FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMY AND THE MOBILE WEB IN SOUTH AFRICA

Eamonn Walls ~ ew1g12@soton.ac.uk PhD Candidate, Web Science Doctoral Training Centre School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton

The Mobility 2012 research study, conducted by World Wide Worx with the backing of First National Bank, shows that the proportion of the average users cellphone spend on data has increased by half in the past 18 months from 8% of budget at the end of 2010 to 12% in mid-2012. The biggest increases in specific uses of data on the phone were seen in instant messaging services. Browsing on the phone also increased substantially, from 33% to 41% of users, app downloads rose from 13% of users to 24%, while Facebook use rose by more than half, from 22% to 38%. Source: World Wide Worx, Technology Market Research Organisation, South Africa. http://www.worldwideworx.com/mobile-data/

Candidate Research Questions

1) Digital Divide Q. The social and political consequences of a possible future shift in developing countries from SMS banking technologies to smartphones and online banking, with a particular focus on unbanked rural areas and the future of invisible or proxy currencies such as airtime. 2) Resource Curse Q. The potential for web technologies, particularly mobile technologies, to address or contribute to the prevention of the Resource Curse from a political, social and technical perspective. Pertinent issues include transparency, accountability, corruption, open data, and accessibility. ! 3) R Labs Q. The prospects for future development of R-labs-type enterprises outside of South Africa, with consideration of the social, political and technical developments in the digital economy in Africa. The vision of R Labs is to impact, empower and reconstruct communities through innovation.

Some Statistics on South Africa

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INDICATORS IN SOUTH AFRICA GDP (US$) 2011 Population (estimated) 2011 Population Growth Rate (%) 2010-2015 ! Education: Government expenditure (% of GDP) 2013 ! Unemployment (% of labour force) 2011 Telephone subscribers (per 100 inhabitants) 2011 Internet users (per 100 inhabitants) 2011 ! Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) 2010-2012 ! 408, 237, 000 50, 460, 000 0.5 ! 6.0 ! 24.7 135.0 21.0 2010: 100.48 2011: 126.83 2012: 134.8 !

Acknowledgements
My very warm thanks to the Web Science DTC and especially to my superb team of supervisors Prof Les Carr, Dr Gary Wills & Dr Jeff Vass !

References
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division, World Statistics PocketBook, NY 2013, p183 Series V, No. 37. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/pocketbook/ World_Statistics_Pocketbook_2013_edition.pdf The World Bank, South Africa Data / World Development Indicators. http://data.worldbank.org/country/south-africa Parker, M. B., Wills, J., & Wills, G. B. (2010). Reconstructed Living Lab: supporting drug users and families through co-operative counselling using mobile phone technology.!South African Family Practice,!52(3). Parker, Marlon, Wills, Julia and Wills, Gary (2013) RLabs: A South African Perspective on a Community-driven Approach to Community Information. In Special Issue: CI and the Co-Creation of Innovation Journal of Community Informatics, 9, (3)

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