Community Content Sharing: Towards Telecentre's Lab to Land Approach
Ganga Prasad G. L, Amitav Nath, Rakesh Mishra · International journal of education and development using information and communication technology · 2006
ABSTRACT Capturing and sharing of local content and keeping within the need of the community is an essential step towards people's participation the developmental process. Information Communication Technologies have tremendous potential to preserve and share indigenous knowledge, which can enhance people's opportunities and be a major source of empowerment especially for the socially and economically backward. This is an approach paper focussed on the process of socio-economic empowerment of rural communities by integrating responsive and localised Information Communication Technologies their lives. The methodology of lab to land adopted by the ICT RT ICT4D; Content Management System (CMS); Content Sharing; Community Development; ECKO; AFARM; Telecentre INTRODUCTION Information sharing and exchange as an ongoing process is the key to sustainable development at the grassroot level. This is largely achieved by encouraging a participatory approach among people and raising their awareness of the different activities within the community. The emergence of Information Communication Technology and access to electronic media has led to new possibilities development and dissemination of information. Technology plays a vital role development. But unfortunately, it is the rich that enjoy the benefits of technology. Some societies and some sections of society, advance faster than others and are categorized as the 'haves' and 'have-nots' depending upon their access to resources and their standard of living. This inequity is commonly known as the digital divide. Digital divide is not only limited to the availability and access to technology, but also concerns the issue of adaptability of technology to respond to the needs of diverse societies and people across the world. The digital divide brings problems for developing countries and cultural factors, local needs and language barriers compound these. ICTs for Development have emerged as ray of hope for those who were until now devoid of all the benefits of computer technology. It can have a dramatic impact on achieving specific social and economic development goals as well as play a key role the broader national development. The real benefits lie not the provision of technology per se, but rather its application to create powerful social and economic networks by dramatically improving communication and the exchange of information. ICTs are already being used effectively to directly address development goals. ICTs promise a society where there is free and faster exchange of information. They allow information to be transferred across distance without face-to-face contact. ICT innovations one sector will lead to development other sectors too as the process of development is interlinked and interconnected. The power of ICTs has reached the villages signaling a new dawn of an easier and faster communication access for the rural people (1). Rural Knowledge Connectivity is a new participatory interactive communication process fostered by putting rural communities themselves in the driving seat with facilitators taking the passenger seats. TAKING TECHNOLOGY TO PEOPLE - EXTENSION STRATEGY ICT Research and Training Centre (2) of Development Gateway Foundation (3) at CDAC Bangalore adopts a holistic and seamless approach translating enabled technologies into usable products. It identifies needs and requirements, carries out applied research and development, adapts, customizes and /or localizes suitable existing ICT solutions, pilots developed solutions, establishes support mechanisms for information dissemination and designs and delivers specialized training programs to enable use of solutions. …