On November 7th Wire Lunghabo James wrote about the wider context for the discussion of broadband.
> However lets not lose sight of the kind of situations we are faced with. > We are looking at setting up systems which can outlive the "donor life" > of the project, cheap to maintain and rugged enough to operate under the > kind of rural conditions that one is faced with in many third world > countries. ..(snip)... > After all in many communities it is common to find a few key leaders who > are literate and usually are opinion leaders. These people could always > be the interface between the technology and the villagers. I like the > Nigerian society where "chiefs" are looked up to as leaders in their > various disciplines. To the best of my knowledge as long as you excel, > say in a farming community, they appoint you as a chief, and usually it > is these people who get a chance to read and even communicate with the > out side world on behalf of the village mates. I write to agree with Wire and to expand on a couple of points, namely rugged easily maintained systems, and the role of chiefs. My input to this discussion is based on three years as a UK Volunteer supporting OOCD 2000+ (Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000 Plus). I share what I have learnt at a distance and through visits. Direct contact with the team in Nigeria is best for more accurate detailed information. Wire mentions the need for rugged easily maintained systems - that cannot be over-stated. At this point I will briefly mention the Solo. I was in Oke-Ogun during field trials of the prototype Solo in June 2002, and it was wonderful to know that a couple of times a day, no matter where we were, no matter what the electricity supply situation was at the time (or what it had been for the previous days or hours) we could set up the Solo and get on with admin tasks and emailing. On subsequent visits I have yearned for a Solo of my own (even if mine was only to be the simple model without the personal satellite phone link). Using a laptop in rural Oke-Ogun means a continual search for enough electricity to keep the thing going. Sending an email involves a long journey (and therefore at least a day's work). I look forward to the time when I can go to Oke-Ogun and use a computer that is fit for the life I need it to lead there. Wire also mentions key leaders, literate people and chiefs. This is so important. If we are looking at computers as a means to communicate information, then what matters is that "the community" has "access to the information" not that "every individual" in the community is able to have "access to a computer". People in Ago-Are, belong to their community in a way that is unfamiliar to urban dwellers in the "developed world". They are inter-connected in a way that is hard for someone to imagine who comes from a society which emphasises telecommunications rather than face-to-face sharing of information. Also, for those of us who live in colder climates (where people hurry indoors) it is not easy to imagine a lifestyle where people are outside most of the time, greeting passers by and catching up on the local news, even while getting on with their daily business or household chores (like cooking the dinner or bathing the baby) Even people who spend most of the week in comparative isolation, working out on their farms, are back at the weekend, for religious observance and socialising. If there is information worth sharing in Ago-Are there are plenty of formal and informal ways to spread it around. The problem is getting information into (and out of) Ago-Are in the first place, rather than sharing it once it is there Wire also mentions key figures, and the community roles of literate people and chiefs. I think we could do well to study their roles. An example is Baale Agbe (the chief of the farmers). He is the expert on farmers and farming in Ago-Are - people inside and outside the community know to seek him out. I think he is a kind of role model for information systems and centres. For example, if things in Ago-Are go the way that OOCD 2000+ InfoCentre manager David Mutua hopes, then gradually people in the community (including Baale Agbe himself) will get into the habit of turning to the InfoCentre for digitally available information and communication, just as people already turn to Baale Agbe on farming matters. Pam McLean UK Volunteer supporting OOCD ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. 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 For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
