Access to information is predicated on the access to a digital infrastructure. However, access to electricity and the Internet remain elusive for a significant percentage of the world's population, let alone a sustainable access in one’s local language, local context, and relating to local culture. This paper examines the issues of resource constraints, and proposes a framework to classify them. It then proceeds to utilize this framework to look at three different case studies of implementations of offline Internet access in Madagascar, Jamaica and India. Presented at IEEE ISTAS 2016. http://istas2016.org

1. A Framework for Information Access
in Rural and Remote Communities.
Presented at: ISTAS 2016
October 20-22, 2016
Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA 94132 USA

2. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
sverma@sfsu.edu
● Professor, Information Systems
● College of Business
● Interests: Access to Information,
Remote/offline networks, Free
and Open Source Software,
Digital Commons, Open Data.

3. John P. Ryan, Ph.D.
john@peoplecentered.net

4. Introduction
● Universal access to the Internet
– Tool for empowering
– Take ownership
– Build capability and capacity
● Analyze very specific, but central problems in the field
● Propose a framework
– Access to electricity
– Access to the Internet
● Three case studies
– Madagascar, Jamaica, India

5. Access to Information
● The limited scalability of analog access
● 48.6% of the world's population is connected
● Internet access is not a binary variable (yes/no)
– Throughput, latency, etc.
● High variance in use cases
– Email, Web, Netflix

6. Access to Electricity
● 1.2 billion people live without any form of
electricity
– South Sudan is at 5.06%
– Samoa sits at 100%
● Rural electrification rate sits at 67%
– Latin America: 85%
– Africa: 26%

7. Devices
● Low-powered mobile devices
– Smartphones
– Tablets
● Year-on-Year (YoY) growth of 9.8% in 2015
(1.43 billion units shipped)
● Expect to ship 1.86 billion units in 2019
● Estimated mobile devices worldwide: 4.61
billion units

8. Framework
Electricity
Internet

9. Framework
Electricity
Internet

10. Case Studies
● Madagascar
– Town of Maroantsetra in eastern Madagascar.
– Surrounding rural villages not on the electrical grid.
– Non-traditional power sources such as water
turbines, solar panels and diesel generators.

11. Madagascar: Location

12. Madagascar: Server

13. Content Delivery
● Pathagar (http://pathagar.info)
– Python Django
– Embedded database
– OPDS: Open Publication
and Distribution System
● Malagasy and French

14. Case Studies
● Jamaica
– Primary school in August Town, a small town on the
outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica.
– On electrical grid.
– Single DSL line. Not reliable.

15. Jamaica: Location

16. Jamaica: Server

17. Jamaica: Content Delivery
● Pathagar (http://pathagar.info)
– Python Django
– OPDS: Open
Publication and
Distribution System
● Moodle
– Learning Management
System
– Class-based materials

18. Case Studies
● India
– Bhagmalpur, a small village in Uttar Pradesh, India.
● Hundred kilometers north of Varanasi.
– Unreliable electrical grid.
● Solar + diesel generators.
– Unreliable Internet access.
● 2G/3G dongle.

19. India: Location

20. India: Server

21. India: Server

22. India: Content Delivery
● Wikipedia
● TED Talks
● Khan Academy
● Openstreetmap
● Project Gutenberg
● Audio/Music
● Pathagar
1TB hard drive for offline content

23. Framework
Electricity
Internet

24. Conclusion
● Begin with the use case.
● Examine access to electricity.
● Examine access to the Internet.
● Select network infrastructure technology.
● Select content delivery technology accordingly.
● Focus on off-the-shelf equipment.
● Focus on Commons licensing.

25. Future Scope
● Community participation
● Learning analytics

26. Community participation
Bailey, A., McNaughton, M., Muschette, N. and Verma, S. (2015) The
Role of ICTs in Early Childhood Education in Jamaica: Early
Observations from a One Laptop per Child Pilot Project. Caribbean
Journal of Education. Vol 37, No. 1

27. Analytics - XOVis

28. Eventual Consistency
Cloud
Micro-Cloud
Micro-Cloud
Micro-Cloud
CouchDB
CouchDB
CouchDB
CouchDB
Incremental replication

29. XOVis: Quest for Data

30. Workshop
Sameer Verma
sverma@sfsu.edu
Anish Mangal
anishmg@umich.edu
Leh, Ladakh. Perhaps the highest solar-powered
offline content service.

31. Thank you