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Digital Planet: 08/06/2010

Factual: Science & Nature

08/06/2010

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, 08/06/2010

How digital technology is transforming Cape Town, South Africa.

Gareth Mitchell travels to Cape Town to examine how digital technology is transforming South African society.  From high-tech parks to townships, projects are bridging the digital divide.

A SPECIAL PROGRAMME FROM CAPE TOWN

As the World Cup gets underway in South Africa, Gareth Mitchell travels to Cape Town to explore how digital technology is transforming people's lives.

He discovers why 21 million people, almost half of the population, use a social-networking application called MXit on their mobile phones.  He also interviews Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, about the evolution of open source software in South Africa. 

Gareth visits a township - overlooked by IT innovators – where two brothers have set up a range of internet cafes.  And he ventures to one of the dangerous ganglands where an organisation called RLabs is encouraging former drug users and gang members to embrace tools such as twitter and Facebook as a means of changing their lives.

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