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SANGOnet is an Information Communication Technology NGO in Southern Africa that promotes and support ICT projects in the region. They are currently setting up Citizen Journalism project with the aim of promoting the use of Web 2.0 by rural communities on issues of development. SANGOnet ICT Services Manager, Matthew de Gale explains how they are planning to make this project to provide communities with necessary skills and opportunities to utilize Web 2.0 to improve their lives.

Interviewee:Matthew de Gale ICT Services Manager SANGonet
Interviewer:Lillian Malete, Nkgowa Media

Amit Dasgupta is one of the few presenters at the Web2forDev Conference with a private sector background. Currently he is working for IBM India as General Manager in the Global Business Services division. At Tuesday, the first day of the Conference, Amit Dasgupta will do a presentation on practical examples of how knowledge sharing and collaborative efforts within key stakeholders and community members can be more effective using Web 2.0, to improve the richness of knowledge sharing applications for the agricultural sector.

Amit Dasgupta: “The thematic context of my presentation has no relation to the type work I usually do in IBM, although from a technological standpoint one could say it is linked with my work. I have chosen to talk about making existing knowledge sharing applications and collaboration attempts within rural communities much more effective by using Web 2.0 as I strongly believe Web 2.0 will be helpful to the agricultural community in India.”

“Web 2.0 offers so many compelling advantages compared to older technologies, that I foresee an extensive use of this new technology. In order to develop effective knowledge sharing applications for the agriculture sector for example, academic and research institutions, government agencies, NGOs, commercial organisations and users must collaborate since, integration of data from multiple sources is necessary to provide meaningful information and content. Moreover, dissemination of this knowledge is crucial for successful deployment of these applications. The challenges for geographically dispersed organisations working in different fields, to jointly work together to address the requirements for such solutions are real; but could be resolved by leveraging the Web 2.0 framework which facilitates collaborative development of functionally richer applications”.

“Through my presentation I hope to create a better awareness on how Web 2.0 can be harnessed to provide useful solutions for agricultural communities and emphasize the need for collaboration amongst key stakeholders. Use of technology and collaboration are both essential, to develop applications that would make a significant impact on economically underprivileged farmers. I sincerely hope this conference will encourage government agencies, NGOs, research institutions and other organisations to set up collaborative working groups and use the power of Web 2.0, to make knowledge more accessible to rural people. Such initiatives would have a tremendous economic impact on agricultural communities – worldwide”.

I heard about this project from a blogger - White African and have been wondering why the view point seems to be rural and not developmental. Am just asking, or maybe I am getting it all wrong. There is the need for such (Web 2.0) projects in Africa and it is both nice and encouraging to know that there are Africans initiating such projects.

However, it is obvious that there are grave limitations that are hindering the progress of such projects. Personally, I think South Africa seems to be the leader when it comes to African Web 2.0 because of the rising implementation of Web 2.0 projects by South Africans, with the likes of Afrigator, Muti, Zoopy, Iblog and the like. As I said, it is encouraging that these projects are being implemented. They have one of the best internet infrastructures in Africa although they are definitely lagging behind the West and the US. I am Nigerian and currently run a web 2.0 project Meshedlinks. The greatest challenges from my little experience remains the availability of a solid Internet backbone in the country. To consider rural Internet coverage while the urban (developing community) areas remain poorly connected might not necessarily be the best step to take by the government (or whoever - investors or otherwise) to connect the developing communities.

The poor exist in both the urban and rural areas. And from this part of the world, if it comes to connectivity to the world (via the Internet) then the so-called “rural” communities have to constitute the urban and rural areas in my locale.

Hello Christian,

Many of your questions seem to be based on the premise that “web2.0″ is a single, identifiable phenomenon. In fact, it is many different things, though they all share some common features e.g. user-generated content.

With that caution in mind, please find below some brief answers to your questions:

Christian Kreutz (CK): What are the key challenges to be tackled for web2.0 for rural development?
Lawrence Agbemabiese (LA): In the short-term, poor rural connectivity and connectivity costs relative to average rural incomes. However, the technological and economic issue aside, I think the biggest potential challenge/threats will be legal in nature–things like copyright infringement battles with Microsoft, royalty rate increases (which for example recently caused the shut-down of last.fm, government control over content (like what YouTube seems to suffer constantly nowadays) etc..

CK: Is free and open source software the main driver for web2.0 technology?
LA: Yes, especially from the perspective of low-income developing country users.

CK: Does web2.0 is all about connecting people or does it really involve knowledge sharing?
LA: It is a lot more than connecting people. I think the most important potential value of web2.0 is “collective intelligence” although for this to be realized, a lot more work is needed on means to “filter” useful/relevant data from the junk.

CK: Is connectivity one of the main issues around web2fordev or only a shortterm challenge?
LA: Definitely short-term, I predict that 10 years from now the connectivity challenge–even at the most remote sites on earth–will be
history.

CK: How can developing countries realize their own web2.0 applications?
LA: Is this absolutely necessary?! One thing about web2.0 and the internet in general is that it offers at last the real opportunity for
collective intelligence to transcend national boundaries (and hopefully, one day language barriers as well…!). But anyway, there is already a lot of promising ‘developing country’ web2.0 applications starting to appear out there. Muti, for example is one, and there is also Afrigadget and a few others.

CK: Does the increase of social networks enhance potential for learning?
LA: Definitely.

Well those are my thoughts.

Cheers,
Lawrence

I really like the dropping knowledge initiative and think that through questions a lot can be expressed. The basic idea behind Dropping knowledge is that only by posing the right questions can a global conversation be started which can change the world to the better.

That’s why I want to start here with some questions, which can be discussed during the conference:

1. What are the key challenges to be tackled for web2.0 for rural development?
2. Is free and open source software the main driver for web2.0 technology?
3. Does web2.0 is all about connecting people or does it really involve knowledge sharing?
4. Is connectivity one of the main issues around web2fordev or only a shortterm challenge?
5. How can developing countries realize their own web2.0 applications?
6. Does the increase of social networks enhance potential for learning?
7. …

What are your answers? Do you have more questions?

Thanks in advance!