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Kasadaka and ICT4D at VU
The document discusses the challenges and opportunities of integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) for development (ICT4D) in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, emphasizing the need for sustainable solutions amidst low connectivity and literacy levels. It highlights the importance of local collaboration and culturally relevant information dissemination methods, such as voice technologies in local languages. The paper also calls for innovative ICT4D approaches that validate iterative development processes in low-tech contexts, aiming to empower marginalized communities.
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Kasadaka and ICT4D at VU
- 1. SUSTAINABILITY AND ICT4D ANNA BON, VICTOR DE BOER FRANCIS DITTOH, ANDRÉ BAART AND OTHERS
- 2. and almost 800million people vulnerable for food shortages Currently, > 3 billion people in the world are “unconnected” …. http://internetcensus2012.bitbucket.org/paper.html
- 3. Sustainable Development Goal(SDG)) No. 9c : “Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.”
- 4. What about transferring technologiesto developing regions?
- 5. How about e.g.a rural Sub- Saharan African context?”
- 6. What about sustainability?… Accordingto the World Bank, the largest investor/donor in ICT4D Infrastructure & applications : spent 491 million US $ on ICT4D in SSA (2003- 2013) 1300 WB projects only 50 % achieved its objectives
- 7. The internet requiresdata centres
- 8. What about energyconsumption? • “performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle" or about 7g “f CO2 per search.
- 9. Let’s take adifferent perspective… • Scarce electricity • Low purchasing power • Low levels of text- literacy (especially women) • Many different languages spoken, no French, English, etc • ICTs here : only GSM and rural radio
- 10. Collaboration with localstakeholders
- 11. Meteo/rain data Chicken vaccination Animalhealth Matching customers Market information Milk information Etc. etc. What are the local information needs, e.g.
- 12. Requirement engineering workshops withfarmers in Bamako
- 13. A portfolio ofsustainable applications Bambara
- 14. Voice and speechtechnologies • In rural Mali and Burkina Faso adult illiteracy >50%
- 15. Building voice-systems forlocal languages • Languages are unresourced-> no TTS or ASR • Record utterances* from local users in Malian French dialect, Bambara and Bomu: co- creation with local users * TTS and ASR is built by Etienne Barnard from North-West University, South Africa
- 16. Sustainable hardware Poor Internetconnections and scarce electricity require different infrastructural solutions than Internet, Cloud Solutions, Big Data etc.
- 17. Sustainable business modelsof local stakeholders, working with scenarios *) *)A useful approach is the e3-value method Gordijn & Akkermans 2003
- 18. Research challenges to ensurereal ICT4D sustainability? • Sustainable, small hardware inexpensive solutions, rural conditions • Business sustainability through local value networks • Voice and speech technologies in local languages • Context/Use case and requirements analysis • Collaborative engineering, deploying, evaluating! • Organizing community of developers/users
- 19. To be continuedstudents ICT4D@VU….
- 20. Kasadaka a rapid prototypingplatform for the rural poor Victor de Boer, Andre Baart, Gossa Lo, Christophe Gueret, Anna Bon, Francis Dittoh, Hans Akkermans, Wendelien Tuijp,… Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- 21. Victor de Boer Web& Media Group, Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Web Science, Linked Data, … Cultural Heritage and Digital History ICT for Development
- 22. Can the Web(be made to) mean something for information sharing even under very constraining conditions? No internet, no computer, no electricity Multitude of languages, levels of literacy
- 23. Information sharing shouldbe made 1. usable on small, affordable, hardware deployed in various connectivity contexts; 2. accessible to individuals with varied cultural backgrounds / literacy levels; 3. relevant and directly useful to the target public they aim to empower. Infrastructure Interface Relevancy
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- 26. Low-literacy One of thegrand challenges of ICT4D Prevalent among the rural poor
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- 28. Speech: The most naturaluser interface https://www.flickr.com/photos/adriansnood/14252302357/
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- 33. Voice service: Multiplesolutions SIP over Ethernet HTTP Officeroute running Asterisk Orange Emerginov Platform GSM dongle DOWNSCALING Cheap, small hardware
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- 35. KASADAKA.com Low-power, ubiquitous, cheaphardware (rPi + gsm dongle) FLOSS components Rapid Prototyping + deployment Access information Voice services SMS-based Visual Internet or GSM network
- 36. Data transfer inan SMS ?
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- 39. Weather Service (Ghana,Mali, Burkina Faso) DigiVet (N-Ghana) Radio message service (Mali) Poultry vaccination service (Mali) Milk service (Mali Seed market (Mali and Burkina Faso)
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- 43. What’s new inthis ICT4D research ? New approach to innovation and ICT4D (e.g. bringing the Web to those without the internet) Validation of iterative approaches to ICT development in a low-tech context; Case studies from a rural area in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana.
- 44. With the mainstream Dev.countries can leapfrog directly into the information age, jumping many phases of immature technologies Img: flickr/n3v3rv0id Development Informatics as mainstream computer science research.
- 45. ICT4D Course @ MScComputer Science course This year 5th time (almost) unique in Europe Multidisciplinary Core Computer Science: CS4D Make students aware of importance of context Hands-on experience with KASADAKA Train CS researchers in ICT4D
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Editor's Notes
- #13 NeoNurture