These are notes from the main document on the questions of issue 2, the tech gap. The questions were:
- How are cops in the south dealing with (lack of) access to technology and connectivity?
- How to deal with differences in peoples’ technology skills?
Issue 2: Gaps in Technology and Information Access
A range of solutions are being used to increase sharing of knowledge and information in developing countries—locally, regionally, and nationally. Mobile phones have an important role to play in this process as more people in developing countries have access to mobile phone than access to Internet. Farmers, producers, community water associations, and natural resource management groups are some of the groups making use of this technology to find and share information and solutions.
Internet access and use may be growing rapidly, but in many areas, especially in Africa, the use of the internet as a primary knowledge sharing tool remains limited. Many organizations lack the infrastructure, means, and capacity to use the internet. More traditional means such as face-to-face meetings, radio programs, and publications are more effective methods to reach these groups. In addition, the internet as a knowledge sharing resource in Africa is hampered by cultural and social differences between the organizations that offer these tools and knowledge on the internet and recipients in Africa. Donors need to keep in mind that local organizations are able to define their own needs and most effective knowledge sharing strategies. (M. van Doodewaard, 2006, KM4dev Journal 2 (3) 40-47)
Nevertheless people from even remote locations are discovering tools such as Yahoo and Google groups and are finding ways to use e-mail as a communication tool even when then have limited access to regular connectivity. Groups with online access in urban areas can download and share information with small local groups without access. It is also vital that people working in headquarters with ready access to information stay connected and up to date and actively engage in sharing information and experience with people in the field.
Solutions for bridging gaps in technology and information with farmers
Learning teams on the Linking Local Learners community linkinglearnings.net), are using a number of effective solutions to facilitate local knowledge sharing among farmer networks. Communication can be vertical through a network structures and horizontal among farmers. Examples include:
- Notice boards at public centers e.g. market places, religious places, and various offices for the farmers to get the right updates.
- Farmers with mobiles phones have been encouraged to get information through their phones.
- Linking up with the district information offices and other partners to source and share information with farmers at area branch and local branch levels.
- Organize and/or use field days, agricultural shows, trade fairs and exhibitions to get information and share with other farmers.
- Meetings held at different levels: 1) Meeting of networks at the district, division. local and national.. 2) Information shared at monthly group meeting by the individual groups.
- Make enough copies of the information downloaded from the internet for sharing with others in the farmer group or village so that all can keep up with new information and online discussions. This will also mean organizing enough face-to-face meetings at the different farmer groups and villages to find out information needs and discuss what is being learned from the internet.
- Set up learning groups within the local branches, field schools and also selecting interested farmer groups within the local branches. This would help in accessing information. The information gotten from the learning groups would be shared through regular publications e.g. newsletters. For effective utilization of this information, hold field days, demonstrations and exhibitions.
- Source information from relevant institutions e.g. from the district information library, ministry of agriculture, ministry of livestock and fisheries and from the Internet. This information will be shares together with the local branch members and the head office.
(Linking Local Learners http://www.linkinglearning.net)
Literate farmers share rice growing techniques in India
To increase crop productions several communities of rice farmers in India joined together to write and produce a monthly newsletter (which has been produced now for 15 years), which discusses a wide-range of crop and rural enterprise issues. Literate farmers write about their own first-hand experiences with new techniques (with photos and illustrations), and one farmer’s experience may be elaborated on or challenged in a future issues. Farmers can also submit questions for other farmers to answer. Advertising supports publication costs.
(Experiences with Communities of Practice in India. Intercooperation in India Working Paper 1. 2005 http://www.intercooperation.ch/offers/download/ic-india/wp-1.pdf)
Tactics to improve local knowledge sharing
- Identify local knowledge system
- Use existing social structures
- Find most appropriate media
- Involve communities in setting priorities
- Involve communities in production of “information”
- Incorporate new ideas but use local resource
- Build capacity of local groups to organized themselves and demand information
- Create opportunities for discussion and intermediary groups
- Better understanding of what makes knowledge and innovation systems work and become sustainable
(Global Development Network Workshop Report: Knowledge Sharing for Development, Cairo Egypt, February 27-28, 2005. www.gdnet.org)
Lessons learned from an ICT4D community of trainers
- “Technologies supporting distributed communities of practice are rapidly developing, and the ICT4D trainers’ community may make use of a wide range of technologies. Yet, starting with using the tools that are available and that people are familiar with is the most appropriate.”
- “If interactions can be supported with face-to-face contacts, development will be more rapid. Judicious use of travel funds may be extremely helpful.”
(IICD, http://www.ftpiicd.org/files/research/briefs/brief_CoP.pdf)
Difficulties encountered by Communities of Practice in the MENA region
- “While increasingly difficult to control, government officials still attempt to block certain websites and web activity, and monitor websites. [...] Citizens of Arab countries are aware of the watchful eye of government on the Internet, and would, therefore, be more reluctant to engage in the open and frank exchanges of views that CoPs engender.”
- “Statistics show that Arab states are low in use of the Internet, compared to other regions of the world.”
- “The lack of Arabic content is partly the result of the difficulties of working with html in Arabic. This has created a self-perpetuating problem because online communities do not have the specialized scientific or educational materials they need to engage in electronic knowledge exchange in Arabic. They will therefore be more likely to use English or French, thus marginalizing some segments of society and restricting involvement to the more educated classes who are comfortable working in a foreign language.”
(Johnson E.C. and R. Khalidi, 2005 – Communities of Practice for Development in the Middle East and North Africa – KM4D Journal 1(1). http://www.km4dev.org/journal/index.php/km4dj/article/view/15 )
