Knowledge
Society
Barriers
to Knowledge Societies KnowNet
Vision KnowNet
Resources Case
Studies
Case Studies / Knowledge Products
Case studies on application of ICT for Knowledge Networking and Development. Efforts have been made to list the case-studies according to the countries. Suggest possible additions by writing at: knownet@knownetweaver.org
Also see case studies on ICT for better Governance on our Digital Governance site at http://www.digitalgovernance.org/
Last Updated : December 2003 Number of Case Studies: 148
Africa Pulse is an information portal for the Civil
Society sector in the Southern African Development Community. It uses
state-of-the-art technology to allow organisations throughout the region to
publish content directly to the site, whether it be news of the arrest of a
journalist in Zambia, the HIV/Aids crisis in South Africa, a profile of an
organisation's work in Tanzania, the devastation caused by a flood in
Mozambique, an analysis of the war against Unita, or an election update from
Harare.
Africa: Internet hits Wildlife Pix Sales
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act56.html
Still pictures of African wildlife appear
everywhere. There is a voracious interest in wildlife in the developed
world and animals are used in adverts to exemplify product characteristics.
This trade in images is now conducted largely digitally over the internet.
The "new economy" was supposed to enable businesses to cut out "the middle
man".
Africa
: Acacia Initiative
The Acacia Initiative is an international
effort to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply
information and communication technologies to their own social and economic
development.
Africa:
Leland
Initiative
The Leland Initiative is a U.S. government
effort to extend full Internet connectivity to 20 or more African countries.
The Leland Initiative builds on existing capacity with the ultimate aim
of facilitating Internet access throughout each country.
Africa: Schoolnet - building tomorrow's digital generation
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act31.html
The
mushrooming of school networking projects (SchoolNets) across Africa offers
a beacon of hope in bridging the digital divide, a chasm that is particularly
startling when Africa is compared to the rest of the world. For instance,
in 1999 there were about 100,000 dial-up Internet accounts in Africa for
a population of 700 million.
Africa
:
Recycling
Computers to Needy Users
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/wce-case.html
The
dizzying pace of the upgrade cycle for computers in North America and Europe
means that millions of computers are thrown away every year. Over a million
a year are buried as rubbish in landfill sites in the UK alone. Although
some African IT professionals have branded the idea of recycling them to
Africa "dumping", this approach must be at least one way to close the digital
divide.
African
Experience with Telecenters
http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/1000/benjamin.html
As Manuel Castells says: "Information
technology, together with the ability to use it and adapt it, is the critical
factor in generating and accessing wealth, power, and knowledge in our
time. The disinformation of Africa at the dawn of the information age may
be the most lasting wound inflicted on this continent by new patterns of
dependency.
Argentina:
Net penetration rising
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356963&rel=true
Internet
penetration in Argentina has doubled since March 2000, when there were
only 1 million Internet users. Just over half of users are more than 35
years old. (Source: NUA)
Bangladesh: Human Rights Portal
BHRN
will actively promote human rights reforms both within Bangladesh and across
geographical and political boundaries, and will support women, children,
and marginalized communities in resisting social oppression. It will look
at attempts by global forces (powerful governments, TNCs, international
organizations) through surveillance, covert mechanisms and military and
economic superiority to exploit and control smaller nations and communities.
Read the Significant Cases Section :
http://www.banglarights.net/HTML/significantcases.htm
Bangladesh
: Grameen Telecom's Village Phone Programme
The
case study includes surveys of 300 potential phone users from 40 villages
across Bangladesh, together with a collection of video footage interviews,
in order to provide recommendations on the replicability of elements of
this programme for poverty alleviation efforts.
Bolivia:
Information Centers for the Agro-Ecological Sector
A network of six specialized information centers for
producers is being set up in Bolivia to address the last decade's developments
in eco-agriculture. Through the Internet, these centers will provide more
efficient and effective means of communication, information on production and
commercial methodologies, and a virtual marketplace assisting in the
commercialization of ecological products. The key objective of the project is to
enhance the technical production capacity and the commercial negotiation
capacity of eco-agricultural producers in Bolivia. The 41 member organizations
of Information Centers for the Agro-Ecological Sector in Bolivia (AOPEB) are the
key target group of the project, representing over 25,000 small producers
throughout Bolivia.
Brazil: Prefeitura.SP
(new!) http://www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br
Prefeitura.SP
is the online portal of the SŃo Paulo city government. It contains a wealth of
information, including all types of social services offered and a list of
government agencies' contact information. It especially encourages participatory
government by including a step-by-step guide on how to participate in making the
budget of the city, town meeting schedules, and informal online polls regarding
the services of the city.
Brazil:
In
Rio's Largest Slum, the Web Offers Threads of Hope
http://www.iht.com/articles/28278.html
Dozens
of wires bristle from a concrete post, shooting clandestine power lines
with stolen current across a garbage dump and up the twisting alleys of
Latin America's largest slum.The street scene in Rocinha, Portuguese for
Little Farm, reflects a past of neglect and exclusion from even basic services
that has created a gulf between the haves and the have-nots of Rio's favelas,
or shantytowns. Yet just a few doors down, a neat shopfront offers a digital
bridge across the chasm.
Bridging
the digital divide : a special report by BBC
The
Internet has ushered in the greatest period of wealth creation in history.
It's rocked the way we deliver and receive information and the way we do
business. Some case-studies are as follows:
Cambodia:
Digital Divide Data Cambodia (new!)
http://www.digitaldividedata.com
A social enterprise offering data outsourcing
services to international clients using ICT. It employs disadvantaged young
adults, including youth with disabilities, landmine and polio victims, orphans,
abused women, and rural migrants. It began operations in Phnom Penh in July
2001. Since then, it has achieved high quality service delivery and has raised
the standard of living of over 100 employees and their dependants. Cambodia has
many training programs but few entry level jobs. DDDC addresses that through its
employment structure which offers such opportunities to a disadvantaged group of
people through leveraging the use of ICT to create employment for young people.
Cambodia:
Bernard Krisher: Healing the Killing Fields
A
former in-your-face journalist saw Cambodia up close before the Khmer Rouge
marched in. He's hoping the Internet will help the country's people grasp the
future and leave the dark past behind.
Cambodia:
VillageLeap
Robib
is a group of six small villages in a remote, practically inaccessible
area of Cambodia. In fact it is every such village in the world. Its situation
reflects the poverty, isolation, health hazards and limited educational
and commercial opportunities that is the fate of the overwhelming population
of the world. But is doesn't have to be that way. The Internet now offers
leapfrogging opportunities to take such villages out of their isolation
and poverty into our global village.
Cambodia: Things
That Matter: Khmer Kids Link to the Future
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/jan01/hawley.html
When
you ask Cambodian kids what they want to be when they grow up, the answer
used to be "a truck driver." Or a cook, or a waiter in one of the fancy
new hotels. But ask the kids at the orphanage, and the answer is, "I want
to be a computer pioneer."
Cameroon:
Information Empowers Women
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/it4dev/stories/cameroon.html
Mbouda,
Cameroon-When Fossi Yoni Mireille, 22, dropped out of secondary school
two years ago, her future was bleak. She became pregnant and married her
boyfriend, also a secondary school drop-out. They had no way of earning
an income. Things took a turn for the better, however, when she was admitted
to the Mbouda Women?s Promotion Centre, a field unit of the Ministry of Women?s Affairs. Today, thanks to the education and training in vegetable
farming and poultry techniques she received from the centre, Mireille runs
a vegetable farm on which her small family thrives.
Canada
: Keewaytinook Internet High School
This
on-line high school enables young First Nations people who reside in remote
communities in Canada's north to remain in those communities for High School
education. Many young First Nations people must leave their communities
for the bulk of the school year and reside hundreds of miles away from
their families and friends. This kind of "residential schooling" can be
very damaging to the student and their family... and the communities are
deprived of energetic and creative young people.
Cape
Town Special : a creative city in the making ?
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act51.html
Cape
Town is one of the few cities on the African continent that can make a
claim for being a creative city. News Update‰s Russell Southwood looks
at what this means, why it‰s important to the development of new media
in Africa and how Cape Town measures up when looked at from this viewpoint.
http://wwwcardin.uwimona.edu.jm:1104/
To strengthen the capacity within the Caribbean
community, for the collection indexing, dissemination and use of disaster
related information serving as a sub-regional disaster information centre. This
is a network of institutions across the Caribbean using ICTs to archive and
retrieve data which is vital to their disaster preparedness planning. The
inclusions of IC Technology brought together a number of related institutions
who had previously only weak linkages. The ICTs have enhanced the overall
planning of this disparate network. CARDIN has created an
extensive database and website of disasterrelated information that is available
in the Caribbeanâs four main languages: English, Spanish, Dutch and French, that
will become a "one-stop shop" for disaster information in the sub region. Read the case
study at SustainableICTs.org at
http://www.sustainableicts.org/cardin%20F.pdf http://www.aed.org/learnlink/task/index.html
LearnLink
uses information, communication and educational technologies (IECTs) to
strengthen learning systems essential for sustainable development. Learnlink
applies IECTs to link individuals, groups and organizations and improve
their capacity to access resources to meet learning needs.
China:
BJ-FarmKnow (new!) http://www.cau.edu.cn/ipmist/Ipmist/farmknow/rep.bj.htm
BJ-FarmKnow
is a computer network project that brings information services to farmers in
vegetable production in rural suburban Beijing. The project aims at developing
a pilot database management system to provide the farmers with content as well
as advisory and learning services in planting new vegetable varieties and in
managing and protecting them.
China:
Farmknow to Help Vegetable Production in Beijing Suburbs
http://www.vod.panasia.org.sg/farmknow/
Farmers
in Beijing's suburban areas have an Internet tool to help them with vegetable
production practices. An innovative website called "Farmknow"
is providing content and advisory services on new vegetable varieties
and crop management and protection. Farmers, agricultural experts and systems
engineers participated in contributing towards developing the pilot database
system.
Colombia:
Conexiones II (new!) http://www.conexiones.eafit.edu.co/civ Conexiones
II aims to take the successes of the Conexiones model in schools and expand them
into the community in which the schools reside. The project accomplishes this
through the creation of Centros de Inform˝tica Veredal - Educational and ICT Centers for Community Development - as meeting places for families, students,
and teachers, where space, technology and activities are always available to
encourage learning, group development and human relations.
Colombia:
Mapping communities digitally in Bogota (new!)
Colnodo,
APC´s member in Colombia, is helping grassroots groups and communities
literally map their problem areas on a computer screen. The geo-referencing
maps look just like common street plans. The difference is that these maps
are available online and are annotated by the members of the communities
themselves, allowing them to plot geographically where particular factories,
schools, rivers, etc., are located in the neighbourhood. The first mapping
system is already available at the Kerigma telecentre which has a map of Bosa, a marginal neighbourhood in the south of Bogotá.
Community
Radio: some case reviews (new!)
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/cr-review.html
For
over five decades, radio has been the "most appealing tool" for participatory
communication and development. It "has always been the ideal medium for
change", says a new book on how radio, the Internet and other technologies
are helping the poor get a better grip over their lives. Titled 'Making
Waves' this 352-page report focuses on how radio stations across the globe
are making a difference, often to those who lack other means of communication.
It also looks at how other tools are being used for this purpose -- including
computers, the Internet, multimedia, threatre and video.
Costa
Rica: Digital Nature
(new!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2794535.stm
Costa
Rica is putting all its animal and plant life online to create a digital record
of its rich natural wealth. The National Biodiversity Institute (Inbio) has
developed an information management system called Atta to catalogue species at
risk from farming and logging.
Costa
Rica: Farm Sector Information System (INFOAGRO)
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/costarica.html
INFOAGRO
seeks to make available to its natural users the entire societal effort
of the past decades in the areas of technology, policy implementation,
creation of markets, international linkages, etc., all in the form of information,
a strategic input that has the ability to activate the potential for modernization,
change, growth and development in the farm sector and the rural world.
Costa
Rica: InfoAgro (new!)
INFOAGRO's
overall aim is to activate the potential of the rural world, energizing and
accelerating the process of change in its economic activity. The project seeks
to make available to its users the entire societal effort of past decades in the
areas of technology, policy implementation, creation of markets, international
linkages, and the like, all in the form of information, a strategic input with
the ability to activate the potential for modernization, change, growth, and
development in the farm sector and the rural world.
Digital
Dividends Case Studies
http://www.digitaldividend.org/
Case
Studies arising out of a conference conducted by WRI on Digital Divide
in October 2000.
Dominican
Republic: Dominican Alliance
Against Corruption (new!)
http://www.contracorrupcion.com
The
website publishes the entry and exit assets of public officials. In addition it
publishes officials' bank account numbers, national identification numbers, and
home addresses on its site to help citizens detect possible fraudulent acts
committed while in office.
http://www.tenet.res.in/Press/09042001.html
Youth form the frontline in the computer
war : the corridor in the boys' primary school in Sardarpur in Dhar is
clogged with excited children. Some 35 of them have turned up for their
weekly date with the computer. Teacher Shireen Kureshy switches it on and
the screen fills with images of a fun spelling test even as the speakers
blare out a nursery rhyme. "This is so exciting," says 11-year-old Sohan
Tarachand, son of a local farmworker, who joins students from 16 primary
schools to take his two-hour-long computer lessons.
http://altermedios.ecuanex.net.ec/
Ecuador
: Street
Children Telecentre: Project Esmeraldas
http://www.chasquinet.org/ninosdelacalle/e-pag1.html
The project will explore the use of
Internet resources with street children and adolescents in Latin America
by providing alternatives for empowerment, education, income generation,
opportunities for communication, and links to organization that work with
street children in the region.
Egypt:
Cyber-cafes for the Poor
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/it4dev/stories/egypt.html
The
best way to introduce the vast world of information technology (IT) may
be to demonstrate its potential. But it is not easy to take a concept like
the World Wide Web to a land which, in many places, is still tilled by
the power of man and beast and where the word Internet is an enigma to
most people.
El
Salvador: Probidad (new!) Probidad
promotes democratization efforts vis-Ă-vis diverse and integrated
anti-corruption initiatives, most which rely on the use of ICT and an extensive
network of contacts. The activities are designed to monitor corruption and
control mechanisms; mobilize awareness about the complexities and costs of
corruption and increased interest and participation in curbing it; enhance the
anti-corruption capacity of other civil society organizations, media,
government, business, and researchers in our region; and contribute to more
informed local and context-specific measures that undermine corruption and
promote good governance. InterAction
Members Employ Creative Uses of Technology Overseas
http://www.interaction.org/md/articles/md042301.html
In
Guatemala, computers and multimedia products are helping to preserve indigenous
cultures and languages in the Quiché region where the Mayan languages
of K'iche' and Ixil are spoken. Until recently, schools in that region
conducted classroom activities exclusively in Spanish, which prevented
many Mayan children from excelling. Through a bilingual teacher-training
project initiated by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), teachers
learn the local Mayan languages and develop teaching and learning materials
in these local languages.
Ghana:
Internet
business centres spring up across the continent
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act52.html
Balancing
Act
New
types of internet-connected business centres are springing up across the
continent. News Update has heard of plans for Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe
and Teltec (in partnership with Hewlett Packard) has ambitious plans for
new openings.
Ghana:
Rapid Growth in Internet Use Despite Cost Constraints
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act54.html
Ghana
was amongst the first countries in Africa to get connected. Although it
suffers from all the usual constraints on growth - especially the high
costs of connectivity - it is estimated that around half a million people
have access to the web in some form. Kwami Ahiabenu describes the development
of Ghana‰s internet culture.
Global
e-Sustainability Initiative
(new!) To
help improve the global environment and to enhance human and economic
development. To provide individuals, businesses and institutions, sustainable
solutions to the challenge they face in their attempt to maintain the fragile
equilibrium between economy, ecology and society. Create an open & global
forum for improving and promoting products, services and access to ICT for the
benefit of human development and a sustainable environment. Stimulate
international and multi-stakeholder co-operation for the ICT sector.
Global
Teenager Project
The Global Teenager Project is a network
of students from both developing and developed countries. The network creates
a 'safe space' for students and teachers to discover international learning.
http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org/t/s/community_articles
An
effort towards creation of virtual communities to mobilise global support
against some of the disputable environmental policies/ actions of the Government.
The community has expanded rapidly since it was launched in November 2000.
By December 2000 it had about 6000 members from more than 80 countries.
Harnessing
Information Technology for Rural and International Development
http://www.snowden.org/conference/paper.cfm?documentid=7
A
Case Study of Community Business Resource Centre's Entrepreneurship Online
Program.
Honduras:
SDNP a Civil Society's Information System
http://www.sdnp.undp.org/it4dev/stories/honduras.html
In
November, 1998, soon after hurricane Mitch had whipped through Honduras,
decimating some two million homes, Candelario Reyes sent a fax. Mr. Reyes
is co-ordinator of a cultural center in Honduras's mountainous Santa Barbara
region. He was seeking help for 2,200 villagers whose homes had been destroyed.
The villagers, including nearly 900 children, were packed together in makeshift
shelters without enough food, clean water, blankets or medicines.
Honduras: ACISAM
(new!)
http://www.sustainableicts.org/ACISAM.htm Use
of loud speakers and video recordings to raise community awareness surrounding
mental health issues in order to address the mental trauma of war and rebuild
communities. The community use audio and video to capture their local problems
(on mental health) and feed the outputs back to the community via loudspeakers,
radio, cable television. Read
complete case study at SustainableICTs.org at
http://www.sustainableicts.org/ACISAM%20F.pdf ICRISAT
(new!) The
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has
developed a database containing 50,000 records on crops and resources of
interest to farmers in semi-arid tropical areas. The database can be searched by
individual farmers via the Internet or by extension agents who pass information
along to farmers.
Health & Social Development Research Centre (HSDRC),
Jaipur
The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) operates 24
hours per day, 365 days per year. The objective of the service is to disseminate
technically sound information on HIV/AIDS, as well as details of related health
and support services, to as many people as possible while maintaining the
anonymity of the client. It is loaded with a number of options and pre-recorded
messages relating to the following topics: What is HIV/AIDS, how it is caused,
prevention possibilities, Symptoms, Testing & treatment facilities,
Support to HIV Positives, Personal queries & responses (Connection to a
counsellor). HSDRC has found that this IVR system attracts more callers than
similar call centres that use only counsellors. Their conclusion is that clients
are more confident to call this service because it is less personal and the IVR
system gives a greater sense of anonymity. Interactive Voice Response
(IVR) systemfunctions through two toll-free telephone lines combined with
custom software using Foxpro on a Windows-NT platform.
The
Smart Card Project will revolutionize microfinance by overcoming a major problem
for microfinance institutions (MFIs)-the high cost of delivering financial
services to the doorstep of the poor. It will do so by using Smart Cards to
reduce the time of weekly village meetings, thereby significantly increasing the
efficiency of field staff, lowering costs of delivery, and enabling MFIs that
target the poor to more quickly reach financial viability.
Also read the case study at
http://www.digitalpartners.org/sks.html
PlaNet
Finance is an international non-governmental organization whose goal is to use
the potential of the Internet for the development of microfinance. PlaNet
Finance supports organizations offering financial services to the very poor or
working towards the development and promotion of microfinance in developing
countries through the activities of its specialized departments.
http://www.digitalpartners.org/nlogue.html TeNeT
created nLogue to address the strict demands of the current market by adapting
technologies developed jointly by TeNeT, Midas Communication (P) Ltd., and Analog Devices, Inc. Specifically, the company has adapted Wireless Local Loop (WLL)
technologies to specifications that address the economic realities of rural
India.
India: AgriWatch (new!) Aiming
to fill the information and communication gap that exists in the agricultural
commodities trade, Agriwatch.com provides information and analysis on
agricultural commodities to the various participants in the Indian agribusiness
sector. The site also features an online auction and e-commerce for producers
and suppliers. India:
Drishtee (new!) Drishtee
is a unique socio-technological effort to create an information backbone in
Indian villages. The objective of Drishtee is to create a sustainable model of
rural distribution and promotion of consumer goods and basic services, and then
replicate these information islands and interconnect them.
Also read case study at
http://www.digitalpartners.org/drishtee.html
India: Indian Villages
to get access at prices they can afford Frederick
Noronha http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/article-ifa.html
India:
OddanchatramMarket.com
(new!)
http://www.OddanchatramMarket.com links rural market with the outside world, providing
daily price lists for vegetables, fruits and dairy products sold at the Oddanchatram market. The purpose of this site is to use ICTs to improve
agriculture by improving market conditions for the farm products produced in the
region. M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, provides the technical
support to maintain the site.
See the market profile
http://www.oddanchatrammarket.com/marketprofile.html
See the daily market prices for Vegetables, Fruits,
Flowers & Dairy Products
http://www.oddanchatrammarket.com/pullform.html
India: IT in weather
forecasting in coastal villages
http://www.economictimes.com/today/04tech10.htm
Balaji's
team first adapted simple radiophones of the kind used by security guards
to link them to a hub. This was then linked to the Internet. That was then
used to download precise information on the height of waves in that region
from data supplied by the US Navy. The result is that villagers now know
when the area will be hit by very high waves.
India:
Digital
Empowerment: Seeds Of E-Volution (new!)
Soutik
Biswas
Every
evening, Govardhan Angari lights a joss stick and offers a silent prayer
to a computer in a poky 20-sq-ft room in Dehri Sarai, a village 40 km from
Indore in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district. Beside the Pentium II machine
on a creaky table, there is a modem, a sheaf of white paper and a battery
back-up. This unremarkable paraphernalia has changed the life of the 21-year-old
boy, a landless Bhil tribal and son of a daily wage labourer, who takes
home Rs 40 on days when he finds work. These days, Govardhan earns up to
Rs 3,500 a month ferreting out crop market rates, e-mailing villagers'
grouses, generating caste and land certificates out of this rural cyberkiosk.
India: Telemedicine service in Pune primary health centers
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/pune-telemedicine.html
Those
living in interior Pune villages will now be able to avail expert medical
council well within their means, thanks to a unique telemedicine program.
The Pune district administration has teamed up with www.doctoranywhere.com
and Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) to launch a telemedicine
service from a government primary healthcare center (PHC). The service,
says the Chief Executive Officer of Pune district administration V. Radha,
will reduce the traveling time and expenditure of the poor villagers. The
villagers rush to big cities to meet specialist doctors.
India: Surf the
Net, via your satellite radio http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/article-sat-radio.html BANGALORE,
Oct 31 -- Download a website via your radio? Unbelievable but true. Yet this is
soon to become possible across India too when a satellite-radio broadcaster
enables its receivers with data-downloading capabilities. Shortly, systems of
the WorldSpace satellite-radio broadcester will be enabled in India to offers
not only audio broadcasting but also data broadcasting capabilities. This would
enable Internet data-downloads at 128
India
: Sustainable Access
in Rural India (SARI)
http://www.tenet.res.in/rural/sari.html
The
project will provide Internet and Voice connectivity in the villages of
Madurai District, The city of Madurai will not be covered. Internet services
will be provided through an ISP license and will be enabled by leasing
bandwidth from BSNL in Madurai. A kiosk will be set up in each village
to service the needs of the people in that village. Separate connections
will be provided to schools, colleges, primary health centres, etc. Dhan
Foundation, the project partner in Madurai will assist in training personnel
to manage these connections and introduce people to the Internet.
India:
Connecting Rural India to the Internet: The Challenges of Using VSAT Technology
http://sdgateway.net/webworks/case/da_vsat.htm
In
its goal to connect rural India to the Internet and promote livelihood
generation through e-commerce and access to information, TARAhaat.com faced
the fundamental problem: connecting rural villages to the World Wide Web
in the first place. Many villages in the Bundelkhand region where TARAhaat
is in its pilot phase do not have access to telephone lines. The quality
of the lines reaching other villages is not sufficient to transmit data.
TARAhaat therefore had to come up with an alternative if it was to achieve
its mission: that alternative was the use of VSAT (Very Small Aperture
Terminal) technology.
India:
Communications
Revolution set to transform 1,000 Tamil villages
http://www.tenet.res.in/Press/15022001.html
Give
me the Internet and I'll tell you what I can do with it" was the response
of a TV dealer when he was asked how he would use the Internet, says Elizabeth
Alexander, Project Coordinator, Sustainable Access in Rural India. The
SARI (Sustainable Access in Rural India) project seeks to provide Internet
and Voice connectivity in the villages of Madurai district. Internet services
will be provided through an ISP license and will be enabled by leasing
bandwidth from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. Work on this project, being
launched in mid-February, began in October 2000.
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/it-water.html
There's
an amazing story coming in from North India, for a change. A Jaipur-based
centre has worked out a software that allows users to create an interactive
water-map of the village. This means, villagers would be better equipped
to cope with drought. Thanks to IT. This software, Jal-Chitra, was developed
by Jaipur's Ajit Foundation, in close collaboration with the Barefoot College
of Tilonia. Says Ajit Foundation's Vikram Vyas: "The advent of Personal
Computer together with the development and expansion of Internet has provided
us with a unique opportunity to bring the tools of scientific modelling
and computation to rural development."
India:
toward a Knowledge System for Sustainable Food Security
http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/0401/balaji.html
It is increasingly understood that
the future of food security in the developing world, especially in South
Asia, is dependent less on resource-intensive agriculture and more on knowledge.1
In the coming years, agriculture will need to be developed as an effective
instrument for creating more income, more jobs, and more food. Such a paradigm
of sustainable agriculture will require both knowledge and skills.
India:
Asia's Largest Vegetable Market goes on-line
In terms of arrivals, Azadpur Fruit
& Vegetable Market is the biggest fruit & vegetable market in Asia.
This is the Market of national importance as it has assumed the character
of a National Distribution Center for important fruits like Apple, Banana,
Orange, Mango and vegetables like Potato, Onion, Garlic & Ginger.
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/india-it-disaster.html
The
earthquake in Gujarat in 2001 caused massive damages to lives and livelihoods.
More
than 60,000 of SEWA‰s members were severely affected. The article shares
the
relevance
and importance to the access of right type of Information Technology medium
in facilitating relief and rehabilitation measures.
India
: Telemedicine from Apollo
India:
Children and the Internet- an experiment with minimally invasive education
Urban children all over the world
seem to acquire computing skills without adult intervention. Indeed this
form of self-instruction has produced hackers - children who can penetrate
high tech security systems. Is this kind of learning dependent only on
the availability of technology?
India
: Empowering Dairy Farmers through a Dairy Information & Services Kiosk
http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/egov/diskcs.htm
In
recent years, the milk co-operative movement initiated by India's National
Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has led to a substantial increase in milk
production in India. The two main reasons for this increase are more efficient
collection of milk and higher profits for producers, both of which have
been influenced by IT. This case describes the automation of the milk buying
process at 2,500 rural milk collection societies.
India
: Web site for aqua farmers launched
In
what is probably the first ever attempt to integrate shrimp farmers in
remote coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh with the national and international
markets, a Telugu Web site -- aquachoupal.com
-- was launched. The Web site will provide aqua farmers of Andhra
with the latest technological and scientific knowhow and tell them the
prices prevailing in major shrimp markets all over the world.
India:
Gyandoot
http://www.gyandoot.net/gyandoot/intranet.html
Gyandoot
is an intranet in Dhar district connecting rural cybercafes catering to
the everyday needs of the masses. The site has following services
to offer in addition to the hope that it has generated by networking, the
first district in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India:
Commodity/
Agricultural
Marketing
Information System
Copies
of land maps
On-Line
Registration of Applications
Public
Grievance Redressal
India
: e-post to be launched in six states
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/india-epost.html
Kolkata,
Jan 23 - The next time the postman rings the doorbell, don't be surprised
if you are simply handed a piece of paper with a few words on it rather
than a postcard, envelope or aerogramme. And mind you, the sender would
spend nothing. It's the person the mail is addressed to who would have
to shell out money to receive the message.
This
is how things will be when the Indian government goes hi-tech with its
postal system. To start with, the e-post scheme would be introduced in
the six states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and
West Bengal.
India:
Videoconferencing
facility between Andhra jails and courts
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/jail.html
Andhra
Pradesh has become the first Indian state to provide videoconference links
between jails and courts, a measure that will help 'produce' undertrials
before magistrates without their physical presence. The video linkage facility
between the Chanchalguda central jail, which has more than 1,600 undertrials,
and the Nampally City Criminal Courts here has been provided by Stan Power
Technologies at a cost of Rs.150,000.
India
: ITC to set up Net booths for coffee planters
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/coffeebooths.html
ITC
plans to set up 25 internet kiosks in the southern Karnataka state to connect
coffee planters to the Web, according to an official. "The main purpose
is to let planters understand the market realities and sell their produce
at the right time, taking into account global prices," said Ninad Bhosle,
senior manager, trading, at ITC's International Business Division.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/12/29/india.wired.village/
Traffic
moves at its own leisurely pace in the western Indian region of Warna.
For centuries farmers here have cultivated sugar cane, and the cane fields
dominate the countryside, feeding the sweet tooth of one billion Indians.
Farmers pride themselves on producing more sugar per acre than anywhere
else in India.
India
: E-MAIL, SANS THE 'E' AT postboxonline.com
Very
simple as it may sound, but the identification of the need for such a unique
communication service and the translation of the idea into a profitable
business proposition requires a certain amount of creative thinking and
oodles of confidence which they seem to possess in abundance. So, what
started out as a solution to their distinctive problem now helps the entire
Net population and provides them with an easy and effortless way to interact
with more than 90 percent of the one billion-strong Indian population,
which does not have access to the Net.
India:
FOOD India
(new!)
FOOD India is a 20-year-old non-profit
organization based in India conducting research on social development and
implementing welfare programs in the field of employment generation, poverty
alleviation, cost effective housing, education, health, water and sanitation,
energy conservation, ICTs, electronic NGO networking, E-commerce, institutional
and capacity building for women networks.
FOOD have set up an on-line store for local
handicrafts (Indiashop) made by rural artisans and cooperatives in partnership
with CAPART (Government of India). Indiashop is marketed to foreign buyers by
their own Îemarketersâ, and is now generating a small, but steady revenue. Part
of the project is to train up educated unemployed youth to function as
e-marketers to promote products on line. The creation of an on-line handicraft
store open up new markets to local artisans and NGO community groups for the
sale of their goods.
Have a look at their online shop
http://www.xlweb.com/indiashop/
Read their report
Also read the case study at SustainableICTs.org
at
http://www.sustainableicts.org/FOOD%20F.pdf
India: MANAGE
(new!)
http://www.manage.gov.in/CyberExtension/cyberext.htm
In Ranga Reddy district, where MANAGE piloted their
cyberextension programme of village information kiosks, the Shamirpet MACTCS has
built their own premises for group meetings, banking activities, and to house
nine of the eleven computer centres. These are primarily dedicated to supporting
the work of the womenâs micro-finance groups and societies öwith public services
(such as computer training; and printing out of exam results) providing some
cost-recovery. MANAGE created the basic information systems, and when
villagers identified useful and usable information, they acted as a broker with
other agricultural institutes who offered to provide the information. In some
cases MANAGE provided equipment to help these other organisations digitise
content.
The information access at the village level is
putting pressure on the middle and senior level state officers for delivering
the programmes and schemes in time and to the needy. They are also under
constant pressure as transparency throughout the system has improved. The
villagers know their eligibility for housing loans, crop loans and other schemes
and they are able to inform the concerned officers about their demands with full
supporting documents, very much in time, due to information availability through
the websites. Read
the complete case study at SustainableICTs.org at
http://www.sustainableicts.org/MANAGE%20F.pdf India
: Fund a School Campaign of Government
of Madhya Pradesh
The
Government of Madhya Pradesh through its Education Guarantee Scheme has
facilitated the creation of a Primary School facility in every habitation
of Madhya Pradesh, the largest state in India. These schools need to be
strengthened. Fundaschool seeks to use the Net to bridge the gap between
the connected and the isolated, between the knows and the know-nots. This
is just one of the ways in which the Government is using the Internet to
build partnership with the Civil Society.
http://www.mssrf.org/information%20village/index.html
A
pilot study undertaken by MSSRF in villages in the Union Territory of Pondicherry
has yielded encouraging results on the impact of IT on rural societies.
For success, the approach should be the promotion of a user controlled
and demand driven system. The local language should be the medium of communication.
http://xlweb.com/food/wireless/final.htm
Provide
networking access in remote areas where there is no scope for access to
information through electronic communications thus strengthening the NGOs
role as a networker and knowledge-broker.
The Simputer Project, initiated by
the Simputer trust, aims at developing low cost access device that can
pervade the rural landscape, especially in third world countries.
The Web site in Hindi (main Indian
Language) will give soyabean farmers access the latest information about
the weather, crop position, arrivals in markets and crop prices. Besides
functioning as an information bank, the site also has an interactive element
where farmers' queries would be answered within 24 hours.
A portal site developed by the organisation
"Development Alternatives", India, to cater to the needs of village users.
It connects the user to information services, government agencies and to
all kinds of markets.
TWINS is a unique IT project taken
up by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, to take the benefits of
Information Technology to the Common man.
A pioneering Indian Initiative toward
e-vigilance. Its function is to advise and guide Central Government agencies
in the field of vigilance.
India:
Smart Villages Project
(new!)
It is proposed to realize the vision through the
following key objectives:
Introduce & promote Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) that are cost effective and appropriate for use in rural
areas.
Develop a service model wherein the Government ,
NGOs and the villagers work as a cohesive unit in building , maintaining and delivering
the information and knowledge base to facilitate development and empowerment
of the village community.
Explore & strengthen avenues to make the service
model self-sustainable at village level.
India: Health Library
An
unusual library in Mumbai offers help to those wanting information on medical
issues. Those unable to come can rely on something quaintly acronymed MISS-HELP
(Medical Information Search Service for HELP). In keeping with the cyberage,
HELP's Internet link even provides info on the latest medical research
from all over the globe. HELP has become a prototype of the modern digital
library too.
Kunjal Panje Kutchji is a pioneering
experiment in social change communication that is interactive and participative.
It is also the first time that a voluntary organisation, the Bhuj-based
Kutch Mahila Vikas Santhan (KMVS), has bought airtime on the radio as part
of its communication strategy. The serial is broadcast on commercial time
with the UNDP and the Government of India providing financial support for
the first 104 episodes.
Iraq:
A computer pioneer for women and the disabled in Iraq
(new!) http://www.undp.org/dpa/frontpagearchive/2002/january/9jan02/index.html Hawra
Adel owns a small shop in Hilla, Iraq -- Computer Services and Stationery 2000
-- and is blazing trails for women and the disabled. Hawra is the first woman
shop owner in the city in Babil governorate,100 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Disabled since birth and working in a wheel chair, she says: "It is a
matter of proving I exist -- and especially in the world of computers."
Prof.
Edna Aphek, Jerusalem, Israel aphekdr@netvision.net.il http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/hizdamnut-english.doc This
paper describes an on going program initiated by Prof. Edna Aphek and carried
out at the Alon School in MateYehuda, in Israel. The program aims at
minimizing the intergeneration gap and the digital divide by having elementary
school children tutor seniors at computer and internet skills and at the same
time write together with the seniors a digital "mini ebook" based on
a chapter from the senior‰s personal history.
Israel:
Children
Tutoring Seniors at internet Skills: An Experiment Conducted at one Israeli
Elementary School
(Word Document)
The Internet which connects about
200 million people and millions of pages, voice , sound, image and video
files has become a most powerful tool in the hands of those who know how
to navigate it .The opportunity to use this powerful tool exists and is
open to most strata of the population, regardless of the limitations of
age, education, etc.
Israel
- Kamrat:
the Story of a Virtual Multicultural Learning Community
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/kamrat.htm
Prof.
Edna Aphek
Israel
is a multicultural country, a country made up of different ethnic groups
: many having their own culture, language and even religion. There isn't
much contact between some of the groups, especially between the secular
Jews and the ultra orthodox Jews and between the Jewish population and
the Arab population which comprises about 1/6th of Israel's population.
The new technologies and especially the technology of on- line computer
telecommunication endow us with new tools and possibilities for on- going
multi- cultural and multi- age communication between different ethnical
groups.
Israel
: Sharing Knowledge and bridging gaps - Children
Teaching Children Computer Skills
Prof.
Edna Aphek
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/articles/edna.html
In
a world where many children speak the language of computer and the internet
as theirä mother tongueä, where many of them possess the qualities
that make good teachers, it would be most appropriate and only logical
to train the children who know, how to teach other children ( and adults)
computer and internet skills, be it other children in their schools, or
children in other schools. This short paper describes and discusses only
one case of children teaching children computer skills.
Africa: Africa
Pulse (new!)
http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/
http://www.usaid.gov/regions/afr/leland/
http://www.telecommons.com/documents.cfm?documentid=107
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/technology/article/0,8707,132691,00.html
Kerigma Mapping: http://uib-kerigma.colnodo.apc.org/mapa/
Ecuador : Altermedios
Alternative multimedia organisations
in Ecuador have joined together to create Altermedios, an association they
hope will build and support democratisation of communications nationally.
The organisation will support the active participation of civil society
groups and their access to communication media. By providing such an opening
for groups traditionally absent from public media coverage, the association
hopes that their action will impact on public opinion in Ecuador's pluralist
society, the development community and social movements nationally and
internationally.
http://www.iicd.org/globalteenagers
Greenpeace
Cyber-activist Community
India's hundreds of millions of rural dwellers are given a cold-shoulder by
businessmen, and lack the access to goods, services and information they so
badly require. From Chennai in Southern India comes a unique technological
solution -- a Internet kiosk that will sell for just Rs 40,000 (around US$830)
and could link up hundreds of thousands of villages.
Frederick Noronha
Kbps directly to a computer (approximately 1 MB of data per second) without even
having a telephone line.
India:
I.T. keeping track of water
(The information village experiment
in Pondicherry)
India
: Information Technology and Disasters (new!)
The distance between the patient
and the doctor has just been removed. With the launch of the Telemedicine
unit in Aragonda village (chitor - district) Andhra Pradesh, by the Apollo
Hospitals Group.
Sugata Mitra and Vivek Rana
India:
Internet, bullock carts mix in Indian sugar cane region
Establishing
Remote Area Networking through Wireless Radio Modems
http://www.simputer.org
http://www.soyachaupal.com
http://www.TARAhaat.com
http://apts.gov.in/twins/
http://cvc.nic.in
http://www.healthlibrary.com
http://www.undp.org.in/UNDPNEWS/jul2k/pg13.htm
Prof. Edna Aphek