Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 22:58:28 -0000 From: "Daniel Taghioff" <Daniel.Taghioff@btinternet.com> To: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: A simplified operating system for developing countries. Message-ID: <000b01c0490e$40096060$6337073e@oemcomputer>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] [-- Attachment #2 --] Facilitating NGO start-up by the provision of materials via appropriate information technologies. The fundamental aim of the project is to spread expertise in establishing organisational capacity towards developmental aims, and making that expertise available via the internet, but in a way that is as low cost and as locally controllable as possible. The notion of using information technology as the main medium is based on these premises: * Information technology is more interactive than most other media, and more suitable for the networking that characterises socially organised activities. * Information technology is a useful tool in itself for the organisation of social activities. * Information technology is a gateway to other opportunities within the modern world, when the high labour absorption rates of the information industry since the explosion in the internet is considered. For these reasons IT is considered a correct central medium in transmitting NGO start-up information into developing country settings, despite the obvious technical limitations. However IT should hopefully be used in co-ordination with other "lower tech" media in order to improve its outreach. The academic literature and current work in this area. The theoretical literature relating to this type of work falls into various categories. There is the category of materialist histories, which trace the role of communications in forming events within developing countries from the era of colonisation, facilitated by railroads and telegraphs, to the current international labour relations of the "post-modern information age". These writings often stress the dangers of cultural imperialism as an extension of this history. There is the category of media studies, which explore more the role of the media in the modern nation state setting, and the relationships between media, education, democracy and the construction of modernity. Whilst a critique of the type of developmental determinism that emerges from this approach is present in this literature, such notions seem to very much current practice relating to ICT (information and communications technology) by large actors such as the world bank (Woods, 1993) who are already coming under fire for their inappropriate, technically oriented approaches to this area. The early writers in this literature, such as Daniel Lerner, 1957, stress the importance of literacy as a prerequisite to expansion of the (Mass) media.(Hedebro, 1982) Another area of the literature focuses on development communication as a discipline, moving the discussion more onto content, and to specific approaches within projects and programmes in this area (Hornik, 1988). Here the educational theme of modernisation approaches are taken up, along side a locally appropriate methods discourse. Following on from this come discussions of the cultural dimensions of communication for development. (Boeren, 1994) Current Work On the internet, current work in progress can be found on the UN FAO website, focussing on local chat networks between farmers in south America. Also The WB is focussing on large call centre technologies in order to spread technical capability in Developing countries. Also the International Development Research Centre(IDRC) has a series of papers on ICT's which criticise the WB approach of involving $40 000 initial investments in white elephant high end call centres, advocating socially appropriate approaches such as Grameen Telecom's $600 Village Pay Phone, based on cell-phone technology, and feasible as a micro-credit based enterprise. They also discuss the use of VHS technology for extending data transfer beyond the payphone net in an inexpensive way, which has been explored in South Asia. Finally they include a paper on evaluating ICT based projects. Visualising the project cycle The project might begin with an investigation into and gathering together of the information that might be required in order to start up an NGO in a developing country. This might include company and charities regulations, simple accounting techniques, fundraising advice and support, techniques for holding meetings (PRA as well as traditional chair/agenda/minutes models.) A list of contacts broken down by region etc... This information gathering may involve approaching NGO's already working with these issues, academic writings etc... The efficacy of working with these materials on a distance learning basis also needs to be evaluated in some way. Secondly the technical aspect needs to be approached. My vision is to use low end computer equipment that is going out of date in the developed world as a technical base. I imagine this equipment being used with software based on a simplified form of Linux, the open source operating system maintained by a community of ideologically oriented IT enthusiasts. I also see the VHS data transfer technical solution as a good means of extending these technical capabilities where the phone network has not yet reached. This is all far too much for one person or project to manage, so I need to approach two sets of people. Firstly NGO's working with distributing dated computer equipment to the developing world, such as Computeraid in the UK. Secondly to find a group of idealogically minded programmers who would produce a simplified version of Linux that would run on a text and simple graphics only basis on a wide range of hardware, with a very simple set up sequence. My personal discussions with IT enthusiasts indicate such a technical solution is not at all unfeasible, or so time consuming to generate as all the components of it already exist. Finally the implementation of this project and a clear consideration of target groups. At this stage I imagine this project being targeted at southern NGO's who would use the extra technical capacity to support the start-up of membership based organisations within their areas. Hopefully in turn a diffusion of IT skills and equipment to MO's might occurr, improving their organisational and communications capacity, and providing marketable skills within the communities. The issue of what people will do with these skills IF we mange to get this far will have to be considered. At the moment I imagine the materials will be translated into locally appropriate languages, and I hope to gain professional help in producing culturally appropriate formats. Areas of work where IT capacity may be particularly "Developmental" One area where IT may be particularly useful is in allowing local organisations to find out about their legal and political rights. Along side providing a general administrative platform, IT may provide access to legal information, legal advice networks, a means of publicising infringements on rights, and a means raising local level issues up the political agenda. If international moves towards "rights to development" start to gain force, such local level advocacy may become increasingly worthwhile. Working within the Aid chain: the reasons why It would be wise to work with this as a means of producing self reliance closer to the beneficiary end of the aid chain, rather than trying to disseminate it to communities nor connected to the Aid networks, at least as a starting point for the work. The reasons are based on the technical difficulty of facilitating people to use IT for NGO startup and also the political difficulties associated with such a project. Dealing with the technical difficulties firstly, it is widely understood that information technology is unapproachable for those not familiar with it, and perhaps that setting up an NGO is most easily done where working examples are available as a guide to practice. For both of these reasons it seems wise to introduce such a project in an environment where support and advice is available to the beneficiaries, rather than expecting them to go it alone during the early stages. This type of work seems particularly prone to subversion by what has been termed in the literature as local elites, meaning those who enjoy a greater than average level of social influence within a social space that the beneficiaries are dependent on. Robert Chambers discusses the types of projects likely to meet with political opposition from these types of groups, and mentions those that introduce the poor to new productive assets, and those that politically or legally empower the poor (Chambers, 1983, p. 160-165). Since the hope is that this project will attempt to do all of these things, the risk of political opposition to these aims, be it through attempting to co-opt the resources on offer to better off groups, or merely attempting to block the progress of the work, are high. As such, working through aid chains that already grapple with these problems, and hopefully have the necessary local support to overcome such obstacles, seems essential. Bibliography: Boeren, A.; In other words... the cultural dimension of communication for development; CESO, the Hague, 1994. Chambers, R.; Rural Development, putting the last first; Longman, London, 1983. Hedebro, G.; Communication and social change in developing countries; Iowa State University Press, Iowa, 1982. Hornik, R.C.; Development communication, information, agriculture and nutrition in the thrid world; Longman, New York, 1988. Jefkins, F ; Ugboajah, F.; Communications in Industrialising countries; Macmillan, London, 1986. Stonier, T ; Jayaweera, N.; Robertson, J. ; The New Economics of Information; New Economics Foundation, London 1989. Woods, B.; Communication, Technology and the development of people; Routledge, New York, 1993. Articles from IDRC ..\Development\Socialise the modem of production.doc http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=552 Report on FAO Projects: http://www.fao.org/sd/cddirect/cdpub/SDREpub.htm http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/ECONOMIC/esn/field/fieldpro.htm Daniel Taghioff, 3rd Year Geography and Development Studies. 1of 4
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