IFAP Information Society Observatory

Title: Local Voices Enhance Knowledge Uptake: Sharing Local Content in Local Voices
Authors: David John Grimshaw, Lawrence D Gudza
Pages: 12 pp.
ISSN: 1681-4835
Source: The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, (2010) 40, 3
Publisher: www.ejisdc.org
Date (published): 26/02/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
New ICTs can provide new opportunities for knowledge sharing and uptake, but may also reinforce existing power hierarchies and exclusionary practices. This paper explores ways in which the balance of power may be redressed via the use of local voices producing local content in a way which respects local choices and where the intervention is shown to enhance livelihoods.
Practical Action has put people first for over forty years. How can people truly be put first when introducing a new information and communications technology such as “podcasting”? A brief review of the background to a podcasting project in Zimbabwe, leads on to a discussion of the development problems being addressed, the choice of technology, the outcomes evaluated and a discussion of implications for policy and practice.
Many ICT projects face the challenge of sharing information with people who have little experience of ICTs, low levels of literacy, little time or money, and highly contextualized knowledge and language requirements. Observations in Peru (Talyarkhan et al 2005) became the inspiration for innovative work in Zimbabwe which provides the main evidence discussed in this paper in relation to creating enhanced livelihood opportunities for people living in remote rural areas.
The paper discusses the proposition that the use of technologies accessible via voice and local languages support knowledge sharing and minimize impact on power relations in the community. A framework is suggested which shows how the balance of power relates to both the choice of media and the choice of technology. The final section of the paper explores the policy and practice implications of the findings and concludes that hand held voice devices can make a substantial contribution to improved livelihoods in remote rural areas.

Title: Mexico’s oldest Native radio station wins UNESCO award
Author: Rick Kearns
Source: Indian Country Today
Date (published): 13/04/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
VERACRUZ, Mexico – For more than 40 years, Mexico’s oldest indigenous radio station has helped its listeners through many hardships, including repression and years of official neglect, and recently, the station’s work has been recognized by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

La Voz de los Campesinos won an international communications award for its interactive programming, featuring community messages and shows on local arts, customs, education and human rights that are translated into three indigenous languages.

La Voz de los Campesinos, XHFCE 105.5 FM or The Peasants’ Voice radio station from the eastern state of Verzacruz, Mexico was one of two recipients in the world that won UNESCO’s Prize for Rural Communication.

Title: Living Proof: The Essential Data-Collection Guide for Indigenous Use-and-Occupancy Map Surveys
Author: Terry Tobias
Pages: 486 pp.
Publisher: Ecotrust Canada and Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC)
Date (published): January 2010
Date (accessed): 03/00005/2010
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
In land claims and resource development negotiations, Indigenous people increasingly bear the burden to prove their connection to the land. Living Proof is a methodology for Indigenous communities to assemble their resources to produce high quality use-and-occupancy maps that will stand up in court and be accepted by business.
“First Nations people are still being denied access to realizing the wealth and full utility of their traditional lands, so it is vitally important to record the knowledge of those who have been out asserting their Aboriginal Rights on the ground,” says Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of UBCIC. “Living Proof is extremely valuable in helping us record knowledge in a way that can be used not only for its own sake, but also for negotiation concerning the recognition and reconciliation of our Indigenous land rights.”
Living Proof is based on the research and knowledge of over 100 practitioners and communities in Canada, Alaska and Australia. They provided project advice, case studies and maps, making the guide not only solidly grounded, but also accessible and easy to use.

Chapter 1 Using Your Maps - Tsleil-Waututh Case Study
Chapter 2 Jumping In - Use-and-Occupancy Mapping
Chapter 3 Understanding the Basics - Map-Biography Method
Chapter 4 Looking at Maps - Sample Map Biographies
Chapter 5 Charting a Steady Course - Research Principles
Chapter 6 Rules of the Game - Understanding Data Quality
Chapter 7 Getting Started - Advice for Early Decisions
Chapter 8 Keeping Research on Track - Project Management
Chapter 9 Designing the Research - Map-Survey Parameters
Chapter 10 Clarity of Communication - The Questionnaire
Chapter 11 Things You'll Need - The Map Toolkit
Chapter 12 Recording Spatial Data - Marking Features on Maps
Chapter 13 Documenting the Process - The Research Record
Chapter 14 A Structure for Success - The Interview Procedure
Chapter 15 The Interviewer's Bible - The Data-Collection Manual
Chapter 16 A Necessary Roadtest - Interviewer Training + Pretest
Chapter 17 Holding it Together - The Interview Relationship
Chapter 18 Getting Community Approval - Verification of Map Data
Chapter 19 A Tricky Business - Place-Name Mapping
Chapter 20 Good Methodology Travels - Australian Case Study
Appendix 1 - Benchmarking Best Practices
Appendix 2 - Tasks of a Use-and-Occupancy Map Survey
Appendix 3 - Conventional Coding Systems
Appendix 4 - Avoiding Large-Polygon Problems
Appendix 5 - Community Meetings to Define Survey Parameters
Appendix 6 - Map-Toolkit Supplies
Appendix 7 - Adding Value to Base Maps
More Voices: Practitioner Quotes
Glossary
References: Recommended Reading
Sources: Maps and Photography
With Thanks
Index

via http://www.comminit.com/en/node/314346/307

See also:
Mapping a vision for their lands
The Globe and Mail, April 04, 2010

Title: UID to bring banking to the poor
Author: Karen Leigh
Source: livemint.com
Publisher: HT Media
Date (published): 25/04/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
New Delhi: India’s plan to offer unique identity (UID) cards to all citizens will bring a range of banking services within reach of millions of poor who currently cannot even open a bank account, says a report released on Friday by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is executing the project.

Facilities such as microfinance are beyond the reach of many poor people in both towns and villages who do not have documentary proof of their identity.

Title: Launch of Mexico’s Access to Information Index
Publisher: ARTICLE 19
Date (published): 29/04/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: press release
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
ARTICLE 19 and its partner FUNDAR have today released an Access to Information Index for Mexico. Using a unique methodology, the Index tests the efficacy of Access to Information laws across 32 Mexican states.
In Mexico, the Right to Information (RTI) is entrenched in the Constitution and there is a Federal Transparency Law which gives effect to this right. However, because Mexico is a federal republic, each one of its 32 local state congresses must approve their own RTI legislation.
The ARTICLE 19 and FUNDAR Index measures the Federal Transparency Law and 32 local RTI laws against the country’s Constitutional mandate and national legislative development, also establishing a baseline setting out the minimum criteria to protect RTI.
The Index also evaluates RTI legislation against international standards and best international practices. It sets international human rights law and standards for freedom of information as an ideal benchmark to protect and enhance Access to Information.

See also: Mexico’s Access to Information Index

Title: Where a Cellphone Is Still Cutting Edge
Author Editor: Anand Giridharadas
Source: The New York Times
Publisher: The New York Times Company
Date (published): 09/04/2010 (A version of this article appeared in print on April 11, 2010, on page WK4 of the New York edition.)
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
What if, globally speaking, the iPad is not the next big thing? What if the next big thing is small, cheap and not American?

America went into a frenzy last weekend with the iPad’s release. But even as hundreds of thousands here unwrap their iPads, another future entirely may be unfolding overseas on the cellphone.

Forgotten in the American tumult is a global flowering of innovation on the simple cellphone. From Brazil to India to South Korea and even Afghanistan, people are seeking work via text message; borrowing, lending, and receiving salaries on cellphones; employing their phones as flashlights, televisions and radios.

Title: Open Access and Open knowledge production processes: Lessons from CODESRIA
Author: Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Pages: 6 pp.
ISSN: 2077-7205
e-ISSN: 2077-7213
Source: The African Journal of Information and Communication, Issue No 10 (2009/2010)
Publisher: Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand
Date (published): 25/02/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
It is common in discussions of open access to limit the issue to publications and dissemination. This conflates accessibility with recognition and representation, and supposes that competing and conflicting knowledge systems and ideas would be equally available and affordable if room were created for multiple channels of accessibility. Such enthusiasm and euphoria, while understandable, do not adequately account for the prevalent power relations that structure knowledge production into interconnecting hierarchies at local and global levels.
CODESRIA has some lessons to draw on from its experience of the past 37 years – lessons about the need to privilege and prioritise recognition and representation of the perspectives, epistemologies, and contextual and methodological diversity that inform knowledge production globally and locally; and lessons about the need to widen our understanding and discussion of ‘open access’ to go beyond just enabling access to knowledge and research results through a multiplicity of dissemination possibilities. It is important to discuss opening access up to different races, places, spaces, cultures, classes, generations, disciplines and fields of study.
This review presents CODESRIA, and its ever-evolving publications and dissemination policy, as a possible model to inform and inspire institutions interested in a comprehensive idea of open access in an interconnected world of local and global hierarchies, where producing and consuming difference is part and parcel of everyday life.

Title: Copyright and education in Africa: Lessons on African copyright and access to knowledge
Authors: Tobias Schonwetter, Jeremy de Beer, Dick Kawooya and Achal Prabhala
Pages: 16 pp.
ISSN: 2077-7205
e-ISSN: 2077-7213
Source: The African Journal of Information and Communication, Issue No 10 (2009/2010)
Publisher: Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand
Date (published): 25/02/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project is a pan-African research network of academics and researchers from law, economics and the information sciences, spanning Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Research conducted by the project was designed to investigate the extent to which copyright is fulfilling its objective of facilitating access to knowledge, and learning materials in particular, in the study countries. The hypotheses tested during the course of research were that: (a) the copyright environments in study countries are not maximising access to learning materials, and (b) the copyright environments in study countries can be changed to increase access to learning materials. The hypotheses were tested through both doctrinal legal analysis and qualitative interview-based analysis of practices and perceptions among relevant stakeholders. This paper is a comparative review of some of the key findings across the eight countries.
An analysis of the legal research findings in the study countries indicates that national copyright laws in all eight ACA2K study countries provide strong protection, in many cases exceeding the terms of minimum protection demanded by international obligations. Copyright limitations and exceptions to facilitate access to learning materials are not utilised as effectively as they could be, particularly relating to the digital environment. Distance learning, the needs of disabled people, the needs of students, teachers, educational institutions, libraries and archives are inadequately addressed. To the extent that copyright laws address the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs), they do so primarily in a manner that further restricts access to learning materials. In summary, national copyright frameworks in the study countries are not geared for maximal access to learning materials, and are in need of urgent attention.
An analysis of qualitative research findings, gathered from the field in stakeholder interviews, suggests that a substantial gap exists between copyright law and copyright practice in each country studied. Many users who are aware of the concept of copyright are unable or unwilling to comply with it or to work within the user rights it offers because of their socioeconomic circumstances. In everyday practice, with respect to learning materials, vast numbers of people act outside legal copyright structures altogether, engaging (knowingly or unknowingly) in infringing practices in order to gain the access they need to learning materials.
In conclusion, evidence from the ACA2K project suggests that the copyright environments in the study countries can and must be improved by reforms that will render the copyright regimes more suitable to local developing country realities. Without such reform, equitable and non-infringing access to learning materials will remain an elusive goal in these countries.

Title: Implementing Healthcare Information in Rural Communities in Sri Lanka: A Novel Approach with Mobile Communication
Author: Indika Perera
Pages: 6 pp.
Source: Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol.3 (No.2), 2009
Publisher: University of Otago and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
Date (published): 30/08/2009
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Access to effective and efficient healthcare services without any difficulty is one of the essential parameters to consider for a country’s sustainable development. Though developing countries put much emphasis on improving their healthcare services, the disparity between service consumption of rural communities compared to their urban counterpart is still very visible. The effect is merely due to the disparity in service penetration levels between the urban and rural regions. Sri Lanka is also struggling to improve this scenario with various policy and tactical level approaches, yet there is lot to achieve. Improving healthcare and utility services through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is a prime research area among the scholars today. Like many other developing countries, Sri Lanka also initiated some projects to improve the healthcare sector infrastructure through ICT. This paper describes the need of a novel approach to provide better healthcare service to rural communities in Sri Lanka and details about such project which is at its final stages of development.

Title: Analysing the Challenges of IS implementation in public health institutions of a developing country: the need for flexible strategies
Author: Shegaw Anagaw Mengiste
Pages: 17 pp.
Source: Health Informatics in Developing Countries, Vol.4 (No.1), 2010
Publisher: University of Otago and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology
Date (published): 25/03/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This paper explores the challenges of introducing computer-based health information systems in the context of the Ethiopian public health care system. Drawing empirical examples from the process of introducing computer-based health information system(HIS) in two regional states (Amhara and Benishangul-Gumuz) of Ethiopia, this paper analyses the socio-technical challenges influencing the transition towards a new computerised system and suggested the importance of developing context-sensitive strategies to tackle different challenges in different contexts. Building on the notions of installed base and cultivation the paper examines the socio-technical issues and factors that influenced the process of developing, customizing, and implementing computerised HIS in different settings. The findings of this paper revealed that contextual differences in terms of access to infrastructural reources, availability of adaquate and qualified manpower, and managerial commitment and support would significantly influence the implementation process. I argue that, such context-senitive challenges need to be dealt through flexible startegies that took in to account the specific context. In this paper, four diffferent flexible strategies: the strategy of gateways, top-down vs bottom-up approaches, flexible essential data sets and clustering have beed identified as being useful in implementing computer-based systems in different settings of the Ethiopian public health care system.