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  Editorial Vol.10(1) March 2008 

In the first article of this issue, the focus is on the need for development in Africa and the 
specific challenges of such development operations (The management of information in 
development projects – a proposed integrated model). It describes the need for an integrated 
information management model as part of the project management body of knowledge aimed 
at managing the information flow between communities and development project teams. In 
this research, Bester, Britz and Merkestein did exactly that: they are suggesting roles and 
actions for information managers to facilitate information processes integral to the model. 
These processes seek to create a developing information community that not only aligns 
itself with the development project, but also supports and sustains it. 

With the increasing use of a technology infrastructure in organizations, there is a continued 
challenge for employees in an organization to contribute their knowledge willingly and to 
make use of knowledge-sharing methods with other employees. This is the viewpoint 
expressed by Averweg in the article Developing an intranet towards knowledge-sharing: a 
practitioner-based inquiry. As the title implies, intranets are well suited for use as a strategic 
tool in knowledge sharing due to their ability to support the distribution, connectivity and 
publishing of data and information. But to what extent does an organization’s existing 
intranet facilitate knowledge sharing? This issue was explored by Averweg within the 
eThekwini Municipality, Durban, as an example of a very large non-profit organization. 
Findings reported in the article on the nature and quality of this municipality’s intranet will 
be extremely useful to other enterprises.  

Factors influencing the utilization of the public Internet terminal system in two rural 
communities is the title of the third article (authored by Coleman, Herselman and Jabobs). 
The article reports, inter alia, on factors that influenced the use of the public Internet 
terminal (PIT) system in the Taung and Ganyesa communities, Gauteng, South Africa. 
Although a PIT system was available in many post offices in these communities, the service 
was not used adequately. Reasons for the lack of use were, inter alia, lack of awareness of 
the PIT services, lack of computer skills and confidence, and fear of technology. Other 
findings were the overloading of information on the PIT, use of language (not the mother 
tongue), and the slow response time of the PIT system. The findings reported here are 
extremely valuable for further development work in this domain. 

The primary objective of the research for the last article of this issue was to investigate the 
mailing practices and filing methods of staff in a computer support or administrative 
environment, with specific reference to the possible abuse of paper. Staff from a number of 
higher education institutions in Gauteng were involved in a structured questionnaire 
approach. In Combating the corporate paper war: electronic mail abuse, Bothma and 
Hoffmann are of the opinion that the war against paper abuse is not over. Perceptions 
regarding a paperless office and assumptions that technology could assist organizations to 
combat paper abuse were unfounded, mainly because of a lack of guidance, training 
interventions and control measures. Consequently, follow-up research is presently being 
conducted whereby models will be designed and implemented concomitant with specified 
computer software features to counteract the abuse of paper and facilitate the effective use of 
information and communication technology interfaced work processes and procedures. 

Pieter van Brakel 
Scientific Editor  

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