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Author Archives: victorvanr

Creating offline Wikipedia

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by victorvanr in Appropriate ICT

≈ 1 Comment

In the developed world we sometimes forget it, but the large majority of the people in the world do not have (enough) internet real-time access to search for information. At the same time this information could have changed or sometimes even saved their lives. Offline information access is therefore a solution that is still very relevant.

Wikipedia remains a great, immensely beneficial resource but some work needs to be done to have this information available without internet access. Students and teachers in developing nations (check the Afripedia project to know what I mean) can benefit greatly from this information.

In the interesting blog post How to use the open source XOWA interface for Wikipedia, Marco Fioretti explains one way to create Wikipedia offline with the Open Source tool XOWA. But other tools are available, like Kiwix,  WikiTaxi and Okawix. They also do the trick and create offline information resources from Wikipedia.

Offline content is still important for schools and other organisations in the developing world that have no internet access. Unfortunately, these are still many organisations. Creating offline Wikipedia (and other mediawiki’s) is a great way to bridge information gap until the whole world has access to fast internet.

PS: Some examples of offline Wikipedia projects described in the blogpost of Matt Berg: http://www.buildafrica.org/posts/offline-wikipedias/ (thanks to Bill Zimmerman)

Social responsibility of leading tech companies

15 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by victorvanr in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Interesting to see how leading tech companies take their social responsibility in global development: https://www.devex.com/en/news/on-giving-technology-companies-focus-on-in-kind/80101

Corporate philanthropy or corporate social responsibility has traditionally been defined by monetary donations targeting a specific cause. In the fast-moving technology industry, however, the world’s largest companies have found other creative ways to make an impact. While continuing to give millions of dollars in grants to some long-term development projects, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief, today top technology firms are donating more products–hardware and software–as well as their time and expertise to developing markets and the organizations that serve them.

Of the American Technology companies, Google and Microsoft are leading the league.

Image

Some interesting observations from the article in Devex Impact:
  • Companies are moving away from developing countries to emerging economies.
  • Apple, the richest technology company at the moment, is absent. Even rumoured projects are not aimed at global development but focus on local US initiatives.

Death of a Good e-Society Project

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

NotInMyCountry-logo

It really hurts to see some ICT4D/MIS4D projects fail. Not In My Country is one of these projects.

NotInMyCountry.org is a website aimed at reducing quiet corruption and hard corruption at universities in Uganda. The website was launched on 24 May 2012.

As expressed in the press release the problems with Higher Education in Uganda are mind-boggling. Lecturers “lose” exams and then “suggest” that the exam might be found if the student pays a bribe. Administrators tell students that the “price” of enrolment in a course is a “special favour” otherwise known as sex. Lecturers attend class completely unprepared, if they show up at all. Administrators process registration papers months late and ignore questions they receive from students. The site enables students to publicise corrupt acts through a safe, secure, and anonymous platform. What’s different about the approach is that NotInMyCountry put the spotlight on corrupt individuals (administrators and lecturers). It is believed that focusing primarily on individual staff members – rather than on the university as an institution – is most likely to deter corruption. When individuals recognise that they will suffer consequences for their actions, they will change. That premise underlies the website.

Students, staff and other stakeholders can rate the performance of lecturers or administrative staff members on the website through a “Rate Performance” button. For rating the user is required to log in (or set up an account if you do not yet have one) for the performance rating to count. Each user is limited to one performance rating per individual lecturer or administrative staff member. In other words, you cannot rate an individual more than once. Privacy is key. On the site it is assured that the information entered on the system cannot in any way be related to the user. See the explanation here.

NotInMyCountry is an interesting project because creates a platform for e-society initiatives. Corruption on universities is high, but in most domains of government in Africa, citizens are confronted and hindered by corrupt servants. It is therefore such a shame that the project is not taken up by the users. The main question is: Why? Are the people in Uganda not interested to fight corruption? Or is the website not aligned with the way in which people want to fight corruption? It also begs for the question how the methodology could be altered to attract more performance ratings. When the platform is able to attract large numbers of users, other application areas are ready for tackling.

One way or an other, it pains to see that so little students have taken an effort and rated their best or worst lecturers and administrators. As mind-boggling as the level of corruption is, so mind-boggling is also the lack of responsibility people take to fight corruption. On that level there is also a long road ahead.

7 predictions for future research?

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Today we came across and article of Sarah Porter and Torsten Reimer predicting seven directions for research in information systems in 2013. In the article in the JISC the researchers (see for profiles of the authors here and here) state that “With rapidly increasing amounts of data generated, digital technology offers new and innovative ways of finding and analysing relevant information.” 

The following trends for researchers are identified: 

  1. Researcher will go mobile
  2. Lines between professionals, amateurs and the public will blur
  3. Researchers fully embrace social media
  4. Data will drive research across many disciplines
  5. Automate it
  6. Visualise it
  7. Researchers as data managers

The predictions for future research open up the possibilities for African researchers to join. Only with the use of internet and the willingness of the researchers in the developed world we can advance knowledge development that will also include the developing world. I hope this is what Sarah Porter and Torsten Reimer had in mind. 

 

Google Apps leaves Africa

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Appropriate ICT

≈ Leave a comment

Today all the Google Apps administrators of the free edition received the message that this service will be discontinued. As Google wrote to us:

Starting today, we’re no longer accepting new sign-ups for the free version of Google Apps (the version you’re currently using).

… upgrade to Google Apps for Business … for just $5 per user, per month.

This message marks the end of Google Apps in Africa, at least for the moment. In the first place, $5 per month / user is money most of the small start up businesses and local NGO’s will not spend because they do not want to engage in recurrent costs. It is already hard enough for these small organisations to come by and they are hesitant to get in these commitments. Secondly, and maybe even more important, most of the small organisations in Africa do not have access to international (credit-card) payments. Only through ‘middleman structures’ they are able to pay for the services like Google Apps. This has excluded organisations in Africa already from so many of the benefits of the internet and Google Apps is now added to this list.

Over the years we have assisted a number of starting organisations in Africa and Asia to set-up their first reliable and personalised access to the internet. The technology is easy to use and enables the transition from a individual hotmail / Yahoo! addresses to a company email address and website. Just a one day training and organisations were up and running and the user/administrators ready to maintain their own website and email ‘server’. No more reliance on half-baked or expensive local services. That is appropriate technology!

We regret this step of Google and we wonder whether they understand the impact of their decision for development. We hope that Google will reconsider and make an exception for small organisations low income countries.

FOSS for Kenya

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by victorvanr in FOSS

≈ Leave a comment

After so many years of advocacy the Kenyan government announced that they are serious with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) according to the article in the Business Daily of 9 September 2012. This is great victory for the FOSS advocates and evangelists that started their combined efforts in the East African Center for Open Source Software, a project started by the experts of MIS4D.

According to the article, Dr Katherine Getao, the ICT secretary at the directorate of e-Government, said “Initially we expect this to reduce the government expenditure by 20 per cent but the bigger impact will be in three years time when we anticipate the savings will be up to 80 per cent,”

Although the cost saving are important, the main victory is for the software industry in Kenya and Africa at large. The move is expected to hurt the sales of copyrighted software vendors but boost local software developers who can now start to show that they can develop services and software without being hindered by the licenses of proprietary software products.

We are all waiting for one of the most mature economies in Africa to start a large-scale implementation of Open Source Software. What a big step!

Aside

Small-scale Appropriate ICT Initiatives – 2

07 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Appropriate ICT

≈ 1 Comment

Primary and secondary schools outside the urban centers that struggle with no or unreliable power supply are the rule rather than the exception. We therefore see little schools that provide computer education in the rural environment.

At the same time we see that the teacher that operate in these difficult contexts have very little computer and IT skills themselves. They have mostly been trained in computer-less environments themselves. Even if they have mastered the basic skills as a computer user, almost all miss the skills to set up a computer lab for the students.

This situation puts a huge burden on efforts to bridge the digital divide. Where we need to train the young pupils and adolescents to engage in the digital world we leave large groups behind because of poor power supply and lack of skills to setup and run a computer lab.

SolarCubed provides a solution that addresses these two issues. SolarCubed aims to bring the power and opportunities that information and communication technologies–like computers–offer to developing communities of the world.Their solution is simple set-up, all-in-one solution that combines two 90W solar panels and a DC charge controller, which enables computing in off-grid and resource constrained locations.

Image

The solution is simple and can be effective if the parts that are used are available in the local context. The fact that no installation is needed provides a good answer for the lecturers that have limited IT skills.

From a western perspective, the price is affordable. At $9,350 a base configuration is offered which contains:

  • 6 x Intel Classmate Laptops
  • 2 x 95W, 24V Solar Panels
  • 1 x Proprietary Charge Controller
  • Cables and Hardware
  • 1 x Shipping Container / Student Learning Center Table

In many rural schools in Africa this mean 1 or 2 year salaries of a teacher or up to a quarter of the yearly budget of the primary school. That will make adoption a tough decision.

The SolarCubed solution does not seem to foresee in an internet connection, so the software and reference materials on the computers determine their usability. A computer alone will do little for the rural schools and it is hoped that the SolarCubed will be delivered with a wide range of textbooks and reference books (see this recent comment in the NYT) and at least an offline version wikipedia. The last challenge is well explained by Jordan Hu in this blog post.

To get the maximum out of the new computer setup in the school, a teaching program for the teacher will also have to be included. In most cases the teachers have never been trained to teach computer classes to the pupils in their schools. We will therefore have to guide them, step-by-step.

SolarCubed is an interesting new idea that addresses some of the real issues in ICT in rural schools but has a too strong technology focus. This focus needs to be merged with at least information and usage perspectives in order to provide the all-in-one solutions that is promised on the website. It would be great to see SolarCubed merge with content providers.

Small-scale Appropriate ICT Initiatives – 1

31 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Appropriate ICT, Telecenters

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

internet penetration, technology

Yesterday I stumbled again upon one of these small scale appropriate ICT initiatives that are put forward by another young entrepreneur. These, mostly young people from developed countries, have good intentions and good ideas and a personal drive to bring alternative ICT solutions to Africa. Nice International is one of these initiatives.

As stated on their website, NICE has the mission to unleash the potential of people in developing countries through powering ICT with sustainable energy. To do this, they have developed a concept that is based on three components: sustainable energy, an ICT infrastructure, and value added services. The solar panel forms the foundation for a computer center with an ICT-infrastructure consisting of a number of linux based thin clients, connected to a central server. In the larger centers they also install a flatscreen TV with a home cinema and dvd system. Value added services like computer courses, the ‘cinema’ and small website building need to make the technology investment sustainable.

The combination of the ICT component with the solar power makes the project interesting. Most of the ICT initiatives, especially in the rural areas and slums of the larger town, suffer from the frequent power outages. This easily drives the potential users away, especially with disappears during one of the Africa Cup or Premier League matches.

Except from the solar component, the NICE International solution stays close the traditional telecenter approach. This approach has been challenged a lot over the past couple of years because few of the telecenters survive after the donor stops the funding. The NICE initiative is prone to the same problem.

In order to survive, telecenter-like projects will have innovate or offer services in areas where ICT penetration and internet access is very rare. The focus countries as mentioned on their website are all countries that have relatively good IT and internet penetration. The challenging countries like DR Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon etc are left aside. The director Ties Kroezen stated that he has no intention targeting these really challenging countries.

Then only innovation can help the project survive!

In a time where it is expected that soon the majority of people in Africa will have smartphones (see this interesting article in TechCrunch), traditional telecenters will even have a more difficult task to survive. Potential clients stay away because they now respond to their Facebook friends on their smart phones. At the same time this new situation also holds the key to innovation. Smartphones will have to integrated in the concept. Electric charging alone – as stated in the website – is not enough. More innovative ideas like using the center’s wireless connection for mobile gaming or supporting low cost international calls will determine the success.

Entrepreneurial drive alone is not enough for appropriate ICT innovations in Africa. In-depth knowledge about success and failure factors of ICT in the African context and the willingness to learn from the experiences of others will determine success of these projects. In this way the impact of the projects will be as high as they deserve to be and the people at base of the pyramid will benefit.

UPDATE: Solar-Computer-Lab-in-a-Box is another solar-powered initiative worth looking at

 

IS increases financial transparency

10 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

africa, financial transparency, ICT4D, MIS4D

The London-based Transparency & Accountability Initiative published a report in which they investigated the impact of information systems and information technology use in 7 case studies of organisations in middle-income and developing countries. The main focus of the research is technology interventions that are attempting to increase the accountability of public and private organisations through technological transparency strategies. Cases in Brazil, Chile, Kenya, India and Slovakia were examined.

In the research three categories of technological intervention were identified:

  1. ‘Home run’ cases in which a technological intervention almost by itself produces dramatic increases in accountability, because it unleashes the latent wishes of individuals by allowing them to take significant actions that previously were impossible without the technology. This image, or type, is perhaps the most common mental paradigm for technological change more generally.
  2. Interventions that complement traditional media efforts – especially investigative journalism – by making information about politicians, other officials or governmental activities generally available. This strategy is to improve accountability by improving the quality of the public sphere.
  3. Technological interventions that are tailored to advance the very specific agendas of particular non-governmental or governmental organisations by amplifying their capabilities and strategies. In this category, success depends upon a successful marriage between particular technologies and the capabilities and efficacy of particular organisations that seek to utilise them. Most of the potential for technology to have an impact on accountability lies in this third category.

The researchers (Archon Fung, Hollie Russon Gilman and Jennifer Shkabatur) state that the introduction and use of ICT does not automatically increase transparency and participation, and recommend that it is crucial that the socio-political context is taken into consideration. They formulate four questions about context are particularly important:

  1. What are the motives and incentives of potential users of the technology platform? For issues concerning public accountability, mass users often lack the incentives to acquire and act on information about corruption and malfeasance or even about budget misallocations (except in hyper-local instances), whereas organised users such as journalists and reform NGOs may be highly motivated to acquire and act on this information.
  2. What are the capabilities of motivated users? Technological platforms should be tailored to the capabilities of potential users. SMS is better than the web when internet penetration is low. Kiirti, for instance, failed to find many NGOs with the capability to utilise its platform.
  3. Does an ICT intervention reinforce the strategy of potential users? NGOs deploy particular strategies, and some ICT intervention may or may not fit with them. For example, a report by the Carter Center on the utility of Ushahidi platforms notes the difficulty of combining crowd-sourced reports with professional election monitoring standards.
  4. Which organisations are efficacious with respect to accountability problems? Progress on accountability requires an organisation or coalition to possess the authority or resources to affect the problem. ICT helps when it is attached to such efficacious entities. For example, the most successful Kiirti deployment involves a transportation authority with the regulatory power to sanction problematic auto-rickshaw drivers. Uchaguzi is effective in part because it has worked with election regulatory bodies in Kenya.

The research concludes with 6 recommendation:

  • Funders should focus their energies on the second and third categories of intervention.
  • The first category of ‘home runs’ is difficult to identify and opportunities are rare.
  • In the second category, ICT interventions succeed when they serve as (i) highly credible sources of information that is (ii) of high interest and utility to (iii) journalists and political and advocacy campaigns.
  • Interventions in the third category are more likely to succeed when those who create the technology are embedded in local NGO networks, so that they understand the motivations and strategies of organised users and can tailor their efforts to fit them.
  • It is important for those who fund and support technological transparency interventions to help technology entrepreneurs and activists  by pressing them to:
    Lay out (i) what their initial assessment of the context is; (ii) what information the ICT platform will provide and who will provide it; (iii) who will use that information and why; and (iv) how that use will result in gains for accountability;
    Periodically revise their contextual assessment and theory of action. In all of our cases, organisations that were successful evolved because they responded to errors in their initial theories of action.
  • Funders should not impose particular assessments or theories on NGOs or technology entrepreneurs. NGOs are generally better situated to make these difficult assessments.

The research is interesting because it confirms that ICT is not a magic bullet and will only work as the appropriate solutions are designed and implemented. The research would have greatly benefited if it had used the Appropriate ICT Framework. This way it would have been able to put the results in context.

The conclusions and recommendations, especially the strong emphasis on local technology providers, are very much biased by the countries that were included in the research. All countries in the sample have a relatively well developed ICT – industry. Most in the countries in Africa still lack this and need external support to develop appropriate solutions. A close learning relationship local and external ICT experts will develop better results in these contexts.

As a whole, the research is well worth reading and recommended for ICT4D experts. The whole report can be downloaded directly from the website of Transparency & Accountability Initiative.

Mobile Learning for Africa – a toolkit

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by victorvanr in Appropriate ICT, m-learning

≈ 1 Comment

Of the world’s total population of 6.5 billion, 90% have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted. 

However, the mobile phone is a product that has become phenomenally widespread and has revolutionised life in developing regions. 

Nowhere has the effect been more dramatic than in Africa. While access to a fixed landline has remained static for a decade, access to a mobile phone has soared in the past few years. 

There are over 500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa today, more than half of the continent’s population. Many of these mobile users do not have access to a computer, the internet or even electricity. Of the 110 million Africans that do use the internet, more than half do so via their mobile phone. 

Moreover, the mobile phone has become a platform for a host of applications that offer new social and economic benefits to users. New services and systems are being built around this object to add value, and in just a few years, mobile applications have transformed the lives of many Africans. 

Mobile learning or m-learning is an emerging field that attempts to do just that. While less established than m-health and m-banking, m-learning has a great potential for contributing to social and economic development in Africa.

Jenni Parker wrote a great toolkit that offers a closer look at the possibilities m-learning offers. The toolkit can be also be downloaded here (17Mb). 

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In focus

  • The role of boards in development organisations and how to spot dysfunctional ones
  • Africa’s movers and shakers in information technology
  • MobiStation in Uganda – Appropriate Technology destined to fail
  • Mobile Data Collection and Research – an introduction
  • Social media in Cameroon – a baseline research
  • ICT for Education in Africa: MOOCs and SPOCs provide new opportunities
  • Cape Verde: Free WiFi as enabler for development
  • Death of an Appropriate ICT4D Initiative
  • Cloud computing in Africa – an unexplored potential
  • Sustainability and Mobiles for Development – M4D
  • Creating offline Wikipedia
  • Social responsibility of leading tech companies
  • Death of a Good e-Society Project
  • 7 predictions for future research?
  • Google Apps leaves Africa

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