ZAWWW-2011 Conference Keynote Speaker Biographies
BIOGRAPHY
Prof. Lee R Berger
Lead author on Australopithecus sediba: A New Species of Homo-like Australopith from South Africa
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Prof. Lee R Berger is the Reader in Human Evolution and the Public Understanding of Science in the Institute for Human Evolution, School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He discovered the site of Malapa in 2008 and is the discoverer of the female skeleton MH-2. He is the Director and Principle Investigator of the Project.
Berger, an award-winning researcher, author and speaker is the recipient of the Friedel Sellschop Award for Young Researchers and the National Geographic Society’s first Prize for Research and Exploration. He has appeared in numerous television documentaries and is a regular commentator on evolution and palaeontology.
He graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1989 and received his PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1994. Lee is an Eagle Scout, and Boy Scout Honor Medal winner. He is an avid Diver and PADI Divemaster. Lee is married to Jacqueline and they have two children – Megan and Matthew.
Tel: +27 11 717 6604
Mobile: +27 71 864 0860
Email: Lee.Berger@wits.ac.za / profleeberger@yahoo.com
Web: www.wits.ac.za
BIOGRAPHY
Mike Lawrie
Mike matriculated at SACS in 1957, and then served as a computer technician with ICL. He earned his National Engineering Diploma at Cape Tech in 1961, and graduated with a B.Sc (Hons) degree in mathematics at Rhodes University in 1969. He took up the post of Computer Manager at Rhodes University in 1971, and was soon deeply involved in multi-access computer networks. He earned his Masters degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1978, in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He ran the Uninet network from 1994 until its closure in 2001.
In 1988 Mike led the informal team at Rhodes University that established the first Internet networking in South Africa. From the outset, he set up Rhodes as a gateway to other African countries. In due course, there were links to Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He has been a resource person at African networking conferences in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria.
He has attended a number of international networking conferences, and has had active involvement at several of them.
He administered the ZA domain namespace from 1994 until 2002.
BIOGRAPHY
Arthur Goldstuck
Arthur is an award-winning writer, analyst and commentator on Internet, mobile and business and consumer technologies. He heads the World Wide Worx research organisation, leading groundbreaking research into how change is affecting businesses large and small. Clients of the research include South Africa’s major financial institutions and corporations, Government departments and agencies, and international organisations.
He has represented South Africa as a judge of the digital category in the Cannes International Advertising Awards. For his work in uncovering technology trends, Arthur was a finalist in the Men’s Health Man of the Year awards in 2009 and in the Computer Society of South Africa’s IT Personality of the Year awards for 2010.
Arthur is author of 18 books, including South Africa’s best-selling IT book yet, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet". Through Penguin Books, he has also published six books on urban legends.
BIOGRAPHY
Ahmed M. El-Sobky
Mr. El-Sobky is working in the fields related to Information Technology since 1985. In 1994, he contributed to the creation and management of the first center for Internet services to follow-up the non-governmental side events of the International Conference on Population and Development "ICPD" which was held in Cairo in September 1994.
He contributed in 1997 in establishing the first NGO ISP to provide Internet services for civil society working in the field of population and development through the "National Committee for Population and Development - NCPD".
He contributed to during the period from 1997 to 2000 in the formulation and issuance of Egypt's strategy for electronic commerce through his membership in the Electronic Commerce Committee in the Egyptian Internet Society.
In 1999, he contributed in implementing the first pilot project of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East to offer a master's degree in "Business Information Technology" through e-learning in collaboration between RITSEC and the University of "Middlesex" in UK.
He participated in 2001 in the establishment and operation of the Egyptian node "Egypt GDLC" of the World Bank’s Distance Learning Network "GDLN". He also participated in implementing and managing a number of distance learning and e-learning programs and projects, at the Regional Information Technology Center "RITSEC".
In 2003, he was a member of the Arab Workforce Group preparing the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) - Geneva 2003. During his participation in the workgroup, he developed the draft document "Towards a Pan Arab Information Society - A Joint Action Plan". In addition, he participated in the drafting committee of the "High Level Arab Conference" to prepare for the first phase of the WSIS which was held in Cairo in June 2003.
In 2005, he participated in reviewing "Towards Activating the Geneva Plan of Action: A Regional Vision to Promote and Develop the Information Society in the Arab Region" document which was submitted in the second phase of the WSIS held in Tunis.
In 2005, he contributed in implementing the "National Contest of the e-Content" under the umbrella of "the Information Technology Industry Development - ITIDA" through his membership of the competition executive committee. He also participated as jury in the second round of the competition in 2007 in the field of "e-learning." In 2006, he led a national workgroup -under the umbrella of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology- to issue "Egypt ICT Golden Book" which shows the projects undertaken by Egypt in the field "Information for Development - ICT4D"
as one of Egypt's efforts in the implementation and follow-up of the WSIS two phases, Geneva and Tunis.
He participated in the development of e-learning strategy for the "Nile Basin Countries" through his membership of the Committee on e-Learning Initiative in the period from 2007 until 2009. He participated in managing a number of e-government projects implemented under the umbrella of the Ministry of State for Administrative Development during 2008, and 2009.
He participated as a jury in the "Motamizon Competition", organized by "National Institute of the Department" under the umbrella of the Ministry of State for Administrative Development the years 2008, 2009, 2010.
BIOGRAPHY
Mark Harris
Mark Harris currently serves as Vice President, MEA (Middle East and Africa) Business Development, a role he assumed in July 2010. In this role, he is responsible for IBM’s expansion into Africa and acquisitions.
Prior to this Mark was CEEMEA (Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa) Business Development & Africa Geo Expansion, a role he assumed in July 2009
Mark Harris joined IBM as an engineer in 1981. Since then, he has worked for IBM in management, consulting, sales and marketing and technical management positions in all divisions of the company.
South African blue chip companies that have benefited from his work include Standard Bank, Allied Bank, ABSA, Bankorp, First National, Eskom, Telkom SA, the Prudential and Liberty Life.
Harris’ international work includes support and development projects for IBM in the United States, France and Germany.
While he has developed specialisations in fields such as financial services and banking, telecommunications, process, manufacturing, health, education and energy (electricity and petroleum), he has also acquired a coherent and comprehensive view of the applicability of IT products and services in the market by heading up IBM SA's Cross-Industries Business Solutions Unit.
Moving from IBM SA Director of Operations to Country General Manager in December 2000, and to General Manager, IBM Sub-Saharan Africa Growth Market Region in October 2008, where he was responsible for managing 48 countries - split into 4 regions: Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa and SADC/IOI, Harris' strengths in business management, strategy development and start-up businesses as well as his exceptional knowledge and appreciation of IT industry issues make him the obvious person to head up an organisation which will make a major contribution to moving South Africa from an emerging economy to pervasive computing and e-business.
Harris has a special interest in development of the previously disadvantaged, developing and implementing at IBM SA, a programme designed to assist fledgling black IT companies to become self-sufficient.
Working at a national government level, he was invited on to the South African delegation which discussed with US representatives the privatisation of South African state assets. He also served on the ICT Charter Committee.
Harris was President of the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa through 2004, and also served as a member of the board of directors for some years. He also served as a non-executive director on the board of Business Against Crime (BAC) until November 2008.
Harris currently serves as Chairman of the board of BPeSA (Business Process enabling South Africa) previously known as SACCCOM; he is a Trustee of the Thabo Mbeki Children’s Education Fund; he also serves as a member of the Rhodes University - Department of Information Systems Advisory Board; the University of Fort Hare Department of Information Systems Advisory Board; University of Pretoria Advisory Board - Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment & Information Technology; he is the Chairman of the WITS ICT Advisory Committee and is also Patron of the JCSE.
He is a formal mentor for aspiring executives in the community.
Harris holds a BSc degree from Wits University with microbiology and chemistry as majors.
BIOGRAPHY
Prof. Derek Keats
Prof Derek W. Keats is a long-time FOSS advocate, researcher and currently an independent consultant in the area of IT Strategy and Innovation. Previously, he was Deputy Vice Chancellor, Knowledge and Information Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Earlier, he occupied the similar role at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town.
Derek started his higher education career as a marine biologist, but held strong interests in using
technology to innovate and improve teaching-and-learning, strengthen university administration, to create what he calls Education 3.0 (three point oh), and to promote digital freedom. Derek's current interests include: digital freedom topics encompassing software; knowledge resources and cultural products; distributed systems, including collaboration systems, latest technologies in the enterprise and in education; the evolution of Education 3.0.
He has developed a number of initiatives in the fields of educational and environmental informatics, Free Software, Free and Open Educational Resources (FOER, often called OER) and has published around 85 research papers in biology and in the application of technology.
He founded the African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project to unify expertise within Africa and stimulate development through fostering software engineering of Free Software. He regularly contributes to Free Software, Wikipedia and everything he produces has a Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike license where possible.
Despite being a closet geek who emerged from the closet around 8 years ago, with the help of collaborators, he still manages to publish in the area of his first love biology, and has just returned to active SCUBA diving. For more information visit http://www.dkeats.com on one of which he blogs regularly on topics ranging from IT to nature photography to SCUBA diving.
This conference is hosted by: OpenJournals Publishing.