[UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar es salaam|Strategy

Tue Jul 14 09:10:33 GMT 2009

Hi

Some people have asked about the document I was talking about. I got it from
a link in a contribution by Jean Paul Nkurunziza to this list. It is project
document for the AKN.

http://knowledgenets.net/images/Documents/project%20document.pdf

Cheers

Pete

Pete Cranston
skype: petecranston
mobile: +44 (0)7917 390133 

-----Original Message-----
From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Kiringai Kamau
Sent: 13 July 2009 20:43
To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
Subject: [SPAM] Re: [UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar es
salaam|Strategy

Dear Pete,

It is always a pleasure to have a new net friend.

Let me apologies to this network for sending what was a draft to Abebe that
I had been working on but which I relayed and could not recall in time. The
errors made it impossible to comprehend what was written. It was a big shame
even to myself.

Having done that, I then want to admit that I am one of those names you may
not have come across. For it is my involvement in agricultural institutions
and technologies that we have evolved that deliver content to users that
made me explore the cyberspace to get to learn the existence of telecentres.
The minute I got to see the potential of the telecentre model, I became a
serious evangelist for its adoption.

Now to come to the point, you seem to be privy to some information, or
document, that many of us do not seem to have on the AKN. Most of us,
including Sulah, do not seem to have the ability to read from the document
you refer in your mail. We again appeal for its being made public so that we
too can see how it integrates into our work. 

I am particularly open to new approaches to doing things and adapting to
them as fast as is practically possible. I am also an institutional thinker
and will be keen to see the linkage between the hub and the telecentres,
together with the people who feed the telecentre with the data or
information that it uses to deliver content to others.

On the issue of what knowledge is to either of us, I have some graphical
image that seeks to explain what I take it to be. I have used this picture
in training sessions on knowledge since 2006. I do not know if the image
will be relayed through the UgaBYTES list. If it does not go through I will
make it available on my blog-space for those keen in making reference to it
visit the space in telecentre.org.

And just incase it does not get relayed, I can add some words to describe it
as “the synthesized (or meaning derived from whatever) information has been
derived from records, images, pictures, figures and faces that we always
come across. 

In practical terms, knowledge is the meaning derived from reports, from
discussions, from workshops or interactions with others, which we capture in
our minds as worthy of further processing/thinking about. In business, it
takes the true meaning shown in the diagram.

The major ingredient in achieving knowledge however is the organization or
the institutional framework that integrates users or data generators into
the ICT infrastructure. 

Until the conceptual layer of AKN is made available, I will allow my
thinking to wander and conclude that AKN’s mandate is one of creating the
integration layer. Their contribution is definitely called for, but it would
make little sense to declare themselves a new recipe and create telecentres
with doors facing north, just because those created by telecentre.org face
south. It would not make much sense no matter how many millions are voted in
their budget.

Methinks that whatever is coming out of this forum is good for all of us and
that there is need to look at what others have done and integrate their
thinking into what AKN promises to its beneficiaries and that the picture is
bigger than they had earlier cast it. We are more than the group that was
listed by Sulah and would like to get more information than they seem to
have derived from the two workshops already had. 

Francis, there was a network link that Gerhard promised to link this
initiative to, in Europe which would be good to follow up. Kindly pursue it
so that we can help with more input to augment what UNECA wants to bring to
their framework.

Any forum that adds new knowledge is valuable, including this mail exchange.

Please lets keep discussing and sharing.

Kiringai

-----Original Message-----
From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of Pete Cranston
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 12:58 PM
To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar es
salaam|Strategy

Hi

Thanks everyone for this rich and interesting exchange. I have been reading

the Project Document and want to comment for two reasons:

1. Learning: people have suggested AKN could benfit from the learning from

our experience with OKN that could be useful. I have promised to dig out

learning reports, which I will do. Some of our work on content for

telecentre.org might also be useful. Specifically here I try and share some

learning about global vs. local

2. Local Content: as I announced on this list some time ago Peter Ballantyne

and I are doing some research into what is happening with Local Content in

Eastern (and, to some extent Southern) Africa since we both worked in the

area with OKN, IICD and telecentre.org. We are planning a small workshop

later this year, probably in Brussels in October, to try and bring together

people working in the area, international NGOs and funders to discuss how to

promote and extend the work since it is still a crucial part of development.

I am contacting people who have replied to our first call about how we can

organise that workshop and who is interested in taking the work further. We

are sharing information using the low bandwidth blogging platform, Maneno -

http://communitycontent.maneno.org. It is about content that I have some

questions.

First, though, I hope the programme is a success. Any new investment in the

ICT4D in general and telecentres in particular has to be a good thing and

$1m isn't a small amount of money, even spread across the ECA, ECE, ECLAC,

and ESCAP region over three years. From the names that I recognise at the

Africa planning meeting I think there is as much wisdom within that group

about these issues as in any other group on the planet. Certainly there is

little I could add to that collection of brains and experience, a great

resource for the project managers. It's true that a lot of the language of

the project seems very familiar from similar projects over the years, but

then the world hasn't changed all that much either: people face the same

problems - in some cases worse - and although projects like telecentre.org

have done wonderful work there is no shortage of work that still needs to be

done. I've cooked lots of meals for my family but I still learn from new

recipes.

Personally, I found it hard to understand what the project document is

saying about content and knowledge management. 'Knowledge' is in headlines,

but how people in communities will get involved in learning new things, or

in sharing what they know isn't exactly clear. One of the core building

blocks in the problem tree says, "Low capabilities of disadvantaged

communities in accessing, adapting and utilizing knowledge". It doesn't

specify whose knowledge is being talked about but a lot of the language, as

Polly says, is about global knowledge networking which was *by far* the

least successful part of OKN. 

MOre promisingly the document says, " Knowledge hubs will act as

intermediary stations between the local communities and the global knowledge

networks. Knowledge hubs will be localizing knowledge gained from peer ICT

access points, including those in other regions fitting the specificity of

the localities they are serving, while they will also contribute to creating

knowledge by providing experiences gained from the local community to the

benefit of the global networks at large."

But then, " The project is mainly concerned with identifying and

implementing solutions that aggregate fragmented knowledge that is useful to

different disadvantaged  communities, and providing solutions that increase

utilization of this aggregated knowledge." As Polly says, we found that

external knowledge, especially from other parts of the globe, or even region

- doesn't translate easily - in terms of language, format, context and

relevance - to specific communities.  The document suggests there is a "a

common (global) pool of knowledge for each priority area" but our experience

was this may be true at a specialist level - doctors and nurses, academics

and agricultural specialist, physics teachers - but not at a village, or

community level. Is this a network to connect specialists, who can be

intermediaries? That would be useful, but it's not clear to me if that is

the target group since 'communities' are mentioned a lot.

A problem is for me that the process relating to knowledge, content and

learning is simply captured in an arrow called, "Transformation Process". A

possible source of the confusion is that the document sometimes treats

knowledge as if it is something that can be packaged and shared like

pictures or music. This was one of our *fundamental errrors* in OKN (by

'our' I mean the global team, not the people in African partner

organisations). In fact our experience reinforced what we should have

remembered, that learning is a social process. Making information accessible

is only the first step in that process. Further, in terms of knowledge

transfer - which to me means learning - from outside a community, a trusted

intermediary is vital. Our resources were spread too thin - we were also a

project that was sold as global - to focus enough on this area. 

It has been very interesting to talk again to Peter Balaba in Nakeseke and

Joseph Sekiku in FADECO about the way that they, like many others, use all

their media channels (radio, internet, print) to circulate local knowledge

through their community audiences. It is that process of engaging with

people, capturing what they know and do, sharing that with people who are

close enough to trust the sources - and sometimes passing on to the outside

especially useful ideas  - that I think is at the core of learning and

knowledge. But it is an expensive, long-term, people-based process so hard

to persuade funders to resource and even harder to finance through business

models built on providing information and entertainment services to paying

customers.

I think it's an ambitious project which raises some questions, especially

the AKN aim of "Transforming selected ICT access points into knowledge hubs

of the global knowledge platform, providing, developing, organizing, sharing

and disseminating knowledge pertinent to these communities". and especially

what will be measured in the indicator, "Number of transformed ICT access

points into knowledge hubs" at evaluation time. I'd love to learn more:

* What does the team understand by knowledge, and what role do they see for

local content? 

* Will the project support the people-based social processes that make up

knowledge transfer, or learning, and if so how? 

* How will the project identify the point at which an access point becomes a

knowledge hub? Will it be through having physical and electronic resources

in place - which a lot of places already have - or will it be more ambitious

and try to assess how effectively the hub supports the learning processes -

and if so, how? 

* Finally, who is the project targetting?

I think the proposal confirms, if it still needed confirming, that shared

access to digital resources through telecentres of one kind or another is

seen as a key tool in development. I wish everyone in the project all the

luck in the world and look forward to learning from your experiences.

Best wishes

Pete

Pete Cranston

skype: petecranston

mobile: +44 (0)7917 390133 

Pete Cranston

skype: petecranston

mobile: +44 (0)7917 390133 

-----Original Message-----

From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org

[mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of NKURUNZIZA Jean

Paul

Sent: 10 July 2009 11:26

To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org

Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar es salaam

|Strategy

Hello all !

The discussions going on about the AKN is really interesting !

My suggestion is that online discussion throught a mailing list is conducted

before physical meetings for next events related to AKN.

I just want to emphasize on one aspect of the project strategy  :"

Avoiding overlap and duplication". I can read this statement on the point

6 entitled :" Implementing the Regional Knowledge Network", in the second

subpoint entitled : "6.2. Partnerships". This is found in the draft of the

regional strategy document.

So yes, this  project from UNECA will learn from other simular projects, and

will partner with other organizations involved in the same area.

I even remember that one participant raised the OKN experience to be taken

into consideration in addition to others like telecentre.org.

I hope final documents will be shared soon by the UNECA team .

Meanwhile, there I can see there is an interesting document about the

projecton this link :

http://knowledgenets.net/images/Documents/project%20document.pdf

Sincerely

> Hi Sulah,

> Just a mixer of Rosaline SATNET Zimbabwe. It should read SATNET, Zambia.

> Rosaline comes from SAFIRE, Zimbabwe,

>  

> Thanks

> 

> 

> Dean Mulozi,

> ZAA-ICT/SATNET Regional Facilitator,

> Private Bag 195x Ridgeway,

> Lusaka,

> Zambia.

> 

> Mobile:                  260 978 034196

> 

> 

> --- On Thu, 7/9/09, Polly Gaster <polly.gaster at uem.mz> wrote:

> 

> 

> From: Polly Gaster <polly.gaster at uem.mz>

> Subject: Re: [UgaBYTES] AFRICA KOWLEDGE NETWORK launched in Dar es

> salaam

> |Strategy

> To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org

> Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 4:58 AM

> 

> 

> Dear Paul

> 

> Thanks for the info. And Sulah also helped to clarify some questions.

> 

> Just one clarification from my point of view - my initial fear was

> that in the first place this new project would NOT reap important

> lessons from previous experiences such as OKN, which is already closed

> down as an international project but left some seeds behind, as

> Gladman knows. And not a fear of "competition" as such but yes, a

> concern about possible failure to benefit from and collaborate with

> and strengthen what little already exists on the ground. I have seen

> this very often, as Kiringai mentioned - too often institutions want

> their own "branding" and visibility in preference to synergies, and

> doing things in parallel (duplicating) means higher costs, and creates

> confusion at local level, where (in Mozambique at least) the human

> resources are not so many and it tends to be the same people doing

> everything anyway. Hence my initial short question, which has provoked

> such an interesting exchange of views.

> 

> But in general, of course, the more things that are happening the

> better, and any organisation should feel free to work directly with

> any community initiative on the ground so long as it is bringing

> strength in some way and not exploiting. I don't think anyone who has

> commented so far has been worried about duplicating networks as such,

> which will live or die according to how useful they are, it's the

> local impact that matters.

> 

> I guess the general concern emerging from the list is precisely

> wanting to be sure that the AKN has been thought through and has

> learned from so much that has already been done or attempted in this

> area. I find that institutions, even governments, when something isn't

> working often just abandon it and set up something else, without ever

> sitting down and learning the hard lessons.

> 

>>From our own small OKN experience I wd point out 3 things:

> a) we used existing telecentres/CMCs/community radios as a base for

> OKN activities rather than setting up something separate, hoping that

> this strategy wd be mutually beneficial and good for the community,

> which I think it was. And also gave a better chance of sustainability,

> and continuation "post-project".

> b) the language issue drastically reduced the possibilities of sharing

> locally produced content - in our case not only the fact of having

> many national languages, but even our official language of Portuguese

> doesn't exactly help!

> c) we found on a study visit to India, as well as experiences with

> Latin America, that it's impossible to generalise strategies from

> continent to continent, as the contexts are so very different.

> 

> Hope this is a helpful contribution. But I would still like the AKN

> strategy to be shared more widely, to see if there is anything that we

> can learn or benefit from. I am always curious!

> 

> Polly

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> ----

> 

> Polly Gaster

> TICs para Desenvolvimento/ICT4D

> Centro de Informatica da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (CIUEM) Campus

> Universitario, Maputo, Mozambique

> e-mail: polly.gaster at uem.mz

> cel:

> 

> 

> 

> _______________________________________________

> ugabytes mailing list

> ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org

> http://lists.ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_lists.ugabytes.org

> 

--

NKURUNZIZA Jean Paul

Président du Réseau des Télécentres Communautaires  du Burundi Secrétaire

Général de BYTC B.P 7031 BUJUMBURA BURUNDI

Tél: 00257 22 21 96 45

Tél Mob : 00257 76 60 49 46/00257 79 981 459 Fax : 00257 212485 ou 00257

222147 E.Mail : nkurunziza at bytc.bi ou

         jnkurunz at hotmail.com

Site web : http://www.bytc.bi

_______________________________________________

ugabytes mailing list

ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org

http://lists.ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_lists.ugabytes.org

_______________________________________________

ugabytes mailing list

ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org

http://lists.ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_lists.ugabytes.org