First ‘Digital Doorway’ launched in Zandspruit

15 February 2010

A young resident of Zandspruit enjoys exploring the Digital Doorway installation.

The first 'Digital Doorway' computer kiosk installation in the Zandspruit informal settlement was officially launched at a function on Friday, 12 February 2010.

Zandspruit is a community near Honeydew of approximately 40,000 people who have minimal access to services and an estimated unemployment rate of close to 70%. Learning computer skills is therefore often a luxury, but is also considered a necessity for entering the mainstream job market.

The Digital Doorway installation is the result of a partnership between Monash University, Emthonjeni Community Centre in Zandspruit, and Meraka (the ICT division of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) – designers of the Digital Doorway. Meraka is a Sotho term meaning 'common grazing land', representing the open and communal design of the Digital Doorway.

The Digital Doorway consists of three computer terminals housed in a rugged, waterproof casing which has been installed under a basic shelter in an open piece of land at Emthonjeni Community Centre.

As an 'open-access' computer kiosk, the Digital Doorway lowers the social and economic barriers to IT use for residents of Zandspruit. It is seen as more than a way to build IT skills; it is a place for the community to meet, share and learn.

Use of the computers is free and largely unsupervised, designed as a collaborative learning and information access platform. In the afternoons after school, crowds of learners are attracted to the various educational games, while in the mornings and evenings students and adults can access a local copy of Wikipedia and more specific
content on healthcare, agriculture and crafts.

Proposed additions to the current set of applications include a simulation to teach community members how to withdraw money safely from ATMs, and a news service with hyperlinks to additional Wikipedia information.

Orapeleng Letsholo from the Emthonjeni Community Centre said at the launch: "The Digital Doorway complements our existing computer training programmes by assisting children to develop basic computer skills at a very early age."

Professor Ron Weber, Dean of the Faculty of IT at Monash University in Melbourne, said he was delighted with the three-way partnership that had been established between the Zandspruit community, the Meraka Institute and Monash. 

“I believe the Digital Doorway technology developed by Meraka also has substantial potential in helping overcome the disadvantages suffered by remote Indigenous communities in Australia because of poor access to information technology.  

“The experiences of the Zandspruit community in using the Digital Doorway could assist both Meraka and Monash to understand how the technology could be used to assist communities better in the future.”