Title: Have Your Say with CGNet Swara - Tribal Citizen Media in India. A New Case Study
Author: PrabhasPokharel
Source: MobileActive.org
Date (published): 08/07/2010
Date (accessed): 04/08/2010
Type of information: case study
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"We have another new case study up where we report on an innovative audio-based citizen journalism project in Chhattisgarh, India. Tribal citizen journalists have been reporting news in their own languages through a new service called CGNet Swara. CGNet stands for Chhattisgarh Net. The service allows citizen journalists to call in and record news in one of four local languages. The news that has been produced has been picked up in India's mainstream media, and some reports have led to concrete action: in one case, teachers whose salaries hadn't been paid for months were paid after a news report elicited a calling campaign from listeners."

Title: “information needs to be democratised”
Source: eGov
Date (published): 01/07/2010
Date (accessed): 04/08/2010
Type of information: interview
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
A key architect of India’s well-lauded telecommunication revolution, Sam Pitroda is currently entrusted with the role of Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations. In this role, he will be driving creation of an information infrastructure for delivery of services to citizens and will also be charting a roadmap for a “Decade of Innovation” to drive benefits of technology at the grassroot level. In his usual candid and transparent manner, Pitroda spoke to Ravi Gupta and Pravin Prashant at length on how an all-inclusive development is at the core of the innovation objectives and on the progresses that have been made thus far.

Title: Tweaking technology for the bottom four billion
Author: Kafil Yamin
Source: SciDev.Net
Date (published): 30/07/2010
Date (accessed): 03/08/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Texting is great if you are literate. But for those who cannot read and write it is a useless feature of a piece of technology — the mobile phone — that is otherwise beautifully pro-poor.

Romdoul Kim, who works for the nongovernmental organisation Innovative Support To Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters [InSTEDD] in Cambodia, would muse on this problem as she witnessed its consequences: the poor could not benefit from the flow of information that could otherwise have been passing between health workers and patients in her area.

The solution, Romdoul told a conference earlier this year in Jakarta, Indonesia, was GeoChat, a facility that turns the spoken word into the written word and allows information to be gathered on subjects ranging from disease outbreaks to rural businesses.

GeoChat is an example of a technology that has been tweaked and adapted so it can reach the poorest people — those who inhabit the "base of the pyramid", or BoP.

Title: Email with a Pen, Paper and a Mobile Phone?
Author: Serene Leow
Source: FutureGov
Date (published): 03/08/2010
Date (accessed): 03/08/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Citizens in India will soon be able to send emails using a pen, paper and mobile phone camera. HP Labs based in Bangalore are in the final stages of developing new technology that would enable any mobile phone with a camera to become an emailing device.
Simply write out the email text on a piece of paper and include the email address of the recipient, photograph the text using the mobile phone camera and the HP application software will send the message to the addressee as an email.

Title: The Economics of Copyright and Digitisation: A Report on the Literature and the Need for Further Research
Author: Christian Handke
Pages: 103 pp.
Publisher: Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP)
Date (published): 03/06/2010
Date (accessed): 14/06/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP) has commissioned this report in order to inform its research agenda. The report undertakes a critical overview of the theoretical and empirical economic literature on copyright and unauthorised copying. On the basis of this literature, this report also identifies the salient issues for copyright policy in the process of digitisation, and formulates specific research questions that should be addressed to inform copyright policy.
Economists’ theoretical work on copyright has generated a general framework in which to study the effects of copyright on social welfare. The literature identifies a number of costs and benefits associated with copyright. Digitisation is likely to affect the balance struck by existing copyright arrangements and empirical research is needed to capture the implications for the desirable level of copyright protection. So far, empirical studies provide partial answers at best but they may provide useful templates for further research. Progress seems possible, especially if better data becomes available.

This report highlights two issues which are in particular need of further research in order to inform copyright policy:
1. How does digital copying affect the supply of copyright works?
2. Does the copyright system entail obstacles to desirable aspects of technological transition?

Title: Data.gov: Selling the Government and Democratization of Information
Author: Alix Vance
Source: Scholarly Kitchen
Publisher: Society for Scholarly Publishing
Date (published): 25/05/2010
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Last Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative (OGI). The occasion was honored with a cupcake and candle on the landing page of the newly re-designed Data.gov site and a widely disseminated announcement from the White House... Data.gov includes more than 250,000 datasets, up from 47 made available at launch. The impact of the OGI is not confined to the United States. At present, six nations outside the U.S. are also developing open repositories of government data...
The message from the Obama Administration is that the OGI signals a sea change for government information that will:
- Spawn a global movement to democratize access
- Enable global linking of data
- Foster innovation and transparency via the creation of “community developed” applications
...
Professionals will find or create the means to build utilities from these emerging global repositories of government data that will:
- Enable comparisons of data that has historically been unavailable, siloed, and non-standardized
- Deliver tools that surface previously hidden relationships between data points and suggest relational meanings
- Aid users develop new hypotheses and research entry points
Whether this translates to empowerment of the general public — or strictly adds to the use of charts and graphs in presentations and articles by researchers and in the media, which pass by the general citizenry — is an open question.
...
Pending questions:

Will the technology community remain fiercely committed to using open data to serve the public good?
Will commercial interests predominate?
Will the level of commitment and interest in the objectives of a global data program continue without institutional incentives?
Does the Administration have its own plans for making this type of information digestible for the general public?

Title: India: Community Radio Stations Multiply, but Will They Thrive?
Author: Sushmita Malaviya
Source: AudienceScapes
Publisher: InterMedia
Date (published): 05/05/2010
Date (accessed): 06/05/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
From modest beginnings nearly a decade ago in the academic community, India now boasts 70-plus community radio stations (CRs) run by universities as well as NGOs and agricultural agencies. But visits to seven CRs, as part of a study sponsored by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), showed that they face common challenges to sustainability and growth: time-consuming licensing processes, weak transmission power, the need for more human resource training, and the perennial search for a viable CR business model.

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