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Luanne
Joined: Mar 21, 2001
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Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
April 6, 2003 - 01:49 AM
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Hi TIG - members!
It's been a while since I've posted on TIG but and in long absence, it is truly amazing to see just how active TIG has become.
This posting is to discuss the introduction of ICT into rural communities. Since this is a truly global discussion,it would be great to generate some excellent thoughts from many points of view, especially from those who are in the communitites of discussion.
* What do you think are the positive and negative impact of introducing ICT into a developing community?
* What are the main uses of ICT technology in rural communities?
* Have there been cases where computer and ICT centres have been set up in these rural communities and failed / succeeded? What caused them to fail or succeed?
* What are key characteristics of really successful ICT projects in rural communities?
* What defines the success? HOw can it be measured? Through the initial uptake of ICT, or a more long-term change that is only noticed in the following few years?
Hope to see some great discussion going on!
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Laurent Straskraba
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Re: Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
April 6, 2003 - 03:53 AM
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hi luey,
just to name a few links:
http://www.digitalopportunity.org
http://www.digitaldividend.org
http://www.jhai.org
http://www.unescobkk.org/CI/tex_mct.html
http://is.lse.ac.uk/ifipwg94
cheers,
laurent
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alberto
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Re: Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
April 7, 2003 - 10:14 AM
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Some thoughts...
I believe that ICT can play an important role in the development of rural communities if we keep in mind several factors:
1) ICT as a tool and not as final aim of development: as they allow access therefore spreading of knowledge which emancipates people, empowers individuals and facilitates development within communities.
ICT are not the only tool, therefore other development interventions are needed: courses, introdubtion of know-how, regulation, social, cultural and economical interevention etc...
2) if the use of ICT is balanced with local realities (A Global and Local balance): with the natuire of cultiral and social diversities and with the needs of a community
3) Use an extended concept of ICT this means use work also with lower level technology within communities like radios, less up-to-date pcs etc.. an example: in the Rwandese genocide bad radio communication played a fundemenatl role in creating an unstale situation, a just intervention within radio programming, radio developemnt and frequencey ditribution would facilitate just communications, see as an exmple Rome-Khigali project by the Glocal Forum http://www.glocalforum.org
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Yehia
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Re: Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
April 14, 2003 - 02:31 AM
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Hello everybody,
I've known about TIG for about 2 days now, and I already really love it! I think it's a great medium to be able to share ideas on International Development, giving the opportunity to dynamic young people to pool resources for actions and projects throughout the world.
To answer your question Luey, I will focus on telecentre development which is basically a "location which facilitates and encourages the provision of a wide variety of public and private information-based goods and services, and which supports local economic or social development" (IDRC definition). It is one possible approach to ICT development in the developing world these days.
I came across an extremely interesting article/e-book (published a couple of days ago!) written by UNESCO called "Ten Steps for Establishing a Sustainable Multipurpose Community Telecentre". This document discusses the various aspects of an ICT telecentre project, listing and analyzing all the necessary steps to take into consideration for a successful ICT project. While reading through it I found myself relating most chapters of this e-book to my own experience (see below) in many aspects. If anybody reads this article and has done a project of the sort, it would be great if you took the time to post a message in the threads comparing the document to what you have actually experienced!!
The book is located at:
http://www.unescobkk.org/ips/ebooks/documents/tensteps/index.htm
Enjoy the reading!
My own experience
-----------------
I am currently part of the Scala Project, which is affiliated to an NGO called Engineers Without Border (which I know you're part of Luey, but for others who have never heard of it, here goes: )
Engineers Without Borders provides assistance to people in developing communities to gain access to the technology (water and sanitation, health and hygiene, communications and IT) they need to improve their lives. They have two distinct branches of work: One is through the sending of volunteers (usually engineering students) to developing communities all around the world, and the other is through the sponsoring and the support of independent projects, led by students with ideas but no real in-depth understanding of development and experience in the field. My group is part of the latter branch:
The Scala Project, which started about a year and a half ago, fundraised and shipped 15 computers to a rural engineering center in the Philippines, helped design and implement a simple computer network connected to the Internet, and helped prepare a comprehensive learning program geared towards students, instructors and technicians. We used this program to teach trainors, who from then on started to teach government employees and unemployed people some basic but necessary computer skills (such as how to use the Internet and Ms. Office), which would make them be more attractive in the Filipino job market. We are planning to go again this summer (to a different province), and hopefully assist in the upgrade the technical equipment of three more educational institutions and train trainors as well.
Cheers,
Yehia
http://scala.ewb.ca
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Terri Willard
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Re: Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
April 15, 2003 - 06:02 AM
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Hi Luey,
The leader, by far, in looking at rural ICT issues is the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Their site is a bit scattered though on the issue. The best place to start is http://www.fao.org/sd/KN1_en.htm - follow the link to ICTs. Some of the early work was done in collaboration with the University of Guelph.
Also, if you are going to the Philippines, you should try to connect with some of the YCDO members from the Philippines (see http://ycdo.takingitglobal.org/other/sitesearch.html?searchonly=mem&query=&City=&StateProv=&CountryID=160). Robert and Roentgen were at WSIS PrepCom 2 and are in close contact with the civil society organizations in the country working on digital divide issues.
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Luanne
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Re: Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
April 15, 2003 - 08:30 AM
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Hi Yehia and thanks to Anardelli and Laurent who replied! I'll definitely check out those links.
Yehia, you won't believe this but I'm actually part of the Carleton EWB chapter and I even went to the conference in Waterloo! What a coincidence. This virtual world really is very small and certainly brings people with the exact same interests together. How wonderful.
The reason I'm writing is that at Carleton, we're looking at expanding a computer centre in a local orphanage in Nepal, as well as set up a computer centre for an English school in Nepal - also part of the EWB project, VillageNet. At the moment, we're well underway to getting things set up and rolling, and will certainly be asking for a lot of advice, past experiences, opinions etc etc. Yehia, are you going to Phillipines this summer as well?
Keep in touch!
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Laurent Straskraba
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concerning FAO
May 4, 2003 - 01:14 AM
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they are also sponsoring the development of open source database and content management systems, i.e. ISIS which we at Infoterm/Termnet are also using for libraries that want to manage their shelfs ...
there are also close links to the UNESCO free software section, check it out:
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/index.shtml
cheers,
laurent
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Laurent Straskraba
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hey, just a question ....
May 4, 2003 - 01:30 AM
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who of you has ever been involved in a "hands on" project ... meaning putting all that stuff together (com-/simputers, wireless, satellite, solar power, multilingual/localized, empowering tools/applications, content, ...) and really do sthg.?
i´d be so happy to have more insight 
take care,
laurent
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alberto
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Re: Impact of ICT in rural developing communities
May 4, 2003 - 10:00 AM
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Have a look also on FAO http://www.fao.org/waicent it's the World Agriculture Center where you can find an amazing database and millions of pages of information, you should find some useful stuff there!
Alberto
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