Let me start off by saying that the inaugural Geek Retreat that took place this past weekend (19-21 June 2009) at the beautiful Elephant Sanctuary in Hartebeestpoort wasn’t so much about geeks, Internet professionals, tech journalists, and entrepreneurs getting together and having a good chinwag over a single malt and blazing bonfire as it was about discussing some of the major issues affecting the South African internet space and how to go about solving them. Oh, and did I mention there were pachyderms?

Most would agree that there are only a handful of successful South African Internet entrepreneurs and start-ups when compared to other parts of the world and the Internet hasn’t dramatically impacted the lives of the majority of the South African public or added much to their social upliftment.

The obvious question that popped up frequently over the course of the weekend was: “But should we care?”. There was a general consensus that we should, but for different reasons. Even the most dogmatic capitalists conceded that making money and enriching people’s lives weren’t mutually exclusive and that we all had vested interests in bringing Internet connectivity and entrepreneurship to the masses.

Some of the topics that were discussed in the interactive sessions, included policy, advocacy, skills and education, the future of mass communications, bootstrapping and funding, and online communities. There were also a number of informal “talking head” sessions whereby a participant would facilitate a brief discussion around a particular topic or theme within small groups that rotated every 15 minutes or so. These sessions proved to be very popular as they ensured that everybody had an opportunity to have their say and a lot got covered in a relatively short period of time.

A personal highlight was listening to the experiences and advice of serial entrepreneurs and South African success stories, Vinny Lingham and Gareth Knight, who both now live abroad but made a special effort to attend the event in order to support the initiative and network with like-minded South Africans. One of the pearls of wisdom that I picked up on was that as South Africans we need to be more outward looking and aim our sights at the global market as there’s no reason why a good homegrown idea can’t become a successful international business, and there are already a number of case studies to back this up.

Geek Retreat ’09 was by no means a panacea for solving South Africa’s Internet-related problems, nor did organizers Heather Ford and Justin Spratt intend it to be, but at the very least it allowed a small sample of great minds to discuss the myriad issues affecting both them and the country and to mobilize an enthusiastic team that will work towards making a positive difference.

Only time will tell to what extent it will live up to its mantra (borrowed from Openspaceworld.com):

Never before, and never again will the assembled group gather in this time and place. No one could possibly predict the synergism of effect that will take place when this particular group of people assemble.

For more on the Retreat including participants, session notes, and proposed projects go to the #geekretreat wiki.

Also read: Toby Shapshak’s Pattern Recognition column

Earlier today, Internet researcher and commentator, Arthur Goldstuck, presented the findings of World Wide Worx’s much anticipated “Internet Access in South Africa 2008″ study during the keynote of the Networkers at Cisco Live! conference which finished today at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Amongst the highlights were the fact that the Internet user base in South Africa has seen its highest rate of growth since 2001, increasing by 12.5% to 4,5-million in 2008.

I strongly suggest requesting a copy of the full report from World Wide Worx, but a summary of the trends and key findings are as follows:

Trend 1: There has been a 16% increase in Internet service providers
Trend 2: Hundreds of rogue and unlicensed networks are in existence
Trend 3: ADSL dominance is ending as a result of wireless broadband
Trend 4: Wireless broadband has entered the mainstream
Trend 5: Broadband culture has taken hold in SA
Trend 6: Dial-up at the end of its lifespan
Trend 7: ADSL has grown through SME installations
Trend 8: Cellphone Internet usage contributed to the Internet base
Trend 9: 12.5% jump in Internet users
Trend 10: Internet Adoption curve recovers
Trend 11: Strong growth predicted over next 5 years
Trend 12: Repeat adoption patterns
Trend 13: Experience curve flattens
Trend 14: But the experience curve will kick in again
Trend 15: Inflection point in 2013
Trend 16: More Bandwidth and increased caps!

Overall, the findings confirm what many, including myself, believe paint a bright future for South Africa’s maturing Internet population with the gap slowly closing between us and the developed world. Once SEACOM (the new fibre optic cable that will connect the East Coast of Africa to Southern Africa, Europe and Asia) goes into operation in mid-2009, the wholesale price of bandwidth is expected to come down drastically while connection speeds will far exceed anything experienced in the past.

Thanks to factors such as SEACOM and Fifa 2010, Goldstuck predicts that SA’s Internet Population will grow by 13.3% in 2009 & a whopping 17.6% in 2010!!!

It wasn’t all good news however, and Goldstuck did issue some caveats about the growing inequality gap that is emerging between South Africa’s haves and have-nots. For example, even under these new favourable conditions, it could take as long as 10 years before the previously disadvantaged are properly integrated due to the 5 year Internet experience curve. The fact remains that all the bandwidth in the world is pointless unless basic social and environmental factors are addressed such as literacy and access to reliable power.

Goldstuck also says that next year’s national elections are a key milestone and will largely determine whether the government is able to deliver on its social promises or not and whoever takes over as the next Minister of Communications will play an equally vital role in shaping the future.

Read Paul Jacobson’s post for more on this topic.

Follow the Networkers at Cisco Live! conference on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook or check out their very funky social media press release.

UPDATE: An edited version of Goldstuck’s presentation was uploaded on YouTube (watch below):