Conference: Teaching Information Ethics in Africa (Botswana, Sept. 2010)

If you have an interest in information ethics, access to knowledge, capacity building, and the African continent, please join us for the “Teaching Information Ethics in Africa – Current Status, Opportunities, and Challenges” conference at the University of Botswana on September 6-7, 2010.

This event is the third of a series of conferences focusing on information ethics in Africa. The first, “African Information Ethics Conference: Ethical Challenges in the Information Age” convened in 2007, was the first ever African conference on information ethics. This was followed in 2009 by “The Workshop on e-Government”. More details on past conferences are available at http://www.africainfoethics.org .

The current conference – which is co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the South African government, with additional support from UNESCO, SAP Systems, and the International Center for Information Ethics – will focus on research and future development of African information ethics curriculums, including ethical issues that impact youth in Africa. The preliminary conference program is below the fold.

There is no registration fee, and lunches during the event will be provided. Space is limited to the first 60 responses. If you plan on attending this conference, please confirm your participation no later than April 15th, 2010 by emailing Anthony Hoffmann at hoffma89 [at] uwm.edu.

Teaching information ethics in Africa – current status, opportunities and challenges
Date: 6 & 7 September 2010
Place: University of Botswana

Draft program

Part one : Monday September 6 & Tuesday morning September 7

• Official opening: VIP (to be confirmed)
• Setting the scene: Prof Dr Rafael Capurro on Global Intercultural Information Ethics
• The need for Information Ethics in Africa

• Government perspective: Dr Bandile Hadebe
• Private Sector perspective: SAP representative
• NGO perspective: To be announced
• UNESCO perspective: Jaco Du Toit (to be confirmed)

• Status reports from different African countries on the teaching of Information Ethics

• South Africa: Dennis Ocholla
• Namibia: Kingo Mchombu
• Botswana: Stephen Mutula
• Uganda: Kigongo Bukenya
• Nigeria: Iyabo Mabawonku
• Kenya: Daniel Rotich or Japheth Otike
• Ghana: Anaba Alemna
• Zambia: Akakandelwa Akakandelwa
• Zimbabwe: Lawton Hikwa
• Tanzania: Akello S. James
• Central African Republic: To be announced

• Summary of status reports and discussion – introduced and facilitated by Kimberly Douglass

• Case study: Ethical Constraints to Establishing Global Electronic Classrooms (York Bradshaw)
• Development of an Information Ethics toolkit for African universities
• Can you buy an African Dream (Felix Weill and Rafael Capurro)
• The road ahead

Part Two (Tuesday afternoon)

• Children /Youth and Information Ethics in Africa

• Keynote – Jesse Mugambi
• Panel discussion – Charles Nandain; Meena Khorana; Andrew Limo; Sarah Kibugi
• Break out session