As governments worry about how they will legislate the access to and analysis of “big data”, scientists are still trying to figure out how they’re going to cope with the deluge of information. “Big data is a very abused term that is bandied about a lot,” says Simon Ratcliffe, technical lead for scientific

A national intellectual property (IP) policy for South Africa, published this past week in draft form, outlines an approach to copyright, software and the Internet that is simultaneously sweeping and vague and, according to a legal expert, is going to encounter fierce resistance

Roads agency Sanral was disappointed by Moody’s Investors Service’s decision to downgrade its credit rating, it said on Sunday. “Though it was not unexpected, it still does pain us,” spokesman Vusi Mona said. Moody’s downgraded Sanral’s long-term issuer ratings to Baa3

We suspend our usual podcast programming this week to bring you a special edition of TalkCentral, featuring one of the pioneers of the Internet, Vint Cerf, who currently serves as Google’s chief Internet evangelist. Cerf, who was speaking to an audience at an event

In a surprise development, Telkom’s MD of wholesale and networks, Bashier Sallie, is quitting the telecommunications group. Sallie was leading the modernisation of Telkom’s network, which involves a multibillion-rand project to improve fixed-line broadband speeds for consumers

You swipe your credit card at a shop, sit down at a restaurant after checking Foursquare and browse Facebook while waiting for your friend to arrive. En route to your car afterwards, you reply to an e-mail and then turn on your GPS to find the best route home. At each

The South African Revenue Service has introduced a new automated customs system that combines 26 previous systems and is intended to speed up the processing of goods at borders, cut back on corruption and make the country a more attractive gateway to Africa

MTN South Africa has recently experienced a surge in vandalism of transformers and the siphoning of diesel at its mobile base stations. The problem is being experienced in Gauteng and Mpumalanga, with the situation “rife” in Limpopo, the mobile operator said on Friday

AdaptIT founder and CEO Sbu Shabalala looks far younger than his 40 years. Impeccably dressed and softly spoken, Shabalala, a Durbanite, looks more like a backroom accountant than the head of a JSE-listed IT company. Over the