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Lecture 7 - ICTs2 - 2023

The document discusses challenges with telecenters as donor-funded community access points for information technologies. This includes poor infrastructure, funding, usage, and technology appropriateness. It also discusses opportunities like convergence of technologies and successful cases like the Gyandoot intranet in India and Aksaya telecenter in India. The role of mobile phones to support activities like women entrepreneurs in Ghana and farmers groups in India is also covered.

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23 views

Lecture 7 - ICTs2 - 2023

The document discusses challenges with telecenters as donor-funded community access points for information technologies. This includes poor infrastructure, funding, usage, and technology appropriateness. It also discusses opportunities like convergence of technologies and successful cases like the Gyandoot intranet in India and Aksaya telecenter in India. The role of mobile phones to support activities like women entrepreneurs in Ghana and farmers groups in India is also covered.

Uploaded by

sze wei wang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MS7082 Global Communication and

Development

ICTs and Development II: Assessing the


effectiveness of technology

Dr Maria Touri, [email protected]


Part 1
ICTs and Development in Practice: Challenges
Telecentres
Donor-funded community access points,
offering affordable or free-of-charge access to
a wide range of information technologies
(including the Internet) to inhabitants of rural
areas.

AIMS
• overcome digital divides
• provide training
• foster small enterprises by offering access to
the Internet
• foster economic growth
LINCOS Project – Costa Rica
Case Study: LINCOS Project
• Developed at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT)
• Implemented in Costa Rica by the Costa Rican Foundation for Sustainable
Development
• Telecenters are housed in recycled shipping containers operated by solar
batteries
• A maximum of functions on the smallest space possible:
• six Internet-connected computers, with printer and scanner
• satellite fax and phone connection
• video recorder and giant TV screen
• digital radio station with its own antenna and a digital camera
• a laboratory for soil and water analysis
Telecentres

PROBLEMS
• Poor infrastructure
• Funding
• Usage
• (In)Appropriate technology
• Content
• Lack of community participation
Planning like an onion
International
Agencies
$

Scientists

ICTs

Community
$

Planning like an onion – key points

1. Supply driven approach


• ICT4D initiatives driven by supply rather than demand, because
resources are ‘available’ rather than ‘needed’.

2. Lack of participation and community ownership

• No social appropriation of ICTs – computers being stolen or


deteriorating quickly.
Part 2
ICTs and Development in Practice: Opportunities
and Successful Cases
Convergence

• Technological hybrids: internet & radio

• Converging with rural public libraries,


schools and community centres

• Converging with local NGOs

• Marriages among disciplines


Gyandoot Intranet in Madhya
Pradesh
• Participation
• Appropriate technology and infrastructure
• Local funding and ownership
• Accessibility and convenience
• Local needs addressed: land records, exam
results, public grievances, reduction in the
time and money for government service
delivery
• Less useful in creating economic activity
(e.g. entrepreneurship)
(see Arya, 2015)
Algun telecentre in Chile –
Dorothea Kleine

• Convergence

• Well-being & psychological resources

• Investment in humans, not just in


technologies
Aksaya telecentre – Shirin
Madon
• Basic and advanced ICT training for individuals
and professionals
• Digital photography, photo album-making
• Disseminating health information
• Facilitating communications with family
members abroad
• Connection to local government departments
• A hub to bring together buyers and sellers of
products; getting farmers together for training
The role of intermediaries – human resources
The telecentre owner/director:

• Constitutes an important local agent for interfacing with the


community

• Acts as intermediary between technology, information and the


community

• Is known and trusted by the village community, and can contribute to


the successful implementation of ICT projects
Part 3
Mobile Phones
Mobile Phones
Female entrepreneurs in Ghana, Janet D.
Kwami

Supporting women’s trading practices

• Finding a space in the marketplace to do business.


• Sourcing seed or start-up capital to begin the
enterprise.
• Identifying and cultivating a network of suppliers and
customers.
Mobile Phones

Organic Wayanad Cooperative, India

▪ Creating videos for marketing and training


purposes

▪ Mitigating Covid-19 restrictions


• Farmers’ groups meetings
• Information sharing through WhatsApp groups
• Basic verbal communication
Mobile Phones – Key Points

• Mobile phone becomes useful as part of a wider


communicative ecology: interpersonal communication, radios,
megaphones and loudspeakers.

• Economic benefit linked indirectly to technology – contingent


on women’s/farmers’ economic, social and personal context

• Mobile phone use shows the complexity and multidimensional


nature of ‘development’
Additional reading

Kwami, D.J. (2015) ‘Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Informal


Markets in Africa: Understanding How Ghanaian Women
Traders Self-Organize with Digital Tools’ In: Comparative Case
Studies on Entrepreneurship in Developed and Developing
Countries, edited by Joseph Ofori-Dankwa and Kwame Boasiako
Omane-Antwi, pp.19-47

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