Dear GKD Members, In past weeks we have been working with quite a few of you generating mini cases and experiences with the generation, adaptation, and exchange of 'local content'.
It is proving to be a very complex area where much is happening but where relatively little of the 'how' has been documented. Finding an answer to the question "how may international or development agencies support local local content initiatives" is still a challenge. Nevertheless, next week we will join our Tanzanian partner COSTECH in a small workshop to review where we are now and what the lessons contributed by many people tell us. We should have a report plus all the cases in April. One of the recurring issues from the beginning of the study, but not yet fully resolved in the cases, is the role of technology and especially the 'open source' movement in supporting (or holding back) local content. The 'open source' philosophy clearly offers many useful insights into how 'open content' could be generated and exchanged - from the bottom up, via 'peer to peer' communication, and in doing so empowering the local content 'owners' or 'producers'. Just as open source in some ways has been a dynamic reaction to proprietary foreign software etc, so open content may be a way to counter the influence of foreign content that is "invading" developing countries through the mass media, news, and other channels. It also seems to be clear that proprietary foreign hardware and software etc is more costly to buy than open source equivalents, so anything that brings technology costs down might be supposed to promote the development of local content. It may also and equally accelerate the dissemination of foreign content. I am therefore looking for any ideas and experiences on the relation between local content and IC Technologies. The technologies certainly help to provide access to distant content. But are they also significant factors - as enablers or barriers - to local content generation or exchange? And what roles do open source applications have in this relationship between technology and local content? Any insights or comments would be much appreciated. Also corrections or additions to any thinking represented here. Beyind this issue, we are still collecting mini cases or write-ups of lessons learned and approaches adopted to local content generation - especially content associated with governance, music, or "business" initiatives. Contact me if you have something to share. regards Peter Peter Ballantyne Team Leader, Knowledge Sharing International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) PO Box 11586 2502 AN The Hague The Netherlands phone: 31 (0)70 311 7311 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.iicd.org www.iconnect-online.org ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
