Dear All,
I have been keenly following the debate about personal vs social
computer. First things first, why are we all looking at it from the
point of view of first world people and also maybe some "third
worlders" like me who are priviledged to have had good education, a
stable income, blah-blah...The "Divide" happens when we adopt such a
world view. We have to look at the whole issue from the point of view
of the user at which the Simputer is targeted, the guy living in the
villages of India - and other developing countries - who doesnt want
to know about computers and would rather be left alone to lead his
life the way he has been leading it and his father and ancestors
before them have been doing it. If there has to be a buy-in for
Simputer or for that matter any other device it has be to not because
WE say that it is 'good for you and it will change your life' but only
if the Simputer can demonstrate that it does make a difference to HIS
life, and in most cases, it is not about "personal convenience" which
most of us would give top priority for, but primarily for "helping me
earn an income" and may be after that A BIT of personal convenience.
Take the example of the telephone in India. India is one of the
countries that is lowest in terms of teledensity. Yet, the smallest
and remotest villages will have a PCO - a public booth - where they
can connect to the rest of their world. The telephone as a personal
device is too expensive for the average Indian villager. However, he
is staying connected thanks to the benefit that the device offers to
many entrepreneurs living in remote parts of the country who see a way
of earning a living by setting up a phone booth. The same is happening
with cellular phones in India - the device that most urban Indians
would think of as a Personal communication tool, right? From the rural
Indian's point of view, wrong...there is a company in India (private
sector) that has set up a mobile phone booth service in remote parts
of Uttar Pradesh! The same is true of computers and Internet cafes are
the main access points for most people even in urban India, living in
large cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Where the Simputer stands to gain
over all other computers is in its ease of use. While price is
definitely a factor, the more important thing for Simputer would be to
develop a business model where the Simputer becomes as ubiquitous as
the telephone in the PCO booths in the country. The Simputer has to be
sold first to the service provider who can then target end-users.
Simputer has to go beyond device marketing of the top brands. It has
to find a new marketing model/system, call it what you may.
And by the way, even if a Dell or any other of the top brands were to
offer a computer for half the price that the Simputer is offering,
what about service. Most multinational brands dont even begin to think
beyond the top 10 cities...and even here their service is "pathetic",
believe me, I am talking from experience. Try to visualise this
scenario:
A farmer in remote Rajasthan who can just speak his mother tongue and
perhaps a smattering of Rajasthani-accented Hindi acquires a Dell
laptop - thanks to his son who is living in the US. His son teahces
his father the basics of how to use the computer...By the way, the
father will be only too happy to use it in such a case because he is
not your typical villager (his son is in the US, he is obviously well
off) and for him the computer is a status symbol. All his neighbours
would drop in to chat with the old man only to see this wonder called
a computer...Anyway to continue with the story, a few months later the
computer stops functioning and he has to call up the call centre which
is based in delhi/bombay/chennai/bangalore. You cant imagine how
"divided" the two worlds are - the call centre executives are not
trained to handle customer complaints from rural Indians.Period. And i
don't blame them, rural Indians are not their core customers. After
some hot words and total confusion, old man would forget about getting
the computer serviced - status symbol - or not and it would be stored
away in the 'showcase' in his drawing room, occasionally dusted like
the other souvenirs that his son has brought home from the US.
The whole point of giving this fictitious scenario is to demonstrate
how implausible it is for a market-driven company to offer service to
customers who are clearly not their priroity customers. However with a
company like Simputer, this is their core target and one assumes that
they have created the systems to cater to this market.
Adite Chatterjee
On 5/29/05, Pamela McLean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: 'Some of us believe that we need to point out
> that there are other choices, and "the social computer" is one such
> alternative, a lower cost alternative to "the personal computer" '
>
> Sandra Andrews wrote
> 'Who are we to make the decision as to which approach is the best?
> Shouldn't the people involved have a say, and, in order to allow them
> to do so, shouldn't we allow various initiatives to go forward, so
> that people can use them?'
>
> Others have made additional points about the involvement of people
> concerned.
>
> Perhaps it would be helpful at this stage to offer an example of how
> personal/social computing works within the CawdNet network and how we
> are trying to open up debate between those who know about and/or are
> experiencing the problems and those who know about and/or want to
> implement potential solutions.
>
> On the personal computer side we have CAWD (The Charity for African
> Welfare and Development - from which CawdNet takes its name). CAWD
> volunteers are what we describe as "bandwidth rich". They have personal
> computers, and can go online for hours on end without any cost
> constraints. (see www.cawd.net and click on CawdNet - new volunteers
> extremely welcome - please contact me). The bandwidth rich personal
> computer users can search for and filter information on behalf of
> their fellow "CawdNetters" who are "bandwidth poor" (or simply
> "bandwidth challenged")
>
> Then we have the "social computers" in rural Nigeria. The "CawdNetters"
> there are at Fantsuam Foundation, with its Community Learning Centre
> (CLC) at
> Kafanchan, and at the OCDN (Oke-Ogun Community Development Network)
> InfoCentre at Ago-Are. People there are making do with shared access to
> (low-specification) computers.
>
> Staff, volunteers, students, and other clients there, are "bandwidth
> challenged" - both in terms of the equipment they are using and their
> access to it. Access to the computers is dependent on electrical power.
> Mains power ("NEPA") is something that is possible - but not really
> expected - and certainly not to be relied on in any way.
>
> The generators are a much more reliable source of power, but are
> expensive to run. They are usually only turned on when there are
> sufficient people *paying* for computer access to justify the cost of
> the fuel. So, despite VSAT
> connections at these two locations in rural Nigeria, the situation is
> very far removed from "normal bandwidth richness". Social computers
> should not simply be assumed to be "like personal computers but shared
> between more people".
>
> It is important to realise that the social computers available at the
> CLC and InfoCentre are way ahead of anything else in their areas. People
> based at those sites are "bandwidth challenged" - but elsewhere there is
> "bandwidth starvation". There are Internet cafes in urban areas but
> nothing in smaller rural places.
>
> The challenge of serving rural areas is more that a question of
> providing access to "social
> computers". It is a wider issue, something I don't have a name for -
> "social computing" or "social computer
> systems" perhaps.
>
> How can the bandwidth challenged - with their "social computers" share
> the benefits of connectivity with the wider communities that they serve?
> What in fact are these benefits? What difference can/does ICT make in
> places like Kafanchan and Ago-Are? A few examples may give food for
> thought - focusing briefly on all three parts of ICT (Information and
> Communication and Technology).
>
> 1 - Technology
> Obviously people can learn about it and develop appropriate skills. We
> run various ICT courses and we are gradually developing appropriate
> kinds of courses for different groups, such as teachers and local
> government officials.
> (e.g. http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/805.html )
>
> 2 - Communication - people can communicate.
>
> The benefits of email are remarkable in places like Kafanchan and
> Ago-Are where the
> postal service is unreliable and there are no telephone networks. Email
> is our most used means of communication, plus yahoo chat.
>
> We have started to explore Skype and yahoo voice chat too, but
> it's still early days on that (and, as with all things in rural Nigeria,
> not as straight forward as outsiders might expect).
>
> We don't have the
> bandwidth to exchange video clips, but we do send photos. In addition I
> have collected video clips to take greetings and messages back and forth
> between Ago-Are and the UK (overcoming language barriers and literacy
> barriers). VCDs are much easier to transport than bulky video tapes -
> and we look forward with interest to a time when it may all be possible
> online and we can bypass human couriers.
>
> 3 - Information - so important in areas that are book-poor and
> training-poor.
>
> Thanks to the communication links between the bandwidth
> rich and the bandwidth poor new ideas are being exchanged. When funds
> allow we follow up interests with practical training - as with recent
> courses enabled by COL (Commonwealth of Learning) on solar cookers
> http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/742.html and solar cooking
> http://www.cawd.net/daisy/CawdNet/g1/800.html
>
> This solar training is something that people have been requesting for
> over two years - so it has been wonderful to have the resources to
> respond now. Training about solar cooking was requested because the
> general idea of solar
> cooking had been discussed in Ago-Are, and people were taken with the
> idea. The initial information was shared because a local woman shared a
> cooking problem with someone on the CAWD side. On the CAWD side - the
> bandwidth rich side of CawdNet - it is easy to do research. Even on the
> rural Nigerian side - despite being bandwidth challenged - much more
> research is possible than where there is bandwidth starvation. This
> meant we could start to learn more about solar cooking, in theory, but
> for a couple of years we did not have the resources to move on. We could
> collect theoretical knowledge - but didn't have the capacity for
> practical implementation - to pay a trainer, to provide materials, to
> cover participants travel costs, and such like. Now we have been able to
> make a start with that.
>
> ICTs and "social computing" means that two way discussion becomes
> possible. It becomes
> practical to discuss questions like "What's the problem?" "Would
> any of these ideas be any good?" "Why?" "What do you want to try out?"
> "How's it going?"
>
> ICTs on their own aren't enough for such information exchange and
> knowledge development - but they are an essential element.
>
> In parallel to the recent solar cookers and solar cooking training
> there was also training in video production - another important part of
> ICTs/digital technology. The video training is important because when we
> do find good ideas worth sharing, and get the money to run courses, we
> want to have the video skills ready to share the training content more
> widely.
>
> It is hard to communicate the full picture as so much is tied in
> together. For
> example the solar cooking also ties in with "The Positive Kitchen"
> which ties in with the nutrition course being run in connection with the
> health service for people with HIV/AIDS.
>
> The point is, that in the real world of rural Nigeria, the issue isn't
> as narrow as personal computers (a very dubious priority) versus social
> computers. It's not just about bandwidth rich provision (requiring huge
> infrastructure development - just on the electrical power side) versus
> bandwidth poverty. It is about the next link - beyond the technology
> itself - into the social networks. For us it is about "social
> computing" - about people and communication, and needs for information,
> and how sharing and discussing problems across the digital divide can
> lead to the development of solutions.
>
> As a "CawdNetter" I find it encouraging to see the debate on particular
> pieces of equipment widening out to include the opinions of people who
> might be using "social computers". If you want to get closer to the
> opinions of "CawdNetters" who are the bandwidth poor in rural Nigeria
> please contact me on or off list. Together we can explore the most
> appropriate and direct way for you to make links with the real local
> experts - the people who live the life.
>
> Pam
>
> Pamela McLean
> CawdNet Convenor
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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--
Adite Chatterjee
www.icfdc.com
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