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

[Polly Gaster]

Hi again - wasn't going to say any more on this topic, but Shaddy's
contributions re OKN deserve some feedback. Basically to say that I am in
agreement re the primacy of local content and sharing - that's very much what
we tried to do in our Mozambique pilot (not totally successfully!), but I have
a feeling that it's pretty much what ALIN and SAFIRE and Enda were doing too,
to name but 3, and was very useful. Where we all came to grief was the
international using and sharing on the international network (eg the
Worldspace radio, which is a brilliant concept, but doesn't have a single
channel in Portuguese so was no good to us). This in response to Kiringai - I
think perhaps it was the weight and cost of the international sharing channels
that didn't produce enough cost-benefit or even social benefit. Pete (C!) may
not agree, and obviously knows much more than I do about OKN. 

I think in Asia it was easier to get economies of scale, and simply more
people in the local neighbourhoods, not to mention the basic questions of
quality of human resources available and connectivity infrastructures. And the
fact that where we visited Drishtee sites, there were even 4 online services
available that were in demand by the community - I remember farmers buying
insurance was one of them - in Mozambique at that time there wasn't even one!
In fact there hardly is even now.

But it does remain true that OKN did us all a service by opening the way and,
as I said right at the beginning, offering us lessons both "what to do" and
"what not to do". And reminds us that we should be cautious about offering to
change the world immediately through ICTs.

Polly

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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: +258-82-3264540
tel/fax: +258-21-485779
Skype: polly_gaster


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