November 23, 2006
By JoNews Reporter
THE Fifa Soccer World Cup is one of the world's largest information technology projects, with more than three million fans attending games and billions more watching the matches on television sets across the world. And Joburg is gearing up for the challenge.
Preparing for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, the City is hosting a summit on the information technology (IT) aspects of the soccer spectacular, Connect IT: Joburg 2010 - Making IT Happen.
Co-hosted by ITWeb, the technology news site, the information and communications technology (ICT) summit is taking place today and tomorrow at the Sandton Convention Centre.
The conference takes place on 23 and 24 November
It is being attended by IT experts, business representatives, and officials from the various sectors involved in the organisation of the World Cup.
Central to the discussions is finding ways to deal with the technology infrastructure challenges facing Joburg ahead of the World Cup, exploring information sharing, knowledge exchange and collaboration in the industry.
On the agenda are topics such as how information technology and telecommunications can help in:
Call centres;
Databases;
Ticketing;
Transportation;
Stadium management;
Cashless stadiums;
Marketing and media;
Leisure, entertainment and hospitality sectors; and
Emergency and essential services.
The technology challenges presented by hosting the world cup are huge, according to Douglas Cohen of the City's department of economic development ICT sector support programme.
For example, during the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany, more than three billion people watched the games. In addition, a voice and data communications network connecting all sites and systems covered 25 locations across Germany, allowing some quarter of a million people access to the Fifa World Cup computer network.
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