[GKD] Wireless-for-Development Portal Launched (Venezuela)
Campaigners in Venezuela have launched a wireless-for-development portal, and the English-language details are below. See http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=582985 and also http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=526407 for EsLaRed's eighth Latin American workshop on networking technology... which looks like a rather interesting gathering of people and topics, when viewed from half way around the globe ;-) FN - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wireless talks development, that too in Spanish: www.wilac.net MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- The Latin American School of Networks Foundation (ESLARED) and the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) has launched a portal. WiLAC is the new information portal about Wireless Technologies for Development, designed to support individuals, organisations, municipalities and businesses currently implementing community wireless connectivity projects, or those about to launch on this road. The launch took place during the 'Experiences from Wireless Project Implementation event, on July 27, 2005, in Merida (Venezuela), during the WALC 2005, an event about networking and content. WiLAC's portal was launched during a Panel of experiences in implementation of wireless technologies, that was showcased during workshops underway at the event. This panel began at 7 p.m. in the Faculty of Engineering Auditorium of Los Andes University (ULA). In a crowded auditorium, Edmundo Vitale moderated the panel. It was kicked off with initial interventions from Jorge Phillips and Ermanno Pietrosemoli. Both emphasized the importance of having a reference point in the region, to address information needs about wireless technologies, specially in Spanish, the third most-widely spoken language in the world. Jaime Torres and Am©rico Sanchez, experts of the Area of Engineering at CEPES (Peru), presented their experience with the Agrarian Information System of Huaral Valley. They not only shared what they encountered in the implementation of the wireless network, but also about the community development, costs estimates and the impact in the community. CVG Telecom (Venezuela) president Julio Dur°n presented the National Network of Social Connectivity plan, which includes the deployment of technologies that go from fibre across the country to experimentation with WiMAX technologies. But the starting point will be communities that are otherwise much more isolated. [WiMAX is an acronym that stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. The WiMAX protocol is a way of networking computing devices together; for example to provide internet access, in a similar way to Wi-Fi. WiMAX is both faster and has a longer range than Wi-Fi. However, WiMAX does not necessarily conflict with Wi-Fi, but is designed to interoperate with it and may indeed complement it.] Sylvia Cadena presented the model used by the Institute for the Connectivity in Am©ricas (ICA), to support the implementation of projects pilot about fixed and itinerant Wi-Fi technologies through all the region. Finally, the WiLAC portal structure was briefly explored to check its performance as well as the possibilities it could offer. Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, the WiLAC portal will promote information about design, implementation, development, replication, and the use of necessary components for a successful community wireless project that serves the community. More specifically, the information, available in Spanish, has been structured to offer the user relevant information regarding: research (case studies, impact analysis); implementation (articles and reports about current projects); technical reviews and news about technical standards development; regulatory frameworks (links and descriptions of the conditions in each country to develop community wireless networks); training resources (materials, courses and workshops); regional expertise; support funds available; news about wireless projects in other parts of the world; and related events. WiLAC promotes direct cooperation and exchange among community initiatives using wireless technologies under development in the region (and also in other regions). It also promotes the building up of relationships and support from those initiatives with more experience to those just starting up. This portal was fully developed using free and open source software (FOSS). ESLARED is a non-profit institution dedicated to promoting information technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean, working since 1992, and legally constituted in Venezuela. It has worked to promote the building of human resources and research in telecommunications, computer networks and information technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its focus also includes research and development on technology transfer and appropriate technology, to foster scientific, technical and social progress in the region. It is a member of the Association
[GKD] Free and Open Source Software Tools for NGOs
community could be connected they could act as a review and recommendation group, sharing experiences and knowledge on using and developing the boxes and providing each other with relevant NGO case studies. The key to achieving this would be in developing and maintaining a well established network of locally based partners. Some questions which remain are, would the draw for this community be enough for sustained involvement? And how could the box develop in the future to become more NGO specific, providing solutions for activities such as security monitoring, advocacy, organising and campaigning. For more information or in order to obtain a copy of NGO-in-a-box, please contact us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tactical Technology Collective © 2004 | Site by Floatleft Frederick Noronha (FN)Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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] NGOs and Free Software
Volunteering and Free Software Below is a list of ten reasons why volunteering organisations -- called non-government organisations (NGOs) in some countries -- need to take a close look and deploy Free Software: * If NGOs don't subscribe to the principles of sharing freely, reuse and waste-minimisation, then who will? * If NGOs take the easy way out and end up on the side of a global monopoly, then words and deeds don't match. * 'Freedom' is something NGOs always talk about, in whatever form. In the software world, this is already a reality. The possibility exists; are we ready to take a little extra trouble (the initial learning curve) in opting for it? * Because NGOs need quality, stable software. * Because NGOs are even more talent-rich, resource-poor than most in the Third World. * Because Free Software works out reasonably priced both in the short and long term. * Because Free Software creates local jobs and multiplies local skills. * Because Free Software is transparent enough for you to (i) learn it, if you have the technical background (ii) make custom changes in the manner you wish to, or pay others to do this for you (iii) enable both you and your staff to learn at a much more deeper, rather than superficial level. * Because Free Software is an ethical choice -- not one of convenience. * NGOs receive and disseminate much information. It helps to be able to access info (in digital format) without having to (i) break the law (ii) spend money to purchase applications to 'read' the information. Use of swatantra software enables that, as South India-based lawyer Mahesh Pai [EMAIL PROTECTED] points out. * Because free software empowers computer users and encourages them to cooperate, as Richard M Stallman notes. Copyleft 2004, Frederick Noronha --- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 Goa India Freelance JournalistP: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net http://www.ryze.com/go/fredericknoronha http://fn-floss.notlong.com --- Difficulties to send email across? Write to fredericknoronha at vsnl.net === Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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] India's March Towards Open Access
) publishers in other countries, suggests that the government should have an interest in ensuring its success. India's University Grants Commission, for example, should insist that major universities with a large output of science and technology papers set up institutional archives. Other funding agencies -- such as the Department of Science Technology, Department of Scientific Industrial Research, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Indian Council of Medical Research -- should also insist that research papers resulting from work supported by their funds be made available through open-access archives and toll-free journals. India is not the only country being drawn towards open access. In China - for example, among officials of the National Natural Science Foundation and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information in China, as well as researchers with the Chinese Academy of Sciences -- there is already significant interest in its benefits to the country's scientists. Reflecting this interest, in mid-June 2004 China will hold a major national conference on open access in cooperation with the US National Academy of Sciences. And in the last week of June, the Eighth International Conference on Electronic Publishing will take place in Brasilia. The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, held last December, has given a considerable boost to these efforts: the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action include strong statements in favour of open access to scientific literature. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has also offered his support. NURTURING THE NETWORK International action is one thing, but genuine free access is another. It will need a champion (or champions) in every institution to promote the creation of institutional archives, and persuade scientists to place their papers in them. Free access also requires adequate hardware and connectivity. Many universities and research institutions in the developing world lack both computers and high bandwidth Internet connectivity, so part of the strategy of open-access proponents must include campaigning for improved ICT facilities. Luckily, costs of both hardware and Internet bandwidth are coming down all over the world. Another important hurdle to overcome is the fact that many scientists labour under the impression that journal editors may not accept archived papers, claiming that this represents an unacceptable form of 'pre-publication'. These scientists worry that it will be difficult to assess the impact of their research if it isn't published in conventional journals. After all, they argue, promotions and awards are often determined by the impact factor of the journals in which one's work is published. Many are also unaware of the advantages of gaining greater visibility and are reluctant to make the effort to post their articles on archives. Just over a year ago, for example, the National Centre for Science Information (NCSI) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the country's best-known higher education institution in science and technology, set up an institutional archive. The institute publishes about 1,800 papers a year, of which about 900 are indexed in the Web of Science, which gives access to the world's most prestigious, high impact research journals. Yet so far, the archive has attracted less than 70 papers. This experience emphasises an important point: it is not enough just to create an open-access archive. Filling it is far more important (and difficult). After all, an empty archive is worse than having no archive at all. But attitudes of the journals are changing, making institutional archiving a more attractive proposition. It is important for champions of open access to let scientists know that many journals, including high-impact titles such as Nature and the British Medical Journal, already permit authors to archive both preprints and postprints. The emphasis should therefore be on setting up open archives rather than on persuading journal publishers to make their journals open access. If scientists and scientific establishments in China, India and Brazil can be persuaded to adopt open access quickly, then it is likely that the rest of the developing world will follow. This article is courtesy Scidev.net. Check out the new South Asia section of this website, focussing on science and development issues. -FN FORWARDED VIA: Frederick Noronha (FN)Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net http://www.ryze.com/go/fredericknoronha http://fn-floss.notlong.com
[GKD] India's PM Launches Village Resource Centre
Manmohan Singh launches village resource centre By Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday launched the Village Resource Centre (VRC) that aims at providing a host of intelligent services to make India's 600,000 villages prosperous. Conceived by the Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and shaped by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the satellite-based VRC is more than just bridging the urban-rural divide through information technology. The centre will be used to provide information about agricultural, health, education and also government services to the villagers. Launching the centre here, Manmohan Singh said: Unless we take the benefits of modern science and technology to our villages, we cannot get rid of mass poverty which has afflicted millions and millions of our people. He described the mission as yet another saga of adventure and enterprise to bring the benefit of modern technology for the development of India's villages. A satellite link provided by ISRO would provide villages with local specific information. The VRCs would use communication and remote sensing satellites to provide information on a range of subjects like natural resources, sites for drinking water and ground water recharging, water harvesting and wasteland reclaiming. Initially, the VRC will be set up in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Wayanad and Palakkad areas of Kerala and in some parts of the northeast. ISRO and the Department of Space plan to set up more such VRCs in regions such as islands, mountainous terrains and tribal-dominated areas, before extending the service to all 600,000 villages. Frederick Noronha (FN)Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net http://www.ryze.com/go/fredericknoronha http://fn-floss.notlong.com Difficulties to send email across? Write to fredericknoronha at vsnl.net ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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] BytesForAll: South Asian ICT4D Newsletter
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org _/ Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia _/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers 062004 _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Open Access Workshop MSSRF ( http://www.mssrf.org ), the MS Swaminathan Research Fundation, held an interesting event in early May. Sunil Abraham [EMAIL PROTECTED] reports that the focus of this workshop is GNU EPrints, a 'Mukt' and 'Muft' software. The GNU EPrints has been developed at the Electronics and Computer Science Department of the University of Southampton. See http://software.eprints.org/. Today there are 132 known archives running EPrints software worldwide. And the total number of records in these archives is 45894. Dr Leslie Carr demonstrated the installation of E-Prints software on Red Hat 7.3. E-Prints requires Apache Web Server, MySQL Relational Database Server and Perl Programming Language. After that Prof. Leslie Chan demonstrated OAIster [http://www.oaister.org This is a meta-crawler for Open Archives. Today it has 3,163,129 records from 282 institutions. Says Abraham: This is really a *must see* for all researchers, documentalists, archivists and information scientists. OAIster is based on an Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. See more at http://www.openarchives.org/ In short OAI provides standards, technologies and tools to Open Archive projects that wish to publish data in a uniform manner and thus leverage the collective strength of the network. This is similar to the Dublin Core http://dublincore.org/ initiative. Other presentations included one by Dr D K Sahu on Open File Formats and design of Meta Data. He is making a detailed comparison of PDF, HTML, XML and SGML. Low or no Net access Jude Griffin [EMAIL PROTECTED] of the Electronic Products Group Management Sciences for Health Boston http://www.msh.org has been visiting India to look at the state of innovation for those with low or no Internet access, and who is doing innovative work in ICTs in India. Says he: I work for Management Sciences for Health -- an international health nonprofit whose audience is health professionals in the developing world. This audience spans health workers in Bangladesh to ministry officials in Latin America. Their products and courses use a mix of delivery methodologies including Web, email, CD rom, print and face-to-face. Says Griffin: We are looking for possible collaboration partners for a variety of ICT initiatives from courses to communities of practice which would utilize a range of ICTs. Open publishing --- The Journal of Orthopaedics is applying the principles of Free Software and Open Source to the publishing world. Open Access has already become the buzzword in scholarly discussions and publishing circles. The scholar community, which was denied barrier-free access to vital research, has already begun dreaming of the free world where exchange of vital research is seamless. The Open Access Movements are gaining momentum and public acceptance worldwide. Open Access can change the scenario by a multi-pronged approach. Firstly by releasing the content in an open access license, which inherently includes reuse permissions, will make it available in different forms and different avenues free of cost. This significantly improves access. For example, a recent editorial published in Calicut Medical Journal[ www.calicutmedicaljournal.org] was translated to vernacular language and republished in a popular health magazine, which made the article accessible to a community which had no access to the primary literature. Dr.P.V Ramachandran Professor of Radiodiagnosis Medical College Aleppey E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.pvramachandran.com and Dr.Vinod Scaria of Kozhikode in Kerala E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.drvinod.com made this point very aptly recently. Digilibraries - Check out the mailing list for digital libraries, Digilib_India. To subscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] It brings across useful informational nuggets, like the recent one about USEMARCON Plus v1.41. USEMARCON is a software application that allows users to convert bibliographic records from one MAchine-Readable Cataloguing (MARC) format to another. To download the software please visit the the British Library web site at http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/usemarcon.html Database globally - A recent advert pointed to the work of Nexus Information Services Company Private Limited (affiliated to National Information Services Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland, USA). It is one of the foremost database access, production and publishing companies in the world. Nexus Information Services Co. Pvt. Ltd is located at Hyderabad, and can be contacted via
[GKD] First Community Radio in South Africa Celebrates 10th
Anniversary Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Success Rewards Bush Courage By Michello Cho [Radio World * July 2003] CAPE TOWN, South Africa: The Bush Radio story exemplifies the power of positive thinking. The first community radio initiative in South Africa -- dubbled the Little Radio Station That Could ... and Did -- proudly celebrated its 10th anniversary in May (2003). The celebrations kicked off on 1 May with a 10 Years/10 Days/10 Bucks campaign. The award-winning station asked listeners and newcomers to support its decade of low-budget, high-quality programming with a donation of 10 rand or more during 10 days of festivities in which Bush Radio re-aired broadcasts from 1993 to the present. Since its humble beginnings during the Apartheid era, Bush Radio has always striven to serve as the voice of the people. It was started by the Cassette Education Trust (CASET), a small group interested in developing an alternative audio communications system. They recorded information in radio format to cassettes, made duplicates and distributed them in townships in and around Cape Town. Aiming to inform and educate the poor, the tapes covered literacy, hygiene, health and, of course, political issues. CASET had one underlying philosophy, Information is Power, and the initiators knew that the airwaves would be integral to its long-term educational and empowerment objectives. CASET eventually proposed establishing a community radio facility at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), just outside Cape Town. Because the university was located far from the city and surrounded by dense bush, it was known as Bush College. After much deliberation, it became clear that the UWC campus would not be a suitably accessible location and operations moved to Salt River, Cape Town. In 1992, CASET dissolved as an organisation and relaunched as a community radio initiative. Keeping the original campus name, Bush Radio was born. For the first time in South African history, black people would have the opportunity to be broadcasters. Money was needed and Bush Radio approached numerous international donors for support. Fredrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German nongovernmental organisation with a keen interest in training potential broadcasters, provided crucial help. Once Bush Radio secured the support of FES, it never looked back and word spread quickly. Job applications started to flood in and Bush Radio soon established itself as a key trainer and lobbyist for community radio in South Africa. Pressuring the government to grant it a broadcast license, training fledging stations across the country, and building a strong reputation internationally, Bush Radio slowly rooted itself and the concept of community radio. After having a number of its license applications denied, Bush Radio decided to broadcast illegally. In May 1993, a group of about 20 volunteer activists took a 16-channel mixing desk, CDs, tapes and an illegally obtained transmitter to a room, set up and prepared to switch it on. They circulated a press release, designed a short program schedule and composed a song. After a few test runs, Bush Radio went on the air. The first broadcast lasted four hours and, just as quickly as Bush Radio went on air, the authorities raided the premises, shut it down and seized all the equipment. Two key members were charged with illegal broadcasting, illegal possession of broadcast apparatus and obstructing the course of justice. The case dragged on but, following tremendous pressure from individuals and organisations worldwide, the state dropped the charges eight months later. Today the station operates from a three-story building and boasts digital studio tools, sharing its facilities and resources with the Broadcast Training Institute -- a center for the training of producers, journalists and media-makers. The award-winning Bush Radio program YAA 2000 (Youth Against AIDS) earned a silver medal for Best Radio Program at the New York Radio Festival in 2001. The previous year, the station won the prestigious Prince Claus Award for development and, most recently, station director Zane Ibrahim received a honourable token of appreciation from the eight Association Mondiale des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires (AMARC) conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. These achievements, together with the quality programming, convinced the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to grant the station a four-year broadcast license in June 2002 -- just reward for an extraordinary example of bravery and determination. * * * Michelle Cho is a producer/coordinator at Bush Radio in Cape Town, South Africa. ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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
Re: [GKD] RFI: Low-Bandwidth Long Distance Wireless E-mail
Roberto Verzola wrote: Speaking of low-cost access (to the Web, via email), the www4mail services have been one of the most appreciated. I considered it my lifeline when I stayed offline (but kept email) for more than a year, and would still use it for most of my Web access if it remained available. Unfortunately, the www4mail services I know have become flaky and unreliable, sometimes responding sometimes not. A pity. We keep talking of low-cost access, yet when one becomes available that is truly useful and appreciated, few want to maintain it. Roberto Verzola is right. I just can't seem to get through to the www4mail services these days. The services were very helpful for us in the bandwidth poor parts of the globe. FN -- - Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa, India f r e d @ b y t e s f o r a l l . o r g Ph 832.2409490 / 832.2409783 Cell 9822 122436 Phone calls: preferably from 1300 to 0500 (IST) Try landlines if mobile is temporarily unavailable JUST OUT: Goa photos http://www.goa-world.com/fotofolio - ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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] Sustainable Agriculture Magazine on CD
A world of agri info... on a CD --- LEISA arrived today with a bit of a bulge, and my guess was not wrong... it was a CD. One of the mags which I find rather interesting in the field of agriculture gave me a pleasant surprise. It included the entire archives of its articles, covering a period of virtually two decades -- from 1984 to 2003. What's more, I found the note on the back of the CD encouraging: ILEIA encourages readers to copy and circulate articles. Please acknowledge LEISA Magazine and send us a copy of your publication. Just goes to show what an attitude favouring the free-sharing of knowledge and information can achieve. But let's get to basics first. LEISA isn't just *any* magazine on agriculture. It's focus is specifically on *low external input and sustainable agriculture*. Hence its name. Whatever funding organisations and the Western development mind-set might be critiqued for, this magazine's approach seems relevant to large parts of the planet. So, naturally, one waits for it whenever it shows up in the post. Inspite of the fact that this writer has no specialist knowledge in agriculture The CD itself covers vast ground. In an easy-to-browse format, which can be accessed by (m)any web-browsers, this CD includes a volume index, author index and topic index. Clicking on the 'topic index' takes you to scores of articles related to themes like agro-biodiversity, agroforestry, animal husbandry, biotechnology, communication and learning, crop management, farming systems, food security, gender, indigenous knowledge, pest management, policy and advocacy, resources, soil-fertility, sustainability, trade and marketing and water management. Interesting stuff. The next question: how does one replicate copies of this CD and share it among those who could benefit from the knowledge it contains? If you have any ideas, do get in touch... TO GET TO KNOW more about LEISA, visit its website at http://www.ileia.org Email ileia at ileia.nl LEISA India: amebang at giasbg01.vsnl.net.in (AME, Bangalore). Local organisations and individuals in the South (Third World) can receive the magazine free of charge on request. Write to subscriptions at ileia.nl -- - April 2004 | Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa| Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 1 2 3| 4 5 6 7 8 9 10| Email fred at bytesforall.org 11 12 13 14 15 16 17| Writing with a difference 18 19 20 21 22 23 24| ... on what makes *the* difference 25 26 27 28 29 30 | http://www.bytesforall.org --- CHECK OUT USENET http://www.algebra.com/~scig/approved/threads.html --- Urgent email to fredericknoronha at vsnl.net Mobile 9822 122436 ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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] Video Volunteers: Using Video to Fight Poverty (India)
I would like to appeal to those on this list to join-in a debate currently underway for the legalisation of community-radio in India. This campaign has been on since the mid-nineties, when the Supreme Court of India gave its landmark judgement saying that the airwaves are public property and should be listening to a diversity of voices. If interested in knowing more, kindly check up the archives below, or join the mailing list at the URL alongside: ___ cr-india mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india -- --- | Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist | Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 | | Email fred at bytesforall.org | Writing with a difference | ... on what makes *the* difference | http://www.bytesforall.org --- CHECK OUT USENET http://www.algebra.com/~scig/approved/threads.html --- Regards from Goa, FN http://www.creativevisions.org/videovols.htm#uptotop Video Volunteers Putting video into the hands of grassroots activists who are leading the fight against poverty. VIDEO VOLUNTEERS is a new program dedicated to spreading the use of video as a tool to alleviate poverty in the developing world. Volunteer filmmakers join non-governmental organizations (NGOs), initially in India, for two months to write, shoot and edit one short film for the NGO. They also train the NGO staff to make their own small videos and to use video to give a voice to the poor. Through the Video Volunteers Program, NGOs have a powerful tool for promoting their work and spreading their messages. THE TIME IS RIGHT In the 1990's, a World Bank survey asked thousands of the poorest of the poor to identify the biggest hurdle to their advancement. Above even food and shelter, the number one problem cited was access to a voice. The Video Volunteers project is about giving a voice to the voiceless, and to the people who fight for them. Thanks to inexpensive video cameras and computer editing, the cost of producing videos is finally within the reach of the grassroots. For NGOs, videos can be a great addition to an education program and are an effective tool for policy action and awareness raising in the media. NGOs can also now start incorporating the video camera into their daily work. We teach them to use video for effective long-term project documentation. In addition to our documentary training, we will also teach them to edit simple sequences together quickly for promotional material, for example, or to stream personal testimonials from the community on the web. EMPOWERING PEOPLE Thanks to new digital technologies, anyone can make a film--you may not be able to write, but you can see and you can talk, and that means you can make your own video. In group brainstorming sessions, members of the community decide what messages the film will deliver, who the main characters should be and how the film will develop. Participants in the program are encouraged to get involved in all aspects of the filmmaking process, from the shooting to the interviewing to the editing. Why? Because if it's a film to educate the community in health issues, the community knows best what will resonate with its own people. If the intended audience is TV viewers a world away, the poor have a right to tell their own stories, and not be spoken for. DISTRIBUTION The goal of Video Volunteers is to help NGOs communicate better, and also to share vital information both within and beyond their local communities. The videos will be streamed on One World TV, the leading internet television station, which will become a hub for those using video in poverty alleviation. If the NGO desires, we will help distribute VHS copies of the videos to other organizations along with educational or other support materials. CURRENT VIDEO VOLUNTEER PROJECTS In autumn 2003, Video Volunteers successfully piloted the program at the NGOs of two Indian Ashoka Fellows (see www.ashoka.org .) VV made one promotional film for Akanksha, the Bombay slum children's supplementary education program. They also made an advocacy film for I-CARD, an Assamese NGO working to strengthen the cultural identity of the Mising tribe who live along the banks of the Brahmaputra. I-CARD was given video training and is now working on its own productions. CORE MEMBERS: Jessica Mayberry (Program Coordinator) - Jessica Mayberry was awarded a Fellowship by the American India Foundation in 2002 and spent nine months making films and conducting video trainings at the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad. She completed a 30-minute film on women-led initiatives to combat drought, and shot and wrote a second film about the
[GKD] Community Radio Gives India's Villagers a Voice
INTERESTING STORY from South India. Sorry for the delay in posting it. As someone involved with the community-radio debate, I'd urge anyone who sees potential in this form of communication to add their voice to the demand for freeing India's airwaves. The world's largest democracy needs to prove its commitment to free speech. Interestingly, while Deputy PM L K Advani was recently praising the potential of community radio (while launching the educational radio station at Anna University in Chennai) officials of the government are quoted below as expressing their reservations. Fear is the key! The potential is lost. If you would like to join a mailing-list devoted to spreading awareness about community radio and its potential, sign on below... FN ___ cr-india mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india ___ Community Radio Gives India's Villagers a Voice Officials Worry Local Stations May Foment Unrest By Rama Lakshmi Special to The Washington Post Wednesday, September 17, 2003; BOODIKOTE, India -- Crushed under the weight of three years of drought, the villagers lost their patience when the public water pipes dried up last June. For eight days, there was no water for cooking, cleaning or washing. There were murmurs of protest everywhere. Women came out of their homes with empty pots demanding that the old pipes be fixed and new wells dug. Men stood at street corners and debated angrily. The village chief made promises, but nothing happened. Then, a young man ran over to the village radio station and picked up a recorder. Women complained and shouted into the mike and vented their anger at the village chief's indifference. There was chaos everywhere. But I recorded everything, said Nagaraj Govindappa, 22, a jobless villager. He played the tape that evening on the small community radio station called Namma Dhwani, or Our Voices. The embarrassed village chief ordered the pipes repaired. Within days, water was gushing again. India's first independent community radio initiative is in this millet- and tomato-growing village in the southern state of Karnataka. It is a cable radio service because India forbids communities to use the airwaves. A media advocacy group, with the help of U.N. funds, laid cables, sold subsidized radios with cable jacks to villagers and trained young people to run the station. The power of community radio as a tool of social change is enormous in a country that is poor, illiterate and has a daunting diversity of languages and cultures, said Ashish Sen, director of Voices, the advocacy group. Emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling in 1995 declaring airwaves to be public property, citizens groups and activists began pushing for legislation that would free the airwaves from government control. Two years ago, India auctioned its FM stations to private businesses to air entertainment programs. And late last year, India allowed some elite colleges to set up and run campus radio stations. By keeping the airwaves restricted, activists complain, the Indian government lags behind such South Asian neighbors as Nepal and Sri Lanka. Nepal launched South Asia's first community radio station in 1995 and today has at least five independent stations across the country that address people's complaints and act as hubs of information in times of strife. In Sri Lanka, Kothmale Radio has been an integral part of the Kothmale community for 14 years. Last December, Sri Lanka issued a broadcasting license to the formerly clandestine radio station run by the Tamil Tiger rebels, Voice of Tigers. The decision was made to strengthen the peace process underway after nearly two decades of war and to bring the radio transmissions under Sri Lankan law. Radiophony, an Indian lobby group for community radio, claims that villagers can set up a low-powered, do-it-yourself radio station -- with a half-watt transmitter, a microphone, antenna and a cassette player -- for approximately $25. The group says such a station can reach about a third of a mile and cover a small village. Last year, the group supplied a low-wattage transmitter to a World Bank-supported women's group in Oravakal, a village in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Mana Radio, or Our Radio, ran for five months before officials from the communications ministry seized the equipment and shut down the broadcast in February. We have to tread very cautiously when it comes to community radio, said Pavan Chopra, secretary of India's ministry of information and broadcasting. As of today we don't think that villagers are equipped to run radio stations. People are unprepared, and it could become a platform to air provocative, political content that doesn't serve any purpose except to divide people. It is fraught with danger. The ministry runs the All India Radio service that covers the country and has more than 200 stations.
[GKD] Tackling India's Literacy Problem
This reply was sent out to one specific query. Guess it applies for others interested too. FN ** It is always good to be sharing information with like minded individuals and organisations. As you may have learned from my friend, Fred Noronha, and perhaps a perusal of the website, www.tataliteracy.com, Tata Consultancy Services has been working in this field since May 2000. As of now our computer based functional literacy programme has offerings in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. More than 30,000 persons have become functionally literate in Andhra, Tamil Nadu and other smaller locations in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It requires the use of a sound enabled computer, Pentium 1 will suffice and we encourage the use of primers of the State Resource Centres of NLM which are inexpensive to procure. We provide the software on free-for-non-commercial-use basis on a CD-ROM. I am sending a few items of interest. In case you would like to have a CD, do let us know something of your initiatives for literacy by radio, and send your postal address and telephone number. Best wishes, Anthony Lobo Tata Consultancy Services Air India Building 10th Flr # 71 Nariman Point Mumbai 400 021 Tel 56689378 (d) 5668 (bd) [EMAIL PROTECTED] corp soc responsibility : adult literacy prog WWW.TATALITERACY.COM * * * THE 300-MILLION QUESTION: HOW TO SPREAD LITERACY IN INDIA... AND FAST From Frederick Noronha WHAT DO you do with a population of close to 300 million iliterates, who can speak their native languages, but cannot read or write in them? Do we see them merely as empty stomachs, and a burden on the nation? Or, is this an untapped potential, which can be converted into 600 million useful hands? If a project by premier Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) can find the right partners, and hit critical mass, then this large section could be converted into productive individuals who can read signboards. Maybe even the simple text of a newspaper in under 40 hours of learning-time. Retired Major General B G Shively's recent mission to the Goa port town of Vasco da Gama saw him take on an unusual enemy -- illiteracy. It also took to India's smallest state an innovative campaign that brings enticingly near the dream of making India literate. Says Pune-based Shively: Every adult has inborn qualities (and intelligence). You only have to activate it. This military-man now consulting advisor to the Tata Consultancy Services' literacy plan suggests that the computer can turn into a magic wand of sorts, to spread reading skills without the need for a huge army of teachers. Quite some work has already been done by TCS in Andhra Pradesh, with Telugu. Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali are the other languages worked on. Gujarati is shaping up. What's more, there's an added bonus: India could become functionally literate in just three to four years time, if -- and this is a big if -- this method is vigorously implemented. How does it work? Simple. The software giant TCS is using low-end computers to take out the monotony from teaching, piggy-backing on the initiatives already undertaken by the National Literacy Mission, and treating adults very differently from children when it comes to teaching them. Some rules: don't make an adult sit for tests. Don't get caught up with writing, as the difficulties involved acts as a major disincentive. Reading skills are most important. Adults can't be made to study alphabets the same way children unquestioningly take to it. One-third of our population -- old, young and adults -- are illiterate. Some 150-200 million are adult illiterates between 15-50 years. Illiteracy is a major social concern, says Shively. Growing at 1.3% per annum roughly, literacy is creeping in just too slowly to make a difference for India's efficiency. That's where, says TCS, computers come in. Software generated by TCS, which is given to volunteer groups free-of-cost, tries to teach adults to learn to read a language by words, rather than the traditional method of learning by alphabets. In the Goa Shipyard Limited, one of India's military-run building centres, the concept recently drew interest. Sixty workers signed-up to learn the most important of the 3 Rs. Andhra is however the state where this project has made the most progress. There's almost nothing the teacher has to speak. Everything is in the software. So teachers can run 5-6 classes (one-hour) classes in a day, without getting tired. You don't need a trained teacher (because of the software), says Shively. In 40-hours flat, an illiterate could be turned into a 'functional literate', claims the major-general. This would enable one to read simple newspaper headlines, check out bus directions, read signboards and the like. Hopefully, such skills could be deepened over time. Their ideas are put out on the site www.tataliteracy.com, and the TCS is claiming a good response even from a few
[GKD] Will Computers Help Goa's Children?
Will computers help Goa's children? By Daryl Martyris dmartyris at hotmail.com For the last five years a silent revolution has been happening in Goa's village schools. Overseas Goans have been sending money and used computers to village schools. The government has been distributing PCs (personal computers) to schools. These are merely symptoms of a wider trend -- the growing awareness of the need to be computer literate, and to meet the demand computer training classes are mushrooming. But why this strongly felt need? Ask parents and teachers and they'll tell you that their kids need to know computers to get a good job. No doubt the Indian software and BPO boom have something to do with this calculation. Ask school-kids and you get the same response. But, with few exceptions, kids also say that they don't want to be computer programmers. I know this because in my five years of being involved with the Goa Schools Computers Projects (GSCP), I have asked dozens of kids the same question. The question then, is whether getting a computer diploma from NIIT or learning computer skills in school will help, say, 14 year old Geeta be a fashion designer, or 15 year old Elroy be mechanic... or help any of the other thousands of kids in one of Goa's approximately 450 secondary and higher secondary schools which have PCs become what they want to be? One would hope so. The crores of rupees being poured into computers for schools by the government are seen by the authorities as an investment in the future of Goa's children -- an admirable goal indeed, and one pursued with much greater efficiency by the Goa Department of Education than perhaps any other state in India. The reality, however, just might be different. In May this year, Gaspar D'Souza wrote a series of well-researched articles in the Navhind Times on how basic computer skills or even an intermediate diploma from the private companies no longer commands a wage premium in Goa. In short, for the handful of students who get into the post higher-secondary institutions offering computer programming skills, the future beckons brightly in Bangalore or Mumbai -- but for the B.As, B.Coms and BScs, acquiring a basic computer skills diploma is just another line their Curriculum Vitae's that is rapidly becoming standard. Now, this doesn't mean that kids don't need to acquire computer skills in school. It means that they don't need three years to learn how to use a word-processing and spreadsheet application, as the present syllabus prescribed. They can learn the same thing in a month's time by themselves, without any help from a teacher. I've seen it with my own eyes -- barely literate slum kids teaching themselves how to use the computer. Computers in schools can be use in a much more effective manner to improve cognitive skills in students, giving them a boost in learning math and other subjects, thereby increasing the probability that students from humble village schools can compete for admission to professional colleges on par with elite city schools. The Internet can also compensate (though not fully) or the lack of good libraries in schools. Internet can give children from village schools a window on the world that normally only city schools have. For example, kids from the little village school of St. Bartholomeu's, Chorao, under the strict supervision of their computer teacher, email their cyber-buddies in a Boston school and learn about each other's lives. They use the Internet to make learning more interesting. Without computers in their school, few of them would have these opportunities. Personally, I'm not so sure that computers are the most important thing for school kids. For example, I'd rate a clean latrine in the school much higher, or good ventilation, or a well trained teacher who doesn't spend his entire class making kids mindlessly copy from the blackboard into their notebooks. Ten years after the Clinton administration's The Internet in every classroom became a reality in the US, there is no still firm link between computer usage and improved academic performance. Recent studies in Israeli schools and closer home, in municipal schools in Mumbai, have shown that unstructured learning exercises with educational software do not help children perform better in language studies and math. In fact, at lower standards, using computers on a regular basis actually caused them to regress. Conversely, a study by Michigan State University shows that low-income children who spent more than 30 minutes a day on the Internet saw improvements in their grade point average and their scores in standardized reading tests. There is a lesson to be learnt here. Firstly, unlike the US where every student has his or her own computer to use in schools, few schools in Goa have more than four computers and often barely enough room to fit a whole class into a lab. So kids are divided into batches and called after school for computer subject practicals. However a
[GKD] Using ICT to Improve Education (India)
IN A WORLD WHERE THOSE WHO CAN'T TEACH, I.T. CAN by Frederick Noronha CAN IT AND THE INTERNET help teacher's teach better, design courses better, build improved learning environments, and support the learner more adequately? Yes, say the experiences of technologists working in various parts of India on issues such as these. Online content is leading to flexible learning, web-based course-ware is being worked on, as are novel authoring tools for course-ware design. There's even attempts to design a digitally-enabled self-learning course for adults. These are other initiatives came up in a little-noticed international conference on online learning, held some months back at Mumbai, called Vidyakash. Let's look at some of them: Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services points to it's authoring tool called eVOLv, as a possible means of promoting e-learning. Madhuri Sawant of TCS says this is a world with a learn, unlearn and re-learn mantra, and the need for updating knowledge is very strongly felt in a changing world. eVOLVe has a video window which displays a movie. It gives audio too. Synchronised information appears in an adjacent window. Thumb-nails allow the learner to navigate through the course. There's an inbuilt quiz tool -- to test the learner's knowledge. Streaming video technology shortens download time, and helps cope with bandwidth constraint. You get the transcript of the script, in sync with the video. There are also other functionalities that you can avail of while learning -- links, email, help and note-pad. IIM-Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Management from the garden city, has also been working on its own model of e-learning. Say T R Madanmohan and Jai Ganesh of IIMB: The Internet has enormous power to improve the educational process. By using the Internet, education can be personalised to each user, so that each student is given a targeted set of materials based on his or her specific educational goals and previous achievements. At the same time, the Internet allows material to be updated dynamically, which creates an up-to-the minute resource for students. IIMB, a 30-year-old institution considered to be one of India's best business schools, keeps in touch with its alumni through e-mail and other forms of feedback. They've been trying to address concerns of alumni for the need for upgradation of skills. So, their customised model offers tailor-made material, study guides, activities and discussions formed around existing material -- textbooks, CD-ROM resources, or tutorials. Online interactions and discussions occupy about half the students' time, with predetermined content filling the other half. There are other solutions, like eCollege (an e-learning software and services provider). Suggests the IIMB team: Technology has created a powerful set of tools for us to use in the educational world... Based on the experience, technology is not the limiting factor, but making inroads into the habit of learning (is). Most of us are habituated to lecture-based and other direct methods, and most of the assignments are group-based. IIMB's researchers also point out that some academics and educators are, and will, continue to be opposed to e-learning in principle. Academics and educators have expressed concerns regarding the perceived loss of control over the education process that can result from the out-sourcing of e-learning campuses and courses, and the possibility for lower-quality learning outcomes. Some of the concerns may be genuine and need to be addressed at an institutional level. Meanwhile, Acharya is an intelligent tutoring system for teaching SQL. Acharya provides an intelligent problem-solving environment where students can try out solutions to SQL problems posed by the system, and get qualitative feedback. This has been focussed on by Sandhya Bhagat, Latesh Bhagat, Jojumon Kavalan and M Sasikumar of NCST at Navi Mumbai. Says this team: The essential differences of an intelligent-tutoring system and a computer-based tutoring system are in the level and detail with which the subject is represented and the use of a student model. Intelligent-tutoring systems were a dormant subject during the last decade, after a long period of significant interest among the artificial intelligence community. In their paper, they describe the architecture of Acharya -- using Java servlet technology and a web-based front-end and POSTgreSQL at the back-end. They argue: Acharya is based on guided discovery. A student should be given opportunities to discover things themselves, rather than being told about them. From Rajasthan, we are told of Prabodh, a distributed online Hindi grammar teaching-learning system. Prabodh is an intelligent tutoring system, which tries to teach elementary level Hindi grammar following the principles of pedagogy. It allows geographically-scattered expert tutors to create lessons and exercises, based on Hindi grammar concepts, through GUIs (graphical-user
[GKD] Using Computers to Battle Illiteracy (India)
On Thursday, I finally met with Anthony Lobo and Maj Gen B G Shively (Retd) of the Tata Consultancy Services. I've been following their work in the field of using computers to battle illiteracy for some time now, actually since June 2000 when the story first emerged in the technical press. In brief, they use a software product of theirs to help just about anyone teach adult illiterates to get access to 'functional literacy'. The focus is on reading skills (so that anyone can read a few basic words, maybe even simple newspaper headlines and signboards... rather than just being able to sign one's name). What is interesting is that TCS claims this program is 90% successful, and can convert an adult into 'functionally literate' in just about 40 hours of teach. What's more, anyone can teach -- since the computer does most of the work, one doesn't need to be a skilled teacher. Each teacher can take a number of classes without getting tired. TCS is a commercial firm. But this is a free-of-cost software, which is available to anyone without charge willing to implement it for community benefit. There are no hidden costs. The lessons tie up with the programs and books of the National Literacy Mission, and Indian attempt to fight illiteracy nationwide. NLM's books are inexpensively priced, each costing around five rupees or so... As far as Goa goes, this is a 'high-literacy' state. But, we really cannot afford to be complacent. Goa is ranked fourth highest nationwide in terms of its literacy achievements. But even regions like Lakshadweep and parts of the North East, and of course, Kerala too, have done better than Goa. We here have not been able to touch the target of 100% literacy, despite trying for some time. When one checked the National Literacy Mission website (http://nlm.nic.in) it was surprising to see that Goa has no 'state resource centre' listed against its name. Goa also needs to fight illiteracy. Every individual in the state has the right to be able to live life more fully. It only helps Goa if everyone here is a productive individual, rather than an underperforming person condemned to a life of poverty and lack of opportunity. We also owe a responsibility to migrant workers drawn into the state, and regardless of origins, they deserve a chance to function at higher efficiency. This helps them; and, of course, this helps Goa too. In the context of the TCS software, we here have a number of tasks which deserve to be undertaken. Goa Shipyard Ltd at Vasco is undertaking a program on this front, thanks to a push from Sumita Pillai [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Of tangential interest, the GSL had also undertaken a campaign to fight alcoholism, when it was released that workers from that unit were dying at alarming rates of upto one worker a week from alcohol-related complications! But apart from GSL, few others in Goa seem to be aware of the potential of this software. In addition, because of obvious constraints over resources, TCS currently has only the software program in five languages -- Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali. Gujarati is being worked on. Kannada remains a huge gap. Konkani, along with other uncovered languages, too deserves a program of its own. The many protagonists of this language could surely come forward to undertake some initiative (as also, another initiative for making computing in Konkani a reality). Could institutions like TSKK get involved to make this a reality? Does anyone know where the Konkani primers brought out by the National Literacy Mission are available? Can we call ourselves really independent till we have fought and conquered illiteracy, poverty, malnutrition, bigotry and similar enemies? If you know of anyone with an interest in education, please pass this on to her/him. If you want a copy of the software, check out the contacts below, or contact me. Some links you might find useful: Anthony Lobo, TCS, Air India Bldg, 10th Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021 Tel 56689378 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Maj Gen B G Shively, AVSM (Retd) Consulting Advisor, Tata Consultancy Services, Pune [EMAIL PROTECTED] National Literacy Mission (India) site http://nlm.nic.in http://www.tataliteracy.com Site explaining the TCS idea of promoting functional literacy through low-end computers. If you have any ideas or suggestions on how such initiatives could be further spread, do get back. FN - Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks - T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436
[GKD] Information Societies and the Gender Divide (India)
Building Information Societies: Grappling with Gendered fault-lines Reshmi Sarkar, IT for Change, Bangalore Information technology (IT) is viewed as a potent force in transforming social, economic, and political life across the globe. Today, without being plugged into the information age, there is little chance for countries or regions to develop. Of course all is not hunky dory about the IT revolution; the celebrated potential of IT is remote from the realities of many. And, even among information have-nots, a significant majority are women from developing countries. Says Swasti Mitter, Deputy Director of the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies, Technological innovations become commercially successful if and when the creator of the innovation could make use of political, economic and legal networks. Thus the dominant group in a society determines the shape and direction of a society's techno-economic order - and the image of an inventor has almost always been male. Lack of access to relevant networks in the public domain explains the historical marginalization of women's contribution to technological innovations. Gender concerns in the diffusion of IT have assumed global significance today. A valuable addition to the body of work on gender and information technology is a document by Nancy Hafkin and Nancy Taggart, titled 'Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study'. The authors remark, Most women within developing countries are in the deepest part of the divide - further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share. If access to and use of these technologies is directly linked to social and economic development, then it is imperative to ensure that women in developing countries understand the significance of these technologies and use them. If not, they will become further marginalized from the mainstream of their countries and of the world. So what prevents women from having a share in the pie? While poverty is a gender neutral attribute affecting the access of men and women equally to the gains from technology, several gender-specific antecedents impede women's access of IT: apart from literacy and education, social and cultural norms that constrain women's mobility and access to resources as well as women's are huge obstacles. Science and technology education is necessary for women to work in IT at the level of computer programmers, engineers, systems analysts, and designers. Women's low enrolment in science impedes this globally. In developing countries, there is a great deal of variation in the percentages of women in natural sciences, computer science, and engineers. For example, women comprise between 30 and 50 percent of students in computer science and other natural sciences in a number of developing countries. Africa remains the area of greatest concern, however, as African women have the lowest participation rates in the world in science and technology education at all levels. The masculine image attributed to science and technology in curriculum and media is a universal phenomenon. Few women are producers of information technology, whether as Internet content providers, programmers, designers, inventors, or fixers of computers. In addition, women are also conspicuously absent from decision-making structures in information technology in developing countries. That women Internet users in developing countries are not representative of women in the country as a whole, but are restricted to part of a small, urban educated elite, is illustrative of the layered character of the digital divide -- in this sense there are many divides and poor women are at the lowest rung of the technology ladder. According to UN statistics, in many developing countries, less than one percent of the population, male or female, has Internet access. By regions, women are 22 percent of all Internet users in Asia, 38 percent of those in Latin America, and 6 percent of Middle Eastern users. No regional figures by sex are available for Africa. Women in the New Economy The new economy offers many possibilities for IT-enabled businesses that women can establish or in which they can work. Most numerous are the service jobs outsourced by major corporations in the U.S. and Europe. At the low end of the skill level and largest in number are jobs in data entry and data capture. Software programming, GIS, and systems analysis jobs require much higher skills and education, but women are moving into these jobs in several developing countries. Research by women scholars like Nancy Hafkin, cited earlier, suggest that while the business-to-consumer e-commerce area has generated a great deal of excitement, it can be a difficult field to enter. Women's handicrafts can find niche markets, but marketing and management skills are needed, and supply and delivery problems must be addressed. Some successful developing country e-businesses have targeted
[GKD] Flaws in India's Model e-Governance Project
Flaws in Bhoomi, India's model e-governance project By Keya Acharya Karnataka's Bhoomi project, which computerised 20 million rural land records, was designed as an instrument of equity. But is IT also reinforcing inequality, with men benefiting more than women and the rich benefiting more than the poor? India has rushed headlong into a romance with electronic governance but, in a country struggling to emerge from centuries of entrenched inequalities and poverty, its outcome is baffling observers. Electronic governance, or e-governance, is pushing buttons around the world. It's the latest buzzword for governments trying to cut poverty, address corruption in their bureaucracies and make themselves more responsive to their citizens. It is part of a whole swathe of so-called 'digital solutions' that many hold can help developing countries leapfrog, or bypass, certain stages in their development processes. And the Indian experiment is being keenly watched as experts try to gauge the efficacy of the budding relationship between the government, the computer and the citizen. So far only a handful of state governments have tried to go on-line with any seriousness. The southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala pioneered the move to digitise the vast and complex workings of government. Now, with no standardised format to follow, some of India's other 29 states and 6 union territories are having a go. We are the best, Karnataka's Information Technology Secretary Vivek Kulkarni told Panos Features proudly, revealing an underlying rivalry. Karnataka's capital Bangalore was chosen by the World Bank to be the first developing country host for its annual Conference on Development Economics held in May, in recognition of its IT achievements. The task is huge: less than 1% of the mammoth administration in India is computerised, and most has been done in a piecemeal fashion. The results are mixed, as a visit to various rural areas of Karnataka revealed. Karnataka is home to one of India's most prominent e-governance projects, launched in 2001. The Bhoomi (or 'land') project has seen the revenue department computerise the state's 20 million rural land records, involving some 6.7 million farmers. It's a project the federal government now wants all states to emulate, as strong data on land holdings is needed to implement development programmes. I have no complaints [about Bhoomi], says farmer Basavenappa Angadi, president of about 40 farmer self-help groups in the cotton-growing Dharwad district of Karnataka, 440 kilometres from Bangalore. Central to the Bhoomi project is the computerised system of producing a farmer's Record of Rights Tenancy Crops (RTC) - an all-important identity paper needed by the farmer to obtain bank loans (for diverse activities ranging from children's education to buying seeds), settle land disputes and even use as collateral for bail. It is no less than a social ID. In Kengeri, a satellite town near Bangalore, farmer Byregowda too likes his new RTC: This is now pukka [genuine]. The Village Accountant cannot change names anymore. Under the old system, some 9,000 Village Accountants (VA) were employed by the state revenue department. They lived in the village, had three or four villages under their jurisdiction and were responsible for maintaining land records, including 'mutations' which recorded changes in ownership. It was mainly through these 'mutations' that the poor suffered. Mutations became an instrument for rural corruption, exploitation and oppression. Landowners simply bribed the VA to change the titles of poor farmer's lands to their own name. Small farmers, mostly illiterate, could do little to change this state of affairs, either because they did not know of it or because they could not afford the VA's bribes. Now mutations can only be approved by the head of a taluka (a sub-district-level administrative unit) in the revenue department, and the farmer has to be present for their record to be changed - only the taluka head or computer clerk's thumbprint can open the file. The system is simple - at least in theory. The main town in each taluka has an 'e-kiosk' with two computers, a printer and a modem. The software, designed by the National Informatics Centre, stores all kinds of information for each villager, including the name of the landowner, history of previous ownership, and minute details of the land, including what other lands it borders, and how many trees and what type of soil it has. In order to access either an RTC or a mutation record, a farmer only has to turn up at the kiosk and hand in an application to the clerk, who keys in the request and gives the print-out to the farmer after checking their identity. The problems that arise have to do with the vast inequities that cut across the social, economic and cultural spectrum of India - although e-governance has gone some way to addressing corruption. Mallaiah Prabhakar, director of Karnataka's
[GKD] Results of a Survey of Computers in a School in Goa, India
URL: http://gscp.org/components/survey3.htm Results of survey conducted at Vasant Vidyalaya HS Respondents Profile 30 students 9 males, 21 females from grade 9 9 were 16-18 year range, 21 were 13-15 years range Background - Vasant Vidyalaya is a secondary school with a total enrollment of about 200 students from middle and lower class located in Siolim, a town of about 10,000 people. The school has a computer lab of 7 PCs, 2 (Windows) provided by Government and 4 (Linux) provided by GSCP in 2002, and 1 PC (Windows) additionally provided by the government in 2003. In the last semester of 2002-2003 academic year, 2 subject teachers were trained, and the social sciences teacher taught 3 Geography lesson in the computer lab using prepared lesson plans. In the same semester, children were permitted to use the computer lab after school hours on payment of a Rs. 10 per month fee. Internet use was demonstrated but not permitted on a regular basis because of phone cost considerations. Results - Respondents indicated that * English is their favorite subject (50%), followed by Art, Math and Science (30% each) (100% of students responded to this question) * They had been using PCs for less than a year (7%), 1-2 years (63%), 2-4 years (30%). This is consistent with Vasant Vidyalaya aquiring PCs 2 years ago Students who have used PCs for more than 2 years mostly have one at home or at a relative/friends home (100% of students responded) * Only 16% of students claim to have taught themselves to use computers, the rest said that their computer Teacher taught them (100% of students responded) * Software used by students at school other than spreadsheets, word-processor and paint tool Games (60%) and educational software (only 50%) (85% of students responded) * Favorite activity By far, Games (70%) and Paint (90%) were students favorite activites (85% of students responded) * Major challenges Using keyboard and mouse Technical problems Too many students, not enough time (74 % of students responded) * Accessibility of computers after school hours 30% of students said the computers were always accessible, 10% said they were sometimes accessible, 55% said they were never accessible 43% said they use computers after school hours (97% responded) This implies that the benefits of After hours school access were not reaching all students (did this mean the Rs. 10 per student was too much?) * Students opinion on the importance of computers Computers very Important for Learning computer skills For Job in future To learn new things Help with schoolwork Computers somewhat important for To find or access information To communicate with others (97% responded) This indicates that students are aware of the relationship between computer skills and future employment. The lower perceived importance for accessing information and communication reflects the fact that internet is not used appreciably yet. * How useful are the following to help you learn Teachers 70% Textbooks 40% Your parents 60% Your friends 60% Computers 73% CD-Rom 30% (100% responded) This would seem to suggest that teachers and computers are the most helpful for students learning experience. However, given that only 30% thought educational CD-ROMs were useful, the concept of learning experience was probably not clear enough. The interpretation of the following section on student opinions should be treated with care as students had difficulty understanding the question format. Neutral implies that the student did not have an opinion. * 12% think that do not like school (20% neutral) (83% of students responded) * 50% think that computers have made them like school more (33% neutral) (80% of students responded) * 33% think that they know more about computers than my teachers (70% of students responded) * 71% think that computers have made them better students (14% neutral) (70% of students responded) * 42% think that most teachers seem afraid to use computers in the classroom (33% neutral) (70% of students responded) * 57% say that their parents have never used computers (63% of students responded) * 57% think that their parents are very interested in their use of computers (63% of students responded) * 52 % would prefer to use computers alone when using computers in school (11% neutral) (60% of students responded) * Based on their experience with computers so far 50% want to use computers in your future profession (% neutral) (66 % of students responded) What did we learn from this survey * Identifying students least favorite subject opens the possibility of targeting the use of computer assisted teaching to make that subject more interesting * Students indicating that Paint and Games as favorite activities combined with the fact that they do not have frequent access to educational software raises the possibility that computers are becoming purely an entertainment tool *
[GKD] BytesForAll--South Asian IT for Dev. Newsletter
B y t e s F o r A l l --- http://www.bytesforall.org Making Computing Relevant to the People of South Asia AUG 2003 * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers -- ICTs and handicrafts -- In the Third World, artisans marketed their wares primarily through middlemen, who charge artificially low prices before marking up prices and shipping them to up-scale boutiques overseas. But with the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT), artisans have a competitive alternative. http://www.digitaldividend.org/pubs/pubs_06_overview_handicrafts.htm -- Traditional knowledge -- Traditional knowledge holders often stand outside the fold of intellectual property rights and are negatively affected by them. A new handbook makes intellectual property issues and protection options more understandable and readily available for traditional knowledge holders, human rights NGOs, and legal professionals. In addition to introducing intellectual property concepts, this handbook contains a series of exercises to help the user to identify and classify types of knowledge, cultural aspects, and community goals related to specific knowledge claims. Through a series of exercises, it is possible for traditional knowledge holders to identify whether or not specific intellectual property protection options are relevant or appropriate for their knowledge. An electronic version of the handbook in PDF format is now available for download at: http://shr.aaas.org/tek/handbook/ More details from Stephen A Hansen, Project Director, Science Intellectual Property in the Public Interest (SIPPI), American Association for the Advancement of Science 1200 New York Ave., NW Washington, DC 20005 USA Tel: (202) 326-6796 Fax: (202) 289-4950 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://shr.aaas.org WWW: http://sippi.aaas.org -- Info bank -- The Nayudamma Information Bank contains information about and easy access to technologies supported by IDRC - technologies from the South for the South. Providing contact names for all the technologies described, it is a way of sharing and updating information on technological advancements for international development. The information bank has been named in honour of the late Dr. Yelavarthy Nayudamma, a Sri Lankan who dedicated his life to demonstrating how science and technology can and should be used for human benefit. http://indev.nic.in/indev/profNewsItem.asp?id=649 -- Passing through -- Prof Ken Keniston [EMAIL PROTECTED], that thorough researcher of ICT-for-development themes in India, was back scouring the country recently. Said he: (M)y stay in India was productive and informative, not to mention enjoyableAs a result of the trip, and encouraged by Indian friends, I hope that an India-based project analyzing with some precision both the impact and the costs of the so-called 'ICT for the masses' projects could be undertaken over the course of the next two years. That could make for an interesting read. While we need not get pessimistic, it's long overdue that the hype be separated from the real projects with potential. See his site at www.kken.net --- FLOSS and development --- Free/Libre and Open Source Software practitioners from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America recently got together to produce a manifesto on the role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the development cooperation context. They asked all stake-holders to pay more attention to OSS, and argued it should be employed wherever possible. http://sarai.waag.org/display.php?id=28 -- Rural jobs -- Like anything related to rural sector, placement services for rural sector employees and employers are still very little organized, much less than in all other sectors. Millions of unemployed people grope in the dark, not knowing where to look for a job and this, despite the fact that innumerable vacancies remain unfilled, the employers also not knowing where to find the right people for them. So what's the way out? www.ruralnaukri.com sees the root cause of the problem as the absence of any organized meeting ground for employers and employees, according to
[GKD] i4d ezine - Can ICTs Change Rural Lives?
-- i4d is a bi-monthly publication. It is intended for those interested and involved in the use of Information and Communication Technologies for development of underserved communities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many activities in this wide and exciting field. Your involvement and participation is essential to the success of this endeavour. -- A print magazine for ICT? In an ICT meet I attended recently, the role of the media in disseminating and propogating the successes of ICT was part of the agenda. At the workshop, there was general concurrence from all present that the media could play a very positive role in educating the public at large, attracting much needed investment and resources, as well as providing an interface for members of the field to interact with the outside world. They were, of course, talking about mass media. That set me thinking. Isn't there also a need for a medium that enhances and propogates discussion within the sector? One that allows for information interchange, sharing of ideas, experiences and opinions? One that facilitates cooperation between various agencies, leading to a synergy of manpower and resources? After a lot of discussion, questioning and trepidation, it was clear that i4d would be a reality. And so, today, it is. Our aim is to establish a channel of communication both within the ICT community as well as provide an interface to the world outside. There is much work to be done; in the words of Prof. Kenneth Keniston .there is so little contact between excellent projects, that new work so often begins from scratch, that there is so little sharing of knowledge and experience, that there is no network of communication, to say nothing of coordination, that each project begins, as it were, anew, when often within a 100 kilometers there exists another project from which it might learn and borrow, and whose success it might imitate. As far as what directions and dimensions i4d will take, will depend upon the guidance, which you as our valuable readers and contributors will provide us. I conclude with a quote from Ghalib - [I walk for a short distance with each fast moving traveller; I still don't know who the guide is] [EMAIL PROTECTED] In this issue Features IT for the common man: Lessons from India. India does - or could - lead the world in creating both the technologies for reaching ordinary people and the grassroots social experiments that could teach both India and other nations how to use those technologies for the common good. The kiosk networks: Information nodes in the rural landscapes. This article critically examines digital development in order to reveal the larger impact that ICTs could have on rural economies and societies, it goes further to identify Information Kiosks as the most effective vehicle for digital development. ICT innovations by civil society organizations in rural India: De-hyping ICTs. The Hype Cycle depicts the progression of technologies from inception and over enthusiasm, through a period of disillusionment to an eventual phase of maturity. It highlights patterns of overreactions, typically originated by unrealistic expectations and reinforced by media effects. These articles and more can be read for free by logging in to the i4d website http://www.i4donline.net/. Registration is free and easy. -- Rendezvous Digital GMS The Digital GMS Conference addressed the issue of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) nations lacking essential information and communication technology and its applications to economic and social development and various factors that continue to foster such digital divide The Indian development experience Is Information and Communication Technology the ticket to India's development? Or an impediment to overall growth? Can the enormous growth and prosperity of ICT continue? Or will success vaporize - moving on to China or another country - leaving only hopes for transformation in its wake? ICTs for development The working group consultation on ICT for development and cross media partnerships had, as its focus, community radio, eGovernance and public private partnerships, access to information. It aimed at bringing various experiences from these areas to a common platform. These articles and more can be read for free by logging in to the i4d website http://www.i4donline.net/. Registration is free and easy. -- Columns Insight - Bytes for all. Bit by bit. BytesForAll (bytesforall.org) is a voluntary, unfunded
[GKD] Computers to Africa Scheme Criticised
IT MIGHT HELP if we had to look at what made computers obsolete so speedily, rather than just concentrating on shifting the older computers from the First to the Third World. I think bloatware-producing proprietorial software companies are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Free Software distros also need to ensure that their software doesn't turn into 'bloatware', requiring higher-power computers and forgetting that many of us still use old generation PCs. FN -- URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2989567.stm Computers to Africa scheme criticised Warehouse of computers Thousands of computers head for Africa each year The practice of supplying second-hand computers to Africa can prove to be an expensive mistake, according to a UK report. The UK Centre of International Education has said that Western organisations trying to bridge the digital divide are having some unfortunate consequences for teaching. It says that software compatibility problems are leading to chaos in some classrooms as teachers battle to make the machines work - claims backed up by some organisations in Africa themselves It has been a very very costly mistake, Bildad Kagai from the Open Source Foundation for Africa told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme. The issue is that we did not consider the consequent costs that come with the donation of computers. Software problems Mr Kagai added that the main problem was the inconsistency of the software supplied which could often frustrate teaching plans. The computers that are donated vary. They come with different applications, he said. It's difficult for a teacher to tell where he's going to start teaching computer lessons. The digital divide is too important not to get bogged down in the debate over software. Garry Hodgkinson, Microsoft Indeed, teachers in Africa are well aware that not all donations are worthwhile. You have maintenance problems, you have to constantly upgrade your systems, Theo d'Souza, of the Dar es Salaam headteacher's conference, told Outlook. You might be donated a system in 2003 that might not be very helpful in 2004. Teacher training To solve such problems some organisations that supply second-hand computers have begun teacher training schemes. We work very closely with beneficiary organisations in Africa, said Sonja Sinanan, operations director for Computer Aid International. She highlighted the example of the Computer Education Trust in Swaziland, which takes delivery of computers and makes sure the technicians who install them can network and ensures they are used productively. Computer being recycled Checking computers before they are sent out is becoming more important Garry Hodgkinson, Microsoft's Regional Director for Community Affairs for Africa and the Middle East, said his company was also doing everything it could to tackle the problems. We've been working with organisations similar to Computer Aid, Mr Hodgkinson said. We're currently sitting on a situation where we have commitments from UK companies to provide 25 PCs to every single school in South Africa with electricity over the next three years. That's quite a tremendous donation. Useless dumping And he insisted that regardless of the supplier, the important thing was to ensure computer access for schools in Africa. The digital divide is too important not to get bogged down in the debate over software, Mr Hodgkinson stated. One of the deputy generals of teacher training in South Africa went into a classroom and saw a teacher standing on a PC to reach the blackboard. That sort of dumping is really useless to anybody. ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** 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] BytesForAll Clippings
Telecom celebration --- The Center for Knowledge Societies in Bangalore thought of an interesting way to celebrate World Telecom Day. It was an exhibition of photographs by Sridala Sawmi. The theme: voice and data in India. CKS is led by research scholar Aditya Dev Sood [EMAIL PROTECTED] and is based at B-014, Natasha GolfView, Bangalore 71. Phone: +91.80.535.3455 The Center for Knowledge Societies affords insight into the use of Information and Communications Technologies in non-traditional and emerging market environments. It also offers research, design and strategy consultancy services to technology houses, international agencies, and governments. Through usability research, sectoral intelligence and quantitative analysis, it drives the development and deployment of emerging technologies for the benefit of rural, non-elite and mass users, says the Centre. Given the spread and reach that telecom has achieved over the past decade or two, India does have something to celebrate... the price hikes apart! TEK project --- US-based Bill Thies is one of the lead developers on the TEK project at MIT. The goal of the TEK project is to build a low-connectivity search engine for use by people at the far side of a bad telephone connection. See http://cag.lcs.mit.edu/tek Says he: In fact, we just released a new version of the software... If you're currently using www4mail (a means of downloading webpages via simple email), I think TEK will provide some advantages -- e.g., a browser interface with full color and formatting, an intelligent server that remembers what you've downloaded, and a local search engine that indexes downloaded pages. This may not *come* from India, but it could sure have a lot of utility here. Despite the advances in telecom, the reality is that hundreds of millions still know terrible a bad telephone connection can be. Back in India - That well-informed friend of India, Prof Kenneth (Ken) Keniston, the Andrew Mellon Professor of Human Development and the director of MIT's India Program, will be back touring various ICT4D projects sometime around June. If you have an interesting project to point him to, send in your mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (more links on www.kken.net). Don't forget to send in a copy also to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Simputer plans -- From Bangalore, reports in early May say the Simputer, India's most innovative technological product in recent times, is poised for mass use in the country and abroad with one of the license holders set to sign a 100,000-units deal with an Indian company. Encore Software, the reports said, which is one of the two license holders for the Simputer launched two years ago, is also in talks with two firms from Japan and one from Singapore for the supply of a similar number of the cost-effective handheld devices that promises to bridge the digital divide. See their mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer People's notebook - Thailand is to get it, but India will have to wait. HP is offering that country a 'people's notebook' that runs on Linux. Reports from the Far East say HP's budget laptop will retail for 19,500 Baht (UKP 285). It features an 800 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 128MB of RAM and a 20GB harddisk. There is no CD-ROM or floppy drive. Meanwhile, a desktop, made by local computer makers Belta, SVOA and Computec, costs 10,900 Baht (UKP 159). It sports an Intel Celeron 1GHz processor, 128MB of RAM, a 52x CD-ROM drive, 20GB of hard disk space and comes with a 15-inch monitor, speakers and a keyboard. Said one friend: Fantastic rates for the desktop and the sub-notebook man... when do such comps come to India? Any chance of replication in India? A senior executive at HP said in an off-the-record comment: I asked the same question to my colleagues. Will keep you posted. Using Wi-fi --- From The Hindu we learn that Wi-fi, the technology that wirelessly connects to the Internet, is being used by many rural centres across India to access important information and facilities In the Loni-Shirdi area of western Maharashtra, over 200 villages have formed a cooperative and raised Rs 2 crore to leverage information technology for their benefit. They have set up nearly 50 wireless 'hotspots' to harness the latest wi-fi systems so that villagers can get agricultural access systems right at their doorsteps. The technology to wirelessly connect to the Internet has recently been legalised by the government, said the report. It's hard to sift the claims from the reality sometimes... http://infochangeindia.org/ItanddItop.jsp?section_idv=9#2168 -- - Frederick Noronha (FN)| http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http
[GKD] Taking Communities Online (India)
Taking communities online... Bangalore offers cyber tools to manage knowledge By Frederick Noronha Everybody on the Net seems to be focussing on technology and tools to get their job done, but an Indian-incubated initiative is focussing on how people can make the real difference in tapping the potential of cyberspace. Pantoto, launched by the US-educated but Bangalore-based Dr. T. B. Dinesh and expat Dr. Suzan Uskudarli, who worked out of Bangalore till recently, sees itself as a simple but effective 'community building' tool that just about anybody can use. This 'online community builder' aims to support existing 'real world' communities, by giving them the cyber tools that could make their networking and knowledge-sharing more effective and meaningful. It uses information architecture tools to allow communities to manage and nurture a repository of community knowledge, explains Dinesh. It's goals are clear: providing an 'online' (Internet-based) platform where people who are part of any 'community' (or extended network sharing similar interests) can interact and come together for their common cause. Pantoto seeks to promote 'information-centric communication', as its developers call it, between members of a 'community'. To keep the software simple, it is small and 'light' in size, and works in any browser -- the software widely used to trawl the Internet. To make the knowledge-sharing among any 'community' more effective, this tool offers a well-organized information repository. It says the communication of the group can be customised to suit the needs of any community and this also helps the group to build a cost-effective presence on the Net. This makes people -- rather than technology -- the key towards leveraging the pwoer of the Net. Pantoto says it can help groups build an 'online community', and also put up their treasure-chest of useful and relevant knowledge out there for everyone to share. With these three basic outputs (a community, knowledge-repository and web-presence) a community can create any out-put. The out-put would depend on the information needs of the community and how they choose to structure and manage information, says Dinesh. But managing information and sharing it effectively out there on the Internet might not be as simple as it sounds. To make it easier, the Pantoto solution depends on providing apt online tools, creating multiple 'personas' for oneself which help a person 'manage relationships' within a community, and encourage people to contribute to an info repository through Pagelets. Pagelets are structured web-pages that can be published as easily as filling out a form. Pantoto also tries to help collaboration to enhance creation and dissemination of community knowledge. To be able to run this, anyone would need just the technical skills of knowing how to use a web-browser, claim its promoters. Web-browsers are very simple tools, used sometimes without even being aware of it, by anyone browsing the Internet. Dinesh, who did his PhD in computer science from the University of Iowa and post-doctoral research at Amsterdam, says: Shri Shakti Alternative Energies has been our beta users for a while. They use it for intranet and dealer network needs. Pantoto might soon be used for project listing by indic-computing community and CharityFocus India chapters. But our main work lateley has been to work with local NGOs to help them build information management solutions, themselves, for their varied needs, says he. There are many tools out there for web-communities to grab and use. But many are either expensive or need IT/Computer-programming help to tune it for an specific information-community need. Pantoto is an attempt to first bring information architecturing to the end-user, where by we hope that organizations (like a typical NGO) can be empowered to be independent of IT consultants for much of their everyday needs and next to provide flexibility with look and feel, says Dinesh. Dr Susan stresses the importance of structuring information to make information accessible and usable in the long term. Structuring provides meaning to the information. Thus, intelligent searching, filtering, and other processing such as analysis becomes possible, she adds. She says 'pagelets' are the information pieces that are meaningful to the community. The big deal about this is to distinguish the concept of pagelets from common web pages. A typical web page has no structure. It is free in form and free in content. On the contrary, with a pile of 'pagelets', from a series of surveys of slums, these structured pages can answer questions like -- show me the incidence of AIDS and the number of 'arak' (traditional liquor) shops in April 1999 in Mysore district, she says. Over the past three months, some NGOs (non-government organisations) have begun using Pantoto with a little bit of hand-holding and initial training. These include Sakti, a Bangalore-based NGO that has
[GKD] Can ICT Be India's Growth Engine?
http://www.business-standard.com/archives/2003/mar/50120303.075.asp Value For Money : Subir Roy Can ICT be India's growth engine? Business Standard, March 12, 2003 ICT has already started improving infrastructure and there is enormous potential for future development Can information and communication technology (ICT), or more specifically software, deliver for India when all other models have failed? Is India witnessing, or about to witness, ICT or IT or software led growth the same way as the Asian Tigers rode on export led growth? This was the subject of an Indo-US workshop organised by the department of management studies of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Of all the papers, one of the most esoteric was one by Govindan Parayil (National University of Singapore) who saw two contradictions of ICT-led development, digital divide and increasing returns. The digital divide is not an accessibility issue but an equity issue. There is an asymmetric relation between traditional modes of production (manufacturing, etc) and innovation and knowledge-based production. There is now a dual economy, primary and industrial on one side and information-based on the other. It is constant/decreasing returns versus increasing returns. The divide between these two modes is the digital divide. Under informational or digital capitalism increasing returns are not an anomaly. But they create an instability. They have been marked by the most unequal distributions of income and wealth in human history. His conclusion: development theories of the industrial age are inadequate to explain the ground realities of the information age. K J Joseph (Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum) feels there is an adverse impact of the strategy of excessive export orientation. The contribution of the ICT sector can be viewed at two levels, direct and indirect effect. The direct effect is in employment, income and export earnings from ICT. The indirect effect is in enhanced productivity, competitiveness and growth of other sectors on account of IT diffusion, emergence of altogether new services enabled by ICT and spillovers. He argues that the direct benefits are laudable. The ICT sector itself has shown remarkable vibrancy in terms of output and export growth as well as technological dynamism. These are often cited as the outcome of the export oriented growth strategy that was followed. But the economy as a whole seems not to have benefited because of high regional concentration of ICT activity and low diffusion of ICT to other sectors of the economy. Because of the ICT boom, other sectors of the economy which compete with it for skilled manpower would have been adversely affected. There are also adverse implications on other services like teaching, training, research and development. These are bound to have long-term implications on the overall growth of the economy and as well as in sustaining the current competitive advantage of ICT. Joseph calls for a national policy on ICT diffusion which could mitigate the adverse effect of excessive export orientation. Tojo Thatchenkery et al (George Mason University) address some very basic questions. Does ICT lead to economic development? Has it led to investment in infrastructure, institutions and individuals? What are some of the shortcomings of ICT as a development tool and what policy implication does this have? ICT reduces barriers to knowledge and information asymmetry. It has a large potential for infrastructure, institutional and human development. It increases transparency in institutions, promotes efficient market outcomes and can create jobs and generate incomes. The paper notes several examples of developmental use of ICT. Eye care is delivered in Mettur district in Tamil Nadu through web cameras and the Net. The National Dairy Development Board in Gujarat is digitising milk collection and thereby helping farmers. Under the Gyandoot scheme in Madhya Pradesh, 20 villages have been wired to the central database for access to both government and agricultural information. SEWA provides women in Gujarat with basic computer education to help them manage micro enterprises. What are the problems? Uneven regional development leading to greater inequality between states and also greater rich-poor, urban-rural inequalities; and lack of absorptive capacity standing in the way of knowledge filtering to other sectors of the economy. Importantly, there is poor domestic demand for ICT as it remains outward looking. The paper concludes that ICT can be the answer to unmet demands and needs of Indians. It has already started to improve infrastructure, education, health, gender, private enterprise, governance, rural development and public services. And there is enormous potential for future development. W e can turn to T T Srikumaran (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) for some hard evidence on the ground. He examines the Gyandoot in Madhya Pradesh, village
