Implementing a robust, cost effective, e-commerce platform for a disadvantaged community of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
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Date
2008
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University of Fort Hare
Abstract
The development of electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the most visible business use of the World Wide Web. The primary goal of an e-commerce site is to sell goods and
services online. This project deals with developing an e-commerce platform for marginalized communities of the Eastern Cape region, South Africa. An online
“shopping mall” to support the marketing of art and crafts from disadvantaged
communities is presented, with Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) as the development
environment. Free and Open Source Software has been chosen to develop the virtual
shopping mall system because the use of Open Source allows easy localization and
extensions to the system developed and long term sustainability, as the source code is
available. Also, it might start a “virtuous” circle, whereby young members of the
communities hosting art and craft makers become involved in maintenance, and then
production, of software systems.
One important design constraint from the e-commerce platform presented in this thesis is the possibility for the art and craft makers to manage their shops directly, from the initial loading of their wares to the day-to-day maintenance, such as changes of price or items.
The user requirement elicitation and initial field testing were conducted in Dwesa, an area on the wild coast, South Africa. The system currently comprising two shops is live at the time of writing this thesis at www.dwesa.com.
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Keywords
Dwesa (Transkei,South Africa), Computer network architectures -- South Africa -- Design and construction, Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape, Internet marketing, Business enterprises -- Computer networks, Electronic commerce