24710 The Newsletter of the infoDevCommunity infiLDev Issue 1 2, April-June 2002 LerigLssn rmexchnange Learning Lessons from Carlos Braga on the ICT Stories Development Gateway In this Issue: IICD and infoDev host the Stories After leaving his position as Why Software Should Be Free: project, an initiative aimed at shar- infoDev Manager in June 2001, 1n InterviewWith Richard Stallman ing knowledge and lessons leamed Carlos Braga joined the Develop- i on how ICT can help fight poverty ment Gateway as its Director. Lhe n L F T $tordes and promote economic and social Development Gateway Founda- development. Every year an inter- hon is a not-for-profit organization Carlos Braga on the Development nationally acclaimed ICT Stories whose objectives are to reduce pov- IGateway Foundation juryselectsthewinningstoriesfrom erty and support sustainable de- ! a growing database. The winning velopment through the use of in- :Surfing the Web Faster stories are then officially presented _- __ __ _ _ to the international community on Why S the occasion ofamajor intemational Why Softare Should conference. This year the four win- ,l Be Free ning stories were presented during Richard Stallman is the the INET conference in Washing- . founder of the Free Software ton DC in June 2002. The four win- movement, started in 1984 as a ning stories were also presented at reaction to the restrictions im- the World Bank, during a seminar posed by the software indus- organized by infoDev. Unt try. The ethics of Free Software This year's winning stories are on is based on the belief that soft- an Internet initiative carried out ware users should be free to through a community radio in change and redistribute the Nepal; an e-commerce initiative formation and communication software they use. thriving in Kenya; a project con- technologies (ICT). In an interview with the eX- necting villages in India through a In this interview with the eX- change, Richard Stallman selfsustainable fianchising scheme; change, Carlos tells us about the shares his views about the eth- and a project supporting network- creation and the future activities ics of free software, and dis- ingamonggrassrootorganizations of the Development Gateway cusses what free software can in Africa. Foundation. do for development. Continues on page 8 Continues on page 12 Continues on page 2 "infoDev promotes innovative projects on the use of information and communication technologies for economic and social development, with a special emphasis on the- needs of the poor in developing economies." in/,leL)cv eXchange April-June 2002 V ttJh y SoP Av:q'1,: r-- ? !j2<,.'i Qj| Ih (J Ubj |i~ d An Interview with Richard Stallman Richard Stallman is the founder of the Free Software movement, my project, but the lab at the started in 1984 as a reaction to the restrictions imposed by the software MIT where I used to work let industry. The ethics of Free Software is based on the belief that me keep using one of their com- software users should befree to change and redistribute the software puters to do this work. I start- they use. ed writing pieces of the GNU In this interview with the eXchange, Richard Stallman shares his system, and then other people views about the ethics offree software, and discusses whatfree software started helping. They found can do for development. computers wherever, they joined individually, and the network worked well, after all. What was the origin of the Free with each other when they want Software movement and how has to, when they are not individu- And what happened to the Free it evolved? ally imprisoned in solitary con- Software movement then? finement. Around 1983 I was in a situ- The obstacle was that at that A number of different ation where the only future I time all operating systems were things, as you could imagine. could see in front of me was one proprietary. There was no way We achieved our initial goal of of using proprietary software you could use a computer using having completed the operat- and having to sign a non-disclo- free software, because you had ing systems, so that computers sure agreement to get a copy. It to have an operating system. So, could be used without having was even harder to get permis- from the very first step you had to put any proprietary software sion to work on improving the to do something wrong, you on them. operating system. I was an op- had to get involved in refusing Another success was [that] erating system developer; im- to share with people. Our only we had a lot of users. Then we proving operating systems was solution was to develop anoth- discovered, by surprise, that just what I loved to do, and was er operating system that would free software was technically my field. In order to be able to be free. This alternative would superior to the non-free alter- do it, I [would have] to promise give people the chance to use natives, since the users helped to lock up my knowledge and computers without promising improve it and make it suitable refuse to share it with other peo- they wouldn't help their neigh- for their needs. This had both ple. My conscience revolted at bors. good and bad effects. We had that idea. lots of users, which in one sense The only thing I could do was What was the main challenge you looks like success; but it also to make an alternative, so I had to face at that time? brought many users to chose us started the Free Software move- just because the software ment. I wanted to be able, once At the beginning I was writ- doesn't crash. again, to use computers as part ing software by myself-I just The result is that our values of a community where people needed the computer to use. I are getting forgotten. Many have the freedom to cooperate quit my job at the MIT to start [users] don't even recognize 'finL)ev eXchange April-June 2002 there is an issue of freedom at "Linux", and the result is many some people who are linked stake here. They don't know people think that Linus Torval- with it participated. that there is a freedom that they ds started the whole thing. could choose to keep or to give Now, this could be annoying There are certainly several alter- up. So that's the big problem for us, but perhaps [it] would natives or avenues. Why didyou we face now, relating our in- be no more than annoying, if choose to work with systems like tentions to people using our soft- Linus Torvalds shared our same Unix? ware. philosophy. He does not; he has There's something more at different views. I did not choose to work with stake here than just having We did this for freedom. We Unix; I chose to make a compat- powerful reliable software. did this to give computer users ible replacement for Unix. Unix There's an issue of ethics. There the freedom to cooperate, to to us was unacceptable because is an issue of domination ver- help themselves and help each it is not free software, but the sus subjugation of people. other. For us this is a political design of Unix was a good one When a software developer issue; computer users deserve to follow, because Unix was makes every user promise not this freedom; we wanted to portable. I knew it would take to share with anybody else, all make it possible for computer years before we could have an the users are in a solitary con- users to have this freedom. entire operating system devel- finement, they are unable to Linus Torvalds doesn't share oped, and I didn't know in that cooperate. our views. He's entitled to have time which computers that his own views, but we want our were being developed would How does GNU relate to Linux? work to go to the credit of the become popular. What is the difference between views that motivated us to do If I developed a non-porta- 'Open Source Software' and 'Free our work. People think that ble system, designed to one par- Software'? "Linux" system was ticular kind of computer, may- developed because Linus be by the time I had finished When I launched the devel- Torvalds wanted to leam about that computer would be obso- opment of this operating system kernels. They don't realize that lete and the whole thing would in 1984, I called it GNU. In this was the result of an idealis- be worthless. So we had to 1991 the system was mostly tic political movement that had make a portable system. ready, that is, most of the piec- been working for many years At that time the technology es were ready. One important before Linus Torvalds got in- for developing portable systems piece was missing: the kernel. volved. was rather new, and Unix was At that point, just as we were The right way to call this sys- the only successful one. I sup- starting the kernel, Linus Tor- tem is GNU/Linux, because it's pose there were others than that, valds wrote a kernel also. He a combination of GNU and but Unix was the one which re- got his kernel working sooner, Linux. ally had a user base, that had a and he gave it the name Linux. The Free Software movement design that did work. Unix also He made it free software using organized and developed this had a few good ideas, but that the GNU General Public system for ethical reasons. The was a secondary consideration. License. At that point, peo- term Open Source was coined We liked the hope that we could ple put together the GNU sys- [subsequently] in 1998, and it make a portable system that tem and Linux to make a com- was employed by people specif- way. This concept of compati- 3 plete system. Although this sys- ically to avoid talking about our bility with Unix was important tem is much more GNU than it ethical principles. It was not the because Unix users could easily is Linux, somehow the error Open Source movement that switch. Users don't like to have caught on of calling the system developed this system, although to face many changes. Had we infriDev eXchange April-June 2002 made a system that was not later, but for several years trying to put computers into compatible with some popular now there have been major schools to encourage comput- system, we would probably contributions coming from er literacy. If you did this us- have few users. Brazil. A University in Brazil ing Windows and other pro- just developed a free software prietary software, you would How do you see the response to package for running a univer- have to spend a couple of the free software movement in sity's library, which is a very thousand dollars per comput- developing countries? nice thing to have. er. But if you are using the There are free software de- GNU/Linux system, you can It varies tremendously velopers in India as well, de- just make copies yourself and from country to country. In veloping significant packages. pass them around to every some countries there are peo- There is someone developing school. You can also tell the ple who resonate with the idea a workflow package, for in- students, "if you like the soft- of freedom, and of winning stance. They want to make a ware, take a copy home". their independence from those business of adapting this People don't have to do this who dominate them. In other workflow package to the kind of sharing underground, countries people only think needs of various offices; they in fear of the information po- about how much money they say "OK, we will configure lice; they can openly share can make. The most positive this for you and then you'll with each other. This has tre- responses that I found have have total control over every- mendous benefits. Schools can been in Brazil, and with some thing." put in more computers under extents in other parts of Latin a certain budget available. America, and in India. In Bra- Mhat is the impact of Free Soft- Instead of spending one-third zil I see many people who re- ware in developing countries? on computer hardware and ally understand that is not just two-thirds on software licens- an issue of price. The most important reason es, they can spend all that on As regards India, they why software should be free computer hardware. Our soft- make a connection between is for the sake of users' free- ware tends to be more efficient this and other social move- dom and their way of life. too, so they can maybe get ments that still resonate in that You shouldn't be told that you smaller computers, or older, country. could have this information cheaper computers. They can I also start seeing a South- but you can't share it. go to companies and say, South cooperation, for in- Onesecondaryeffectofhav- "Can we buy from you the stance between people in Bra- ing the freedom to study, mod- computers you are replacing?" zil and people in Argentina. ify and redistribute software is and they can install them. So There are some people trying that, if you are an organiza- there can be tremendous sav- to make broader contacts. tion in a poor country, you ings. The free software movement is can redistribute copies around That doesn't even end global, and as soon as we have to lots of people, to all the there. If the students go to a package, people will around branches of your organization. school and they learn to use the world will use it. There Using proprietary software the typical proprietary soft- were people in several conti- this cannot be done without ware, they are going to be nents working on GNU in the paying out a large amount of needing that [afterwards]. It mid eighties, especially from hard currency to very rich becomes a terrible bind, and Australia, Japan, and Europe. companies in other countries. they know they cannot afford The involvement from Suppose you are a school it. So they either end up not South Americans came a bit system in India and you are using computers, or they copy ;~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------ ---- ----- htfiVDcv eXchange April-June 2002 it illegally, in which case they developer was not by writing thefree software community, and have to live in constant fear of an entire operating system to help transfer the benefits of the information police. In Ar- myself, because at the begin- free software to developing coun- gentina, the equivalent of the ning I couldn't possibly have tries? Business Software Alliance done that. What the beginner The most important thing to sent out a mass mailing sug- can do is take an existing large do is show decision makers gesting that if they used unau- program, figure it out, or fig- the benefits of free software, thorized copies they would ure out part of it, and then and the trap proprietary soft- end up getting raped in pris- add new features to it, and ware can represent for their on. That shows that they will new features can be fairly country. stop at nothing. small, especially compared Secondly, when they look Proprietary software com- with the initial program. In around and see what can be panies squeeze money out of this way you can gradually done with the existing free people who can't afford any- learn how to do these jobs software, if they see that with thing. So the schools, by mak- well, and you can undertake free software they can do nine- ing this decision between pro- bigger jobs. ty percent of what they need, prietary software and free soft- Allowing students to do and there's a gap of ten per- ware, are also deciding wheth- this is absolutely essential. cent, you could provide fund- er to The great thing about free ing to develop the free software direct their whole society software is that if you put this for that ten percent. Once into a rut which is deeper and in front of everybody and say, developed, all such projects deeper and more painful every "If you want to tinker with it, will be able to be used right year. If they send people to- tinker with it", you don't even away in other countries. You wards free software they are have to work hard, you don't could also encourage them, sending their country towards have to give classes in when they're getting your independence, towards a kind it. Some of the people will funding for a project, to make of IT development that they figure it out. it a free software-based can sustain, that will tend to Do you know of any countries project, so that whenever any encourage the development of that arefollowing this approach? software be developed it can local skills and talents. In Rio Grande do Sul, in be available for other projects. There is another benefit of Brazil, they are planning to free software, specifically in put GNU/Linux machines in There is an increasing pressure education. In any school they front of a million school chil- in countries about intellectual are going to have a certain dren this year. property and software develop- fraction of people who would How do you think the World ment. Mhat do you think about like to learn everything about Bank couldfacilitate the work of it? how the computer works in- side, and become system ad- . Let's not use the term "in- ministrators or software devel- . tellectual property", because opers. The way they get to . that is a term that encourages learn that is by doing it. ; y people to be biased, and sec- Free software encourages U . ondly it encourages broad sim- the students to learn every- k k plistic thinking. "Intellectual thing including by making im- property" isn't really any one provements. This is the way I thing, it's a catch-all for dis- learnt. The way I learnt to be t ¢. parate areas of law such as an excellent operating system copyright, patents, trade- 'I fbnLev eXchange April-june 2002 marks, trade secrets, and so it the development of some the program yourself, you can't on. If you try to think about kind of free software. One of get sued for that. With soft- "intellectual property", you them is the Digital Millenni- ware patents, you are in dan- can't even understand what um Copyright Act, that pro- ger all the time of getting sued these laws say, because you're hibits free software for sever- for writing a program yourself. looking at such a broad level al important jobs. So it should be made clear that you can't see anything One of them is playing a that operations that involve at anymore. movie on a DVD. We are not some point the computational Not only that, but you can't allowed in the U.S. to distrib- display of data are not in them- even see the public policy is- ute free software that can selves patentable. The physi- sues, because those issues arise save a movie that you could cal processes that you might from the details of what copy- use to play a DVD that you happen to implement using a right or patent law restricts. have bought. It's legal for you computer system could be pat- The public policy issues that I to play that DVD, but we're entable as physical processes, see are completely different not allowed to give you free but the computing and dis- (for copyrights and for pat- software to do it. [See playing of the data should not ents); they come from the in- www.digitalspeech.org for be patentable, and carrying out dividual specifics of those more information.] activities and communicating laws, which have nothing in Another kind of law that with people, and making deci- common. prohibits some free software sions based on data (if it's de- is what happens when cisions you're making), should How does the Free Software patent law is applied to soft- not be patentable. movement interact with regula- ware ideas. When there are There's then a third area: tors and policymakers? patents on software ideas, we the area of reverse engineering. free software developers run Nowadays, computer hard- ThefirstthingIwouldurge into the danger of getting ware manufacturers often them to do, most of all, is not sued for this or that little part refuse to publish the directions to adopt any regulatory of a program that we have to operate the hardware. They framework prohibiting us written. Without software sell you hardware and don't from developing free software. patents, typically if you write tell you We, of course, appreciate how to use it. Instead, they when governments help us to will offer you a non-free pro- pursue our activity. Govern- / 1 gram to run the hardware. We ments have historically been can't use that non-free pro- supporting the development . gram, since it's not free; if you or the use of knowledge: for - are using that, you are not us- example, scientific research. . ing free software anymore. We So it makes perfect sense want the right for free software for governments to provide re- to give commands to that search subsidies to develop , .- : hardware. In order to do that free software. However, the *1we need the specs for the hard- most important thing is not to -; ware. G adopt any laws that prohibit Some hardware developers the development of some kinds want to make it hard for us to of free software. find the specs. We ask them to The United States has two Richard Stallman is the founder cooperate - some cooperate, ___ kinds of laws now that prohib- of the Free Software movement but some refuse. ihzfLDev eXchange April-JuAne 2002 When they refuse, we have and any kind of non-disclosure ware because there is free mar- to try to figure out the specs agreement for it is void. ket for support. Everyone is free by experimenting with the Non-disclosure agreements to study how a program works, hardware, or by disassem- used be meant for small num- any programmer can learn bling their non-free programs, bers of people. When you have about it and then offer support and one way or another we a situation where a website is for a fee. Individual consultants figure out how to use this offering to the millions the pos- can do this, as well as business- piece of hardware and write sibility of learning important in- es. a free program to do it. formation under a non-disclo- sure agreement, you invite a sit- How do you envisage the future How do you deal with the issue uation where millions of people of the Free Software movement in of compatibility? know the information, and it's the market? not considered public knowl- We try very hard to work edge. We are not in a market. with compatibility. The main We're developing free soft- obstacle is when companies pre- What would be the solutions to ware that encourages people vent us from doing so. Mi- avoid the mistakes made in the to cooperate, because that crosoft is doing various things past? makes possible an ethical way to try to stop us from being com- of life. So this is not a mere patible with some of their inter- Most countries don't have business, and whom we are faces and formats. They do that software patents, so the impor- talking to is not a market. We in various ways. Sometimes by tant thing is they shouldn't are talking to citizens. We keeping details secret, so we adopt them. Most countries do encourage people to think as have to show how to figure not have something like the Dig- citizens, not as consumers or them out. Sometimes, using pat- ital Millennium Copyright Act, producers. There is something ents. but I should point out that the more important in life than Microsoftputtheirspecifica- WIPO Copyright Treaty is economics, and that's what tion on a website, but before something similar to the Digi- we are about, primarily. you're allowed to see it you tal Millennium Copyright Act. Unfortunately, I can't an- have to click 'yes' to a license So anl countries should refuse to swer your question, because that says you are not allowed sign the WIPO Copyright Trea- you are asking what is going to publish any of the details. ty, and it would be a good idea to happen in the future and I Which means, for instance, that to form a counter-treaty, in don't know. We are in a po- you're not allowed to write a which countries commit to each litical battle, a battle for free- free program to communicate other that they will not sign the dom versus a state of domina- using that specification, be- WIPOCopyrightTreaty. Coun- tion, and none knows who is cause that would constitute tries have to start uniting going to win. I hope that we publishing the details. This is against U.S. pressure. win. one of the ways they try to pro- hibit free software. How do you see the role of the pri- Governments should adopt vate sector in usingfree software? To learn more about Free policies in which such licenses Software, please visit are not legally binding. They It makes sense for hardware www.gnu.org. Other thoughts, should say that if you are mak- companies to encourage free articles, songs, pictures, play- ing information available to mil- software. Companies that use ful anecdotes, and much more lions of people, potentially, then software can get tremendous by Richard Stallman are avail- it counts as public knowledge, benefits from using free soft- able at www.stallman.org. rn/DL)ov eXchange April-June 2002 -_arn j l' L . , -. -- r 'n infoDev and IICD in the Netherlands are host to the ICT Stories enhanced used-tire sandals, Project, an initiative promoting the sharing of stories on how ICTs can while learning basic computer, help fight poverty and promote economic and social development. This math and language skills as well year the international ICT Stories juny selected four winning stories as online marketing. Sandal-mak- from over 100 stories that were entered. The winning writers were ers earn a minimum of 30% of brought to Washington DC in June 2002 where they presented their profit on each sandal sale. As a stories to audiences during the INET 2002 conference and at the World single pair of sandal sells online Bank. for as much as 1600 shillings This year's winning stories include an internet radio program in ($20), 30% of profits makes a se- Nepal; an e-commerce initiative thriving in Kenya; a project connect- rious impact on the life of san- ing villages in India through a self sustainable franchising system; and dal-makers like Roselyne". a project supporting networking among NGOs in Africa. Ecosandals.com is one of the Competition 2002 winning sto- ries and was a finalist in 2001. Ecosandals.com sandals by recycling tires. In The story was written by Ms. Roselyne is one of the approx- 2001, the project went online. Becky Wachera, Executive Direc- imately 400,000 residents of Ko- Within a month of the tor of Ecosandals.com, and can rogocho, Kenya. Korogocho is Ecosandals.com launch, the Ko- be found on the Stories website known as one of the poorest ar- rogocho sandal-makers were re- (www.iicdorg/stories). It was pre- eas of Kenya, with high unem- ceiving orders from around the sented by Ms. Wachera and Mr. ployment rates, rampant vio- globe. The Project grew six-fold Matthew Meyer. lence, poor public services and and now employs nine young housing. Roselyne would wake mothers in addition to 18 young Connecting India Village by up each morning and set out in men, All sandal-makers have ac- Village search of some way to earn mon- cess to the Internet and are in- This winning story tells about ey. Like many of her Korogocho volved in directly marketing the the Drishtee initiative, which is peers, only on her luckiest days sandals to customers globally. bringing internet connectivity to would bring home as much as a As the manager of remote areas of India by the use dollar. Today, Roselyn is one of ecosandals.com points out, "the of a successful and self-sustain- the 27 employees of project addresses poverty using able business organization mod- Ecosandals.com (www.eco the Internet and the creative el. sandals.com), a rubber sandal hands and minds of some of the Drishtee (www.drishtee. com) is manufacturer, based in Korogo- most materially poor young a platform for rural networking cho. This job provides her with a adults on earth. The young adults and marketing services for en- steady income, as well as a train- all of whom have dropped out abling e-governance, education ing, computer literacy and a re- of school for lack of fees, would and health services. It is a state- liable working environment. otherwise spend much time pick- of-the-art software which facili- The project was started in ing through trash dumps seeking tates communication and infor- 1995 by an American and a Ken- anything of value. Instead, resi- mation interchange within a lo- yan, and was based on the idea dents who join the Project are put calized intranet between villages of producing high-quality rubber to work, developing and making and a district center. izxfoDev eXchange April-June 2002 A network of kiosks, serving and partnership model, Drishtee ubiquitous form of media. Radio villages or a group of villages, has is enabling the creation of ap- Sagarmatha is also the only sta- been established under the initia- proximately 50,000 Information tion in Asia bringing the Internet tive. Kiosks are owned by a local Kiosks all over India within a to the people through the radio. villager. span of six years. These kiosks "Taking the information re- As highlighted by the author would potentially serve a market source of the Internet to people of this story, "Village entrepre- of 500 million people, with ag- through radio was an idea that neurs are trained to handle user- gregate discretionary purchasing originated over cups of tea", ex- friendly software. The unit reve- power of Rs. 100 billion. To en- plains Gaurab Raj Upadhaya in nue earned by this kiosk owner hance the economical viability of his story. "With aim at provid- is a few cents per transaction, but the Kiosks, the Kiosk owners are ing newer means of information the volume of the operations and also given licenses to sell govern- to the public at large, the Inter- an intrinsic demand enable via- ment judicial stamps. Powers of net radio program was designed bility very early in the operation. petition writer are also delegat- to act as an interface between the This individual, educated to 10th ed to them. In less than two years, users and the Internet." Grade or above, becomes a role Drishtee has successfully demon- The first broadcast of the pro- model and a messenger of valu- strated its viability model in over gram was made in March 2000. able information for the villagers. 90 kiosks across five Indian states. The response from the public was With a minimum size of 800 fam- The story was written and so favorable that since then, the ilies as a prerequisite for a kiosk's presented by Mr. Satyan Mishra program is now broadcasted ev- viability, a total of 100 such kiosks of Drishtee and can be found on ery Friday, with a duration which or more can be successfully set the Stories website (www.iicd.org/ has increased from 15 to 30 min- up within an average Indian Dis- stories). utes. trict. A small fraction of the com- As Gaurab Raj Upadhaya re- bined total revenue of such cen- Marrying Radio with Internet marked, "In March 2000, we ters is enough to interest a local in Nepal started thinking about doing an businessman to act as a channel Radio Sagarmatha was the Information and Communica- partner and invest for the opera- first community FM radio station tion Technologies (ICT) show on tional cost at the outset. This part- in South Asia. Radio Sagarmatha the radio. Public radio was a new ner performs the role of a fran- is located in Nepal and is run by concept and there were no rules. chisee and adds value in scout- group of environmental journal- Jitendra Raut, senior producer at ing for kiosk owners, developing ists. In this country, both in ur- Sagarmatha at that time, liked the relations with District govern- ban and rural areas, radio is idea and immediately found a 15 ment, and maintaining the entire broadly considered the most minutes slot on Fridays. We network of operations within the named it "Sagannatha Site." district. " Initially, the Sagarmatha Site The project has been envis- . k program was composed of three aged to cater to social, economi- ' segments. It started with the cal and developmental needs of E "browsing on the radio" section, the villagers through an innova- .i . where generally a web-site was tive G2C (Government to Citizen) presented. The "Sabdartha" sec- model. The services it enables in- t .. lion (" meaning" in Nepali) fol- clude access to government pro- = . lowed, addressing specific re- grams and benefits, market relat- quests for information and hints ed information, and private in- about internet browsing. In the formation exchanges and trans- Gaurab Raj Upadhaya from Ra- third part of the program, an ex- actions. Using a tiered franchise dio Sagarmatha, Nepal perienced Internet user was gen- inbfD)cev e l : rngie April-June 2002 erally invited to talk about how ated to ensure that non-profit even those far enough along to to get valuable information from organizations throughout Africa, have their own Internet-connect- the Internet working mainly in human rights, ed computers, need quick access The program evolved with health and socio-economic devel- to their email mailbox when they several experiments, including opment in Africa, would have a are on the road or when the pow- live browsing of the Internet from presence on the web. Through an er goes out and they need to go the studio. The latest addition to efficient and simple online pro- to the cybercafe down the street. the program has been the radio cedure, organizations can re- In response to this need, we set quiz. This new slot in the pro- quest web space on the Kabissa up a comprehensive webmail gram is aimed at gauging the server, as well as email accounts. post office and a type of mail amount of listeners'participation. Kabissa also offers access to net server (IMAP) which allows "The effects of the radio quiz has resources via e-mail, as well a them to store their email in fold- been tremendous ", Gaurab Raj social justice newsletter delivered ers on the server." Upadhaya remarks. "The project on a weekly basis via email. Pam- The response to Kabissa has continues to evolve, and now a bazuka News provides African been considerable, taking into few friends have been regularly viewpoints on important advo- account that the organization contributing indirectly through cacy issues as well as direct, time- now serves over 300 members referrals and by sharing expertise. ly access to essential news and from 32 African countries. There When we started the program, information relevant to Africa - are currently 348 domains host- we had never thought it would complete with direct links to hun- ed on the Kabissa server, and 48 come so far. Yet, the definite re- dreds of online resources each publicly available mailing lists sult has been the proof of concept week. hosted on Kabissa (newsletters, Taking ICT to the people doesn't As Kim Lowery, the author of networks, discussion conferenc- necessarily mean that you need the Kabissa story, remarks, Afri- es, working groups). The Pamba- to put a computer in every vil- can non-profits also access the zuka Newsletter has over 7500 lage. What you actually need to Internet in a variety of creative subscribers. take is the information that can ways which Kabissa is in a posi- As Kim Lowerly explains, make a difference. ICT is not an tion to respond to. Fantsuam "At Kabissa, we don't pretend end in itself, rather it is a tool that Foundation, for example, has its to have all the answers. But needs to be adapted for local use. project in a village several hours there are thousands of organi- The radio show has proven this by bus from Abuja where power zations out there who, in their concept " and phone lines do not yet reach. own way, with their own ex- The story was written and They travel once a week to the pertise, are working to improve presented by Mr. Gaurab Raj British Council office in Abuja the lives of people in Africa. To- Upadhaya of Radio Sagarmartha where they collect their email and gether all these organizations can and can be found on the Stories copy it to a diskette to take with make an incredible impact. Our website (www.iicd.org/stories). them, and likewise send email job is to make sure that these or- messages they have prepared ganizations have the technology Kabissa - Space for Change in from a diskette they brought from at their fingertips to be as effec- Africa the village. Periodically, tive as possible so that they can Organizations throughout Fantsuam have their entire email get on with their work." Africa share very similar needs mailbox sent to them in the form The story was written by Ms. for affordable Internet services of Outlook Express folders Kim Lowery of Kabissa, and can and training on how to use com- burned onto a CDROM disk. This be found on the Stories website ! puters and the internet. Kabissa is a particularly motivated and (www.iicd.org/stories). It was pre- (www.kabissa.org), meaning inspired group of people - nev- sented by Ms. Lowery and Mr. "complete" in Kiswahili, was cre- ertheless all African non profits, Tobias Eigen. infolDev eXchange April-June 2002 Surfi n tpe Web Faster How fast is your internet access? You may not have the resources to up- weekends, but can also depend on grade the speed of your internet connection, but there are some simple ways the browsing habits of those you that you can surf the internetfaster if a slow connection is causingfiustration. share local bandwidth with. In this section of the eXchange, Pamela Street of infoDev shares some of her One way to determine if your tips on how to improve the pe0frmance of inter net connections, including in slow connection is local, regional, poor network enzironments. or global is byvisiting a usefulweb- site called the Internet Traffic Re- Turning Off Graphics tab look for the Mdlimed~" ~> port This website gives a real-time tab look for the " Multimedia" OP- index of how fast the internet is The first and simplest way is by tions. Here you can turn off imag- running globally and regionally. It changing the preference in your es "pictures" as well as other band- also provides a "Traffic Index" for web browser which will stop width busters such as animations, the past 24 hours so you can see graphics and other types of media sound,andvideos. Youcanalways current trends in traffic. The web- such as sound from beng down- turn these options back on as you site can be found at loaded when you visit a web page. need them as you are browsing by www.intemettrafficreport.com Graphics are the main reason why undoing the changes above. In Another interesting site is the web pages take a long time to Netscape, you can find the options Internet Weather Report download. By doing this, you will under the Preferences menu. www.internetweather.com. not view the page as the designer Look for the particularly inter- intended with pictures and logos, Surf When Others Aren't esting rotating world map, which but you will most likely get the text Another option, if your web shows global latencies, or delays in information you really need. access time is flexible, is to surf the internet traffic. To do this using Internet Explor- internet when web traffic is low- er, go to the Tools - Internet OP- est On average, this tends to be Web2Mail tions menu. On the "Advanced" duning the night-time hours and on Finally, if you need to get infor- mation from a specific web page, 1 SelectTcojsthen Internet Optilons 2 Then select tabs fi tle Options window and you have access to email, you -from Ithe Intcrnct Explorer nieiu - trn makevarious cisaltDes can get the webpage delivered to > ^ - * :., _ 3your mailbox using Web2mail --.;° E a = _ -;>-eil tEl4- ^r---rli>l;t,4l (www.web2mail.com). Web2mail '; D W f f i lEj 3 ,, > > ^; | - is a free service which delivers con- 0 b "o' 1 tentfromthewebtoyoubyemail, I li 11 ; * | N 11°r2n 1l -1--17wS- '' in HTML or in text formats, and ...... _ ... 3 t.^"4w=u . can include graphics by request. . .,... You can even do a search of the ;3 Sm^esr e dl, .ri El Enal X web by this email service. 2i E Ct L'll There are several popular ver- 9 SSL20 El 5L30 sions available in addition to o 0. .s encvwed te em. Ieme ced o Ue0° oce'tCt t.ngSttenodsi Web2mail, induding the Bellanet's - "~' 2~r ' t- Web-to Email (www.bellanetorg/ o.,Ce1' email.html) or Kabissa's server ZEZI 1 (www.kabissa.org/ members/ www4mail/). infi,o)cv eXchange April-June 2002 CXtY *1 jr;-ir---j< o.n the u t estvelo pmmen!_,3 F o u n CA After leaving his position as infoDev Manager in June 2001, Carlos 41 country gateways in different Braga joined the Development Gateway as its Director. The Develop- states of implementation, but this ment Gateway Foundation is a not-for-profit organization whose objec- network is certainly improving in tives are to reduce poverty and support sustainable development through terms of the quality of the. exper- the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). iments and is one of the areas we In this interview with the eXchange, Carlos tells us about the creation consider very promising for the and the future activities of the Development Gateway Foundation. future. WAhat is the level of consultation Exactly a year ago you left infoDev from the European Commission for the portal? to join the Development Gateway. and several other regional devel- What happened since then, and opment banks, such as EBRD, The gateway is a portal in the what is the status of the Develop- ADB, etcetera. sense that it points to several oth- ment Gateway today? So, there are new services, like er directions. We have roughly the DG Market, then there are about 100,000 visitor sessions at The Gateway, in terms of the services that were significantly this point in time, and it's grow- portal activity, has evolved signif- expanded, for instance the AIDA ing steadily.. More than a half a icantly, not only in getting new database, which is by now the million documents are down- partnerships but also in terms of largest database of development loaded every month, and what the amount of information, traf- projects in the world, with is particularly promising is the fic and interests, and particular- roughly 400,000 activities. This engagement of people in the com- ly new services. For instance, database gives you a good idea munities associated with the dif- every day on the DG Market, of what is going on, as well as ferent topics. Right now there are (www.dgmarket.org) which is the the history of bilateral and mul- more than 10,000 people around e-procurement component of the tilateral financing projects in de- the world registered with the Gateway, you can find 25,000 veloping countries. Last but not Gateway that receive on a daily procurement opportunities, es- least, in terms of the Country or on a weekly basis alerts about tablish a profile of your interests, Gateways, there has been a sig- new content that has been add- and request to be notified every nificant extension in cooperation ed to the gateway. time a procurement opportunity with infoDev. By now, there are involving those countries and WAhat is the user profile of the De- goods/services appears. In this velopment Gateway? sense, it is a very comprehensive ___ 1 2 platform for information and also One of the issues with respect for supporting business opportu- to this initiative is thatithas a very nities in the developing world. It DEVELOPMENT broad coverage. We have users covers not only World Bank pro- rG ATE WAIQV among the policy makers, from curement but also procurement '" '' I "v w development agency staff mem- 'ifiL)Dev eXchange April-June 2002 bers, who use the Gateway to ernments of Australia, Germany, which is the core activity of the obtain information on projects, Japan, Italy, and The Nether- Foundation. Second, the estab- and to download significant doc- lands, that made a contribution lishment of a network of research uments - be it on poverty, or e- on behalf of Mali, South Korea, and training centers. Two of them govermment - and so on. India, Pakistan and the World are already in the process of be- Private companies come spe- Bank group. In addition, there ing established. One is in India cifically to get information on are several other countries and and itis going to focus on research procurement information. organizations that have contrib- activities. The institution that has Agents active in the development uted at a lower level, companies been chosen to host the center is community come to get informa- like Softbank, Bloomberg, and the National Center of Software tion on projects. Students come Transnational Computer Tech- in Bangalore. The other center is to get information on statistics nology, and countries like Cana- going to be established in South and use the Gateway as in inter- da and Switzerland. Korea. The Korean Information face that facilitates access to crit- In this context, the Founda- Society Development Institute ical sources. The community is tion has raised roughly 52 million will host the activities, which in very wide. One of the issues we dollars, part of which are in-kind this case, will focus on training. have been focusing on is, not only contributions. The board of the We are now in discussions with on the usability of the Gateway Foundation has already con- Pakistan, that has also commit- (including the adoption of user- vened twice, and has elected Dr. ted to the Foundation, and will friendly interfaces) but also in Mamphela Ramphele as the pres- support a local research and terms of how to allow these dif- ident of the Foundation. The training center. We are in nego- ferent communities to identify in Foundation is now looking for a tiations with China, and hope a more effective way, how the CEO. John McArthur, the former that they will join the Foundation Gatewaycouldbecomemoreuse- dean of Harvard Business shortly. The third activity of the ful to them. We are also working School, is acting as interim CEO Foundation is the so-called ICT within the World Bank itself, to but we expect over the next three Forum. It is a 'think tank' capa- explore how the Gateway can months to identify a permanent bility of the Foundation which provide information for its staff CEO and then he/she will be in will become operational once the members involved in the prepa- the position to establish the Sec- CEO is chosen. The fourth activ- ration of Country Assistance retariat of the Foundation. Many ity will regard grants and invest- Strategies, etc. developments have taken place ments. The first round of grants over the last few months, for in- will be announced in May. Could you tell us about the Devel- stanice, the appointment of K.Y. opment Gateway Foundation? Amoako, the secretary general of As regards this grantfundingfacil- What are its activities, and who UNECA, as the chairman of the ity, how will it work, and wlhat kind are the supporters of the Founda- Editorial Committee of the Gate- of projects will be selected andfund- tion? way ( he also has a seat in the ed? board of the Foundation), and The Development Gateway decisions leading to the begin- The characteristic of this Foundation is a non-for-profit ning of new initiatives, for in- grants window of the Founda- organization incorporated in the stance, the first round of grants tion is that it will be very much District of Columbia. It now has the Foundation is going to pro- focused on activities that comple- 'founding members' which are vide focusing on country gate- ment the core activities of the governments and organizations ways. Foundation, meaning the portal that have committed at least five That's the structure of the and the research and training million dollars over a three-year Foundation. Its four main pro- centers. So in this sense, initially period, which includes the gov- grams are: First, the portal, atleast, the expectationisthatthe inIW>Lev eXchange April-June 2002 rounds of grants that the Foun- And what will tle average size of ties of the Gateway being a sup- dation is going to launch will be the grants be? port platform for courses that are focusing for instance on the im- conveyed through the GDLN plementation of country gate- The announcement, which teleconference facilities. Right ways. The division of labor with has not yet been released, opens now there is an experiment go- infoDev is that infoDev plays the the possibility for grants of up to ing on with respect to HIV/AIDS role - as it is the tradition for in- 250,000 dollars for this round. It mother-child transmission. The foDev - for the planning phase, may be bigger in the future. There course that is using the GDLN the innovative phase, when you is no limit at this point in time, facilities is being complemented are trying to establish the condi- but typically based on the busi- by website materials that are dis- tions for an initiative like a Coun- ness plans that we have received, seminated through the Gateway. try Gateway. The Development and the kind of resource require- We expect to expand this signifi- Gateway Foundation now enters ments that we understand our cantly starting from next fiscal to fund those that have passed typical country gateway has, we year, as the cooperation with cer- this phase in the implementation believe that this next round will tain donors, for instance Austra- phase. The expectation is that in probably see grants in the order lia, who have decided to put a the future, as the research and of magnitude between and lot of emphasis on e-learning in training centers become opera- 150,000-250,000 dollars range. its own country gateway, so we tional, ideas, courses, and content are exploring how to promote this that may be developed through How does the Development Gate- integration. With the Global De- the research and training centers way initiative interact with the velopment Network are not only going to be dissemi- World Bank ICT initiatives on the (www.gdn.org) for example, we nated though the portal but also one side, and with infoDev on the also have a partnership, in the may lead to additional projects other? sense that some of the agencies that once again can be funded that are members of the GDN through the grants of the Devel- In terms of the interaction play the role of a topic guide in opment Gateway Foundation. with infoDev, this has already the Gateway. One example is Here there is one difference been happening from the very GRADE (www.grade.org.pe), a which illustrates why infoDev beginning. infoDev has played a Peruvian institution, which is the operates in the broad space of critical role in supporting the topic guide for the topic of 'Pov- ICI for development and receives country gateways during their erty' on the Gateway and it is a all types of ideas in its core pro- planning phase. The expectation member of GDN, and the process gram, while the Gateway is fo- is that in the future this division of selection was made in cooper- cused on activities that comple- of labor - in terms of infoDev fo- ation with the GDN Secretariat. ment these core activities of the cusing on the planning grants, With respect to World Links for Foundation. and the Gateway focusing on the Development (WorLD), they are planning phase - may continue, the topic guide, in partnership So from time to time you will an- but there are many other possi- with the Commonwealth of nounce request for proposal with a bilities to be explored. Many of Learning, for the e-learning part- specific focus? the donors of the Foundation are nership of the Gateway. In this also donors of infoDev and there framework, we are now also ex- Yes, in May there will be an are obvious synergies to be ex- ploring synergies with the Afri- 1 4 announcement for Country plored. More broadly, the Gate- can Virtual University. We are Gateways implementation plans way works very closely with the creating the possibilities for the that builds upon the efforts that Global Development Learning platform to be used to advance were initiated through infoDev, Network (www.gdln.org) in the agendas of these initiatives. d through the planning grants. terms of exploring the possibili- The most important area for co- IInfbDev eXchange April-June 2002 operation, however, is exactly in the data that can be used to sup- port operational work. This is a The Development Gateway Launches work in progress, but it is a pri- the ICT for Development Topic Page ority for us. In cooperation with infoDev, the Development Gateway What are the challenges you con- initiative recently launched a topic section on ICT for De- sider 'crucial'for the Development velopment. The section offers a rich base of information Gateway's future success? resources targeted at the international development com- munity, particularly ICT project practitioners, policy mak- The challenges are many, ers, organizations and communities working on ICT for there is no doubt this is a very Development issues, and the donor community. The grow- dynamic field. The question of ing list of resources includes a broad set of documents on being relevant is always a chal- ICT programs and projects, lessons -learned, best practice lenge. The Gateway has some and case study reports, calendar of international events, unique offerings, like the AIDA interviews, news, statistics and data. database and the DG Market, Launched in April-2002, the topic page already has put the e-procurement component. together about 1,600 items and 900 subscribers. The integration of these unique The information is organized according to specific ar- offerings with content is what eas, including key issues, applications, developments by will make the experience more country or region, types of resources, and much more. The relevant from the clients' point page features knowledge bases and information on special of view. No doubt in the web areas of application such as education, agriculture, enter- area, for you to capture atten- prise development, environment, and health. It also shares tion, you not only have to add reports on regulatory issues, universal access, technology, relevant content, but you also national and regional initiatives, and funding opportuni- have to make a significant ef- ties. The page also includes the AIDA project database, fort in terms of marketing, and which covers over 5,500 ICT projects and initiatives being this is an area where we have carried out by a large number implementing agencies. just started. We are trying to get The project database is searchable by country, topic or additional partnerships with other customizable criteria. respect to content development, According to Rafael Hernandez, guide of the ICT for with different actors that are Development page, "the topic page is becoming a special- very active in this area, offering ized and very dynamic space for information sharing across information that is relevant for regions, countries, organizations and individuals on cur- development, and that is the rent and emerging ICT for Development issues which are main challenge for the next of particular relevance to developing countries. This is a year. So, in general, the main collaborative effort between several people and organiza- challenges are to improve the tions, and we are very glad to see a growing number of quality of the content that the visitors and organizations working on ICT issues, many of Gateway offers, to maintain the which have expressed their feedback as well as their inter- system's feasibility from the est in contributing with information resources". point of view of its cost and sus- Please visit the Development Gateway ICTfor Development tainability, and on top of all of page at: www.developmentgateway.com/node/133831/ this, to make the platform more relevant and better known around the world. i/nTL)ev eXchange April-June 2002 ... a global grant program man- Donors are governments, or advises the Donors' Committee aged by the World Bank on be- other public and private organiza- and the management of the pro- half of public and private Donors tions from developing and devel- gram. The World Bank contributes who support it. oped countries. Current donors to the program financially, and infoDev pools intellectual, are: provides logistical support and fa- technical and financial re- Government of Belgium cilities at the World Bank's Head- sources from public and private Government of Brazil quarters in Washington, DC. partners. It aims at reducing Government of Canada The most recent information on poverty through the use of ICT Cisco Sistems, USA infoDev can be found at in areas such as market devel- Colciencias, Colombia www.infodev.org, together with opment, education, health, gov- Government of Denmark links to infoDev projects. in- ernment, commerce and envi- Government of El Salvador foDev's site also gives access to ronmental protection. infoDev Commission of the European working papers and reports, promotes efficient markets in Union and other documents infoDev communications and informa- Government of Finland produces or collects, and tion infrastructure. It innovates GovemmentofFrance makes available as reference through small-scale projects GovernmentofGermany material to the infoDev commu- with a potential for replicabili- IBM Corporation, USA nity. ty; disseminates best practices, Government of Ireland infoDev participates in the lessons learned from its own Government of Italy Global Knowledge Partnership. activities and from other expe- Govemrnent of Japan riences relevant to the develop- Government of Luxembourg ment community; and supports Motorola Inc., USA special initiatives such as the Government of the Netherlands infoDev eXchange promoting a regional connec- GovemmentofSweden is published as a quarterly tivity, or helping address the GovernmentofSwitzerland electronic and printed newslet- millennium computing bug, or Telecom Italia S.p.A., Italy ter by infoDev, the Information Y2K problem. Government of the United King- for Development Program, infoDev provides a frame- dom hosted by the Global Informa- wnork forinitiating a rrange-of Governm ent of the United States tion and Communication Tech - work for initiating a range of Government of the United States nologies Department of the new development ideas to be of America World Bank Group. field-tested. Project proposals The World Bank. The Editorial Board of infoDev can be submitted by govern- AllDonorsaremembersofthe eXchange is chaired by the ment agencies, private compa- Donors' Committee, which gov- Program Manager of infoDev, Bruno Lanvin and includes the nies, academic institutions or eems the program and decides on. members of infoDev's Techni- non-governmental organiza- its strategy and overall orienta- cal Advisory Panel. tions. Since its creation at the tions. ICO Global Communica- For information on the Program end of 1995, infoDev has re- tions, who has co-financed an in- and on the contents of this 16 ceived 1145proposalsforprojects foDevproject,hasanobserversta- newsletter please contact the in all parts of the developing tus at the infoDev Donors' Com- Executive Editor, Ms. Elena world,209 of which have been mittee. A group of six intemation- 7331corvisitinfo,ev'swebsite i funded so far (excluding grants al independent experts, the in- (wqw.infodev.org). under the Y2K Initiative). foDev Technical Advisory Panel, - -