commonspace

Power (conscious) PC

Portland, OR, USA –  May 19, 2006: While I rarely get excited about new computer hardware, the release of Intel's new Community PC platform is worth noting. According to Tony Salvador, the genesis of this machine can be traced back to a simple question: "How can we give telecentres more up time so that they can serve more people, offer more services and generate more income?" The answer was to build a basic PC that addressed the constant challenges of power, dirt and heat faced by rural telecentres.

The most notable feature of the Community PC is its power system. It runs for up to 10 hours on an internal batter, and it can be recharged from a car battery or solar panel (or any other DC source). It also has heavy duty dirt filters and can operate at 45C. Otherwise, it's just a run of the mill PC. It just happens to stay running in tough telecentre environments when other PCs wouldn't. 

Salvador admits that this isn't revolutionary in its own right. Instead, he sees it as a catalytic addition to the ecosystem. "You don't really know what will happen, but you can guess that the extra computing time will change what telecentres do. What kinds of new services will telecentres develop if they can stay up all day when the kids are away at school? Will new people come to the centres? Will they generate more revenue? These are the things to be looking at once you see the Community PC getting out there."

Fellow travellers

Portland, OR, USA –  May 19, 2006: In my books, anyone with a slide bullet that reads: "find and work with fellow travelers" is worth paying attention to. Our new colleagues from Intel had just such a bullet.

Meddie and I went to Portland, Oregon last week to learn more about what Intel is doing in the emerging markets field. We met with people from two groups: John Sherry and Muki Hansteen Izora from the Health Research and Innovation and Tony Salvador and Mohammed Mohammed from the Emerging Markets Platform Group. All four are social scientists working on the research question: what will information technology do / mean / look like for the four billion people on the planet who have yet to touch a computer? Fun gig.

The technologies these folks are working on are compelling enough: community PCs; low cost long range wireless; rural healthcare tech. However, the much more interesting bit is their commitment to ecosystem thinking. They see Intel tech (or any tech) as a part of a rich, interconnected web of social, business and technical interests, and they design their research with this in mind. So, a new educational computing platform is only interesting and effective if you also think about application developers, skilled teachers, interconnected students, and so on.

This is exactly the same premise that telecentre.org is based on: we need to strengthen key pieces of the telecentre ecosystem if we want to see scalable, sustainable, transformative rural computing. While it's not yet clear how we work with Intel, the common philosophy means that interesting opportunities are sure to emerge. And so it should be when you're hanging with fellow travelers.

See also: Intel World Ahead initiative.

Around the world in 30 seconds

Redmond and Bellvue, WA, USA – May 16 - 18, 2006: Jumping from group to group at Microsoft's first ever Community Affairs Summit, I felt like had gone around the world in 30 seconds. The room was filled with people from every corner of the planet (okay, it was pointed out that there was no one from Antarctica) … and all of them were dedicated to rolling out Microsoft's Unlimited Potential program. 120 people in one room talking about how to do a better job of funding telecentres. That's my kind of party.

As I mingled, it was clear that Microsoft has built a tribe of people who 'get' telecentres. This is an impressive feat given the fact that their corporate giving was at one time fairly unfocused and scattershot. In a few short years, they have developed a clear program that zooms in on the telecentre (or community technology learning centre) space. Almost all of the people they have recruited to roll out this program understand both the potential of locally driven tech centres and the difficulties involved in making them work. These are passionate people who work with telecentre leaders and managers on a daily basis.

The 'network consciousness' of the group was another matter. Outside of the Microsoft people we are working with actively in South Asia, Africa and Latin America, few people really knew what telecentre.org was about. And, even fewer where thinking about their work within the context of the broader telecentre movement. I used my five minutes of fame on a plenary to address this, saying something like: "You need to think of yourselves as more than just community affairs managers. You need to be catalysts in the telecentre ecosystem. You need to be activists for the telecentre movement." I got alot of nods and smiles, and the conversations about networks and how they can help picked up steam from there. Nods and smiles are a good start. However, there is still alot more to be done to show people in Microsoft (and everywhere) how networks can plug into their work and amp up their impact.

PS. A side note of deep kudos to Ricardo Gomez: he proved to be a master facilitator of this passionate crowd, helping them to build relationships and sketch out a common future. Very well done.

P2P movement making

Colombo, Sri Lanka – May 8+9, 2006: Peer to peer. Partner to partner. People to people. We've built P2P thinking into the DNA telecentre.org program from the very beginning. The idea is simple: if you connect the right set of smart, passionate, creative people to each other, the task of amping up the telecentre movement will take care of itself.

This past week at the GKP meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on how this P2P strategy is unfolding. Some random but interesting data points:

Data point #1: the telecentre times. Ugabytes, D.net and Sarvodaya launched the Telecentre Times at GKP, a print newspaper for the telecentre movement. These three groups met and fell in love with each other at the telecentre leaders forum in Tunis. They met again in March to dream and ask: what next? Two months later, they have a newspaper in hand. While there is tons to improve, getting a print publication with articles from telecentre activists in eight countries out the door so quickly something these groups should be proud of. Even more impressive: friendship and a willingness to jump in head first provided the primary fuel for the Telecentre Times. The telecentre.org program and team played almost no role, just paying $1000 for the printing. For me, this is emergence in action.

 

Data point #2: Klaus and his corral. During the GKP open space session, ChasquiNet's Klaus Stoll convened a circle to talk about telecentre networks. Klaus opened by asking the people: if a global telecentre network were an animal, what would we want that animal to be? He then proceeded to draw a big white elephant on the flip chart (hmmm, was that a pot shot? :-)). The circle then had a chance to speak, with voices coming from Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Uganda. The response: trying to pack it all into one animal creates the elephant. You need an ecosystem with many unique, interconnected and interdependent animals. Listening intently Klaus seemed to have an epiphany. He turned the flip chart to a fresh page and drew a corral. It seems that the right P2P conversations can change the images we have in our minds, turning lumbering beasts into intricate collective organisms in the blink of an eye.

Data point #3: speedgeeks as social norm. On the second day of GKP, telecentre.org hosted a South Asia telecentres speedgeek where seven organizations explained their approach to grassroots computing. The content was compelling, for sure. But the process and energy were even more interesting from my side. On the upside of interesting: almost all of these groups had done speedgeeks before. They jumped in with almost no coaching and provided tight, compelling pitches that made lightbulbs pop for the people listening. Reshan Dewapura from ICTA was especially improved, having done his first geek only eight weeks earlier. On the downside: the lack of cognitive dissonance and struggle to keep up with the format lowered the energy quite a bit. The culture of P2P meetings is growing amongst the groups we are working with, which is a good thing. However, it's clear that we also need to switch things up a little to keep the energy high.

What to conclude? Nothing yet. But P2P thinking is definitely spreading and evolving amongst people across the telecentre movement. It's fascinating to be a part of it.

Why it's (net)working in Sri Lanka

Moratuwa, Sri Lanka – May 5+6, 2006: Last May, it became clear that Sri Lanka would be an excellent place to learn about building telecentre networks. The ingredients: small country; rapidly growing telecentre movement; supportive and active government ICT agency; NGO / government / private sector involvement in rural computing. And, as the mixing bowl: a desire amongst key players to collaborate.

One year in, we certainly are learning. The Sri Lanka telecentre family is amongst the fastest moving and most evolved of the projects supported by telecentre.org. Some quick observations what is feeding into this success so far:

• Commitment and vision from government: Manju Haththotuwa and his team at ICTA have offered their support for the network concept right from the beginning, which is no small matter given the fact that they also have the task of rolling 1000 telecentres on their shoulders. They have shown a real commitment to the partnership with Sarvodaya.
• Crossing boundaries at the grassroots: the bulk of the real partnership building, however, has been at the grassroots. Of the 150 people at this week's meeting, about 60% were ICTA telecentre operators, 30% Sarvodaya and 10% other programs. In the first meeting, it was the Sarvodaya people who were most active, most likely because they felt they were on home turf. This is now switch around, with the village level ICTA people having gained the confidence and experience to step forward to make up the majority of regional leaders for the telecentre family project.
• Participatory, grassroots events: telecentre.org is built on the principle that, if you want to build networks, you need events that allow people to build relationships and shape their own future. This means: circles of chairs, not rows; lots of small groups; everyone, including senior people and funders, participating as equals; mostly conversation, very little presentation. Sarvodaya's 50 years of running mass community organizing efforts makes it excellent at these sorts of events. However, it’s not that hard to pick up – any network should be able to run events like this.
• Emergence: beyond building social capital (aka network glue) these meetings use the collective intelligence of the group to surface new ideas and solutions in real time. Small groups working together come up with plans based on their daily experience, and they get integrated into where the whole network is going. Of course, Sarvodaya (and many others) has been doing this kind of thing long before Steven Johnson wrote a book called Emergence. Still, it's nice to have a single word to describe what we are going for: organic growth and evolution rather than detailed planning and engineering.
• Openness to ALL telecentre programs: it remains a bit of a push, but the principle that this network needs to actively engage people from ALL telecentre programs has been embedded in the Sri Lanka initiative from the beginning. Networks only work when they have this kind of openness. It's not about including all the 'right' organizations, but rather about porous boundaries that allow anyone to come easily in or out.
• Leadership: this is always a huge factor in anything like this. So, maybe that's not a learning in itself. Yet, the particular constellation of leadership is quite interesting. Professor V. Samaraynake – the chair of ICTA and father of rural computing in Sri Lanka – has acted as an inspirational force and also a steadfast supporter of the ICTA / Sarvodaya collaboration. Sarvodaya Deputy Executive Director Harsha Liyanage has provided the real time network strategy, mapping out the way to organize gathering and motivate grassroots leaders. And, Sarvodaya Social Empowerment Director Ravindra Ariyawickrama has provided quiet, detailed, hands on management of a team of almost 20 you people working to make these network events happen. With just one, it wouldn't work. Leadership on all three of these levels has been essential.

There is a great deal of richness in this learning, and in what has happened hear in Sri Lanka. The best news is that Harsha and Ravi are already starting to make connections with other networks supported through telecentre.org, swapping ideas on how to make networks succeed. So, some of these ingredients are already mixing into other networks, and other networks are adding ingredients to the Sri Lankan recipe. Note to self: the thing we need to do now is to start writing down these ideas as they are being shared.

Sarvodaya circles (again)

Moratuwa, Sri Lanka – May 5+6, 2006: Sarvodaya is an organization that has brought millions of Sri Lankans together over the past five decades, all against a background of conflict, religious differences and poverty. They know how to make a movement based on shared labour (shramadana) and common consciousness (sarvodaya). They know how to make a network.

Watching Sarvodaya use its community organizing talents to bring together a family of telecentre operators from across Sri Lanka continues to amaze me. The event over the past two days included 150 people from a variety of telecentre programs: ICTA Nanasala's and eLibraries; Sarvodaya telecentres and village information centres; Ministry of Agriculture rural knowledge centres; and even the UNESCO CMC in Kotmale. There were also people from all parts of the country and all religions, despite the flare up in conflict last week.

Through a series of participatory exercises, these people became more than just friends with common interests. They became a functioning network ready to get things done, together. Over the course of the event, they mapped out concrete plans for each of the three main areas of the telecentre family project: awareness raising and grassroots marketing; training for telecentre managers; development of services and quality standards for telecentres in 1000 villages across the country. And, they did this with passion, many staying up until 2am the first night preparing presentations their parts of the project.

What impressed me most was the outdoor closing circle, with everyone (including me and Shaddy) sitting on straw mats and sharing dreams for the telecentre family in 2010. This included a hilarious role play story showing national unity emerging from increased access to communications and knowledge. The circle also surfaced 30 people willing to lead regional telecentre family activities, all of them village level telecentre operators and 1/3 of them women. It was in this circle that I really felt the sense of family at its deepest, feeling that this network really has started to gel. As I have said before, Sarvodaya circles are powerful things.

Telecentre family gathering

Moratuwa, Sri Lanka – May 1, 2006: It's always inspiring to a family grow and evolve. This is exactly what I witnessed last night at the opening of the second Sri Lanka telecentre family workshop at Sarvodaya headquarters in Moratuwa.

A highlight: four young telecentre operators who won the 'best poster' contest from the last workshop making a presentation to remind us of the challenges we're trying to address together. The first of their two posters depict a village where people are unaware of the telecentre and afraid of the Internet. The second poster shows the telecentre operators working with the local Buddhist monks to explain the opportunities for learning and knowledge that the telecentre offers. 

Today, the family digs into the real meat of the matter: 180 village telecentre operators dreaming and planning how they will work together over the coming two years on raising awareness, building their skills and developing services to offer at the village level.

Training commons takes another step forward ...

Delhi, India – May 1, 2006: On Monday, the core group working on the Mission 2007 training commons project met in Delhi to move the project forward.

The idea behind the training commons is simple: develop a common curriculum for basic knowledge centre manager training while at the same time setting up an easy way for organizations working in the telecentre space to share / swap / sell more advanced training materials. The basic materials will cover topics like entrepreneurship, marketing, community development, content and services and computer training (free under creative commons). It's expected that the online system will cast a broader net, creating a bubbling bazaar of materials covering everything from how to sell insurance in your knowledge centre to setting up a rural outsourcing business to create local jobs (likely a mix of free and paid curriculum).

As first steps, the group agreed to jump into the development of a pilot module on entrepreneurship ... and possibly a 'knowledge centres 101' module. There will also be a move to quickly set up a system to research and share information on existing curriculum amongst the members of the training commons program. All of this should be done in time for the next Mission 2007 convention, which is scheduled for this coming July.

Organizations in training commons core group include Government of India's Department of Information Technology, GRASSO, IL+FS, NASSCOM Foundation and WorldCorps. Ambika Sharma, formerly of Winrock and Development Alternatives has joined as project coordinator.