The contents of this collection are work in progress: live datasets, evolving analysis and draft working papers. They are published to share progress with collaborators and anyone interested in this developing ecosystem - not as finished or fully evidenced positions. Data and conclusions are subject to revision. Note also that extensive use of AI deep search (Perplexity) and LLMs (Claude) are used in this work.
A mapping of ownership, control and foreign dependency across data centres in Sub-Saharan Africa — revised and re-verified
A revised attempt to collect data on Sub-Saharan Africa's data centres with a particular focus on ownership and influence. Includes a downloadable dataset and the metadata instructing Perplexity how to collect the data.
A factsheet
A dataset covering the main submarine cables serving Africa, past, present and planned. Who owns them, when they came into service, and how much they can carry.
A non-technical guide
A plain-English reference for the technical, commercial and policy vocabulary that recurs across writing on digital infrastructure — submarine cables, data centres, cloud, AI compute, ownership structures, and digital sovereignty.
A non-technical guide
A plain-English explainer about undersea cables. What are they, how their capacity is bought and sold, and how the companies that run them make money.
Ad-hoc data collection on available infrastructures
This document is a test of the developing abilities of AI-powered search to collect useful information on a quick turnaround without any prior knowledge or expertise. The data it contains has been cited but not verified.
A continent-wide mapping of ownership, sovereignty and foreign dependency across data centres in all 54 African countries
A first attempt to collect data on Africa's data centres with a particular focus on ownership and influence. Includes a downloadable dataset and the metadata instructing Perplexity how to collect the data.
Learning to manage AI tools for open source intelligence
Notes tracing the iterative development of the article - African smart cities: A critical analysis. This methodology had now been superceded with further advances in AI orchestration agents.
AI-driven literature review
A bibliography constructed by Perplexity to set context for the work collecting smart city data.
Assembling a $144 Billion Puzzle from a Thousand Scattered Pieces
There is no comprehensive data available on the financing of digital transformation in Africa. Is open source intelligence using AI deep search ready to tackle this problem? This article includes a dataset of 1,454 records and the methodology used to instruct Perplexity to collect the data.
