Lead up to GK 3 - Emerging People : November 2007 Issue by i4d magazine

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Contents

Vol. V No. 11

November 2007

Mail box

Features the digital divide 6 Addressing ICTs and the challenges ahead Shambhu Ghatak

Opinion

MSP: India emerges as trend setter

Democratising English in India Prashant Gupta

CSDMS@GK3, Curtain Raiser, Emerging people, II December 2007, Malaysia Jayalakshmi Chittoor

23 News Rendezvous 21

mServe India 2007

3rd Annual Public Sector Summit 2007

UIRI ICT project, Uganda Learning skills for small scale entrepreneurs Arjan de Jager

Mobile technologies for development Himanshu Kalra

Transformation with e-Governance Vignesh

Distance education and ICTs

FOSS Open source and education Ritu Srivastava

Columns

RFID

Bytes for All

Book received

e-Inclusion

Measuring innovations

Showcase

Applications of ICTs in virtual universities C Jeba Kumar, Dr. P Govindaraju

How secure are we with the technology? Parmeshwari Mukherjee, Dr. Surinder Mohan Bhaskar

Recognition for IT entrepreneurship

The Indian Journey Jayalakshmi Chittoor

Assistive ICTs

ICT-related patenting

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on

In Fact Digital divide in Asia

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I would like to acknowledge with thanks the regular receipt of your excellent publication. Let me congratulate all the staff on the high quality and relevance of the articles featured therein. Mariana Patru Programme Specialist in ICTs and ODL, Division of Higher Education, Education Sector, UNESCO, Paris m.patru@unesco.org Thank you for regularly sending us a copy of i4d magazine. It is quite a good source of information for decision-making and to follow up on developments in the field of ICT4D in the region. Please keep us updated on the same. Angelo Juan O. Ramos MD, MPH, Executive Director, Molave Development Foundation, Inc., Philippines ajoramos@molave.org Greetings from Divine Word University, Madang, PNG. Your wonderful magazine has been arriving here regularly even though Valia has moved on to New Zealand. We are just not keeping up with the developments in this important area of communications. Our access to Internet technologies is quite limited within the country. We are hoping that access will be improved in the near future. So it is great to read about all the things that are happening in countries that are much poorer than PNG. Actually PNG is not a poor country at all - food supplies are plentiful and cheap. But we are afflicted by many development-related problems that could be better addressed by taking note of what is happening in other countries. Br Michael McManus Communication Arts Department, Divine Word University, Madang, Papua New Guinea

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Left to Right: H.E. Mohammed Al Amer, Preseident CIO, Govt. of Bahrain; Niranjan Meegammana, E-Fusion Pvt. Ltd., Sri Lanka; Ms. Bela Diwan, Computer Teacher, Springdales School, New Delhi; Santosh Choubey, Director, AISECT; Ravi Gupta, Director, CSDMS; Ms. Simmi Kher, Head, Computer Dept., Springdales School; William D Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, India; Dr. M.P. Narayanan, President, CSDMS; Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed Eisa, Chairman, GDCO, Sudan; Subhash Kuntia, Joint Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development. Govt. of India; Saurabh Gupta, State Informatics Ofﬁcer, NIC Bihar, India; K. Anvar Sadath, Head, e-Krishi.

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The well-being of people

ADVISORY BOARD M P Narayanan, Chairman, i4d Chin Saik Yoon Southbound Publications, Malaysia Karl Harmsen United Nations University Kenneth Keniston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Nagy Hanna e-Leadership Academy, University of Maryland, USA Richard Fuchs IDRC, Singapore Rinalia Abdul Rahim Global Knowledge Partnership, Malaysia Walter Fust Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland Wijayananda Jayaweera UNESCO, France

Social and economic inclusion and well being, is the primary capacity that enables citizens to lead quality lives and partake in the processes of development. It also empowers the people to oppose social oppression and prejudice. In fact many a theorists have claimed ‘economic class’ to be the single most important parameter that defines, even if it overlaps with certain other parameters (in cases like caste), the performance of an individual on all other parameters. The opportunities available for a person to lead a decent life are directly proportional to the class s/he comes from. There are optimistic messages from the proponents of the “knowledge society” which see technology enabling civic education and the flattening of access structures to basic health services, quality education, employment opportunities, and government to citizen services. The institutionalisation of such an ecosystem is the underlying challenge for the knowledge society.

EDITORIAL BOARD Akhtar Badshah, Frederick Noronha GROUP DIRECTORS Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor Sr. Research Associates Prashant Gupta, Shambhu Ghatak, Ritu Srivastava Research Associate Ajitha Saravanan Designers Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur Web Programmer Zia Salahuddin i4d G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, 201 301, India Phone +91 120 250 2181-85 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net Web www.i4donline.net Printed at Yashi Media Works Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India i4d is a monthly publication. It is intended for those interested and involved in the use of Information and Commnication Technologies for development of underserved communities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many activities in this wide and exciting field. i4d does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in this magazine are those of the contributors. i4d is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, 2006 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

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One of the most important dimensions of the new information society is predicted to be the availability of learning to every citizen, both qualitatively, and by the standards of employability. It also encompasses the idea of lifelong civic education, where the citizens can be reached by the governments, and the notion of a citizen can gain prominence vis-a-vis other forms of identities. Consequently there needs to be much research on learning environments that can bypass the obstacles of traditional education systems which leave many citizens illiterate. Issues of language,and design become very important in this regard. However, any learning systems, environments, and ICT enhanced education scenarios, cannot be made available to the masses without an infrastructure background. The village knowledge hub initiatives around the world are trying to close the drastic ‘digital divide’. There is also the need to pay attention to the various divides like, the age divide, the cognitive divide, and the economic divide wherein the full potentialities offered by ICTs are at a premium, and there is already a hierarchy building up in the virtual world, to mirror the real world, so to speak. There is also a need to make the new technologies more friendly towards differently-abled people. Special educational material, customised hardware solutions, and skill training is needed to include these people in the information paradigm. New communication technologies are also revolutionising the access to knowledge. There are movements to support open publishing, and a commons philosophy. Media is also undergoing systemic transformations in the new era. New media technologies are forever changing the face of news production and dissemination.The networking capabilities of the new technologies can be harnessed for local network building, for increasing the bargaining power of the concerned communities. It is also hoped, that the new social formations, assisted by ICTs will be able to fight sectarianism and identities based on religion and gender to pave the way for more equity. This issue of i4d looks into some of the aspects under the umbrella of ‘Emerging people’.

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

ADDRESSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

ICTs and the challenges ahead The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Understanding the Digital Divide (2001) describes that ‘digital divide’ refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities. The ‘digital divide’ thus reflects various differences among and within countries. The ‘digital divide’ among households appears to depend primarily on two variables, income and education. Other variables, such as household size and type, age, gender, racial and linguistic backgrounds and location also plays crucial role in determining the size and character of ‘digital divide’. According to Mehra et al (2007), ‘digital divide’ encompasses both physical access to technology, hardware and more broadly, the resources and skills needed to effectively participate as digital citizen.

The ‘digital divide’ The major determinants of digital divide are: Household or individual income: It is an important determinant of the presence of personal computers (PCs) and the extent of Internet access in homes. Income distribution is particularly important in determining the diffusion of new technology, with higher income groups acquiring ICTs early and leading uptake. However, rates of increase in access are larger for lowest income groups in almost all OECD countries. But this may not hold true for underdeveloped countries where demand for basic amenities can be stronger than that of ICTs.

Level of education: In general, the higher the level of education, the more likely individuals have access to and use of ICTs in both the home and the workplace. Educational attainment and income are strongly correlated and explain much of the difference in uptake. A study in the OECD countries reveals that at the same income level, those with higher educational attainment will have higher rates of access. Size and type of households: Given other things, size and type of households do matter in PC penetration and Internet access. In the OECD countries, families with children have the highest access of all households, and couples with children under 18 are more likely to have a PC and Internet access. Rates for these types of households are

The existing ‘global order’, the ‘nature’ of the things, and the institutions do not appear conducive enough for technology to serve the needs of the very poor, the destitute or the most vulnerable

approximately double the rate for single person households (OECD, 2001). Age of the population: PC penetration and Internet access are generally lower for older people than for younger people in the OECD countries. Usage has tended to grow faster in younger age group (OECD, 2001). Gender: Gender can determine access to Internet and ICTs. International Labour Organisation’s (ILO)’s World Employment Report 2001 show that women are the minority users of Internet in both developing and developed countries. Only 38 percent of Internet users in Latin America are women, 25 percent in European Union, 19 percent in Russia, 18 percent in Japan and 14 percent in the Middle East. However, gender gap in ICT usage is quite low in Nordic countries and in the US of America. Women’s representation in core ICT occupations is quite low due to their under-representation in core ICT science and engineering curricula in education systems. An International Labour Organisation (ILO) study on the Indian software industry reveals that men are mostly in export software firms, while women are present in domestic low-end and IT-enabled services. Rural urban divide/location: In the OECD countries, members of households in urban areas are more likely to have occupations where computers and the Internet are part of their work environment. Costs tend to be higher and quality of access lower in rural areas. Incomes tend to be lower in rural areas and ICT costs are relatively higher for low-income groups. Internet access levels are higher i4d | November 2007

in capital cities and highly industrialised and advanced regions than in rural and peripheral regions. Leading areas have higher concentration of more technologically advanced businesses and academic and research institutions, which are likely to have high levels of uptake and use of new technologies. Network infrastructure tends to be more expensive and lower capacity and quality in remote areas (OECD, 2001). One ILO study on the Indian software industry shows that there is absence of rural-brains in the IT industry. Urban masses have the advantage of knowing English. Ethnicity: Within a particular country, digital accessibility may be easier for certain groups to obtain because of the past policies of the state or the mindset of the people. For example, the digital divide between certain groups of Americans increased between 1994 and 1997, resulting in a widening gap between those at upper and lower income levels and between both the Blacks and Hispanics as compared with the Whites. A study by the ILO reveals that in the Indian software industry, professionals belonging to the forward castes form the highest proportion of workers in the software industry. Infrastructure and cost of accessibility: Infrastructure is the foundation for the development of ICTs. Most Information and Communication Technologies depended on electrical power and telephone lines. The production and consumption of energy varies broadly across countries in direct relationship with their economic supremacy. Developing countries tend to have lower levels of energy production, less efficient systems that produce great losses during transmission and distribution, and lower consumption levels. Similarly, wealthier countries have more phone lines per 100 inhabitants than countries and regions with weaker economies. Costs too strongly affect access. Despite reduction in costs in the past decades, indicators still show significant cost differences among countries and within countries in a single region. Legal frameworks and institutions: They basically mean laws and regulations that facilitate or constrain the use of technologies for the proposed objectives. Telecommunications was viewed as a natural monopoly. It was seen as most efficient to have one and only producer. Because costs in this industry fall as the scale of production/ operation increases, the largest firm in the industry achieved lowest costs and could under price its rivals. Governments thus entered the arena and prevented the entry of competitors, arguing that they would wastefully duplicate existing facilities or provide services only to low-cost users (typically those in urban areas, where the density of customers was high). But inefficiency and underinvestment by State telephone monopolies led to bad service delivery, and did little or nothing for the poor or the rural areas. Since the 1980s, countries over the world have witnessed a sea change in the way information infrastructure was being supplied, priced, financed, used and regulated. As already said, natural monopolies occur when firms that produce at lower costs, and are said to achieve economies of scale. But when firms using the new technologies have low costs even at small scale of operations, there may be many competitors. Traditional cross subsidies from international to local calling have generally failed to provide universal access, November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

because they have neither been transparent nor well targeted. But all these are changing now. Privatisation of telecom sector has become a key issue. However, when a state monopoly is privatised without proper regulations, then a private monopoly can emerge which results in the transfer of economic rents from public sector to private sector without any gain in efficiency, lower prices or broader service. So the State has a bigger role to play while privatising the telecom sector.

Problem of leapfrogging It is argued that the debate over future ‘digital divide’ would be moving away from inequality in basic ‘quantity’ and ‘access’ to ICTs to differences in the ‘quality’ of the user experience and ‘capacity’. However, there is also the need to observe and contemplate whether the present global knowledge economy allows countries from lower and middle-income groups to leapfrog in terms of growth and development simply on the basis of technological advancements. Such a technocentric approach to development have always welcomed criticisms from social scientists and academicians since diffusion of technology in a non-discriminatory and participatory manner depends on varieties of factors including institutions and regulations. The existing ‘global order’, the ‘nature’ of the things, and the institutions do not appear conducive enough for technology to serve the needs of the very poor, the destitute or the most vulnerable. Some have even contested that the present nature of ‘digital divide’ appear similar to what was seen during the days of industrial revolution in the West. Although the industrial revolution started in the West but it was dependent on colonial relations and exploitation. If ‘dependency theory’ is logical enough to be believed, then one can argue that the countries from lower and middle-income groups may face problems and obstacles in leapfrogging.

Current state of affairs The earliest International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics on telecommunications (published in 1871, recording data on telegraph operations since 1849) show the divide between the Member States of the Union, mainly within Western Europe at that time. The International Telecommunication Union’s World Information Society Report 2007 provide some idea about digital divide in various kinds of economies i.e. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development plus (OECD+), least developed countries (LDCs ) and developing (and also World Bank categories of high, upper-middle, lower-middle and low-income states), and trends over the decade from 1995-2000 (2000-2005 for broadband). The gap in fixed lines between OECD+ and developing economies (measured by the ratio between average penetration rates) has reduced from 9.8 in 1995 to 3.3 in 2005. The absolute difference has also reduced (in terms of total percentage points between the averages), falling from 40.4 percent in 1995 to 33.5 in 2005. The gap between developing and least developed countries (LDCs) has actually widened for fixed lines, from 13.8 to 20.2. In mobile telecommunications, the ratio between OECD+ and developing economies has been practically eradicated, falling from 33.1 to 3.1. Least developed countries (LDCs) have done well in mobile, growing their subscriber base by a phenomenal 93 percent per year over 1995-2005. Mobile phones are the most

evenly distributed and fixed broadband connections the least. Two economies—India and Vietnam accounted for 94.0 percent of all in low income countries, while China accounted for 87 percent of broadband subscribers in the lower middle income group. In 1997, the lower 80 percent of the world’s population situated mainly in developing countries accounted for only around 5 percent of Internet users. Mobiles are the most equally distributed ICT, with a Gini coefficient (a measure to capture inequality) of 0.27 at the end of 2005. Although the ratio of broadband subscribers in OECD+ economies to developing economies has collapsed from 434 to 11.5, the absolute gap measured in percentage points has grown almost tenfold between 2000 and 2005. By the end of 2008, more than half the world’s population is expected to have access to a mobile phone. The International Telecommunication Union’s World Information Society Report (2007) says that the impact of mobile phones in reducing the ‘digital divide’ is more remarkable in Africa, where their number has grown from just 15 million in 2000 to over 160 million by the end of the 2006. In terms of broadband subscribers, high-income economies account for nearly threequarters of total broadband subscribers worldwide. Lower-middle income economies accounted for 20 percent (with China alone accounting for 87 percent of these or some 15 percent of the global total). Low income countries accounted for less than one percent of total global broadband subscribers, with India and Vietnam accounting for all of these. The International Telecommunication Union’s World Information Society Report 2007 says that low-income countries are less likely to have infrastructure-based competition in their broadband markets, where as many high-income countries enjoy competitive markets with alternative products in cable modems and DSL. In the wholesome market, low-income countries suffer from lack of supply, mainly due to barriers in cost. Due to the small size of the Internet market in developing countries, Table 1: Top economies by total number of Internet subscribers, in millions, 2005 Countries

Total Number of Internet Subscribers (in millions) in 2005

Taiwan China

5.9

Australia

6.0 6.1

India Spain

6.2

Netherlands

6.6

Brazil

7.2

Canada

7.5

Italy

11.0

Korea (Republic)

12.2

France

13.3

United Kingdom

16.2

Germany

24.0

Japan

30.1

China

73.2

United States

83.1

Source: ITU/ UNCTAD/ KADO Digital Opportunity Platform

negotiation cannot take place on economies of scale in bulk purchases of international bandwidth. Table 1 shows that the United States (83.1 million) has the highest number of Internet subscribers in 2005, to be followed by China (73.1 million) and Japan (30.1 million). However, in India, the total number of Internet subscribers in 2005 was 6.1 million, which is far below that of the US and China.

Conclusion Activists who want to bridge the ‘digital divide’ think that moving towards open content, free software and open access would close the gap between the ‘information haves’ and the ‘information have nots’. There are projects like One Laptop per Child and 50X15 offer in order to close the digital divide. The other participants who are concerned about ‘digital divide’ are the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (www.un-gaid.org) and the Digital Alliance Foundation. Indices like Digital Opportunity Index (DOI), e-Readiness Index (ERI) etc. have been prepared so as to capture the extent of ‘digital divide’. For some like Athanasios I Bozinis (2007), ‘digital divide’ resulted in the creation of a technological ruling class and the division of the countries’ citizens into two basic categories: the ‘electronic aristocracy’ that is able to access the services of the electronic democracy (including electronic governance) and the electronic ‘have not’s’. It is very difficult at this current juncture to guess how the ‘digital divide’ can be closed, what would be the shape and size of the future ‘information society’, given the growing complexities in the ‘networked’ world, and how ICTs can help in poverty reduction and reducing inequality. But, with the advent of the Web 2.0 and Open movement, there is some hope of useful decentralised interventions for bridging the ‘digital divide’. The National Alliance for Mission 2007 is another effort to bridge the ‘digital divide’ and improve e-Governance in rural India. Nowadays, public-private partnerships (PPP) too are seen as a tool for technology transfer from developed to developing and underdeveloped regions. Shambhu Ghatak, shambhu@csdms.in

References •

•

• • •

Mehra, Bharat, Merkel, Cecelia and Bishop, Ann P (2004): ‘The Internet for Empowerment of Minority and Marginalized Users’, New Media and Society 6: 781-802. ‘Understanding the Digital Divide’ by OECD / DSTI (OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry) (2001) from the CD named Joint OECD/ UN/ World Bank Global Forum on the Knowledge Economy, Integrating ICT in Development Programmes. OECD Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar, Gayathri (2001): Labour in the New Economy-The Case of the Indian Software Labour Market, International Labour Organization, New Delhi. The Emerging Digital Economy II, US Department of Commerce, June 1999, accessed from http://www.esa.doc.gov/pdf/EDE2report.pdf. International Telecommunication Union’s World Information Society Report 2007 Bozinis, Athanasios I (2007): ‘Internet Politics and Digital Divide Issues: The Rising of a New Electronic Aritocrats and Electronic Meticians’, Journal of Social Sciences 3 (1): 24-26, 2006, ISSN 15493652, Science Publications. i4d | November 2007

OPINION

Democratising English in India “We came to the conclusion that an understanding of, and a command over the English language, is perhaps the most important determinant of access to higher education, employment possibilities and social opportunities.” Sam Pitroda, Chairman, The National Knowledge Commission, writes to the PM

Introduction This article attempts to look at the various ways in which the English Language becomes an indicator for class privilege, and how this is accentuated by the spread of Information and Communication Technologies, and the growing size of the Services Industry. First, that the recent rise of the services sector has helped a middle class minority, characterised by education in the better schools and colleges, educated parents, and the acquisition of English Language skills. This same class is at a position now to most benefit from the fruits of the liberalised economy, and the ICT revolution. The origin of the current state of affairs in the unfair residency of employable skills with a minority, lies in the education delivery system devised to define a ‘unity in diversity’, where most of the disadvantaged people bear the burden/ honour of local culture, while the minority enjoys the fruits of the language and culture of world trade. Due to the importance of English as an international language, and due to the advantages offered to the people who were comfortable in it, English continued to be used as an official language in independent India. The status of Hindi as a national language is not without its complications. People whose mother tongue is not Hindi, could justify a lot of resentment upon choosing Hindi as the national language, on grounds of discrimination. However, English continues to be the dominant language of instruction at the college and university level. The importance of English rises in direct proportion to the level

of education. Pupils who are adept at the mother tongue and not in English, find themselves at a comparative disadvantage as far as higher education is concerned. At the same time, since English is not the social language for most pupils, the mother tongue is the language for most effective learning. The recognition of English as a language of power and prestige has been made from the beginning of the twentieth century. Critical attention is warranted to the equitable acquisition of English Language Skills, which can be seen as a tool for empowerment, both economic and social, in modern India. The importance of English is only going to grow in the coming times. And this is not going to be the

Critical attention is warranted to the equitable acquisition of English Language Skills, which can be seen as a tool for empowerment, both economic and social, in modern India

English of the Elite, the Queen’s English, but its going to be a new Global English, influenced by English, in post-colonial countries like India.

ICTs, employment, and English Scholars of all dispositions would agree that new Information and Communication Technologies are increasingly crucial to economic and social well-being, and, therefore, every individual irrespective of nationality and class, is entitled to free access. Most initiatives to correct the digital divide focus on the notion of access alone without spelling out the miracle of access should be able to accomplish. Also, despite the new rise of the services industry, employment in India has shown a downward trend, considering that the growth in employment can be attributed to the rise in self-employment due to distress conditions in regular employment. So the high paying jobs being generated are cornered by a buoyant middle class minority, standing tall on the benefits of good education and socio-economic advantages. It is important that the fruits of employment generation in this sector are made available to a larger section of the population and therefore, there is a need to impart a special skill status to English. English is not only important to partake in the employment being generated currently, but it also grows in importance as trade with English speaking countries becomes even more entrenched. The new jobs created by the IT and the ITeS ini4d | November 2007

dustry have largely been cornered by an elite middle class which is comfortable with English. There is a school of thought which believes and is fighting for a more multi-lingual Internet. This can only be achieved if most content on the Internet is translated, and more importantly translatable, and even more importantly this process should be able to arrest the growing importance of English as the global language. Those who are bilinguals have a distinct advantage and most research shows that bilinguals tend to use English rather than the mother tongue, as far as the Internet is concerned. So while the world awaits the multi-lingual Internet, English proficiency will continue to dominate for a long time to come. Although, the following graph shows the consistent decline in number of web-pages in English, as well as users whose first language is English, a large part of this decline can be claimed by the Chinese language, and marginal increase in shares of German, Spanish, Japanese, and French.

Use of English on Internet as lingua franca

Source: Declining use of English on the Internet, based on data from the Latin American NGO Funredes

Source: www.internetworldstats.com

However this decline should not cloud out the fact that in most countries knowledge of English will continue to be the key skill, and it will retain its position as the language of international communication. Having said this, the attempts at localisation should continue with even greater vigour, but the efforts to impart English Language skills should also intensify, as English is unlikely to lose its position as the language of the elite, unless it is democratised.

Vernacular chauvinism Most Indian states need to immediately get rid of sterile debates about safeguarding the mother tongue, and pay more attention to the language of power. In any case the vernaculars in India are not natural languages as opposed to a language like English. The vernaculars seem to be the foremost concern of politicians who want to rake up issues of cultural identity, in a typical IndianWestern dualism. Although it can be argued that English is as much a panAsian language as any other, vernacular chauvinism of this sort has resulted in keeping a large section of the population, usually poor, from acquiring skills in English, which keeps them out of the elite circles, and also makes higher education less accessible and profitable. November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

In this manner the exclusion of a large section of the population from the knowledge and use of English is a major parameter in defining the power hierarchies in Indian society. Vernacular chauvinism is a major roadblock in making sure that the most needful get access to and education in English. Although there are genuine concerns about the medium of instruction, a bilingual approach to teaching has become indispensable in the current scenario. There is need for a national policy on English education in the country. This is in no way a suggestion to dispense with mother tongue instruction, but to enhance the facilitation of English Language Learning to all, and not to a cultural and economic elite.

Democratising English English as said earlier, is a clear class marker, and proficiency in the language can be directly related to economic health of the family. Throughout the country though, people would agree that knowledge of the language is a force for upward social mobility. There is sufficient research to show that the middle-class and even the lower-income households mark a big part of their earnings on getting their children educated in English Medium Schools, which throughout the country are run on illicit donations. It is imperative that the government satisfy the demand for English Language skills irrespective of the economic condition of the students and ensures that English does not remain the resident skill of the elite, while the economically backward majority has to bear the responsibility of the mother tongue. Prashant Gupta, prashant@csdms.in

References • • • •

David Graddol, English Next, British Council, 2006 Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Internet, WSIS Series, UNESCO, Paris, 2005 http://www.macroscan.org/fet/mar07/pdf/Self_employment.pdf http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/

CSDMS@GK3, CURTAIN RAISER, EMERGING PEOPLE, 11 DECEMBER 2007

MSP: India emerges as a trendsetter The Context While the much understood public private partnership model has evolved to engage other active stakeholders in the field of the development, and especially when applications of ICTs for development is considered, the dynamics of conceptualising, building, sustaining and evolving them to multi-stakeholder partnerships is emerging as an important area of future way of working. More and more institutions are adopting the model of MSP, and since this involves engaging not only the corporate partners but also the civil society agencies, international and national support agencies, the processes itself offer a unique example for the world to emulate. The key question to ask is, while evidently, MSPs can deliver, “Where does the value go?” The governments begin to take on a more direct role in policy controls and delivery mechanisms, keeping a monitoring and supervisory role. They also undertake to provide the conducive environment for monitoring and evaluation, and ensuring that the mandate of good governance and citizen participation are ensured to further the democratic principles of equitable and sustainable development, addressing social, cultural and economic inequities.

MSP processes in motion promotes innovation One of the strategic reasons for engaging various stakeholders in national level processes is to use efficiently the existing resources and institutions like schools, colleges, industrial training institutes etc. for building the capacity and improving access/ infrastructure. Corporate energies and efficient management practices, when applied to development sector could yield different kinds of results. Their potential

can be harnessed not only for furthering emerging market opportunities and developing new and emerging technologies but also impacting the lives and livelihoods of the marginalized and impoverished communities who are otherwise outside the spectrum of “market clients”. The objective here is to build a development sensitive corporate ethics, and engaging leading technology developers in national development vision and programmes. The issues of transparency, accountability and efficiency are current malaise in hugely bureaucratised governance structures and institutions. The efforts of bringing a National eGovernance Action Plan (NeGP) by the Government of India seeks to address the digital divide issues and access questions by focussing on creating ubiquitous and national grid telecommunications and information highway infrastructure through programmes like the 100,000 Common Service Centres planned across the country, the State Wide Area Network for broadband connectivity, and National and State level Data Centres for knowledge banking, besides 27 mission mode projects launched reflects the commitment of the government to improve access and services to the citizens across the country. This is affirmative action by the Government and other countries or regional associations like EU could learn from it.

Inclusive growth strategy ensures innovations The affirmative action by the state includes building a class based instead of a castebased strategy for development. ICTs can play a role in enabling robust beneficiary schemes to the poor and marginalized communities with a vision of building an inclusive society. The governments also have an important role to play to advocate and

issue development perspective guidelines to ensure that the fruits of globalisation reach the masses, and are enjoyed by them as well. According positive incentives to corporate programmes that support development initiatives, innovations and applications development can be an important part of affirmative action by the State. Support informal and innovation centres that reflect different and alternative models of development. What is exciting in India is that efforts are not only being made by the Government, but also by newly emerging alliances and networks. The Mission 2007 (recently renamed, as National Grameen Gyan Abhiyan (village knowledge campaign) is another example of how multi-stakeholder partnerships can be forged to build alliances with partners. The movement as an alliance has provided collaborative thinking and advocacy support to create policy changes to highlight the need for scaling up successful technology for development initiatives for poverty reduction. These two initiatives must be reflected upon to build a stronger feedback mechanism for being inclusive to diversity and class/caster variance that is currently being pursued.

Reflecting on the past, envisaging a future The following questions will be addressed during the panel discussions. • What are the structural and operational strategies of these programmes and how do they address the issue of diversity, class, caste and other variance? • How do they generate livelihoods opportunities? • How has India emerged as a leading player in the Business Process Outsourcing area, and created a i4d | November 2007

• •

•

• • •

niche for itself? How does one truly build multi-disciplinarity to promote MSP? How do we tackle the current and future challenges like energy needs for IT driven economy, global warming and e-wastes management? How can tools like Community Radio, Mobiles for Development, and Telecentres give voice to the voiceless, focus on locally relevant content, and disseminate new and traditional knowledge and culture? How do we engage the energies of the youth, and address gender issues? How do we create more visibility to scalable projects? What are the future perspectives and where should we focus our energies?

Four key questions •

•

What is the key learning of the value of multi-stakeholder partnerships to link up technologies, resources and services for development? How can we replicate the learning in one situation to another (transfer of knowledge and experience), how can we leverage on uniqueness and commonalities to build a network of practitioners - Similar to the model of Mission 2007? How can we design ICT4D programmes that address the marginalised communities, and are gender sensitive keeping in mind the cultural ethos that can be inhibiting factors? What are some of the unique challenges that were overcome? How does networking and knowledge sharing about similar programmes enable community of practitioners building a network for constant peer-to-peer learning? What other possibilities like South-South Exchanges exist?

Challenges: • •

• •

Is it all a rosy picture? What are the stark realities that India continues to confront growth, but is it equitable? Emerging Markets – but is there sufficient purchasing power? Who profits – the MNCs or the communities? How can ICTs help in addressing global environmental concerns in a knowledge driven economy?

Promoting South-South linkages: One of the main objectives of showcasing India as a trend setter is to explore improved south-south linkages, and when projects/ programmes are envisioned around the concept of “Think Globally, Act Locally”, and benefit from ICTs to create knowledge linkages for locally relevant development, then Glocalisation concept begins to shape up. The concept of Glocalisation is very critical and central to showcasing India as a trendsetter. It is also grounded in valuing local communities, empowering them and enabling to be catalysts of positive social change in areas that directly affects them. This is enabled through Internet and other Information and Communication Technologies to provide a micro-meso-macro linkage to global resources and knowledge, and build partnerships. According to the Glocalisation Forum, Glocalisation is a new November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

paradigm for international relations and an innovative practice of development cooperation. The larger objective is also to shape an innovative, inclusive and more socially equitable international system. Enhanced connectivity and city-to-city networks are used to build and to promote effective Public-Private-Partnerships and Multi Stakeholder Partnerships. It helps to overcome global challenges and to increase impact, build effectiveness, and efficiency of development projects in a sustainable manner. Glocalization brings together civil societies, local administrations and the private sector, on the one hand, and international organizations and national governments on the other, while fostering dialogue between parties through cityto-city partnerships, youth empowerment and information and communications technology. India has taken a lead as an example of practitioner of glocalisation in areas like south-south cooperation, international support to Africa in the areas of capacity building, human resources development, software development, BPO operations, etc. India’s Africa Fund is an example of the commitment to further south-south cooperation and linkages. The State, the corporate sector and the civil society organisations are embarking on such initiatives.

Panelists will talk on the following trends •

India emerging as a Southern leader for development support in Africa – the creation of the Africa Development Fund of US$ 1 Billion • Responding to crisis and disasters: After Tsunami struck Asia, there was a lot of international support that came in, but Government of India mobilised local support and resources, and provided leadership in extended support to Sri Lanka. Generating internal revenue for development assistance has been a trend in India for the past few years. • MSPs Work: ICTs for Poverty Reduction strategy – upscaled through appropriate policy initiative. Civil society organisations and corporate initiatives that piloted interventions in India, organised themselves into an advocacy group. Mission 2007, steered through the leadership of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan campaigned for up-scaling. Government of India responded positively to it through policy and programme intervention. – A Success Story • India is an emerging technology leader, and local innovations are being promoted, promoting entrepreneurship, especially in the IT field, especially in the field of BPO operations. • Emerging market: plough back to India, applying to the market scene, promoting rural entrepreneurship – International Technology Companies are investing in India to promote local innovations and reducing costs… which is a boon to the whole developing world. The global impact of the workshop from the emerging people, and their role in identifying and supporting future action plan cutting across technologies, markets and people, and building on gender, youth and disadvantaged communities will be the central thrust. For details about the workshop at GK3, log on to http://www.gkpeventsofthefuture.org Jayalakshmi Chittoor, jchittoor@csdms.in

UIRI ICT PROJECT, UGANDA

Learning skills for small scale entrepreneurs Arjan de Jager Country Programme Manager for Uganda IICD, The Hague, The Netherlands AJager@iicd.org

Recapitulation “On DVD, they showed me how to make pineapple/mango yoghurt instead of making plain yoghurt. It brought me new ideas. I tried it and made mango and pineapple yoghurt. So, now I have new sales opportunities.” Fredrick Osuna seems enthusiastic. He is a small-scale entrepreneur in Mbale who saw a DVD on small scale food processing made by the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), whose goal is to improve competence for rural micro- and smallscale enterprises in Uganda through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The DVD is part of the ICT support given to UIRI by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). Fruits, vegetables, meat, bakery and dairy products; whoever is able to make an attractive dish out of these ingredients can make a living. That’s what the DVD of UIRI is showing. The actor explains step-by-step in a clear and simple English how to make kebabs and meatballs; cakes, bread and jam tarts; yoghurt and banana shakes; tomato-sauce and mango juice, in a tasty and also in an hygienic manner that attracts any number of customers.

train them. He has become a role-model.” Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) can thus watch the DVDs in

the three UIRI/IICD funded ICT centres in the districts of Mubende, Kabale and Mbale - which seem to be successful.

Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), under the guidance of IICD has a set goal to improve competence for rural micro-and small-scale enterprises in Uganda through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

Observation According to Josephine Nalubega, coordinator of the ICT-projects of UIRI, “Many people believe that the actor is for real and the entrepreneurs want him to

i4d | November 2007

Better tasting yoghurt When Osuna started the business two years ago at home, he labelled the brand as Nutri Yoghurt. He was compelled to drop out from school in Secondary 5 owing to his inability in paying fee. A friend of his was into the business of yoghurt processing, and he asked him to join. That’s how Osuna learned the skill. Although Osuna has been processing yoghurt for a considerable time, on DVD they showed it in a different way. “I saw that one should work with fresh milk”, Osuna says. “The milk then tastes better and you can make a better quality of yoghurt. But the problem is that our milk comes from far, from Pallisa and Soroti, so when it arrives it is not fresh any more. Nevertheless, I saw I could improve my way of making yoghurt. Before watching the DVD I was using another procedure. I would first put the starter cultures in the milk and after doing that add the other ingredients like sugar and flavours, then heat it until 45 degrees and store the mixture for several hours. In the movie, the man showed how to first put in the starter culture, then heat the milk to 45 degrees, store the yoghurt for six hours and only then put the other ingredients. I tried it and the yoghurt tasted better. So I learnt.”

Advising and counselling

“The ICT centres welcome members of the community”, Nalubega says. “The DVD idea is new for most people, so everybody wants to see it. It is a good way of sensitising/creating awareness and instructing SMEs. If they forget the processes of production, they simply come back to the centres and watch the DVDs to refresh their minds again. And apart from the DVDs, the centres show SMEs how to balance their businesses by using simple spreadsheets.”

Though the DVDs are instructive, SMEs have to take some extra training. For that purpose they have to come to Kampala. Nalubega says, “we would like to train them in their own environment but they do not have enough resources there. At any rate, we are just not that far. The first priority is to train trainers in the schools we are working with, who will later on advise and guide the SMEs. We bring them to Kampala during school holidays for hands-on training, but in such a short time they are

Community outreach The ICT centre in Mbale is situated in the Community Polytechnic: a vocational school in the industrial area of town that trains people in carpentry, building, motor vehicle mechanics, agriculture, tailoring business, electrical welding and metal fabrications. UIRI strongly believes in the importance of working together with schools. “Schools are the best way to reach out to communities”, Nalubega says. “These are places that are highly accessible for the community and at the same time our contribution boosts up their vocational potential.” “It is true”, Joseph Ojiambo, focal person of the ICT Centre adds, “the SMEs are called to the ICT centre by radio announcements to watch the DVDs. In addition, stakeholders and community leaders find their way to the school, because the school provides a meeting venue. Some of them are also parents of our students who are interested in the new ICT centre and we just show them the DVDs. They often turn up with a family member, a neighbour, an acquaintance or a friend who is in a SME and wants to learn more.” Though the six training computers are there in the first place to serve the small and micro scale entrepreneurs, the three hundred students of the Community Polytechnic profit as well and take the earliest opportunity to learn basic ICT skills. November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

not able to learn all the skills like baking bread, making jam, kebabs and name it. We can only train them in the basics so that they are able to instruct their SME students. For example, when the bread is going to collapse, they can’t teach them how to make Swiss rolls or pastry. It needs more than that. It also needs more equipment in their schools and until now, we don’t have enough resources to purchase it. Nevertheless, the trainers of the schools

hours a week. To gain himself a commission, and to maintain the centre, he conducts some courses for private individuals, like an introductory computer course that takes two hours a day for a period of two weeks, at a fee of 30,000 shilling. By writing time, 25 citizens of Mbale had been trained. “We disconnected the Internet one year ago due to the power cuts and yet we had to pay 100,000 shilling per month”, Joseph Ojiambo says. “Our generator is actually too tiny to let the computers run all the time.” Wauyo does not consider the off line status as a big problem. “We have a DVD with which I can teach the participants on how to surf on Internet and how to use the email. They just go to an Internet café in the town and try it there.” He believes that the ignorance about computers is a bigger problem. “Most of the people are not aware of the importance of Internet in the world”, he says. “It’s because of the under-education in this area. We have a lot of school drop-outs and it is also difficult for people to get their own computer. For most of them it is too expensive.” are very important to us, because they are the ones who reach out to the SMEs in the communities. With inbuilt knowledge, they are able to advise SMEs to get to UIRI for more expert training and knowledge.” In the middle of June 2006 UIRI has started conducting courses at Kampala, for selected SMEs from all over Uganda on an experimental basis. Nalubega herself went to some of the places to select the participants for the course. “I just selected the most motivated ones”, she says. “The ones who were so eager, that they wanted to pay for it. We don’t ask a fee, but of course it is good if the entrepreneur is willing to invest in training to make a better business. The first part of the course takes about ten days and is focused on the performing skills of the SMEs. They are also trained in total quality management, entrepreneurship development, the basics of an organisation or business, simple book keeping and ICT basics. Then they go back home to their businesses and come back some weeks later for the second part. In the follow-up, attention was on quality production and management skills.”

Demonstrative effects It is the power cuts that Osuna too finds a big disturbance to his business. “Sometimes we don’t have power for two or three days in a row”, he says. “I don’t have customers then, because there

Affordability and awareness factors The ICT centre in Mbale is in full use. Fred Wauyo, who is the computer instructor at the Community Polytechnic, teaches all its 300 students on basic programmes like Windows, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, PageMaker and Web page designing, two are no fridges working to store the yoghurt.” But he is not let down by it. On the contrary, he proudly shows the device he just bought, which packages yoghurt in plastic containers instead of the plastic bags he always uses. He expects to sell more now. But he believes that he still has a lot to learn, like ICT for example. At the Community Polytechnic he saw the first computer in his life. “It is a good way for demonstrations,” he says. “And from what I saw I certainly would like to operate the computer. I hope to learn it. It is a way of storing documents and I would like to know how to surf on the Internet and to get more information. After what I saw on the DVD I think I can also teach others yoghurt making and selling. I would like to be trained in book keeping, marketing and a better way of branding.”

i4d | November 2007

DISTANCE EDUCATION AND ICTS

Applications of ICTs in virtual universities Distance education has helped many seek education when geographical distances prove to be a hindrance. Most institutions offer the courses in the traditional way by having contact centres at different locations. Most of the students who undertake higher education through distance education are working people who aim for higher positions at the workplace or those who do it to enhance their knowledge. As demands at work increase, people find it difficult to give importance to the courses. And moreover, the need to look out for the right faculty at all the local contact centres is a major task for the universities and institutions. In fact, this is a major problem faced by many students and institutions likewise, as there is a lack of skilled teachers for all the courses that the universities offer. To overcome this problem, one solution can be the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). However e-Learning is no substitute for the traditional way of teaching. There are already experimentations going on in the form of National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning which offers courses via Internet and television to the engineering students across the country. When skilled teaching professionals are not available in all the locations, one can employ ICTs to reach wide student community. One main advantage of employing ICTs is that the any updates and changes in the course curriculum and content can be easily made. With a pool of skilled workforce, it is possible to provide rich media content with the help of multimedia technology. There are various tools of ICTs such as asynchronous discussion forums, email, synchronous chat rooms, teleconference, video conference, hypermedia, websites, CD ROMs, palm November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

pilots, pod casts, web casts, blogs, Wiki, mobile learning, etc. e-Learning is a concept that involves any of the above technologies either as independent or in combination to provide the content.

Need for virtual classrooms There are certain limitations to web based learning as it is asynchronous in nature and there is a lack of depth in interaction among learners as well as between learner and the instructor. To overcome this, a solution was thought about and the result was virtual classrooms. It is essentially a cyber classroom, where the instructor and the learners can converse in real time. The advantage of being anonymous while compared to conventional classrooms, the virtual classrooms increases the interaction among the learners. Simply put, a virtual classroom liberates the learners from geographical distance, discrimination and inhibitions. The virtual classroom removes any discrimination on the basis of gender,

The virtual universities across the world are into a sort of educational revolution which transforms the way education was imparted

age, race or colour as every participant is known only by his/her screen name. The factor that separates the students is only the opinion and comments on the subject being taught. This is really a positive factor and there is no inhibition among the students as well as the instructor. Even though other components of an online learning initiative cannot be sidetracked by virtual classrooms, including more online chat in the courseware explains, improves and strengthens the concepts that are laid down by other asynchronous components. Obviously, a web based learning initiative is incomplete without virtual classrooms. The existing institutes offering courses in virtual mode are selected randomly since the overview is focused on the Information Communication Technologies used to disseminate the content to students. The current overview is about Tamil Virtual University, IGNOU, Global Virtual University, UNITAR, African Virtual University and Netvarsity. Except Netvarsity, the rest of the virtual universities are run or supported by governments or global organizations such as United Nations. Netvarsity is a private enterprise and is offering the e-Learning courses for the past decade.

Tamil Virtual University It was a desire to make Tamil people living in different parts of the world preserve their identity and observe their traditions and values and to maintain their familiarity with the Tamil language and be knowledgeable about their heritage. In order to meet the emerging needs of Tamil communities and others interested in Tamil studies, the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu announced at an International Seminar on Information Technology in February 1999, that a Tamil Virtual University would be set up.

Global Virtual University The Global Virtual University (GVU) was started under the auspices of United Nations University and is basically a consortium of universities that work together to enhance learning for environmental sustainability. Through a range of online study programmes and courses offered by partner universities, the mission of GVU is to increase people’s sensitivity to and involvement in finding solutions for environment and development issues. The consortium acknowledges the importance of education for development and is particularly designed to meet the educational needs of the developing world.

African Virtual University The African Virtual University (AVU) was established to serve Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries. Since 1997, the African Virtual University (AVU) has worked to create a technologyenhanced learning network to increase access to quality higher education for those living in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its current priority is to provide programmes in selected areas of specialisation, such as computer science, Information Technology, business studies, engineering, health and teacher training, that are critical to economic development in the region.

IGNOU IGNOU was established as an act of Parliament in 1985. Today it serves the educational aspirations of about 1.5 million students in India, and many in 35 countries abroad through 11 Schools and an elaborate network of 58 regional centres, 7 sub-regional centres, 1400 study centres, and 41 overseas centres. The university has grown steadily and now it enrols 10 percent of the students who take up to higher education in India.

UNITAR Virtual University Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) is the Malaysia’s first e-Learning, MSC-status and ISO 9001:2000-certified private university in Malaysia. UNITAR offers the best combination in its teaching and e-Learning methods by combining the face-toface classes with the effective use of CD-based courseware and online tutorials.

Net Varsity Net Varsity is the only private enterprise in this sample that is being studied. It is one of the highly successful e-Learning companies that deliver many hours of e-Learning to various corporate institutions across the world. NIIT Limited, the IT training pioneer, offers Learning and integrated e-Learning Solutions to individuals and global corporations. NIIT trains over 500,000 students annually for nearly 3500 centres spread across 33 countries.

Different tools used by some of virtual universities for e-Learning TVU GVU AVU IGNOU UNITAR NetVarsity Email

Yes

Online discussion forums

Yes

Web based courses

Yes

CDROM Based courses

Virtual Classrooms

Yes

No Yes

Yes Yes

Satellite broadcasting

Yes

Video

Yes

Radio

Yes

Podcasting

Web casting

Learning Management Systems

Yes

Mobile Learning

Other technical issues might be problems with the e learning system while the course is on the go. The computer server may be down due to several reasons. Hence contingency plans such as mirroring the course site to another server should be used in case of such emergencies. A technical team needs to be trained on this for proper functioning of the e learning division and once again money and resources need to be planned well in advance. The problems faced by the students who access the e-Learning content are mostly related to technical aspects and lack of Internet access in their respective towns. The students or learners need to be aware of the technical details that a course needs and must adhere to it. The technical issues might be due to various reasons that may range from simple ones such as plug in installations to complex ones such as hardware problems. They must be able to check for all available hardware and software required in accessing the course. In case of any missing software or hardware components, they must inform the support people or the programme producers of such difficulties. There must also be contingency plans in case the Internet connection fails or a software fails. They must be able to take help from knowledgeable people or access the course from an alternate location. There are several such other problems which the students confront which may be due the cultural and geographical differences which need to be addressed. With a combination of old school experience and new world technology, they are able to provide a synergy of both the old world knowledge and new world expertise.

Challenges An organisation or institution needs to invest a lot on infrastructure and team of professionals to create the online content. For example, professionals like instructional designers, graphic designers, animators, video professionals and equipment like computers, software licenses, cameras and a host of other technical issues come up right from setting up the e-Learning division to running it.

C. Jeba Kumar Research Scholar jebagrdcs@yahoo.co.uk

Dr. P. Govindaraju Professor & Head p_govindaraju@yahoo.com

Department of Communication , Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India i4d | November 2007

FOSS

Open source and education Open source in education The Open Source Software/Free Software (OSS/FS) or FLOSS or FOSS is a recent phenomenon which has revolutionised the software industry. It is not a silver bullet and might not be right to use in every situation. OSS is not better just because it is free, complies with open standards, implements the latest pedagogical fad or works well in experimental environments. In fact OSS must satisfy the needs of students, educators administrators and communities better than proprietary software. The integration of OSS into instruction is a priority at many organisations in the education market. The community is facing two main challenges in developing OSS for the education market. (i) To build learning environments, which is much better than using a proprietary software (ii) To improve the standard of living of the communities in developing countries The challenge is to use OSS to deploy learning environments, which are better than proprietary software. OSS must satisfy the requirements of the education market compared to what the proprietary software does. According to Blackboard (2004), the key competitive factors in the education market are: • Base of reference clients • Functional breadth and depth of solution offered • Ease of use • Complexity of installation and upgrade • Client service • Availability of third-party application and content add-ons • Total cost of ownership OSS offers a potential to provide a better standard of living to many people in the world. The high-cost of licensing November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

software is the main issue today. OSS eliminates licensing fees, which reduces the cost of imports for developing nations. Instead of paying to import software, which may not fit into local needs, money can go into paying local talent to service and evolve the OSS. With the OSS, school can take more control on their computer resources and manage IT future. Some of the biggest benefits are as follows: • Lower total cost of ownership (TCO) • Greater learning of concepts rather than products • Lower costs for students’ home systems • Customisation • Works well on older hardware Mitsubishi Research Institute of Japan conducted an online study entitled ‘Free/Libre/OSS Asian Developers Online Survey’ to determine places from where respondents have learned OSS/FS. The study was prepared in Asian Languages (Traditional/Simplified Chinese, Korean, Thai, and English for other countries), which shows that 13.5 percent respondents have qualification about OSS/FS. The study shows that around 26 percent

The integration of open source software into instruction is a priority at many organisations in the education market

respondents studied OSS/FS development in college. Interestingly, the number of people who were from science and engineering-related fields (11.3 percent) was greater than the number who of people who were from information-related fields (9.8 percent). This shows that people from IT background have learned OSS/FS development by themselves.

Open Source initiatives in Asia Open source code is now used by over 70 per cent of software developers in Asia, according to new report revealed by Evans Data Corporation. According to the report, 70 percent of the respondents were using open source modules in their applications, while 19 percent respondents were not and 10 percent respondents did not know about Free OSS. The survey was conducted throughout Asia Pacific, including China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. In a recent initiative of the southern Indian state of Kerela, more than 15 lakh Kerala school children have given their practical exams in IT on their personal computers running on special Linux version. IT@School project of Kerala of the State Education Department has developed an operating system based on the Linux version Ubuntu. The system called IT@School GNU Linux Version 3.0 was distributed to 2,832 high schools of the state. The children of class 8, 9 and 10 have used around 30,000 PCs to do their quarterly practical examinations in IT. The project has created a whole ecosystem of computer-aided tools for self-paced learning, online testing, instant evaluation, marks generation and so on. In this movement, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya has released NepaLinux 2.0 DVD, which comprises both the GNOME

and KDE Desktop Environments on August 17, 2007. Earlier, owing to space and other technical constraints, the two desktop environments had been packaged in two different CDs and hence had to be installed in two different hard drive partitions. Now with the release of the DVD, an user may actually install both of these environments and according to his/ her choice, s/he can select any of the preferred environments with their personal data and the file systems remaining unaltered in terms of location.

Open Source initiatives in Africa Despite its natural hazards and high priorities, Africa can investigate how to better use the opportunities presented by the emergence of Free and OSS in the context of limited financial resources and capacities. OSS is helping African countries leapfrog into the information age through reduced costs, less dependency on imported technology and its ability to be customised to local languages. The use of OSS in Uganda started in the early 90’s with the introduction of Linux and FreeBSD by two techies who traveled across the country. In a movement towards OSS, Uganda Martyrs University initiated two projects to improve accessibility of OSS in 2002. In the project, the University was aiming to replace all proprietary software at the University campus. In achieving this goal, the University has replaced 95 percent proprietary software with OSS both in the front-end server and back-end server. In 2003, the South African cabinet of ministers had approved the Government OSS strategy. Various private organisation and government officials across the continent, countries like Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, and Senegal, are pushing state agencies in adopting Linux and OSS. In June 2003, Nigeria has also got into the act with three organisations, SchoolNet Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Education and the Education Tax fund. These three organisations have provided 35 Nigerian high-schools with Internet capability and other educational technologies based on Linux. In a recent initiative, both Nigeria and Uganda have joined the Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the worldwide promoters of Linux and open source technologies based in Toronto, Canada. Now, both the countries will introduce the LPI programme into the high-schools and university curriculum to boost, educate and empower the whole younger generation about OSS.

Initiatives in Latin America In the context of Open Source, the E-LANE project in Latin America integrates solid applications, which are already is used in the context of e-Learning, as an open software e-Learning platform. E-LANE project is an innovative way of teaching methodology, which integrates course content from some of the most prestigious educational institutions in Europe and Latin America and provide them as low-cost educational material to society. The project aims to make its impact on academic level as well as non-academic level. In order to achieve its goal, the project is organised into several sub-projects with concrete interrelated objectives. Based on open source e-Learning platform, the platform is ready for distribution. The platform has a client/server architecture and imposes minimum requirements on the client side. The different sub-systems upon which platform is based are following: PostgreSQL Database: An open-source heavy-duty database server. Its presence has increased significantly in recent years and so its reliability (PostgreSQL.org) AOLServer: An industry-strength open-source web server containing a highly integrated TCL interpreter. The scalability and performance of this server has been proven in numerous scenarios OpenACS: An open-source comprehensive library of web functions that allows for fast deployment of web functionality. This tool has a very active community continuously improving its content. This tool has a modular structure where the functionality is captured (Openacs.org) LRN: A modular package to be deployed within OpenACS that implements an eLearning environment (Dotlrn.org) In an another initiative, the Brazil government has switched 300,000 computers to Linux. While Peru is supporting ‘Free access to public information by a citizen, Permanence of public data, and the Security of the State and citizens.

Conclusion In terms of reliability and performance, OSS/FS has significant market share in many markets. OSS/FS software has far better security, perhaps due to the world-wide review. Organisations are taking more practical approach towards open source as now more than 100 organisation are using Open Source library system, including Australian National University, Cambridge University, Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library, University of Glasgow, University of Ghent, University of Kansas, University of Toronto, University of Rochester, and University of Washington. Few educational organizations like Free University of Brussels, Dublin City University and Online Polytechnic of New Zealand have replaced their proprietary and in-house systems for open source systems. Ritu Srivastava, ritu@csdms.in

References • • •

http://www.iosn.net/education/foss-education-primer/fossPrimerEducation.pdf http://www.schoolforge.net/education-case-studies/gnu-linux-andtechnology-diskless-workstation-using-ltsp http://nepalinux.org/content/view/34/1 i4d | November 2007

RENDEZVOUS MSERVE INDIA

2007, 1-2 AUGUST 2007, NEW DELHI, INDIA

Mobile technologies for development Introduction We have moved away from a time when perhaps the only mode of communication was the postal department. Today, we are living in a time when mobile handsets have become an important part of our lives and it just takes a mere push of a button to communicate. Mobile technologies represent a rapidly growing sector in developing countries, and several new research and development activities are being undertaken. The scope of applications for development is wide, and as these applications can reach the unlettered people also, the impact on development, needs to be examined closely. Hence there is a need to engage the key operators, government policy makers, and service providers to build a development perspective and explore the possibilities of bridging the urban-rural divide. The mServe track (http://www.eindia. net.in/mserve/index.asp) at the eIndia 2007 Conference (http://www.eindia. net.in/) in New Delhi, encapsulated the idea of using mobile technologies for development. How can technologies like wireless, mobile services, etc. help in bottom of the pyramid interventions for provision of citizen services, health expertise, etc? It addressed the issues of content localisation, infrastructure, power requirements, and traversed the whole ambit of m-Government. India today has the third largest wireless telecommunications network providers base, after USA and China. As of now, tele-density in India stands at 19.86%. Out of this, the urban tele-density’s share is as high as 48%, whereas the overall rural density is only 6%. There is a huge gap between urban and rural India when it comes to using mobile devices and services, which is a matter of grave concern. November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

Lively participation in m-Serve exhibition

Discussion snippets R N Prabhakar, member, TRAI, said, “India is developing fast and mobile phones play a very significant role in this. It provides easy communication, but the true use of mobiles is yet to begin as the mobile is still to enter the hinterlands of the country.” While stating some of the reasons for the non-availability of mobile connections in rural areas, he said that the “lack of mobile communication in rural areas persists because of lack of power supply and even if generators are used, the cost of maintenance becomes very high, as accessibility of fuel in interiors is again an issue in iteself. And since there is dearth of power supply, it becomes difficult to even charge mobile handsets. Also the prices of the handsets are high when we look at it from the perspective of a farmer or a labourer. Lastly, mobiles come in handy

when a person travels long distance in case of cities, but in villages, people hardly do so”. Later, Kapil Ahuja, Marketing Head - Nokia Siemens Networks, India said, “It is true that the mobile has not entered the deeper regions properly but once it does so, it will be of big help to people. First, it will help people to plan their travel in advance since in villages, commuting long distance is always troublesome. Secondly, it will help them in dealing with vendors as they are not able to sell goods because of lack of communication. Lastly, mobile communications help in keeping in touch with loved ones. In case of emergency too, mobile phones come in very handy”. He also said that, “it would be incorrect to say that private sector is not doing anything to solve the problem. We have started working on things such as new and innovative power plants, solar and wind power based

plants, etc. However, private sector alone can not do everything. The government has to lend its full support for the improvement of rural India.” He also gave examples of how service providers have started selling recharge coupons of low denominations, and life time validity SIM cards, keeping in mind that it often becomes difficult for customers to use mobile services as the cost of both handsets and services are high. It was great to see both the private and public sector agreeing on reasons as to why rural India is still behind in communication and both trying in their respective areas to solve this problem.

Use of content, features and applications Gone are the days when mobile handsets were used only to make calls. These days mobile handsets have multiple usages from being a camera to being used as a music player, from sending emails to bank transactions. But again all these are for the urban consumers, people who barely know how to read and write, for them these features serve no purpose. Mahesh Prasad, President, Reliance Communications said that the mobile in India has reached its heights. “We have crossed 150 million subscribers now and we are adding 7 million subscriber every month on an average.. however, this success story has a flip side. 70% of the population that resides in rural India has no access to mobile. Yes, it is true that power is a big concern, however the features of the mobile handsets doesn’t suit them. for them, handsets should have small screen, as most people can only do sequential navigation. The QWERTY keyboard that we use in urban side is of little use to them, as they do not know how to use it. The non availability of content in their own language, as most phones are in Hindi or English, it makes things little more difficult for them. But these are some common issues, it still remains an academician’s dream to find out what will actually work with rural market in terms of Application, Features and Content.” Prasad also cited an example of how a taxi driver learned to use his handset by using R-world to download a ring tone. He said though the infotainment is of little value it does help people in learning the proper use of mobile handsets. Shrikant S Naidu, Manager Application Research Centre, Motorola Labs India continued - “It is true that rural India should have had mobile connectivity by this time. However due to resource problems the process took time. These were external

mServe discussion panel

factors, the major problem is still in the area of creating the correct application for people living in hinterland. Some mobile companies have already begun their work but again the features are limited. In a mobile, features matter a lot, and perhaps a village would not require very trendy applications, but the handsets should be made according to their understanding, so that they can use it.” He also added that mobile handsets would give more job opportunities, which for the time being is very limited apart from better health and education, as it’ll help everybody to stay connected to each other. It was clear that everybody was talking of mobiles reaching to the interiors of India which in turn would work for the betterment of the country. However, even for the mobile handset manufacturers, it seemed a difficult task to give an answer to the question as to what kind of content, application and features would suit the consumer in rural India. Probably, a clear and workable solution isn’t much far away.

Some recommendations: •

• • • • • • • • Audience in m-Serve

mServe practices involve the operators, the service providers, regulators, and the bodies looking into security, legal and ethical issues and representation from all these sectors. It’s a good beginning, more should follow! Create a platform for extended knowledge sharing, like a magazine/portal/web space. Help build relationships between the various possible partners/organisations. Promote the use of shared infrastructure in rural areas to subsidise the operational expenditure. Case studies from more countries would be welcome. Focus should also be on providing better and easier user experience Localisation of user Interface, content and applications is the key to achieve larger acceptance among the rural masses. Wimax will be the future technology to look forward to while delivering high end data to users. Involving more developed nations was floated as an idea, as the developing world could learn from their experiences. Reported by Himanshu Kalra, himanshu@elets.in i4d | November 2007

Information for development www.i4donline.net

Agriculture Remote control operation of irrigation systems planned The Public Works Department of Chennai (India) is planning to introduce remotecontrolled operation of irrigation systems, including reservoirs. Under the proposed programme, a management information system will create a document of all the reservoirs, the amount of rainfall in catchment areas, the storage level of reservoirs and the anticipated inflows and discharges. A real-time data acquisition system and a mechanism for automated canal operation will also be implemented. Initially, the automated system of operating canals would be implemented on a pilot basis in two places under the Parambikulam, Aliyar Project (PAP). A pilot scheme will cover the operation of the gates of the branch canals of the PAP. The State Department has proposed the programme under the World Bank-assisted Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water Resources Management, will cover 63 river sub-basins in the State. For this programme, a South Australia-based company is providing services to the authorities.

Community Radio DDS ready to launch first community radio station in India The Deccan Development Society (DDS) is ready to receive the letter from the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) to launch a first community radio, named Sangham FM in the country. The Sangham FM, which has been narrow casting their programmes by playing recorded programmes in villages, will soon broadcast the content prepared by the illiterate but resourceful women members of the DDS in and around Zaheerabad and Jherasangham mandals. While speaking at the regional community radio workshop, P.V. Sateesh Kumar of the DDS stated that November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

women of Community Media Trust, separate group established to run the radio, have ready content for 600 hours. The spectrum can accommodate 5,000 community radios in the country as a transmitter of Effective Radiated Power (ERP) of 100 Watt would be adequate to run a radio station. Around 100200 community radio will start functioning all over the country within the two years.

Delhi University launches community radio station The Delhi University has launched a new community radio station, named DU 90.4 FM, which aired the inauguration message by the Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal. The studio for the station has been set up at the School of Open Learning on the North Campus covering areas in and around the University. With a 10-km radius, DU 90.4 FM will broadcast community-related programmes as well as those dealing with students’ issues. The DU 90.4 FM will combine education and information and help in reaching out to people. The University has provided INR 25 lakh for the equipment and other requirements. The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia is providing technical and programming support to the DU 90.4 FM. Initially the radio will be operational from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. in the morning and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the evening. The duration will later be increased to eight hours a day. rce me om e-C

e-Commerce IBM partners with Grameen Foundation to expand its open source microfinance banking platform

I B M h a s p a r t n e re d w i t h G r a m e e n Foundation to launch a collaborative project to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) to better serve poor communities around the world by expanding Mifos, Grameen Foundation’s ground-breaking open source microfinance software platform.

The project will allow MFIs to access new and world-class software, which streamlines the lending process and significantly reduces operational and technology costs. Currently, five MFIs are deploying Mifos in India, Kenya, Tunisia, and Honduras. MFIs will provide small loans who are below poverty line to establish or expand very small, self-supporting businesses. MFIs will also provide other financial services like saving accounts, microinsurance, and social services such as education and healthcare. The benefits of the new Mifos platform will include access to world-class software for all microfinance institutions; global standards in management and reporting; and sharing and scaling of technology innovation.

e-Governance Belgium launches multipurpose ID cards

egov

The Belgium government is planning to issue multipurpose national chip cards to all citizens and residents. Under this initiative, the government has also issued blue and green children’s cards both as an identity and a child protection measure. The kid’s card includes three functions. Each card carries a phone number that connects to a cascade of numbers registered by the parents. If there is no answer, the call is transferred to a national child-protection hotline. After 24 hours, if parent find their child or a card, then it means that the parents or the police can be notified right away. The card’s third function is Internet safety: from the age of six, children can receive a PIN allowing them to sign on to children-only online groups. The children’s card is part of a national programme to replace existing cards with multi-purpose electronic tokens. The e-ID has an embedded digital signature allowing citizens to bank online, as well as carry out e-Government transactions such as filing tax returns.

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CICT Philippines launches electronic school The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) of Philippines has launched a project, called ‘e-eskwela’ (electronic school) to make public high school education completely accessible over the Internet. e-Eskwela aims to digitise the entire high school curriculum as an alternative to taking it in the normal classroom setting. CICT has partnered with the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems under the Department of Education (DepEd) to launch the project nationwide. Of the total 80 modules, around 40 have been digitised and made available online. The CICT has piloted the online modules in four designated e-Learning centres, located in Roces Avenue in Quezon City, San Jose, Bulacan, Mandaue City in Cebu and Cagayan De Oro City. The e-Eskwela project is part of the Basic Education project that attempts to develop e-Learning components for primary and secondary public school education.

Latvian Government develops national database on learning opportunities The Latvian State Education Development Agency(www.niid.lv) has developed a national database on learning opportunities. Currently, the database contains information about professional education programmes and educational opportunities offered by L atvia’s higher education institutions and colleges. Soon users would be able to learn about other education programmes with the database on the portal. The website contains two parts: the database and the portal. Presently, users can choose seven different test, according to their interests, intellect, career values, personality, motivation, workplace environment, and favourite subjects. In the next step, the database would be integrated into the European Commission’s PLOTEUS portal – Portal on Learning Opportunities throughout the European Space. This means that all users searching for information in PLOTEUS will have access to the Latvian database.

Dubai eGovernment obtains ISO 9001:2000 certification Dubai eGovernment has received ISO 9001:2000 quality certification from IMS Certification, an independent international certification body. Dubai eGovernment has received recognised certification after independent testing and assessment of Dubai eGovernment’s quality management systems and processes. Alex Simon Mendis, General Manager, IMS Certification, stated that the firm is totally satisfied with the quality systems and processes at Dubai eGovernment. ISO certification guarantees Dubai eGovernment’s customers that a quality management system is in place, facilitating better systems processes and cost-effective management of the entity.

Education New digital library project of UNESCO launched The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United States Library of Congress have signed a pact paving the way for the creation of a World Digital Library which will digitise rare materials from libraries and other cultural institutions globally and make them available free on the Internet. Manuscripts, maps, books, musical scores, sound recordings, films, prints and photographs will all be available online thanks to the agreement signed between UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress. The prototype for the initiative was developed by the Library of Congress and UNESCO with five other partner institutions: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Egypt, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library of Russia, and the Russian State Library. The prototype functions in the UN’s six official languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish – as well as in Portuguese. It features search and browse by place, time, topic, and contributing institution. A key aspect of the project is to build digital library capabilities in developing countries, so that all countries and all regions can participate and be represented in the World Digital Library.

to-day use. The Classmate PCs are small with only 7-inch screen and a child-friendly form factor for classroom use. Meanwhile, the 2,850 PCs are equipped with Pentium M processors that reduce heat, with a thin 15inch screen. All 3,000 notebook and desktop computers come with wireless features with 802.11g standard Wi-Fi that allows students to access the Internet wirelessly. All devices come to students with licenses for learning software suites, Microsoft XP and an office suite that allows teachers and students to get the most benefit from using computers as a learning tool. Intel has hired a third party to provide implementation and maintenance services for 60 schools for a year. Intel has already deployed 45 mobile computers in Satit Chula School as the first trial site for the project. The project is not only providing computers but also provides training for teachers to use computers and software as tools to improve learning methods.

Health Programme brings medical services to children The Danville Pittsylvania Community S e r v i c e s B o a rd ( D P C S B ) i s u s i n g videoconferencing technology to provide services to children, and adolescents in need of psychiatric help. The agency has received US$ 24,087 grant from the Virginia Health Care Foundation to purchase a new equipment, which allows children to meet with their doctor from Charlottesville via a television connection. Jim Bebeau, the Director of Mental Health Services started the programme 1 and ½ year ago by working eight hours per week. So far, around 120 children have been treated through telemedicine in 756 visits. The programme covers mental health issues like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiance disorder and depression. The agency is the first of the state’s 40 community service boards to use this technology to help solve the severe shortage of mental health providers in the area. The staff also provides the telemedicine service for children at W.W. Moore Detention Home, if the staff there feels the service is needed.

Arizona Health e-Connection Intel donates computers to model for state support of Thailand Government schools HIEs Intel Microelectronics, Thailand is donating 3000 PCs to 60 government-based schools under its project ‘ICT for Education’ with the help from the Ministry of Education. The delivery would be completed in two years by donating 1,125 desktop PCs and 195 notebook computers in 2007 and 1,680 PCs in 2008. A total of 150 mobile PCs are the Classmate model, designed to be rugged and durable and suitable for children’s day-

Recently, Arizona Health e-Connection has received the national innovation award for its best practices in promoting healthcare IT adoption for its state. Arizona Health e-Connection is beginning to work through the roadmap that had its roots in a steering committee appointed by Government. The organisation focuses on three key areas; educational outreach, healthcare IT adoption and initiatives, i4d | November 2007

The i4d News and healthcare IT statutes and standards. Arizona Health-eConnection provide its support to standard-based regional health information organisations, including Southern Arizona HIE and the Medicaid HIE. The state, along with 33 other states and territories, are being funded by the Department of Health and Human Services to identify barriers to health information exchange. The organisation is defining the state legislative agenda for 2008-2009 with recommendations on a list of state statutes that need to be amended and the addition of new statutes to allow the exchange of health information in Arizona.

m-Serve DoT working out plan to improve rural coverage In a bid to encourage cellular operators to expand their coverage in rural areas, the Department of Telecom (DoT), India is working on a scheme, which may allow operators to contribute only 2 per cent of their annual revenues to the Universal Services Obligation fund. As per DoT scheme, operators who cover below 50 per cent of the district will continue to pay 5 per cent of their revenues. Those who complete 70 per cent will get 1 per cent rebate, while those who cover 90 per cent of the district blocks will have to pay 3 per cent of their revenues to the USO fund. As per the licence condition, mobile operators are required to provide network coverage in each block of a district in a circle. The obligation also stipulates that the coverage should be available within buildings. Recently DoT had issued show cause notice to seven operators with a suggested penalty of about INR 450 crore for not fulfilling the roll-out conditions.

Open Source Open source software to be installed in every school in Russia The Russian Government is planning to complete the installation of open source (OS) software in every school computer by the end of 2009. In 2008, the government will start piloting test in three regions, including Tomsk region, Perm Regions and Republic of Tatarstan. The Russian Ministry informs that the dates to carry out tenders for OS development have not been announced yet, but the tenders are to be held in the near future. The main purpose of the deployment of open source software is to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for

November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

eCard initiative launched in Bulgaria The Bulgarian Health Ministry has officially launched the first electronic prescription in the new EU member state of Bulgaria. The Ministry has officially launched the pilot system for the Bulgarian electronic health card (eCard). The eCard initiative includes seven physicians, four pharmacies and 1,000 patients who are testing the eCard’s secure identification and authentication procedures, as well as the issuing and dispensing of electronic prescriptions. The eCard system introduces a secure communication and infrastructure system, which can be upgraded into exchange medical information using personal health records. Once the attending physician enters the diagnosis and medication, then system will automatically generate the electronic prescription. When the prescribed drug is given to the patient, the pharmacist certifies the dispensation of the medication by simply entering a PIN code. At the pharmacy, both the pharmacist’s and patient’s cards are inserted into a card reader. After this simple yet secure authentication procedure, the e-Prescription is automatically opened. commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government.

SME IBM unveils financing window for small units IBM has launched a financing window for small and medium-sized businesses as part of its Express Advantage initiative in six cities. IBM Global Finance is providing backend support to IBM Financing Advantage. This single window will allow customers to easily access leases and loans for software, hardware and services. In this financing Window, IBM will offer them consulting services in the future. IBM has designed 80 offerings for SMEs in India, including products, infrastructure solutions and business software. The packages have been put together specifically for the mid-market. One is e-Mail, which would typically cost an SME Rs 90 per email id per month.

APeJ SMEs to invest $50 billion in telecoms Small and medium enterprises across the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan (APeJ) are on track to invest $50 billion on telecommunications equipment and services this year. According to recent study conducted by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, the Indian SMEs have already spent more than $5 billion on telecom equipment and services last year. It is expected to grow at over 13 per cent. The study shows that 89 per cent Indian SMEs are using mobile phone voice services. While 11 percent Indian SMEs are accessing eMail through their mobile devices. Other services such as audio

conferencing are also on the rise, especially among tech-savvy MSMEs. AMI’s survey revealed that developed markets such as Australia and South Korea, and fast-growing markets like India and China, will account for more than 70 per cent of the APeJ telecom spending this year. According to AMI, SMEs in the Asia-Pacific will continue embracing new technologies to remain competitive. Telecom equipment vendors, operators and service providers need to offer products and services using the right model and price points to tap this growing market.

Technology Chips implantation in cattle to detect insurance frauds in Gujarat (India) The Government of Gujarat will soon be implanting INR 1.5 lakh cattle with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag to prevent fraudulent applications for loans or claims against cattle insurance policies. The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) in Gujarat will be permanently injecting the microchips in the cavity behind the ear of cows and buffaloes. The microchip is based on WORM (write once and read many) technology and giving a unique 15-digit identification number for the cattle sporting it. Dr Vasanth Kalaria, Veterinary Surgeon with DRDA stated that, if once it is injected, the it would be very difficult to remove and the farmers would have to take the help of a surgeon to remove it. DRDA has already completed a pilot project for RFID tags with Amul Dairy. In the first round mass tagging would be undertaken by November, 2007 on cows and buffaloes, which are to be given to the below-poverty-line (BPL) families under the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana.

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Tsunami early warning system launched in India

marketing of WiMAX technology. The study predicts that it will see most competition from WiMAX in niche market segments initially, and later, as Wi MAX catches on, in the mainstream market as well.

The Indian Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences has launched the National Tsunami Early Warning System that has been set up at the Indian National Centre for Ocean lnformation Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad (India). The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has established the warning system at a cost of INR 125 crore with the collaboration of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Space (DOS) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The Early Warning Centre receives real-time Seismic data from the national seismic network of the lndian Meteorological Department (IMD) and other International seismic networks. The Indian Tsunami Early Warning System comprises a real-time network of seismic stations, Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR) and tide gauges to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes and to monitor tsunamis. The system detects all earthquake events of more than 6 Magnitude occurring in the Indian Ocean in the less than 20 minutes of occurrence. BPRs installed in the Deep Ocean are the key sensors to confirm the triggering of a Tsunami.

PTCL launches Internet service on landline network in Pakistan

Telecentre Wal-Mart offers broadband satellite access to rural US customers Wal Mart is providing satellite broadband to rural communities of US with the assistance from HughesNet. HughesNet service will be available in the electronics departments of 2,800 WalMart stores mostly in outlying areas where broadband service is not readily available via the local infrastructure. According to the Peter Gulla, VP of Marketing, North American Division, Hughes, there are more than 12 million households who rely on dial-up for Internet connectivity. Walmart invested US$399 to install the set-up, which includes the dish, outdoor antenna and mount and electronics transmitter. So called ‘Digital Connection Kiosks,’ will offer information on satellite Internet service.

Nokia-Siemens Networks bringing low cost GSM to villages in Rwanda Nokia-Siemens Networks (NSN) is coming up with a new project called ‘The Village Connection’ to connect rural villages of Rwanda with wireless communications network. The new telecom infrastructure giant will be rolling out a pilot project with the South African national ICT research institute in the SA Eastern Cape before year-end. The Village Connection comprises GSM access points and regional access centres located in villages. Each access point can handle call control and completion for up to 80 subscribers within a village. Up to 200 access points in different villages aggregate to an access centre, which handles call completion within a particular region. The Nokia Siemens Networks Village Connection offers an

easy concept to build rural connectivity village by village. A village would typically host one access point module comprising GSM radio, power and IT hardware and software components. The access point only requires simple installation and power supply that can be provided by solar energy. Each access point connects to standard GSM mobile devices, and autonomously handles calls within a village through local switching. Access points are connected via Internet Protocol links to a regional access centre. The access centre connects the villages to the main GSM core network and handles the calls between the villages. The model includes a local entrepreneur, who hosts a mobile access point, and a regional GSM operator, which aggregates the traffic between different villages, and provides external connectivity to Village Connection subscribers.

Telecommunications Taiwan WiMAX users number to hit 782,000 by the year 2012

Soon, the number of WiMAX users in Taiwan will reach 782,000 by the end of 2011 according to the Report of ‘2007 Asia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Taiwan’. According to the study, the high level government promotion and support for the technology coupled with a robust local WiMax equipment industry saw the country award Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) 2.5GHz licences in June 2007. The government is also planning to launch Commercial WiMAX service in 2008. The study reports that m-Taiwan, a government initiative is keen to turn Taiwan into a wireless broadband island. The project aims to strengthen ICT infrastructure and create an atmosphere which will aid in speeding up the development, manufacturing and

The national telecom company of Pakistan, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has launched a metered Internet Service on its nationwide telephonic landline network at a flat rate of Rs. 0.10 Paisas per minute operative in all Provincial Capitals of the country. PTCL is offering ‘phone n net’ service as the most convenient landline Internet solution for its subscribers that convert a user’s phone into a basic Internet connection enabling no hassle direct Internet access. Users can also enable code barring to restrict Internet access. The service is currently available in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad while it will be enabled on all landlines nationwide in a short span of time. Users may simply connect to the Internet by plugging their PTCL telephone lines into their computer’s modems and login to a generic usage account with the login id ‘PTCL’ and password ‘ptcl’ while dialing an ISP dial-up access number ‘13177777’. The billing appears on regular telephone utility bills distributed on a monthly basis to PTCL subscribers.

Wireless Obregon deploys first city-wide Wi-Fi Network in Mexico The Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON) Public University is deploying a multi-user, multi-application Wi-Fi network covering 23 square miles of Obregon, Mexico. The wireless network, which uses the Tropos MetroMesh solution is part of the state and federally-owned university’s initiative to create a knowledge-based and more productive economy in the region. The university is investing in two technology parks in Obregon; one is a university-owned agribusiness park and the other is a software park that is a partnership with state and local governments and in the city’s wireless network. The wireless network will cover the technology parks and most of Obregon to help improve the local economy and create an attractive outsourcing opportunity for international technology companies. In the first phase, the network is being deployed to support simultaneous services, applications and content offered from the city’s ‘Obregon Digital’ portal accessible via laptops, PDAs and smart phones. Elementary schools will also be tied into the network for computer curriculum classes. In addition, the network will be used for public safety.

i4d | November 2007

RFID

How secure are we with the technology? In this article a basic survey on the issues related to RFID security and privacy is presented

Parmeshwari Mukherjee Scientist Parmeshwari@yahoo.com

Dr. Surinder Mohan Bhaskar Scientist MCIT, Govt. of India

November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. —C.P. Snow, New York Times, 1971

An uncertain future T h e f u t u r e o f R a d i o Fr e q u e n c y IDentification (RFID), a technology whose application has so far been limited largely to supply-chain management is under scrutiny. Consumer advocates say that this is paving the way for a nightmarish future where personal privacy is a quaint throwback. In this article a basic survey on the issues related to RFID security and privacy is presented. The use of tags and databases raises important security considerations related to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data on the tags, in the databases, and in how this information is being protected. Important policy questions arise as RFID tags join to create large sensor networks and bring us closer to ‘ubiquitous computing.’ There are so many facts demonstrating the need to consider security or privacy issues related to RFID technology. One can steal the smart card, lift one’s passport, even clone the chip. And one won’t even feel a thing. There are so many tales about how this smart chip ‘RFID’ could be hacked. Jonathan Westhues could, simply by using a copper coil, record and mimic signals from RFID chips. David Molnar, a computer science graduate student, described how data on the books’ passive-RFID tags could be destroyed by wandering the aisles with an off-the-shelf RFID reader-writer and his laptop. In 1997, ExxonMobil equipped thousands of service stations with SpeedPass. Seven years later, three graduate students - Steve Bono, Matthew Green, and Adam Stubblefield – tricked

a station in Baltimore to fill gas for free. A German researcher, Lukas Grunwald, demonstrated that he could access data from the RFID chip embedded in his own passport and copy it to another RFID chip embedded in a smartcard. This task was accomplished using standard hardware, his own software, with minimal funds and in a few short weeks, which is one of the most frightening aspects. At the Defcon Conference he demonstrated that the same system could also be used to copy building access cards. Aside from pranks, vandalism, thievery, Grunwald had discovered another use for RFID chips: espionage. He also successfully demonstrated that the US electronic passports have a major vulnerability allowing criminals to clone embedded secret code and enter countries illegally. e-Passports with embedded RFID tags can be easily cloned and can potentially make passport holders a target for terrorists as strategically placed hidden RFID readers could recognise passport holders in the vicinity and even what nationality they are. When the first RFID passports came out in the UK the encryption on the chips was broken within 48 hours! One may face both technical problems and privacy/security problems when it comes to application platform of RFID.

Technical problems Considering the technical problems first, where we have issues related to cost of tags and readers. For a significant consumer market penetration to occur, RFID tags need to be priced much cheaper. Unfortunately, the universal deployment

of low-cost RFID tags may threaten the privacy and security of both individuals and organisations. Addressing such security issues for the low-cost RFID setting is especially challenging due to the extreme resource scarcity imposed by the demand for cheaper price for RFID tags. Implementing standard cryptographic algorithms such as DES, AES, or SHA-1 is not a feasible option for several years. Security solutions are needed to provide security and privacy, without prohibitively raising costs. The smallest tags that will likely be used for consumer items don’t have enough computing power to do data encryption to protect one’s privacy. The most they can do is PIN-style or password-based protection.

against Gillette and Tesco. It had already become an issue of high concern in areas of daily life such as in toll-payment transponder, Euro banknotes, passports, human implantation etc. These world readable tags pose a great threat to privacy and security of an individual as well as to the nation. Some of the problems have been discussed as follows:

Microchip-cancer link Privacy expert Dr. Katherine Albrecht first became aware of the microchip-cancer link when she and her ‘Spychips’ co-author, Liz McIntyre, were contacted by a pet owner whose dog had died from a chip-induced tumor. Albrecht then found medical studies showing a causal link between microchip implants and cancer in other animals. A series of research articles spanning more than a decade found that mice and rats injected with glass-encapsulated RFID transponders developed malignant, fast-growing, lethal cancers in up to 1 percent to 10 percent of cases. The tumors originated in the tissue surrounding the microchips and often grew to completely surround the devices.

RFID tags can be read without one’s knowledge from a distance

RFID standards Another point of concern is RFID standards. For applications where global interoperability between systems is necessary, such as electronic passports or global supply chains, a common set of standards can assist with the proper interaction and interchange of information between systems. Global standards for RFID are still being worked on. For eg. ExxonMobil’s SpeedPass system is a proprietary RFID system; if another company wanted to use it then they would have to pay to access it. On the other hand, if every company had their own ‘SpeedPass’ system, a consumer would need to carry many different devices with them. One may face a serious problem due to the disruption of RFID systems. Since RFID systems make use of the electromagnetic spectrum, they are relatively easier to jam using energy at the right frequency. It could be disastrous in other environments like hospitals or in military areas. Also, one may wear down the battery in case of an active RFID tags by repeatedly interrogating it and thus disrupting the system. Situation may become worse if there is a reader or tag collision but now various algorithms have come up to deal with these situations.

Privacy, security and ethical problems There has been rise of considerable controversy on the use of RFID technology as they pose a risk to both personal location privacy and corporate/military security. Consumer privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre of CASPIAN4 refer to RFID tags as ‘spychips’. The potential for privacy violations with RFID was demonstrated by its use in a pilot programme by the Gillette Company, which conducted a ‘smart shelf ’ test at a Tesco in Cambridge, England. This trial resulted in consumer boycott

An appropriate RF field will cause the RFID chip to ‘spill the beans’ to whomsoever activates it, even without the person’s knowledge. RFID-enabled employee badge could do spying also e.g. devices could tell management who you’re chatting with at the water cooler and how long you’ve spent in the restroom— and even whether or not you’ve washed your hands. There’s already a product called iHygiene that can monitor the hand washing habits of RFID-tagged employees during bathroom visits. RFID tags can also be read at greater distances with a high-gain antenna leading to privacy problems. Passive RFID tags can’t be read from more than 20 feet (approx.). But active RFID tags could also be read from a satellite if there is little RF ‘noise’ (ambient RF energy that causes interference) and the broadcasted signal is powerful enough. Longer read range means more potential intruders. Three different arenas from which the threats from RFID can emanate are marketers, the government, and criminals. RFID tags affixed to products remain functional even after the products have been purchased and its purchaser might not be aware of the tag’s presence or may not be able to remove it, which can be used for surveillance and other purposes. For example, a corporate spy could monitor the inventory of a store stocking items labeled with insecure tags; a thief could walk past anybody in the mall and know exactly what is there in ones’ bags, marking that person as a potential victim. Spychips in shoes and car tyres will make it possible for strangers to track somebody as he walks and drives through public and private places. On using RFID along with GPS technology, the person can be pin pointed on globe in real time, creating a borderless tracking system that already has law enforcement, governments and stalkers salivating. Civil liberties groups have become increasingly concerned about the use of RFIDs to track the movements of individuals. For example, scanners placed throughout an airport, could track the location of every passport over time, from the moment one left the parking lot to the moment one got on plane. Even more i4d | November 2007

disturbingly, RFID could remove the anonymity of cash. Already, the European Union has discussed chipping Euro banknotes, and the Bank of Japan is contemplating a similar programme for high-value currency. One’s every purchase could be under the microscope. RFID tags on military hardware and clothing help tracking each item through the supply chain. So for items associated with highlevel officers, roadside bombs could be set to go off when triggered by an RFID scan of cars going by. Enemy forces could learn about troop movements by monitoring RFID communications. In one situation the researchers conducted a clandestine test at Wal-Mart store consisting of tagged lipsticks. So whenever the customer picked up that lipstick, tag’s movement got registered by the hidden scanners which triggered the surveillance cameras. This allowed researchers 750 miles away to watch those consumers as they walked through the store, looking for related items. RFID tags with unique serial numbers could be linked to an individual credit card number The EPC global system of tags creates globally unique serial numbers for all products. If a tagged item is paid using credit card, then the unique ID of that item can be associated with a credit card number or to the identity of the purchaser. Once RFID becomes pervasive, this privacy problem will assume more formidable dimensions.

Threats caused due to RFID Malware (RFID exploits, viruses and worms) Melanie Rieback, a Ph. D student at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, gave a live demonstration of how a hacker could deploy a single rogue RFID tag and infect associated databases at the Fourth Annual IEEE Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications held in Pisa, Italy, March 15, 2007. Rieback backs up her demonstration with details about exactly how a virus could propagate in RFID systems in a paper titled ‘Is Your Cat Infected with a Computer Virus?’ which opens up a scenario in which a vet’s database seems to be erasing data from pet tags and finally freezes. This damage could start with one attacker writing malicious code onto his cat’s microchip and exposing it to the vet’s system. But that’s just the start. Such malicious code could infect retail databases and even RFID-based airport baggage systems, leading to more serious consequences, like a terrorist debilitating a baggage database in order to slip in a lethal suitcase. Apart from the above mentioned threats some other type of threats are also possible like Denial of Service (DoS), Counterfeiting, Spoofing, Eavesdropping, Replay Attacks (attackers intercept and retransmit RFID queries using RFID relay devices).

Conclusion A great deal of research and development is currently under way in the RFID security field to mitigate both known and postulated risks. RFID system users continue to weigh the trade-offs between chip size, cost, functionality, interoperability, security and privacy. Security features supporting data confidentiality, tag-to-reader authentication, optimised RF protocols, high-assurance readers, and secure system engineering principles should become available. Implantation of RFID systems to a great scale will not be a reality November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

if the people are not educated about its potential benefits and if security is not guaranteed.

References: • • • • • • • • • • •

C.P. Snow, New York Times quote available at www.bartleby. com/63/36/ 3236.html, accessed 10 June 2005. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/5199/53/ CASPIAN. http://www.nocards.org/ , 2005 http://www.spychips.com/alec-big-brother-barcode-article.html http://www.rfidabc.com/ RFID security and privacy: A research survey. Manuscript, September 2005 http://www.antichips.com/press-releases/microchip-imlants-tumors. html Fig A:The microchip has been removed from the cavity where it resided in situ (size of microchip 2x12 mm) Fig B:Cavity related to the removed microchip (asterisk) Z. K_r and A. Wool. Picking virtual pockets using relay attacks on contactless smartcard systems. In 1st Intl. Conf. on Security and Privacy for Emerging Areas in Communication Networks, Sep 2005. http://eprint.iacr.org/.

Recent book on RFID human testing

The book titled “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID” talks about how Latin Americans were being used as human guinea pigs by US companies for testing RFID. The book is raising an alarm about Spychips in Latin countries. American authors, Lis McIntyre and Dr. Katherine Albrecht are pointing out the fact that the Hispanic people were being targeted with this technology as they were not well informed about its dangers for privacy and civil liberties. Dr. Katherine Albrecht is an author of book and founder of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), an organisation founded in 1999 to advocate free-market, consumer-based solutions to the problem of retail privacy invasion. Liz McIntyre is a consumer privacy expert and co-author of a series of books about the societal implications of microchip tracking technology. The organisation, called CASPIAN was founded in October 1999 believes in free market and Libertarian principles. The organisation is involved in raising awareness about RFID tags among consumers. CASPIAN has developed sample federal legislation titled the “RFID Right to Know Act of 2003”, which would require labeling on consumer items containing RFID tags.

E-INCLUSION

Assistive ICTs People with disabilities no longer have any reason to remain excluded. Inclusive and Adaptive Technologies are growing fast to enable the physically disabled persons to overcome the barriers, and move with the mainstream life. These emerging technologies are changing the way people live, think and act. These are some organisations/networks/projects working in this direction to give a new meaning to lives of physically challenged. • Ability Technology Ability Technology is one of the leading organisations that assists people with a disability to access a computers/ modern technologies. It has assisted hundreds of people to gain access to a computer and to transform their lives as a result. http://www.abilitycorp.com.au/

project partially financed by the EC’s DG Information Society and Media under FP6, and aims at developing an extended ambient intelligence space for the integration of functions and services for elderly and people with disabilities across various environments (car, bus, airplane, home, work, leisure and sport). http://www.tiresias.org/ask-it/ask-it.htm

• AbilityNet AbilityNet is helping disabled adults and children use computers and the Internet by adapting and adjusting to the technology. Whatever the health condition or age, one can find a solution that will help to stay in touch with and, enjoy life to the full. It has supported 850,000 people in 2006 including care professionals, employers, teachers and central and local government.

http://doe.concordia.ca/cslp/Themes/RA-THASD.php

http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/

• American Foundation for Blind (AFB) American Foundation for Blind looks at expanding possibilities for people with vision loss. There is also an exclusive site designed for the seniors to encourage aging adults with eye diseases to live independently and productively. http://www.afb.org/store/default.asp?mscssid=QH RBSD900S3G9M9L6SECPLD2TXNK1LN5

• ASK - IT Integrated Project (2004-08) ASK-IT (Ambient Intelligence System of Agents for Knowledge based and Integrated Services for Mobility Impaired users) is an integrated

The objectives of the CSLP are to increase the theoretical and practical understanding of the factors that promote and hinder the learning and performance of complex skills, to provide training and support to educators and administrators, to provide the educational community with material and intellectual resources regarding new ideas in education, and to train students who have an interest in learning and performance, and who are enrolled in graduate studies within the departments with which the centre and its members are affiliated. One of their important research theme is accessibility. It looks into factors making technology accessible for the disabled in higher realms of learning.

• Audio Haptics Project This project will provide an innovative method of delivering visual graphics to people who are visually impaired by the way of touch and sound using tactile diagrams with integrated sound files. This project is for learners who are blind or visually impaired, studying on distance learning programmes, with the secondary benefit to education and training providers. http://www.ahvited.org/

• Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP)

• Computer Literate Advocates for Multiple Sclerosis (CLAMS) CLAMS strives to get support networks in cyberspace in the lives of those with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It will promote activities that provide means of synergising worldwide knowledge and research about MS, its etiology, diagnosis, treatments, prevention and cure. CLAMS will support a space on the World Wide Web, and will actively participate (hypertext links) to web sites that are consistent with its goals and objectives. http://www.clams.org/

• DIRF The Digital Information Research Foundation(DIRF) is a not-for profit organisation engaged in digital i4d | November 2007

information research, design, creation and structuring of digital libraries digital content management, digital information processing and related activities. DIRF has also been involved in enabling the disadvantaged or disabled (mainly blind and deaf ) to get them integrated in the main stream of life. http://www.dirf.org/ictd.htm

• Enable Mart Technology for Everyone Enable Mart Technology for Everyone is working on assistive technology that has evolved from solutions for individuals with disabilities to everyday products for every person. It is the worldwide leader in assistive technology distribution. As a result, EnableMart works with thousands of individuals, schools, and non-profit and government organisations each year to locate products and provide services. http://www.enablemart.com/default.aspx?store=10

• Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) FODAC, exists on a noble vision to enhance the quality of life for people of all ages who have any type of illness or physical disability.

ICDRI’s vision is towards the equalisation of opportunities for persons with disabilities. As an internationally recognised public policy centre organised by and for people with disabilities, ICDRI seeks to increase the opportunities for people with disabilities by identifying barriers to participation in society and promoting best practices and universal design for the global community. http://www.icdri.org

http://www.fodac.org/fodac/index.php

• Foundation for Information Technology (FITA) FITA is the principal advocate and coordinator for making ICT accessible for disabled people in the Maltese islands (Government of Malta). Its information services assist disabled individuals in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device, intended to increase, maintain, or improve the individual’s quality of life. http://www.knpd.org/mittsfita

• GDCO Project, Sudan The project of GDCO is fighting poverty in prevelance disabled people through ICTs. The project was started in co-operation with the Digital City of Eindhoven (NetherlandsDSE) to enable disabled individuals efficiently access the ICTs. http://www.wehearandspeak.org.sd/

• International Centre for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI)

• Kurzweil EducationalSystems Kurzweil Educational Systems’ research-aligned technologies provide complete reading, writing, and study solutions to help all students overcome learning challenges and succeed academically. http://www.kurzweiledu.com/

• Latin American Disabled People’s Project Experience (LADPP) LADPP was established in 1990 to improve the quality of life of disabled Spanish and Portuguese speaking people in London and has over 300 members. This is done through providing information, training, advice, advocacy, social and cultural events and volunteering opportunities. LADPP is based in Kennington, South London, and joined Lasa’s Circuit Rider Project in January 2003. http://www.icthubknowledgebase.org.uk/foreignlanguagevolunteers

• National Association of Blind The National Association for the Blind (NAB) based at Delhi is the largest non-government, voluntary organisation in India. The NAB has an ‘Assistive Technology Helpline’ programme. http://www.nabdelhi.org

• Origin Instruments Corporation Origin Instruments has established itself as a leading global provider of assistive technology enabling people with physical disabilities to access and operate computers. The company’s flagship product, HeadMouse® Extreme, has seated Origin replaces the standard computer mouse for people who cannot use or have limited use of their hands when controlling a computer or augmentative communication device. http://orin.com/index.htm November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

MEASURING INNOVATIONS

ICT-related patenting Patent-based statistics, indicators and data help one to know about the dynamics of innovation process, and the existing linkages between innovation system and economic growth across various geographies in different points of time. The number of patent application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has risen in the late 1990s by an average 7 percent a year, to be followed by a decline to 3 percent on average between the time period 2001 and 2004. The growth in number of patents is coming from residents, especially at the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In the year 2005, half of USPTO grants are due to US inventors, and Japanese residents accounted for more than 70 percent of JPO patents applications in 2005. The relative share of patents has increased in Israel, China, India and Chinese Taipei since the mid-1990s. The number of ICT-related patents have grown steadily from the mid-1990s to reach more than 40,000 patents at the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2003, with an average increase of 8.7 percent a year over 1995-2003. Growth in patents filing was moderate in the United States (5.9 percent) and in Japan (7.2 percent). In most European countries, the number of ICT-related patents grew at an average of 9.5 percent a year (17.4 percent in Denmark). The number of of ICT-related patents rose strongly in Asia: China and India applied for 387 and 105 EPO patents, respectively, in 2003, up from less than five in the year 1995. The top three countries in ICT-related patenting under the PCT (Patents Co-operation Treaty) are the United States (33.3 percent), Japan (17.1 percent) and Germany (12.2 percent). China, Finland, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands have a large concentration of ICT-related patents in their patent portfolio: their country shares are higher in ICT-related patents than in total patents. The number of ICT related patents

increased more rapidly than the total number of patents filed under the PCT procedure: the share of ICT patents in total patents rose in almost all countries from the late1990s to the early 2000s. Over the period 2002-04, more than 50 percent of patents relate to ICT in Finland, the Netherlands and Singapore, whereas ICT-related patents represent on average 34.6 percent of total PCT (Patents Cooperation Treaty) filings. The proportion of ICT patents in total has more than doubled in China, up from 17.3 percent in 1996-98 to 43.4 percent during the time period 2002-04. Because Information and Communication Technologies constitute a strategic tool for global competitiveness, so they are more internationalised compared to other technologies: 17.5 percent of all patents in this field involve crossborder ownership. Non-OECD countries such as India, the Russian Federation, Brazil and China show a high-level of foreign ownership in ICT-related patents. Compared to their overall share, foreign ownership is especially high in India and China, a pattern that reflects their increasing technological inventiveness. The proportion of international co-inventions in ICT is much higher in Brazil, Greece and India compared to other technologies. Table 1: Trends in ICT-related patent applications to the EPO Countries/ regions

Average annual growth rate 1995-2003 (%)

India

63.9

China

75.3

United States

5.9

European Union

9.5

World Total

8.7

Source: OECD, Patent database, June 2007

From the table 1, we find that the average annual growth rate during the period 1995-2003 for ICT related patent applications to the EPO was the highest

in China (75.3 percent) to be followed by India (63.9 percent) and the European Union (9.5 percent). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has developed triadic patent families in order to reduce the major weaknesses of the traditional patent indicators. Triadic patent families are defined at the OECD as a set of patents taken at the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that protect a same invention. In terms of statistical analyses, they improve the international comparability of patent-based indicators, as only patents applied for in the same set of countries are included in the family: home advantage and influence of geographical location are therefore limited. Moreover, patents included in the family are typically of higher value: patentees only take on the additional costs and delays of extending protection to other countries if they deem it worthwhile. Indicators derived from the number of patents filed at a single patent office, national or regional, reflect to some extent the market attractiveness of the region where the patent is filed. However, they are subject to certain drawbacks that limit cross-comparisons of data from patent offices. Patents applied for or granted in different countries depend on the rules and regulations of the office where protection of the invention is sought: certain technologies or innovations may not be patentable at one national intellectual property office but may be recognised in another one (e.g. Software, genetic sequences etc.) Furthermore, trend analysis is sensitive to changes in patent law over the years: the protection afforded to patentees worldwide and the growing list of technologies covered are likely to give companies more incentive to patent. The Worldwide Statistical Patent Database developed at the European Patent Office (EPO) provides a useful instrument for measuring patenting activities worldwide. Â&#x201E;

Source: Compendium of Patent Statistics, 2007, by OECD, Japan Patent Office (JPO) and European Patent Office (EPO), http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/5/19/37569377.pdf

i4d | November 2007

RENDEZVOUS 3RD ANNUAL PUBLIC SECTOR SUMMIT 2007, 29-30 OCTOBER 2007, NEW DELHI, INDIA

Transformation with e-Governance Cisco® and the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) came together to host the 3rd Annual India Public Sector Summit on e-Governance. The theme of this year’s summit was Networked Nation: Transformational Change with eGovernance. The summit was inaugurated by Shri. R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary (e-Governance), Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India, with a keynote address by John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Inc., on the first day of his three-day visit to India. The two-day summit (29-30 October 2007),had seen participation from various senior officials from the central and state governments in India and experts from around the world. International speakers include Datuk Azizan bin Ayob, CEO of Commerce DOT Com, Malaysia; D. Scott Campbell, former CIO and strategic consultant, eGovernance, Canada; and Simon Willis, Global Vice President and Head eGovernment, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco. “Governments worldwide have made significant progress in moving services online by implementing a network-based approach to increase access for citizens and improve productivity in national and local government”, said Chambers. “Effective collaboration with government and the development of universal broadband access lies at the heart of Cisco’s strategy to support transformation of public services and drive socio-economic change across nations. The network truly can provide the platform for leading this transformation.” Speaking at the summit, Chandrashekhar said, “This forum provides an excellent o p p o r t u n i t y w i t h a b a c k d ro p o f international experience for the Department of Information Technology to share and November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

discuss its plans with leaders from the states and union territories who are responsible for implementing these plans in their respective jurisdictions. This forum helps us to design and evolve approaches and solutions that take into account both the specific circumstances prevailing in states and international best practices in order to address felt needs optimally.” The summit focused on key priorities of the National e-Governance Plan, including e-Districts, Unique ID, Capacity building and leading transformational change. The key objective of the e-District project is to enable delivery of high volume services (G2C) to the citizen, mainly through the common service centres (CSC). ‘Enablement’ mainly by way of digitisation records/data, process redesign, and automation of workflow of the back office. It is proposed that a minimum of six to a maximum of ten category of services be taken up under this project. The objective of the unique ID (UID) project is to create

a Core Data Base which is then regularly updated and is easily accessible to, and used by all departments for identification of residents in the country for various purposes. The UID is intended to be used in the first instance, as the basis for efficient delivery of various social services to persons below the poverty line (BPL). Five parallel workshops on e-Districts and Unique ID were conducted with participation from government decision makers and implementers from different parts of the country.

Outcomes of the e-Districts workshop Technology issues, including technology integration The workshop explored the various technology issues related to e-District project. Some of the key issues discussed were: • The security at the infrastructure,

• • • • • •

application, and physical level should be given much attention from the conceptual stage of the project, Technology solutions architecture has to be sound and clear, Availability of facilities like power, education, physical infrastructure etc. should be put in place, Last mile connectivity can be achieved through a mix of technologies , Data standardisation and Integration should be given due importance, Continuity of funding from the central and state government should be ensured, and IP Addressing using IP V6.

Service portfolio; service integration; service level agreements This workshop discussed the different service level challenges of the e-District project. • Data management is the most important component in the service portfolio, which includes digitising the legacy data, data updation and privacy. • Before venturing into the project, government process re-engineering shall be done followed by the back-end computerisation and automation. • Duplicate data should be eliminated and data redundancy should be ensured. • Policy reforms should be made to validate the legal authenticity of documents. Implementation and sustainability The workshop brought out the challenges in implementation and sustainability of the project. • The role of District Magistrate is pivotal in the successful implementation of the project. • Since most of the infrastructure for the project is at the state level and centrally driven, so, do we have to call it as a eDistrict project or e-State project. • Massive awareness generation campaign should be organised. • Capacity building and change management must be integrated into the project and it should be an on-going process. • Public Private Partnership should be made mandatory. Outcome of the UID Workshop The objective of the UID workshop was to explore the usage of the UID by departments, including discussing the governance issues, financing models, departments and potential applications to be includes in the project. Some of the key challenges discussed are: • Value proposition of the project should be identified for individual departments, citizens, etc. • Since, the state has several other priority issues to be addressed, is this project should be given highest priority? • The government should communicate strongly for the need of the project. • There must be a mechanism to regularly update the data.

•

Why should the citizens carry the card with them? Why don’t we just provide them an unique number to access the services and reduce the initial investment cost?

The workshop provided a platform for government decisionmakers, those responsible for leading implementation, and international experts to exchange their views. The parallel workshop was followed by three plenary address on Capacity building and leading transformational change by R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, DIT, GoI, Y S Malik, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and D. Scott Campbell, Former CIO and strategic Consultant, e-Governance, Canada. During his address, Scott mentioned the 10 point critical success factors for the e-Governance programme: • Ensure committed and visible political and bureaucratic leadership, • Make the ‘why’ clear, compelling and memorable, • Use multiple ways to build capacity, • Communicate continuously, • Align and integrate e-Government to over all government agenda, • Integrate management structures and processes, • Make the vision real, • Show success early, • Be ruthless about results, and • Always remember business drive the IT and not the otherwise. In the closing ceremony J Satyanarayana, CEO of NISG, said, “A concerted effort is needed for the successful implementation of the National e-Governance Plan. The Public Sector Summit 2007 will enable sharing of knowledge and experience on the various facets of e-Governance, which will go a long way in increasing the pace of implementation and realising the goals of providing better public services in the country.” R. Chandrashekhar spoke about the “Next Steps” of the NeGP. Reported by Vignesh, vignesh@csdms.in i4d | November 2007

November 2007

ICTD Project Newsletter

Measures for effective implementation of e-Governance There are a variety of e-Governance projects being implemented by different government agencies. Cu ing across them all are some common issues which impinge implementation issues. This article highlights some steps which can improve the effectiveness of implementation.

overnance is a process by which governments and social organisations interact and relate to each other. In this interaction there are three primary actors: (a) State, (b) Civil society (including NGOs) and (c) Private sector (including media). These actors interact with each other in three spheres: administrative, economic and political. The Human Development Report, for instance, describes governance as “the exercise of power or authority -- political, economic, administrative or otherwise -- to manage a country’s resources and affairs. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their diﬀerences”. The twin objectives of conducting public affairs and managing public resources can be achieved through just and moral means or through unjust and immoral

means. Hence governance by itself may not be adequate. Good governance is the keystone. In the United Nations Millennium Report it is emphasised that “better governance means greater participation, coupled with accountability.” Looking at the other end of the spectrum, it is amply evident that the citizens of a country, specially the poor, have to bear the brunt of bad governance. The UN has pointed out that bad governance – and not lack of resources – is the main reason why nations are not able to pull themselves out of poverty. A survey of literature shows that bad or weak and ineffective governments limit the reach and impacts of even the best conceived development programmes and actually exacerbate poverty. Effective governments have a direct correlation with improved economic and social indicators and the reverse is also true. The second report of the Second

Administrative Reforms Commission titled Unlocking Human Capital – Entitlements and Governance also points out that: “.... large investments will flow to [backward] districts. Admittedly, these are the most diﬃcult districts to implement development programmes because of poor governance structures....” The emergence of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are rapidly transforming the way citizens interact not only with each other but also with private businesses, public service utilities and government institutions. Traditionally citizens went to a government oﬃce to transact a government interaction, whether to get a certificate, apply/ renew a passport/driving licence or to pay utility bills. Today using ICTs it is possible for the same interaction to take place in a service centre close to the citizen or over the Internet or even at an unattended kiosk. As pointed

Make ICTs Work for People

out in the Fourth Report of the Second Administrative Reforms Committee entitled Ethics in Governance: “The relationship of the government with its constituents, citizens and businesses, and also between its own organs can be transformed through the use of the tools of modern technology such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The digital revolution has the potential to transform and redefine processes and systems of governance. The most visible impact has been in access to information and data, in building management information systems and in the field of electronic service delivery. e-Governance is the logical next step in the use of ICT in systems of governance in order to ensure wider participation and deeper involvement of citizens, institutions, civil society groups and the private sector in the decision making process of governance.” ICT tools are the key drivers of a major transformation of government processes, systems and structures. In this context, e-Government can be defined as ‘the process of transformation of the relationships of government with its constituents – the citizens, the businesses – and between its own organs, through the use of ICT tools to bring about enhanced access, transparency, accountability and efficiency in the delivery of government information and services.’ Thus

‘e-Government’ or electronic government refers to the use of ICTs by government agencies for any or all of the following reasons: (a) Exchange of information with citizens, businesses or other government departments (b) Speedier and more efficient delivery of public services (c) Improving internal efficiency (d) Reducing costs or increasing revenue (e) Re-structuring of administrative processes. The government’s National Common Minimum Programme accords priority to improving the quality of basic governance and in that context proposes to promote e-Governance on a massive scale. The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been formulated keeping this priority in mind and presently consists of key components including common, core and support infrastructure and several Mission Mode Projects

(MMPs) to be implemented at the Central, State and Local Government levels. The NeGP aims at improving delivery of Government services to citizens and businesses with the following vision: “Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at aﬀordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.” Implementing the projects u n d e r N e G P o ve r d i ve r s e geographical areas; across multiple departments and organisations with differing levels of IT and non-IT skills; having many diﬀerent kinds of legacy processes; and governed by multiple sets of policies and procedures will require facing a set of challenges across the three dimensions of people, process,

People We l l - d e f i n e d a n d r o b u s t institutional mechanisms both at the micro and macro level are essential for success of e-Gov projects. The institutions should be empowered and have suﬃcient autonomy to ensure that project outcomes are achieved. These institutions have to devote quality time at defined intervals so as to ensure the adherence to project milestones and to ensure fulfilment of planned outcomes. It is imperative that the different states operationalise the Capacity Building Roadmap (CBRMs), under the overall guidance and support of the DIT, Govt of India. The Administrative Training Institutes in various states should take up capacity building programmes in e-Governance, by establishing strong e-Governance wings. e-Governance champions should be nurtured, by undertaking special mediumduration programmes for senior

and middle-level government executives. e-Governance can be promoted in premier institutes like IITs and IIMs. Specifically an MBA (e-Gov) programme at IIMs and B.Tech/M.Tech (e-Gov) at IITs would go a long way in fulfilling the demand for qualified personnel. A monitoring and evaluation framework built into the project structure at the conception stage itself helps the project team to track critical indicators which signify the health of the project. It also helps to ensure that the social impact and outcomes of the project are as envisaged and is a useful tool to capture valuable project experiences. GoI should establish the M&E system with appropriate tools and personnel adequately trained on it. While implementing transformational programmes like the NeGP, it is essential to be cognizant of the importance of adopting a structured approach to Change Management – the people side of transformation. It is necessary for government agencies, especially the nodal ministries and the Administrative Reforms and IT departments, to design appropriate Change Management Strategies and Plans to accompany the e-Government implementations. Failure to focus on Change Management may mean failure of the initiative altogether. Process A sound process re-engineering is

a necessary first step in the reform exercise. Process re-engineering brings in simplification, attempts integration, brings in transparency and eﬃciency and makes the services citizen-centric. All agencies implementing eGovernance projects should devote adequate attention initially on the process-reengineering, by making special efforts in this regard. Project proposals not accompanied by a clear strategy for process re-engineering should be disapproved. A comprehensive legislation in the form of e-Governance Act which may facilitate closer cooperation between all authorities providing e-Governance services maybe enacted. Provisions on data protection within the same Act may regulate the pre-conditions for the lawful use, sharing and transfer of data. The Act may also provide a right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data which entails the right to information, rectification of incorrect data and erasure of unlawfully processed data whether with private or public authority. The legislation may further regulate the creation and maintenance of electronic databases and e-Government applications by public sector bodies. Technology There is a need to: (1) collect and analyse available governmentagency architecture information with an eye toward identifying

Make ICTs Work for People

r e s o u r c e s a n d t e c h n o l o g y. The collective experience of eGovernance projects implemented before NeGP shows that the varied challenges faced by the entire gamut of projects can be represented in the theoretical framework depicted below. Based on NISG’s experience in implementing e-Gov projects all across the country the following set of recommendations arise for each of the areas outlined.

Make ICTs Work for People

new e-Government initiatives; (2) assess the state of enterprise architecture management maturity across the government, more specifically the agencies involved with implementation of the NeGP initiatives; (3) promote the role of enterprise architectures in the successful implementation of e-Government initiatives; (4) develop a national e-Governance enterprise architecture framework in line with the NeGP mission of service orientation and crossgovernmental collaboration; (5) develop strong leadership in helping the maturity of enterprise architecture management for both individual agencies and e-Government initiatives. Strong leadership is especially pivotal to ensuring that both government agency-specific investments and government-wide investments in IT and e-Government are made within the context of enterprise architectures. To do less jeopardises realising the full potential and benefits of these investments. To move to an environment in which documents are disseminated solely in electronic format, government agencies would have to ensure that these documents are (1) authentic, (2) permanently maintained, (3) based on open standards and (4) equally accessible to all individuals. The government agencies would also have to post a privacy policy on all web pages that collect personal information. Recommendations

to strengthen government-wide privacy guidance have to be implemented. GoI to establish a general PKI management/e-Authentication framework to better facilitate the use of PKI technology, ensure that government agency PKI applications meet consistent levels of security, and reduce the overall risk to the government of developing disparate PKI implementations. The management framework could include: (1) a programme plan identifying roles and r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s a t va r i o u s government-agency levels, as well as general time frames and resources to develop, deploy, and maintain a governmentwide PKI, (2) policy standards to reduce implementation issues and eďŹ&#x20AC;orts spent by agencies to develop unique PKI solutions, and (3) technical standards: a PKI architecture that can guide the development and integration of PKI; key technical interfaces to promote interoperability with commercial products and facilitate interconnection with certifying authorities and other electronic credential providers. There is a need to: (1) develop a critical information infrastructure assets protection strategy; (2) improve analysis and warning capabilities; and (3) improve information sharing on threats and vulnerabilities. It is recommended that e-Governance and IT programmes involved in electronic service

delivery set-up their IT service management processes along the lines of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) process models, developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), UK. ITIL describes the processes needed to manage the IT infrastructure efficiently and eďŹ&#x20AC;ectively in order to guarantee the service levels; and has also been accepted as an ISO standard (ISO 15000). Public Private Partnership models should be explored as a viable alternative to government undertaking large e-Governance projects themselves, as they bring in citizen-centricity, service orientation and cost eďŹ&#x20AC;ectiveness. While adopting PPP models, care has to be taken by governments to retain the strategic control while allowing operational freedom to the private partner, and to avoid technological monopoly by prescribing open standards. Knowledge Management is central to the design, development and successful implementation of e-Government initiatives. Central and State Governments should take proactive steps in establishing Knowledge Management systems as a pivotal step in the implementation of large e-Government programmes. NISG and i4d jointly hold the copyright to the articles printed in the ICTD section of the i4d magazine and website. For permission to reprint the articles please write to the Editor, i4d.

SHOWCASE

Recognition for IT entrepreneurship The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 The first APC FOSS Prize established in 2006 to honour Chris Nicol (http://www. apc.org/english/chrisnicol), a long time FOSS advocate and activist who for many years, worked with APC has been jointly awarded to: Free Geek (USA) and NepaLinux (Nepal). Both initiatives will share the US$ 4,000 prize. In addition to selecting above mentioned prize winners, the jury has decided to award an honourable mention to the educational project Gleducar in Argentina (http://www.gleducar.org. ar). The winners were selected from seven previously short listed best prize nominations. The four remaining prize finalists were - Extramadura’s Technological Literacy and Free Software Plan in Spain, KLDP in South Korea, MetaReciclagem in Brazil and Saregune in Spain. The winners were selected by an international jury of FOSS experts. A ceremony celebrating the APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 was held during the APC council meeting in Rio de Janeiro on November 6, 2007. The Chris Nicol FOSS Prize is open to any person or group anywhere in the world who supports or promotes useroriented free and open source software. The prize is financed by the Association for Progressive Communications(APC). APC is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and

supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of Information and Communication Technologies, especially Internet-technologies.

NepaLinux (Nepal) The joint-winner from Patan in Nepal is the project ‘NepaLinux’ from the organisation ‘Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya’. NepaLinux (http://www.nepalinux.org) is a Nepali-localised Debian and Morphix distribution based on GNU/Linux. The main contribution of the project is allowing non-English speakers to use GNU/Linux and to develop on it. The second contribution is creating a general awareness around the use of FOSS in Nepal as opposed to using pirated and unlicensed proprietary software. The NepaLinux team is committed towards producing more userfriendly, more stable and less technical software that would meet the actual demand of the Nepali people. Detailed description of the seven finalists and winners are available in English and Spanish on the prize homepage: http://www.apc.org/english/ chrisnicol/finalists

Free Geek (USA) ‘Free Geek’ (http://www.freegeek.org) from Portland in the USA is an organisation that recycles used technology to provide computers, education, Internet access and job skills training to those in need in exchange for community service. Any individual may contribute 24 hours of volunteering in the ‘Adoption Programme’ at Free Geek in exchange for a free computer and any individual who wishes to learn how to build computers can join the ‘Build Programme’. All computers have free and open source software installed.

One can read interviews from the APC with: 1. Free Geek at: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index. shtml?x=5241758 2. NepaLinux at: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index. shtml?x=5241651 3. Gleducar at: http://www.apc.org/english/news/index. shtml?x=5245948

Stockholm Challenge Award 2007 in cooperation with Global Knowledge Partnership The Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 (http://www. stockholmchallenge.se/news/articles/32) is a new joint initiative with the multi stakeholder networking organisation Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP). The awards will be presented at the Global Knowledge III event in Kuala Lumpur in December 2007. The new prize is an integral part of the Stockholm Challenge 2008 and is open in four of the six Stockholm Challenge categories: Culture, November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

Economic Development, Education and Public Administration. It focuses on the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in ICT for development. All Stockholm Challenge 2008 applicants, who are made up of multi stakeholder partnerships, in the four categories will be eligible for the new award. The finalists will be sponsored to travel to the Global Knowledge III Conference in Kuala Lumpur in December 2007 to be celebrated and exhibited.

The winners will be announced during this event and they will also be invited to Challenge Week in Stockholm in May 2008, and travel at GKP´s expense. Nine finalists in Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 Out of 119 entries in the award, nine finalists have been chosen by the jury; three in the Education category and two in each of Culture, Economic Development and Public Administration. The winners will be announced during the GK III conference in Kuala Lumpur, December 10-13. The finalists who will receive stipends from GKP to go to the conference in Kuala Lumpur are: Culture: In Culture Category, two nominees have been selected for the award: Network of Public Libraries - Medellin Metropolitan Area: Network of Public Libraries are 36 interconnected libraries, which are creating a collaborative knowledge network and opening a new world that uses ICT as a learning resource solution to enhance library management human capacity and services, and to reduce costs. The project supports the 3 main pillars of ICT: access and connectivity, content and services, and training and empowerment. Viva Favela: Viva Favela is Viva Rio’s largest IT Program, which is focused on the social and digital inclusion of children, teenagers and youth in poor neighborhoods, who are particularly exposed to risks in a conflictive environment. Economic Development: The two nominees finally selected for award in this category are: Enabling financial inclusion and increasing efficiency of Self Help Groups Microcredit Federations: CAM is a three-tier documentbased architecture for providing remote rural information services for SHGs in Microfinance. CAM is user-tier, which consist of a set of paper forms that people use to record information, perform queries and conduct transactions. The server is a standard web application server, which can reside locally, in a nearby town, or virtually on the Internet. KhmerOS - Khmer Software Initiative: KhmerOS project is involved in producing and distributing the basic computer technology necessary for Cambodia to enter the age of technology. The project uses Open Source applications to translate important ICT policy into the Khmer language. The project has trained several thousand teachers and government employees. NGOs and government are systematically enabling the use of computers in the central and local governments, while the public education system will only teach Khmer language software.

Education: Three nominees selected for the final award in the education category are: Shilpa Satya Project: Shilpa Sayura project is a Local language Digital Learning system with interactive content based on National Curriculum of Sri Lanka for the handicapped students in remote, rural communities to improve self learning capacity to prepare for National Examinations. TOPIC64: TOPIC64 is developing a national system of sustainable and locally adaptable e-learning centers that targets 100,000 degree students and hundreds of thousands of other trainees in the next 5 years. Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA) Project: IDEA brings Internet technology and free Microsoft training courses to under-served communities and populations throughout Russia in the form of community-based IDEA Computer Centers. Each centre has partnership with local organisations and stakeholders as well as Project Harmony’s expertise and oversight. Public Administration: In the Public Administration category, two nominees selected for the final award are: The etuktuk project: The etuktuk is a low-cost mobile radio station and telecentre that encourages increased participation and access to new and traditional media and information communication technologies by marginalised and rural communities in Sri Lanka. Rashtra Grameena abhivruddi samacharam (RAGAS): RAGAS is a web based ICT tool with local-language interface for poor people to ensure employment for minimum hundred days in a financial year. This ICT tool handles job card registration, work estimates and wage payments to enable equal, correct and timely payments directly into the accounts of the wage seekers, thereby enhancing the livelihood security of 7.5 million poor people living in rural area of state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Awards Criteria The Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 runs in four categories and are open to all projects that can match the specific criteria for this award. There is an addition to the Stockholm Challenge Criteria that relates to Multi Stakeholder Partnerships (MSP). Here are the full criteria for the Stockholm Challenge Award and for the Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007: Added criteria for the Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 Multi Stakeholder Partnerships (MSP): An MSP is defined as a partnership between parties from at least three different stakeholder groups, namely business, civil society and government at all levels (including public institutions in health, education, social, welfare and agriculture) that share risks, costs and mutual benefits. The partnership does not have to be formal or contractual but the entry has to show how it meets these criteria.

The Young Social Entrepreneurs’ Forum @ GK3 and the Global Young Social Entrepreneurs’ Competition The competition will focus on social business as one avenue to spearhead a better future. It offers the opportunity to participate in the Forum and in the 3rd Global Knowledge Conference (GK3) to 100 young social entrepreneurs from around the globe.

The Global Young Social Entrepreneurs’ Competition runs in all regions of the globe. Applications from Egypt are particularly encouraged, as country-specific funding has been made available in addition to the general Competition funds. The seven reasons to i4d | November 2007

apply for the the Global Young Social Entrepreneurs’ Competition are as follows: (i) Be one of 100 sponsored participants to attend the Young Social Entrepreneurs’ Forum @ GK3 and the 3rd Global Knowledge Conference (GK3), a GKP Event on the Future on ‘Emerging People, Emerging Markets, Emerging Technologies’ that will bring 2000 participants to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 11 to 13 December 2007 (ii) Be one of 10 to pitch for funding during the Forum and, if successful, fast-track your business with a fellowship under the Youth Social Enterprise Initiative www.ysei.org or with scale-up funding (iii) Meet various funding organisations such as development aid agencies, commercial banks, CSR investors and venture capitalists; mentors; experts and other stakeholders (iv) Be part of a crowd of innovative and motivated young people who have chosen to put their skills and abilities into business with a social edge; take advantage of the dedicated networking session on 10 December 2007 (v) Mingle and network with the 2000 general GK3 participants and showcase your social business with people who will take you seriously (vi) Profile your social interests in a Global Competition that

is fully web-based and transparent; application forms, jury evaluations and verification reports will be viewable to the public who will also be able to post comments (vii) Contribute to the shaping of the Forum sessions through the content development process. For more information on the Global Competition contact: anthony@gkps.org.my For more information on sponsorship opportunities, contact: edo@gkps.org.my

Connect Africa Summit 2007 Connect Africa is a global multistakeholder partnership to mobilise the human, financial and technical resources required to bridge major gaps in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure across the region, with the aim of supporting affordable connectivity and applications and services to stimulate economic growth, employment and development throughout Africa. Connect Africa was launched at a aummit of leaders in Kigali, Rwanda, 29−30 October 2007, under the patronage of the President of Rwanda, Mr Paul Kagame, as well as the Chairman of the African Union and President of Ghana, His Excellency, Mr John Kufuor. It was organised by the International Telecommunication Union, the African Union, the World Bank Group and the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, in partnership with the African Development Bank, the African Telecommunication Union, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Global Digital Solidarity Fund. This collaborative effort sought to involve various stakeholders active in the region, including China, India, the European Commission, G8, OECD and Arab countries, major ICT companies, the United Nations Development Programme and other international organisations. Connect Africa brought together partners to help implement a number of ICT projects of significant, catalysing impact on the development of ICT infrastructure in Africa. In doing so, partners are expected to build on the progress of countries November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

which have established an attractive ICT policy and regulatory environment to accommodate the private sector investment required for sustainable network build-out. These projects will in turn are expected to trigger a cycle of further investment and development. The summit had a practical, results-oriented format, including interactive, multi-stakeholder panel discussions, partnership announcements, as well as opportunities for participants to showcase their ICT development projects to potential partners and donors. The summit also provided an excellent networking platform for leaders from the public, private and financial sectors to meet and forge new partnerships for the future. Participants in the Connect Africa Summit examined key success factors for ICT investment and development and identified areas for collaboration to: • expand broadband backbone infrastructure and access networks, using innovative business and financing models, such as infrastructure-sharing and demand aggregation among local and regional institutions. This new infrastructure investment includes national and regional interconnectivity initiatives, such as Internet exchange points and rural connectivity projects; • enhance workforce training to support employment and growth in the ICT sector and the overall economy; • stimulate the development of locally-relevant ICT content, applications and services, and broaden efforts to develop an enabling policy and regulatory environment for investment, including harmonisation across regions and sub-regions. Source: www.itu.int

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Bytes for All... Events and announcements Call for ICT researchers The University of Washington Centre for Internet Studies (CIS) is conducting a study of public access to ICT environments in 25 countries. The research will include an examination of physical infrastructures (libraries, telecentres, kiosks, etc.), public access policies, stakeholder analyses (especially within government), and the information needs of disadvantaged communities, among others. The expected time-frame for the engagement is November 2007 through August 2008.

trends and issues related to Information, Communication and Space Technology (ICST) for development and contribute to the promotion of an inclusive, people-centered information society in Asia and the Pacific. For this edition, the division is seeking contribution in the form of original papers, related to ICST - ICT strengthened by space technology for content and infrastructure - and showing evidenced ICST impacts on economic development in Asia and the Pacific. Source: http://www.unescap. org/icstd/ main/journal- 2007-cfp. Asp

e-GovWorld 2007

Source: http://www.cis.washington.edu/projects/publicaccessICTlandscape/ countryselection.html

Strategy planning workshop of the Feminist Network A Strategy Planning Workshop of the Feminist Network on Gender, Development and Information Society Policies was held from October 5th to 7th, 2007 in Bangalore, India. The workshop was co-organised by IT for Change, the Association for Progressive Communications, the International Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tribune Centre, ISIS International, and Gloria Bonder, the General Coordinator of the Regional UNESCO Chair Women, Science and Technology in Latin America. The goal of the meeting was to(i) conduct a gender analysis of the policy ecology of the information society and the approaches of critical institutional players (ii) evolve an action plan for research and advocacy, and (iii) to develop the structure and processes that facilitate and strengthen the work of the network. Source: www.ITforChange. net

Call for papers: Asia-Pacific journal on ICST

eGovWorld 2007 will serve as an important milestone with a focus on six key Mission Mode Projects under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of India. It will also feature Mobile Government Practices from across the globe and a special session on Data Centres for enhancing e-Government readiness. It will be held in New Delhi, India with the support of the e-Development Thematic Group of The World Bank, Danish Technological Institute, OneWorld SouthAsia, PricewaterhouseCoopers India and other partners. Source: http://www.egovworld.org

The Information, Communication and Space Technology Division of UNESCAP is preparing its annual Asia-Pacific Journal on Information, Communication and Space Technology, to be published by the end of 2007. The Journal aims to highlight emerging

Global CIO dialogue on the human factor in reengineering government A global CIO dialogue on the human factor in re-engineering government is being organised by the World Bank in partnership with George Mason Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of Management, Development Gateway Foundation and several partners in various countries who will be participating via videoconferencing. The event brings together some 40 IT leaders from the Asia Pacific region to Washington D.C., and CIOs/e-Government leaders from other regions via the VC. It is part of a 2.5-day Global CIO Roundtable Conference (http://somweb. gmu.edu/globalci o2007/). The event examined the critical role of the government CIOs and e-Champions in the citizen-centric transformation of the public sector. Source: http://go.worldbank .org/EM0S2AL7T0 i4d | November 2007

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Bytes for All... Articles Unwrapping ideas at latest ‘unconference’ They call it an ‘unconference’, and it’s a small but growing rage among techies wanting to share ideas in town. BarCamps are an international network of ‘user generated conferences’ that involve open, participatory workshop events. Some 200 people from diverse spheres took part in Mumbai’s latest BarCamp, where content is provided by participants - often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related free software or open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats. An ‘unconference’ is thus a collaborative discussion with no classroom rules. It is a participative session, where the speaker only leads the discussion. Participants can leave if bored or cut in when the ‘speaker’ is speaking to ask as many questions as they want.

(iii) It also discusses the role of telecentres in accelerating growth and development. It will look at the vision, mission, objectives and structure of telecentres. The role of the Tanzania Telecentre Association will also be discussed.

telecentre.org Sustaining telecentres....join the discussion

Source: http://www.dnaindia .com/report. asp?newsid= 1128889

Mandate for public access to NIH funded research poised to become law The U.S. Senate last night approved the FY2008 Labour, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill (S.1710), including a provision that directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen its public access policy by requiring rather than requesting participation by researchers. The bill will now be reconciled with the House Appropriations Bill, which contains a similar provision, in another step towards the support for public access to publicly funded research, becoming a United States law. The alliance for taxpayer access is a coalition of patient, academic, research, and publishing organisations that support open public access to the results of federally funded research. The alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from taxpayer-funded research becoming fully accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American public. Source: http://www.taxpayer access.org

Telecentres Networking telecentres in East Africa The East Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum (EATLF) discussions have started bearing fruits. In February 2007, the Kenya Network of Telecentres (Kentel) was formed. It was the decision of the second EATLF in October 2006, that participating countries form National Telecentre Networks. The Tanzania Telecentre Network is to be launched during a workshop on 25-27 October 2007. The network aims to: (i) To provide a platform for telecentres leaders to exchange ideas and knowledge on rural development. Discuss the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in accelerating development as enshrined in the national strategy for growth and reduction of poverty. (ii) Explore different ICTs interfaces which are sustainable for telecentres. November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

Telecentre sustainability is a theme central to many current debates among telecentre practitioners, donors, support organisations, and governments. For the most part, telecentres remain dependent on donors or do not have the necessary resources to sustain their activities. The online session of the 4th East Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum is discussing social enterprise and how to sustain telecentres. Loic Commoli, the Social Enterprise Director at NESsT (www.nesst. org) is leading the discussion. The discussion aims to: (i) Clarify the role that social enterprise can play in telecentres and sustainability (ii) Present examples of successful social enterprises (iii) Generate ideas for telecentre products and services (iv) Promote the field of social enterprise among regional telecentres (v) Use the outcomes of this discussion to inform the Fourth East Africa Telecentre Leaders Forum on November 8th and 9th, 2007.

Bytes for All: www.bytesforall.org or www.bytesforall.net Bytes for All Readers Discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ bytesforall_readers To subscribe: bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Bytes for All Discussion summary compiled by: Farah Mahmood, farah.mahmood@gmail.com, Pakistan

BOOK RECEIVED

The Indian Journey Other Voices: The struggle for Community Radio in India Authors : Vinod Pavarala and Kanchan K Malik Published by: Sage Publications India, New Delhi 2007 ISBN: 978-0-7619-3602-2 (HB) Pages: 320, Year of publication: 2007, Price: INR 650 Communications Professor and Dean at the Sarojini Naidu School of Communication at the University of Hyderabad, Vinod Pavarala and Lecturer, Kanchan K Malik have put together several years of struggle for community radio in India. The state has been very reluctant to open up the airwaves. Contextualising the historical struggle for providing hope to give voices to the marginalised communities, the importance of community media as an alternative media for social development has been established in this book. The struggle has been a long and extended one, and different innovators of mass media for development have come together in this struggle to reform the policy. The process of creating appropriate framework for policy making, the networking and experimentation to establish the value of community radio as a tool for development, the creation of networks and consultations to advocate for an effective policy change began as a struggle by NGOs in India way back in 1995, took 11 years to take shape as a policy released by Government of India in December 1996. The authors have conducted extensive research, met with the practitioners of various alternative media experiments, including narrowcasting and participatory communication experiments, and used the last seven years to put together an excellent research and analysis of the community radio movement in India. Even when the FM licences opened up to private operators, the airwave boom has been marked by a cacophony of mindless jabber amidst the domination of non-stop Bollywood film music and advertising, with little or no programming of either relevance or significance to reflect the diverse communities that live in India. The research work focussed on the need to revitalise the civil society, the conditions that will create the conducive environment, and challenges of the policy formulation itself. The critical issues that have been well researched in this book cover the social, cultural, economic and political dynamics and constraints that

affected the community radio movement. Using qualitative case study methodology, focus group meetings and interviews, and drawing upon secondary research with over 257 references. Extensive analysis of the policies in Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, USA has helped to draw lessons on the strategy for policy making in India. The authors examine the definition of community radio; the licensing procedure; the allocation of frequency and technical parameters; sustainability/funding issues; management and ownership; programme content; and regulation and monitoring. A significant indication of popular resistance to the power structures and hegemony of the state to control the minds of people, the four detailed case studies presented in their fourth chapter include the ‘Chalo Ho Gaon Mein’, the AID project in Daltonganj ( Jharkhand) suppor ted by National Foundation for India, ‘Ujjas Radio’ project of KMVS in Bhuj (Gujarat) with technical and creative collaboration of Drishtee Media Collective, the ‘Namma Dhwani’ project of VOICES and MYRADA supported by UNESCO in Budhikote (Karnataka) and the ‘Women speak to women’ UNESCO supported project of DDS in Pastapur (Andhra Pradesh). The participatory communication projects studied are all endeavouring to put radio stations run by communities at the heart of development. The tools and processes used have not only a development focus but also aim to conserve the traditional knowledge, practices and culture of these communities. Community radio is a means, but not an end in itself, and enabler of participatory development and communications. The strength of the case studies is that they establish the value of empowering and giving voices to the voiceless and poor. The last three chapters address the need to revitalise the civil society and create greater awareness among them; addressing the gender dimension of community radio and finally the opportunities and challenges for the community radio movement in India. The book has an extensive and well documented annexes which helps the reader with five valuable dossiers. This valuable book is a must read for all those interested in media for the marginalised communities and the impact on grassroots development in India. Jayalakshmi Chittoor, jchittoor@csdms.in i4d | November 2007

What’s on Africa

Malaysia

8-11 July, 2008 2nd African Council for Distance Education( ACDE) Conference and General Assembly Lagos, Nigeria

11-13 December, 2007 3rd Global Knowledge Conference Kuala Lumpur

http://www.nou.edu.ng/noun/acde2008

Australia 10-11 March, 2008 Somerset Conference for Librarians, Teachers, et al Queensland http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/conflib

29 June, 2008 The 2nd International Workshop on Web Mining for E-commerce and E-services (WMEE2008), Melbourne http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~derrick/WMEE2008/

Belgium 4-5 December, 2007 2nd ASEM Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Senior Officials’ Meeting, Brussels http://www.aseminfoboard.org/Calendar/ OfficialsMeetings/?id=216

Bulgaria 3-6 December, 2007 ITU TELECOM EUROPE Sofia http://www.itu.int/EUROPE2007/index.html

India 7-9 December, 2007 IC-MARC2007, Manipal http://www.manipal.edu/kmc/announcements/ ICMark%202007.pdf

11-12 January, 2008 International Conference on Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks Mumbai http://conferences.theiet.org/wireless/index.htm

22-24 February, 2008 11th Asian Congress of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health Aurangabad, Maharashtra http://www.pravara.com November 2007 | www.i4donline.net

http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/gk3/

11-13 December, 2007 ICET 2007 Kuala Lumpur http://www.icet.unikl.edu.my/

Oman 3-5 March, 2008 International Conference of Educational Technology ICOET2008 Muscat http://www.icoet,.com

Portgual 3-6 December, 2007 E-ALT’07 E-Activity and Leading Technologies Porto http://www.iask-web.org/e-alt07/e-alt2007.html

7-9 December, 2007 IADIS International Conference eCOMMERCE 2007 Algarve

25-27 April, 2008 Mobile Content World Asia 2008 Suntec International Exhibition and Convention Centre http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/mcw08%5Fsg/

Thailand 27-29 March, 2008 The 2008 International Conference on e-Education Bangkok http://www.e-case.org/e-Education2008/

United Arab Emirates 14-17 January, 2008 e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East 2008: Define. Design. Deliver Dubai http://elexforum.etqm.ae/

United Kingdom 9-12 January, 2008 BETT 2008 Olympia, London http://www.bettshow.com/

12 February, 2008 Achieving Compliance with the EuP Directive ERA Technology Ltd Cleeve Road Leatherhead Surrey KT22 7SA http://www.aptn.org/Events/802era.htm

http://www.ecommerce-conf.org/

25-27 June, 2008 Code Generation 2008 Cambridge

Singapore

http://www.codegeneration.net/conference/index.php

14-17 April, 2008 Biomedical Asia 2008 Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre http://www.terrapinn.com/2008/biomedasia/

United States 21-22 February, 2008 USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum Virginia http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum

CSDMS Events 11 December, 2007 Emerging People Workshop: India as a Trend Setter 3rd Global Knowledge Conference Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org

9-10 December, 2007 i4d Film Festival 3rd Global Knowledge Conference Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia http://www.i4donline.net/filmfestival/

24-26 October, 2008 The University of Atlanta’s First International Symposium on Online Teaching and Learning Georgia http://www.UofA.edu

Vietnam 10-13 December, 2007 The 10th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2007) Hanoi http://icadl2007.vista.gov.vn/

IN FACT

Digital divide in Asia One can get statistics (Table 1) related to Internet usage in some of the Asian countries. Internet penetration (as a percentage of population) is 5.3% in India, which is lower than that compared to Japan (68.0 %), Vietnam (20.3 %), and Malaysia (52.7 %). Digital divide is determined by many factors including household income, level of education, gender-based discrimination, etc. Table 1: Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Internet usage and population Some selected Asian countries

Population in 2007 (estimated)

Internet Users (Year 2007)

Internet Users, latest data

Penetration (% Population)

(%) Users in Asia

Use growth (2000-07)

Afganistan

27,089,593

1,000

535,000

2.0 %

0.1 %

53,000 %

Armenia

2,950,060

30,000

172,800

5.9 %

0.0 %

476.0 %

Azerbaijan

8,448,260

12,000

829,100

9.8 %

0.2 %

6,809.2 %

Bangladesh

137,493,990

100,000

450,000

0.3 %

0.1 %

350.0 %

Bhutan

812,184

500

30,000

3.7 %

0.0 %

5,900.0 %

Brunei Darussalem

403,500

30,000

165,600

41.0 %

0.0 %

452.0 %

Cambodia

15,507,538

6,000

44,000

0.3 %

0.0 %

633.3 %

China

1,317,431,495

22,500,000

162,000,000

12.3 %

35.3 %

620.0 %

East Timor

958,662

1,000

0.1 %

0.0 %

Georgia

4,389,004

20,000

332,000

7.6 %

0.1 %

1560.0 %

Hong Kong*

7,150,254

2,283,000

4,878,713

68.2 %

1.1 %

113.7 %

India

1,129,667,528

5,000,000

60,000,000

5.3 %

13.1 %

1,000.0 %

Indonesia

224,481,720

2,000,000

20,000,000

8.9 %

4.4 %

900.0 %

Japan

128,646,345

47,080,000

87,540,000

68.0 %

19.1 %

85.9 %

North Korea

23,510,379

0.0 %

South Korea

51,300,989

19,040,000

34,120,000

66.5 %

7.4 %

79.2 %

Kyrgystan

5,436,608

51,600

298,100

5.5 %

0.1 %

477.7 %

Laos

5,826,271

6,000

25,000

0.4 %

0.0 %

316.7 %

Macao*

500,631

60,000

201,000

40.1 %

0.0 %

235.0 %

Malaysia

28,294,120

3,700,000

14,904,000

52.7 %

3.2 %

302.8 %

Myanmar

54,821,519

1,000

300,000

0.5 %

0.1 %

29,900.0 %

Nepal

25,874,519

50,000

249,400

1.0 %

0.1 %

398 %

Pakistan

167,806,831

133,900

12,000,000

7.2 %

2.6 %

8861.9 %

Singapore

3,654,103

1,200,000

2,421,800

66.3 %

0.5 %

101.8 %

Sri Lanka

19,796,874

121,500

428,000

2.2 %

0.1 %

252.3 %

Thailand

67,249,456

2,300,000

8,465,800

12.6 %

1.8 %

268.1 %

Turkmenistan

6,886,825

2,000

64,800

0.9 %

0.0 %

3,140.0 %

Uzbekistan

26,607,252

7,500

1,745,000

6.6 %

0.4 %

23,166.7 %

Vietnam

85,031,436

200,000

17,220,812

20.3 %

3.7 %

8,510.4 %

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm#top

i4d | November 2007

Mapping ICT4D Knowledge: The i4d initiative i4d Newsletter Information on ICTs for development September 12, 2007 AGRICULTURE Reuters ready to give Agri-info to rural India Reuters has launched Reuters Market Light, an initiative to reach the rural community in India. The Reuters Market Light will provide information on crop prices, weather updates and other agri-related news via SMS. e-GOVERNANCE Committee in the offing to make action plan for cyber crimes: Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI The Ministry of Home Affairs on 10, September, 2007 has disclosed that it would shortly set up a high-powered committee to develop a comprehensive action plan to enable it to effectively deal with possible threats, arising out of cyber crimes. Dubai eGovernment and Etisalat in Strategic Partnership Dubai e-Government signed a memorandum of strategic partnership (MOSP) with Etisalat, the UAE's leading telecommunications provider, to deliver a range of ICT solutions to Government units in the UAE and across the region. Indian Parliament pulls up Govt. on cyber laws The Indian parliament panel has criticised the government for not preparing a new set of laws on cyber crime and instead taking a "short cut route" of making changes in the existing norms. Singapore, Indonesia to cooperate in Info comm sector Singapore has signed an agreement with Indonesia to cooperate in the field of information and communications. HEALTH Child malnutrition in Somalia at critical levels: UNICEF The UNICEF has said that child malnutrition in Somalia is at critical levels due to violence and lack of access for aid workers.

View the latest i4d Magazine, August, 20 07 Vol.V No .8 on Government investments in ICT4D ANNOUNCEMENT EU-IndiaGrid Trainin g & Workshop on Atmospheric, Earth & Material Sciences Location: Pune, India Date: 24-28 September, 200 7 You ng Social Entrepreneurs' Forum Organisations: Global Knowledge Partners Location: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia Date: 11-13 December 2007 UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication$ 20,000 Location: UNESCO Headquarters, France Date: 26 to 28 March 2008

Telemedicine: Boon for rural India There are many rural folks in India who are living life in constant fear of IFC and FT's Essay Competition imminent death due to improper medical diagnosis. But now things are Encourages Innovation changing due to telemedicine service. Organisations: Rural Marketing Agencies m-SERVE Association of India Terranet comes out with new mobile handsets (RMAAI) & NASSCOM

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So Net cial wor ks in Inte rnet

Environmental Wastes

ICTs and peace Initiatives

Giving Voices and Assertive R ights: Sexual and Reproductive R ights

The O Move pen ment

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Community Radio

ICT Statistics

ICTs for MSMEs

The Fuel Crisis and Climate Change

Learning for Grassroots Innovations

ols 0 t o it y . 2 Web ommun nt e C for owerm p Em

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g s tin T e g C g I d Bu amin r e e end nstr in Gd Mai an

Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation

Ne w g nin Lear ys Wa

ICTs and Food Security

Internet Governance

A new year of i4d is around the corner A host of issues are to be worked upon Do you work on any of these areas ? Do you have a project that should be covered ? Are you an expert on any of the themes ? Are you interested to collaborate ? Write to us at: prashant@csdms.in