MSSRF Info Village Research project

["Subbiah Arunachalam" <arun@mssrf.res.in>]

Friends:

Here is a comment on a UNCRD paper I and my colleague Senthil wrote 
on our info village project. You are free to share it with others. 
For the paper itself, please visit 
http://www.uncrd.or.jp/ict/eworkspace/papers/cs_pondicherry.htm 
<http://www.uncrd.or.jp/ict/eworkspace/papers/cs_pondicherry.htm>  . 
Actually, we provided answers to many questions and UNCRD staff put  
together the article. I plan to improve the quality of the text in 
the next few days. Regards.  

Arun  


Comment by Ricardo Ramirez and Dan Pellerin  


Two statements from this excellent paper capture the essence of its 
message: "It is not that we download the information and then look 
for  users...It is a long social process that precedes the 
introduction of technology and the establishment of the knowledge 
centre."  

"Many 'telecentre' projects, in our opinion, make this cardinal  
mistake of putting the technology ahead of people.For us, the people, 
their context, and their needs come first.Then comes the content that 
can satisfy those needs.Technology is just an enabler to deliver the 
content in a cost effective manner."  


Common sense indeed, but not that common in the last round of  
development hype to establish telecentre showcase projects.Putting 
people's needs at the forefront -- rather than computers -- requires 
a confident, visionary team with a community development 
commitment.This article demonstrates with a vast number of examples 
the significant contribution that information can make when it 
responds to people's needs.Some of the highlights merit special 
mention.  


The authors describe the power of the process to overcome caste 
restrictions:Dalit groups that would otherwise have been excluded 
from the Village Knowledge Centres gained acceptance, the same 
applies to menstruating women that tradition would have kept at 
bay.These accomplishments are perhaps an indication that the centres 
have hailed some sort of new era in the eyes of the local hierarchy, 
making it  acceptable to change tradition (not to mention and abide 
with modern Indian law).Experiences in Nepal echo the potential of 
these new technologies to put caste differences aside.  


The importance of placing women in control over these efforts is 
noteworthy.It echoes the experience by Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh  
whereby rural cell phones are placed in the hands of women and 
research shows that this very fact increases access to the 
communication service by village women (Richardson et al., 2001).The 
increase in women's status at the village level is bound to have 
profound positive consequences in other aspects of village life:for 
example food security research has shown that women's status and 
level of education are positively correlated with improved nutrition 
practices in the home (von Braun and Kennedy, 1994).   



The authors provide many examples where time-sensitive information  -
namely prices and weather- improves villager's decisions about when 
to buy inputs and sell produce, or how to market new products.Weather 
information helps fisherfolk decide what risks to take at sea and 
database with services enables villages to access medical and 
veterinary help.Indeed, experience in other countries shows that most 
of these services are possible simply by having access to a 
phone.What is new in this experience is the systematic effort at 
doing PRAs and surveying local needs and building databases to 
respond to those needs -- hence the value of the computers.Making 
local information available is just as important as downloading 
information from elsewhere.In this experience, the local information 
is made available through a range of other conventional media such as 
word of mouth, public address systems, community newspapers, and 
radio.The combination of modern ICTs with existing and proven 
community media demonstrates that the facilitators of this process 
are not blinded by the glamour of high-tech -- how refreshing!  


Technology-wise, it is pretty simple but the bandwidth of 4,800 baud  
must be rather irritating.The three new sites on the 11 mbps are 
pretty straightforward and quite effective without being overly 
complicated.A radio can be replaced relatively easily and the 
networking skills required are well within the realm of the regions.  



It is not clear how the bandwidth used is paid for at the Internet 
gateway.The authors talk about the ways the network is being used and 
the value.How the bandwidth is presently being paid for goes a long 
way towards determining sustainability in the long run, not to 
mention the demands that the users place on the system will put 
strain on the 4800 baud system.Otherwise it sounds like a good 
network that is focused, uses the localtalent to a large degree, and 
can grow without requiring a lot of technical outside 
expertise.Perhaps the ongoing training includes some internetworking 
from a design and implementation point of view.  


For those concerned with sustainability and replication, the authors  
have some challenging messages.There are important unexpected 
outcomes such as the women's counseling services that emerged when 
women sought  additional information on vegetable prices, pre and 
post-natal care, employment opportunities, and micro 
enterprises.These unexpected outcomes are valuable and would not have 
appeared in conventional project logical frameworks.Research in other 
places where broadband connectivity is expanding increasingly shows 
the need to embrace unexpected outcomes.As the authors highlight the 
process is dynamic and allows people to dream of new uses.  


The sustainability of these experiences needs to address several 
dimensions.For those concerned with the financial and technological 
dimensions, it is important to note experience elsewhere that 
suggests that the village knowledge centres should not be expected to 
run entirely on a customer-paid-service basis, especially as they 
provide so many government-related services.In one recent study it 
was reported that telecentres in Hungary earned 60 per cent of their 
revenue from government sources, some of which are competitive funds 
(Proenza, 2002).Government agencies are major financial contributors 
as the centre enables the gathering and distribution of information 
that would otherwise be more expensive and less timely to 
exchange.This brokering role -- whereby community needs are matched 
with relevant information -- is noteworthy and the groups have been 
referred to elsewhere as 'mediating organizations' (Ramirez, 2001).  


For those concerned with the social sustainability, the centres 
should be understood as an educational process.The e-readiness that 
they are providing is significant:volunteers are learning on the job, 
community members are finding a familiar setting with local people 
that will help them explore the technology, women are gaining skills 
and status.These benefits are not intangible -- though difficult to 
quantify -- and merit continued support from the public sector.  


Replication of the experience represents a significant challenge in  
that the "cookie-cutter" approach for massification is not 
applicable.The nature of the organization that incubated this 
experience cannot be ignored as it imprints on the process:the people-
first commitment and the attention to local needs before prescribing 
technology, reflects a community development philosophy.Other 
organizations seeking to replicate this process need to first do a 
self-audit on their own principles and orientation.Community 
ownership and bottom-up planning is central to the accomplishments 
here described, and few organizations are humble enough -- and donors 
patient enough -- to emulate such a process effectively.  


References  

Proenza, F. "Telecenter sustainability:Myths and opportunities" 
Journal of Development Communication (2002). [An Internet version of 
the paper will appear in:Dixon & Wattenbach, Eds. (forthcoming) 
Bridging the rural knowledge gap:Information systems for improved 
livelihoods.Based on a workshop held in FAO Headquarters in Rome, 4-7 
December 2001.] Ramirez, R. "A model for rural and remote information 
and communication technologies:A Canadian exploration", 
Telecommunications Policy (2001): 25(5): 315-330  

Richardson, D., Ramirez, R., and Haq, M., "Grameen Village Phone" in 
Gumucio-Dagron, A. (ed.)., Making Waves:Stories of participatory 
communication for social change (New York: Rockefeller Foundation.  
2001), pp. 271-276. < 
http://www.rockfound.org/Documents/421/makingwaves.pdf 
<http://www.rockfound.org/Documents/421/makingwaves.pdf> >  


von Braun, J. and Kennedy, E., Agricultural Commercialization, 
Economic Development and Nutrition (Baltimore and London: IFPR and 
the John Hopkins University Press, 1994)