Welcome to the project
"Trust and E-payment for VOIP services on a mesh network in rural South Africa"
This study deals with the implementation and management of a mesh network in Mankosi in the Eastern Cape, in rural South Africa. It aim is to understand what trust issues are involved with the adoption of e-services and how it relates to trust in e-services in general. In rural areas of developing countries, it was found that the age of the population and the cost of information communication technology negatively impacts on its adoption.
However, mesh network service cost is almost negligible and thus may be more accessible for rural communities. At Mankosi, the community indicated they do not want the service to be completely free, they indicated that they would charge a small fee in order to generate the funds needed for the maintenance and the sustainability of the system. Participatory design , iterative software design, empirical, ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in this research effort.