Re: [GKD] Using Low Cost VCDs to Deliver Health Content
Thank you Simon Batchelor and Roberto Verzola for your information on the VCD players. I did not know VCD players existed and looked at pictures of some on the Internet. I am very excited. I had been looking for something exactly like this - something that is cheap, can run without an electric connection and is easy to use. That the player is portable is an extra bonus. The only problem I forsee is that in India, I imagine the players would be almost double the cost you mentioned. But that is just a guess. I have to actually explore the market for this. About the content of the health education material, I am trying to use flash animation and QuickTime movies. Can these be run from the VCD players? Also for converting html or word content, can you suggest an alternative to videotaping the web pages? Simon mentioned VCDs can be carried by health workers to deliver useful mother and child health content to slum communities in India, Bangladesh, Moldova and Cambodia. Could you tell us more about what you did and found. Many thanks, Tasnim Partapuri www.ststephenshospital.org/chd ***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/
[GKD] Update on Quipunet (Peruvian Network)
WHAT ELSE HAS QUIPUNET BEEN DOING? By itself, not much, lately. However, before you judge let me tell you of the mitoses (plural) that Quipunet started: E-Connexions.LLC .- Started by some of the original founders of Quipunet. It was created to learn e-commerce and to help small businesses in Peru. It has been helping Tortas Peru and Inka Country. As a business it has not been successful, if you measure success by the amount earned. But thanks to their service, Tortas Peru has been earning extra income and has been an example of e-business to many women in Peru. Tortas Peru.- an innovative business created by one of our most enthusiastic volunteer; Edwin San Roman and his wife, Maria del Carmen. They acknowledge that their idea would not had taken flight without the trust and good will of the Quipunet list. ECIE.- (Electronic Commerce and Information Exchange).- Same founders of E-Connexions, founded ECIE. Because our heart and way of working is more atuned to non-profit work. For the past two years, and using the knowledge and experience acquired during our work with Quipunet, we have been working for ITC (International Trade Center), an arm of UNCTAD and WTO. The electronic forums have been low-tech, low-cost with high results. Most of the forums have been on e-commerce, aimed at import-export SMEs. One of the last forums had more than 600 'attendees from 82 countries, 80% of them were developing countries. The last forum (first of the year) has been an outstanding success. Only in Spanish and Portugues, presented by CCI (Centro de Comercio Internacional), it was designed as one of 5 activities planned by CCI. The other activities: 2) Trade Show in San Salvador, 3) Conferences, 4) Workshops, 5) Forums scheduled for April 10-12, 2002 in El Salvador. www.ecie.org/latinpharma2002/ EDUZYME.- The newest organization formed in Peru by a group of professors of the Pharmacy Department of La Universidad Mayor de San Marcos. They were the ones that collaborated with ECIE and CCI on the presentation of LatinPharma. More collaborative activities are being planned by all three. (If you know of any Pharmaceutical firm that might want to sponsor these future events, please give them my e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] What else are we doing? Quipunet and ECIE.- Communicating with the Departamento de Educacion de Lima (DEL) on how we could cooperate. ECIE.- Introducing our brand of ICT to the Latino communities of Puget Sound. Creating a data base of Peruvians. Great ideas for this! And dreaming, dreaming of being instrumental for a better future! ***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/
Re: [GKD] Digital Divide vs. Social Divide.
Yacine raises a very important, but I fear often overlooked point: any technologies, ICTs included, should only be seen as a means to an end. Acquisition of technologies should never, or at best very very rarely, be seen as the end in itself. And, partly adopting a role of Devil's Advocate, I can also see an equally important question implied in Yacine's comments: the diffusion of ICTs benefits both the consumer and also the provider. And it troubles me somewhat that the latter, in many (most?) cases can often be traced back to the large, frequently multinational and essentially western-based, corporations (naming no names, but I think we all know who I mean!). We should never forget that these vendors (not unnaturally!) have strong vested interests in developing new markets; and those of the developing world - in particular in South and South-east Asia - are probably the most significant of all of these in terms of the numbers of people involved and the revenue they could generate for the suppliers. In such circumstances, adopting technologies without also having full access to their underpinning conceptual and operational foundations could be very risky, and creates a culture of dependency, as well as having potential security implications. When I read Yacine's comments, I started wondering whether the marketing strategies of at least some of these large multinational corporations doesn't foster and, perhaps even depend on, the entrenchment of both the digital and the social divide? After all, the acquisitive instinct is one of the most powerful allies of the entire advertising / marketing industry worldwide! We all want to be the kids with the newest and fanciest toys in the neighbourhood, and the news and advertising media hardly discourage such motives! I accept I am quite new to this forum, but even within this GKD group, I have seen very little discussion of these questions? Comments anyone? Darius * Darius Bartlett Department of GeographyRoinn na Tireolaiochta University College CorkColaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh Cork, Ireland Corcaigh, Eire Phone: (+353) 21 4902835 Fax: (+353) 21 4271980 Phone(GSM): (+353) 86 8238043 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.ucc.ie/staff/djb ** Yacine Khelladi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We are sick and tired of the digital divide problem. The REAL problem is how are we going to use the Strategic opportunities offered by the ICTs to close the SOCIAL divide. And avoid digital divide initiatives that deepen the social divide. This is not a semantic problem, but a vision that encompasses all of our objectives, methods and actions, to use ICTs for sustainable human development. ***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/
Re: [GKD] Digital Divide vs. Social Divide.
Yacine raises a good point, and it relates to both semantics and actions. Terms and expressions such as bridging the digital divide and sustainability stand for concepts and approaches to development that mean (meant) something, but their formulaic repetition tends to blur them into meaninglessness. With regard to the bridging the digital divide discussions, I've long thought that what is really being proposed and ultimately accomplished is replicating the global divide on smaller (national and ever more local) levels. Indeed, this will at least in the short term coincide largely with the lines of social and economic divides of long standing. To a certain extent this may be unavoidable, and one certainly should not minimize the challenges facing or efforts made by people and projects working in this area. But it is important as Yacine suggests and we probably all would agree, to try to be aware of the impacts of ICT for development projects on existing inequalities, and above all to have a longer term vision. Don Osborn [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Bisharat! A language, technology development initiative *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - developpement http://www.bisharat.net ***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/
Re: [GKD] Digital Divide vs. Social Divide.
Dear GKD Members, I'm in basic agreement with Yacine Khelladi. For the last several years I have referred to the Education Divides, the Opportunity Divides and Economic Divides (all similar to what you call the Social Divide) that pre-date and help to shape the Digital Divide (and I know others who share a similar view). And I think she is right that how we conceptualize these various divides influences the plans we make and the actions we take in fundamental ways. I think a key challenge that I have perceived is how to conceptualize the prior divides and the vision for sustainable human development in light of the opportunities, threats and as-yet-undetermined possibilities of digital technologies vis a vis any of a number of other development strategies and imperatives. I, for instance, think we under-theorize the actual and potential damage and/or benefit for sustainable human development that can be realized by THOSE WHO ALREADY HAVE GREAT ACCESS TO DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES. How are those with privileged access wielding that privilege? This to me is a key, virtually unasked question. By focusing only on getting access for those who don't have it (and I'll just mark as an aside that I mean access to refer to as rich, meaningful, multifaceted and social uses and designs of technologies as we can conceive), we, imho, let certain folks who already have tremendous access off the hook (i.e., we don't hold them responsible for turning their access to the most beneficial ends for achieving sustainable human development). I don't mean to downplay the potential importance of access for those who don't have it, only to point out that getting access has only limited positive effects if those with greater access are using that access in ways detrimental to sustainable human development. That to me is a major flaw of the digital divide currently conceived. Thanks for your point Yacine. In Peace, K. ***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/
