The Department of Informatics secured a partnership in MOSAIC2B – an EU FP7 Fire Project – in 2014. The objective of FIRE is to create a multidisciplinary research environment for investigating and experimentally validating highly innovative and revolutionary ideas for new networking and service paradigms.

The goal of MOSAIC2B is to develop and test a new framework that uses cloud-based applications, innovative low-cost internet delivery mechanisms and affordable mobile technologies to unlock new mobile business opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs in rural villages.

The Department recently hosted a showcase on the project at the University of Pretoria. Dr Phil Mjwara, Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), highlighted the value of using technology in South Africa to address the unique needs of our country. Prof Cheryl de la Rey, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, commented on the value of partnerships such as the MOSAIC2B project among industry, research institutions and universities.

In essence, the MOSAIC 2B framework will provide technologies, such as delay-tolerant networks and opportunistic communications, to implement:

• low-cost mechanisms to deliver multimedia content via mobile devices
• mechanisms to identify and protect the copyright of the multimedia content delivered
• mobile business services to suit the needs of micro-entrepreneurs (e g Edutainment services to rural communities)
• multicultural mobile interfaces (to visualise delivered content and to identify cultural differences and specific requirements)
• user-friendly visualisation and analysis tools to integrate, correlate, fuse, analyse and process real-time data (from multiple sources and data-sets).