning, cyber security, next generation computing,
research cyber-infrastructure and NRENs, IoT, geospatial sciences and land administration, open data and open science, e-government, mAgriculture, ICT4D and content technologies and many more. The conference had high-level support from the Botswana government,
with the welcome done by the Honourable Minister Onkokame Kitso Mokaola (Ministry of Transport and Communications, Botswana) and the opening address by His Excellency President Mokgweetsi Masisi, which referred to ICT as a democratic variable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">The
<a href="http://africanopenscience.org.za/">African Open Science Platform</a> project
<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AfricanOpenSciencePl/the-african-open-science-platform-policy-infrastructure-skills-incentivesina-smith">
highlighted the importance of research data being shared</a>, with Dr Simon Hodson (Executive Director, CODATA) sharing more on FAIR data principles, the upcoming
<a href="http://internationaldataweek.org/">International Data Week 2018</a>, and Phase 2 of the African Open Science Platform project.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">The
<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hUioJlhk_tTwO5NNteSP6lvDYcMy2D0p">series of sessions on ICT initiatives, research capacities and priorities</a> provided great insight into the status of 10 of the 18 African IST member countries, and will help to
inform the African Open Science Platform further. The AOSP project is further looking forward towards continuing high-level meetings with African governments where interest was indicated by representatives of selected African countries. We are also looking
forward welcoming many new individuals becoming part of the African Open Science network.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Kind regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">On behalf of the AOSP Team<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Ina Smith</span></b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Project Manager:
<a href="http://africanopenscience.org.za/"><span style="color:#0563C1">African Open Science Platform</span></a>
<br>
Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)<br>
<a href="https://blog.doaj.org/2016/09/07/the-doaj-ambassadors-biographies/"><span style="color:#0563C1">DOAJ Ambassador, Southern Africa Region</span></a><br>
<a href="https://loy2016blog.wordpress.com/"><span style="color:#0563C1">LIASA Librarian of the Year 2016</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://orcid.org/"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#338CAF;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="16" height="16" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.gif@01D3EB1A.36892130" alt="http://orcid.org/sites/default/files/images/orcid_16x16(1).gif"></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black">
<a href="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9710-3668"><span style="color:#0563C1">http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9710-3668
</span></a></span><u><span style="color:#0563C1"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Switchboard: +27 12 349 6600
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Tel: +27 12 349 6641
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Fax: +27 (0) 86 576 9512<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Email:
</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="mailto:ina@assaf.org.za"><span style="color:#0563C1;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">ina@assaf.org.za</span></a></span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#1F497D"><img border="0" width="184" height="75" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D3EB1A.36892130" alt="assafemail"></span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">1st Floor Block A, The Woods, 41 De Havilland Crescent, Persequor Park
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Meiring Naudé Road, Lynnwood 0020, Pretoria, South Africa.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">PO Box 72135, Lynnwood Ridge 0040, Pretoria, South Africa.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:10.5pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">Website:
</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Century Gothic",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="http://www.assaf.org.za/"><span style="color:#0563C1;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZA">www.assaf.org.za</span></a></span><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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