Every time he went cycling in the early mornings around Johannesburg, Gareth Ochse worried not only about being hit by a car, but what his wife would do afterwards. Specifically, he was concerned about how she'd access his insurance and other investment contracts, some of which were signed 15 years ago.

He started investigating secure online storage systems to store these precious documents. Although he used several free services, none satisfied him. So he built his own, and called it iSigned.com.

"We are incredibly security-focused at a per-document level. We track and audit every machine or human interaction with a document and provide an evidence-grade log. We offer a folder structure [different for individuals or businesses] that helps users organise their records and find them easily," says Ochse.

It also offers a pro-active warning when a contract or policy is up for renewal, in case it needs to be renegotiated.

The service was one of two local technology start-ups that were short-listed to participate in a global initiative called SeedCamp, that ran in Johannesburg last week.

The other, called Cognician, is an innovative way of using software that "automates complex intellectual tasks by asking you a range of intelligent, thought-provoking questions," says co-founder Patrick Kayton.

The process breaks down key concepts and ideas into bite-size nuggets and organises them so that they can be rearranged into a "thinking agenda for users", which they call a cog.

Anyone who has used a "wizard" to set up a computer or PC program will recall this kind of process.

"Cognician turns books, training guides, articles, research papers and even blogs [all of which require immersive reading] into cogs. Cogs are thinking wizards which . create a dialogue between an expert's ideas and the subject you want to think about."

Both are examples of some of the innovative spirit in South Africa's technology industry.

Ochse and Kayton spoke last week at a "mini" SeedCamp, part of the Tech4Africa conference, where local innovators could tap into the global network.

SeedCamp - set up to jump-start entrepreneurs in Europe - links start-ups with other innovators, marketing experts and possible funders.

Reshma Sohoni, SeedCamp CEO, says they "were surprised by the very high quality of both entrepreneurs and business ideas that were submitted. The level in South Africa can surely hold it's own in comparison to some of the European locales, even if we are just getting started here."

Tech4Africa is the brainchild of Gareth Knight, a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in seven start-ups in London.

Knight, who is based in London and Johannesburg but aims to return to South Africa full time to run his Internet business, organised the two-day conference "to create an environment where people can learn from the best in the industry and take that knowledge and experience and apply it to local problems.

"I want to create an environment where I can hire good people. The only way I can do that is to expose them to global experts .

'There's nothing like standing in front of a global thought leader and getting inspired and going out and building things.

"It's happened to me a few times and I hope it can happen to other people," he says.

And inspiring it was.

Other local tech start-ups involved in the mini SeedCamp were:

• Obami, which creates a Facebook-like service for schools letting pupils, teachers and parents interact in a familiar social media network.
• 10Layer, is "the most feature-complete, competent and customisable open source content management system for serious publishers and media houses," says its innovator Jason Norwood-Young. He has been the technical manager at the Mail & Guardian Online, and is a respected technology editor. Interest has already piqued in his system.

• FloCash, a "cross-border Pan African payment network offering basic financial services to the un-banked".
• Cred, a micropayments and subscriptions service that allows websites to monetise their text, audio or video content.

Tech4Africa will run quarterly events and an annual conference. For details see: www.tech4africa.com

• Shapshak is the editor of Stuff magazine