African Centre of Excellence for Information Ethics

Introduction

The African Centre of Ethics for Information Ethics (ACEIE) coordinates research, teaching, projects, conracts and other activities relating to Information Ethics in the Department of Information Science.

The ACEIE is currently not funded, and has no fulltime or part-time staff. Small-scale activities are therefore undertaken by volunteers, but larger funded projects can be considered. Please contact the Convenor in this regard.

One of the small projects ACEIE is involved in is to present Digital Wellness Toolkit workshops. See: ACEIE and JCP (VIP) community-based project.

The open access publications of the ACEIE and ANIE during the period 2007 – 2019 are still available here, and from the ACEIE archive.

Staff members involved

The Centre is currently managed by a Steering Committee, consisting of staff members from the Department:

Ms N Parbhoo-Ebrahim, Convenor

Prof I Fourie, HoD and Member of the Steering Committee

Prof TJD Bothma, Member of the Steering Committee and Departmental liaison person with the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE)

Dr Liezl Ball, Member of the Steering Committee

Prof AL Dick, Member of the Steering Committee

Prof M Holmner, Member of the Steering Committee

Dr Brenda van Wyk, Member of the Steering Commitee

Background

The ACEIE grew out of the activities of a number of dedicated scholars working in the field of Information Ethics, first formalized as the African Network for Information Ethics (ANIE) (independent from the Department). The website of the ANIE is archived on this website, available here, and from the link in the menu bar above.

The ACEIE was formally established in 2012, and was funded from 2012 to 2019 by various government departments, NGOs and private companies. The activities of the ACEIE during this period are archived here, and also available from the link in the menu bar above.

History

The ACEIE was established according to a UP Senate decision on 17 May 2012. Since 2012 the ACEIE coordinated various activities, research projects and communication for ANIE. The ACEIE activities were all based on a formal Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the South African Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services and the University of Pretoria. The ACEIE is based at the Department of Information Science within the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology at the University of Pretoria and is managed according to the policies and procedures of the University of Pretoria.

The ACEIE grew out of the African Network for Information Ethics (ANIE), and for a few years the two entities existed side-by-side. It eventually became evident that it was not feasible to keep two entities with the same purpose and work, and it was decided to terminate the ANIE and focus only on the ACEIE. ANIE was established in 2007 due to the effort and dedication of a group of scholars, government officials and visionaries across Africa. Together with the support of the international Information Ethics community, ANIE has flourished to over 600 participants across 25 countries globally. In February 2017 the 5th international ANIE conference celebrated the ANIEversary - marking 10 years of active Information Ethics projects in Africa.

THE ACEIE was funded for a number of years by various departments of the South African government, and many projects were completed very successfully. However, due to funding constraints, this support unfortunately came to an end, and no new funding could be secured. The staff associated with the ACEIE therefore could not be reappointed. Project reports for this period are archived on this website under the heading Annual Reports,

ACEIE's activities will continue at an adjusted scale and annual reports continue to be issued.