"Media houses that cannot afford expensive content management systems can benefit from Nika; it is open source," said Simon Pamphilon, a lecturer at Rhodes School of Journalism.
Given the rise in mobile-phone use in Africa, the platform incorporates the use of mobile phones to send text messages to the newsroom in case of breaking news and send feedback to the editor, which can be published.
"The software has been tested for more than a year; it is solid and has incorporated aspects of community media, civic journalism and mobile technology," Pamphilon said.
Nika, which means "to give," has been on test at Grocott's Mail, a community newspaper in Grahamstown, South Africa. It also includes folders for editors and journalists and image-management features.
One of the major challenges with the mobile-phone function is authentication: knowing when a tip is genuine and whether comments sent via SMS can be published without being followed up.
"The idea is that you can now send the editor comments, but many people use [abbreviations] on SMS. Do you publish as it is or rewrite the comment for clarity and understanding?" said Steven Lang, editor at Grocott's Mail, which is South Africa's oldest newspaper, established in 1870.
Nika's online version was presented at the annual Highway Africa conference last week, and participating editors and journalists were asked to test it. The software can be used online or installed on company servers, depending on the media house's preference.
"[The] Nika platform emphasizes the commitment we have in encouraging media houses to automate and make use of open-source tools," said Guy Berger, head of Rhodes School of Journalism, at the conference.