IST-Africa 2008 will take place on May 14-16, 2008 in Windhoek, Namibia. The programme combines strategic keynote presentations, technical and policy papers, case studies, workshops, an exhibition and social activities.

Part of the IST-Africa Initiative, which is supported by the European Commission under the IST Programme of Framework Programme 6 (FP6), IST-Africa 2008 is the third in an Annual Conference Series which will bring together delegates from commercial, government & research organisations across Africa and from Europe, to bridge the Digital Divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice.

IST-Africa 2007 held in Maputo, Mozambique, was very successful, with over 460 delegates from 51 countries and four continents. It also featured an Exhibition with demonstrations from African and European research and governmental organisations.

IST-Africa 2008 will focus on Applied ICT research topics addressing major societal and economic challenges, which is part of the European Commission's Information Communications Technologies (ICT) programme. IST-Africa 2008 will also feature an Exhibition that provides the opportunity to showcase research results and applications through technology demonstrations, whether funded commercially or at national, regional or European level. The Call for Exhibitors will open in late January and close on 28 February.

IST-Africa 2008 is supported by the European Commission through the ICT Programme and the Government of Namibia through the Ministry of Education, the Technical Co-Sponsored by IEEE.

The goals of the IST-Africa Conference Series are Community Building to facilitate EU-African research cooperation and successful exploitation of research results, to stimulate take-up of RTD results by industry, Small and Medium Sized Businesses and the public sector, to promote knowledge sharing between commercial organizations, government agencies and the research community, to exchange experiences about the current state of eAdoption at a sectoral, national or regional level, support International Cooperation and open up the European Research Area (ERA) to Africa.

The IST-Africa Conference will provide a collegiate setting for presentations and discussions of national and regional developments, issues of concern and good practice models. It will also provide an excellent networking environment for delegates to discuss problems, share knowledge, obtain feedback, and learn more about opportunities to participate in ICT Calls under Framework Programme 7 (FP7).

For more information about IST-Africa 2008, please visit the conference website by visiting http://www.ist-africa.org/Conference2008/.

To learn more about the conference programme, click here