US search giant Google has put aside about US$4m that will be split between five different projects related to the preservation of SA history and the growth of Internet access.

The company has established a $1,25m grant, which will be given to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory housed at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to preserve thousands of documents detailing the life of the former president.

The grant will also go towards providing digital access to the archived documents, photos and audio-visual information.

“We are delighted Google has come on board to help ensure that our Mandela portal becomes a world-class source of accurate and reliable information about Madiba,” says Verne Harris, head of the Centre of Memory.

A grant of the same size has also been made to the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town for digitisation of Tutu’s archives and an interactive digital learning centre.

“We are also … announcing additional grants which will help many more people in SA and Africa access the internet and benefit from access to information,” says Google SA country manager Luke Mckend.

The SA Tertiary Education and Research Network (Tenet) will be given $750 000 for work to assist SA universities with Internet and IT services.

Google is also contributing $500 000 to the Nigeria ICT Forum and the University of Oregon will get $1,25m to work on finding ways of bringing the Internet to more of Africa. — Staff reporter, TechCentral