Enabling South Africa: development of an intelligent gateway
| Pages | 279-282 |
| Published date | 01 April 1993 |
| Date | 01 April 1993 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045246 |
| Author | Ed Evans |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
Enabling South Africa:
development of
an
intelligent gateway
Ed Evans
CSIR,
Pretoria,
South Africa
Abstract: The new South Africa needs information and
the CSIR has enabled end-users to search international and
local databases using an intelligent gateway to provide
easy, affordable access to all
the
well-known hosts. All
terminals, Minitels and PCs are catered for
on
all host
protocols. The resulting gateway is operated
on
a sound
business footing for
the
benefit of end-users and expert
searchers in Southern Africa. The development of the system
and
the
business are described
in
the
paper.
1.
Introduction
South Africa has been isolated for decades, and as the world
began to accept us back the need for information became
more and more important. The CSIR in South Africa
has
been
involved in
the
information business for many years and
is
the
prime supplier of information to the country.
Two years ago my colleagues and I started investigating
how to provide an electronic information plaza or supermar-
ket for all South Africans to use. We have developed and im-
plemented the Worldnet Gateway service which is a usable,
affordable, efficient and comprehensive one-stop shop for
both South African and international information.
2.
Feasibility study
We initially embarked on a feasibility study and survey of
available facilities and found that the industry in general was
not addressing the problems we faced. South Africa is geo-
graphically remote, making communications both costly and
difficult. The currency locally appears to have more value
than other countries place on it, making international host
services appear very expensive. The few hosts that we used
were too complex for end-users and we were amazed by the
proliferation of 'languages' in use elsewhere for searching
databases.
The South African market had long been starved
of
information and was not aware of the need for information, or
in fact that it was available. Our investigations uncovered a
budding local Value Added Network Service (VANS) indus-
try and good international links via new satellite links. We
also discovered that there were a large number of interna-
tional database
hosts
that
were
ready
to
talk
to us
but were still
reluctant to market directly in our
country.
More importantly,
a market survey indicated that South African businesses and
individuals would be receptive to our idea of an electronic
information plaza.
3.
Key issues in the industry
From the 1990 International Online Information meeting in
London we established the needs for cross database search-
ing, single access and a simple common command language
in the industry in general. In addition, a number of quality
issues seemed to be repeatedly raised at the conference and
we took serious note of the following:
• quality of communication links;
• verification of data sources;
• translation of user feedback into action;
• timely performance support;
• functional accuracy in searching;
• focus on user needs;
• lack of standards in the industry as a major problem in
searching;
• predictable resource availability;
• currency of data and information;
• quality available must exceed the standard for quality;
• free 'fixit' messages;
• free time to evaluate databases;
• extensive alpha and beta testing;
• get the end-user
to
use with easy access, selection and
searching;
• cater for the ordinary businessman by keeping it simple;
• cut out the jargon;
• online help and training;
• delivery by electronic mail and facsimile;
• simplified pricing and charging.
This list of industry opinion influenced our criteria and we
began to realise that our gateway idea would meet most, if not
all,
of these needs.
In short, we were on our way!
4.
Software?
The next step involved a worldwide search for software and
systems that may do some of what we wanted. This was suc-
cessful in that
we
found
the
beginnings of
a
gateway system at
Infotap, an excellent communications company in CYCNOS
SA and an expert system in NEXPERT. The RISC 6000 ap-
peared to provide some of
the
features we needed. We simul-
The Electronic Library, Vol.
11,
No. 4/5, August/October 1993 279
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