Alan Winde impresses at Net Prophet 2013

The speakers at this year's conference were in fine form, and MEC Alan Winde was no exception. Since taking up his position in 2009, he's initiated exciting new projects for the province, one of which is the #GovHackSA Hackathon - an opportunity for developers and creatives to collaborate on ideas that could potentially solve real community problems. One of the four challenges laid down at last year's inaugural hackathon was "Fix My Street" - developers were asked to create a local version of the UK's FixMyStreet, where citizens could report issues such as potholes and broken lights and notify the corresponding counsellor with the ultimate goal of streamlining service delivery.

Report a pothole app

While the teams involved in this challenge didn't walk away from the hackathon with the winning solution, the idea has been developed further outside the event. Winde described an app that allows citizens to tag the exact location of potholes using GPS technology and report it to the department. Government then prioritises repairs depending on the roads' zoning - high-use roads are fixed first, and once the repair has been completed, a notification is sent directly to the person who reported it.

Winde also mentioned another app possibly on the cards that could alleviate some of the administration issues NGO child-care facilities face in low-income communities. The app would use face-recognition technology, currently used at casinos, to send daily interval reports to government of the children under daycare at the establishment, eliminating the perpetual paperwork necessary to attain funding support.

Bandwidth Barn Africa

Another exciting development the minister described involved the vice president of Mauritius, Monique Ohsan Bellepeau, visiting the Bandwidth Barn in Woodstock. Bellepeau was so impressed with the incubator that she asked if a similar operation could be set up in Mauritius. According to Winde, a proposal has already been drawn up and sent to the VP. This inspired the minister to look at helping other African countries set up incubators, opening the door to Bandwidth Barn Africa.

"This is going to create a huge opportunity for you to have access to Africa," said Winde, addressing the 1500 Net Prophet attendees. "We can actually claim that space, right here in Africa," he concluded.

For more information on these government-related solutions, contact Alan Winde at az.vog.epacnretsew@edniw.nala or tweet him @alanwinde. Go to www.netprophet.org.za for details of the annual conference. Donations to the Net Prophet Bursary fund can be made at donate.netprophet.org.za.