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-----Original Message-----
From: "Onno W. Purbo" <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:47:21 
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Subject: [Telematika] Copy paper saya ke Journal ITID di MIT USA ..


Kebetulan teman-teman saya Prof. Michael Best, Prof. Randy Spence & IDRC
meminta saya untuk menulis paper untuk Journal ITID di MIT USA.
supaya bisa lebih bermanfaat saya attached manuscript paper
tersebut semoga bisa bermanfaat
- Onno




Women and Young Indonesian: Foundation of Cultural Change

Onno W. Purbo
Independent ICT Writer
Indonesia

Abstract

In this paper, will be focus on Indonesian experiences on community based 
ICT for Development. Started close to 20 years ago, we focus on physical 
infrastructure rely on community's own resources. Some of the innovation 
results are the neighborhood network using outdoor WiFi equipments, Tin 
Canntenna, Wajanbolic (a.k.a. Wokbolic) etc. At advanced level, Internet 
Telephony would be the main platform for Community based Telco. The 
piloting of People's Telco is currently supported by ISIF.

To create a fundamental cultural change in the Indonesian society, it 
seems we need to focus our empowerment activities on woman  and young 
Indonesians. As we lift the weakest point in the society, the whole 
society will be lifted. An early attempts, started in 1998, was done in a 
dozen Indonesian cities aiming for women empowerment as well as shift in 
ICT curriculum at schools. The activities are supported by State Ministry 
of Research and Technology, Ministry  of Information and Communication, 
State Ministry for Women Empowerment and HIVOS.

Empowerment and information / knowledge sharing seems to be the key in 
creating community movement that rely on own resources. Education, 
including informal education, would be the key.

The downside of the approach would be takes years, more than 10 years to 
see the results. It requires dedication of committed informal community 
leaders.

Early Attempt In Seeking Low Cost Internet Infrastructure

One of the favourite ICT4D story in Indonesia would be the liberation of 
2.4GHz band. It is a more than 12 years of process in empowering the 
communities through workshops, seminars, books, articles. However, the 
most important / key aspect would be the International acknowledgement and 
media coverage. As soon as, it gets internationally recognized it creates 
a huge pressure for pro-poor and pro-people policy within the country to 
change the regulation as it actually happened on 5 January 2005. For this, 
I would like to thank International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for 
their 'support' in getting international acknowledgement in World Summit 
on Information Society (WSIS) as well as many international workshops. [1]

Today, in 2010, the liberation of 2.4GHz has created large demand for low 
cost wireless equipments. It triggers the development of many local 
industries, including, antenna, access point, tower. As well as many local 
innovation, such as, the Wajanbolic (a.k.a. Wokbolic) [2]. Wajanbolic is a 
simple WiFi client using Wok to increase the WiFi signal reception gain. 
It enables one to access the Internet by using a US$35 equipment.

Interestingly, in early 2009, the Indonesian government has declared a 
class licensed for 5.8 GHz. Thus, anyone may freely use 5.8GHz without 
license in Indonesia. [3]

In addition, several Linux Distro for education based on Ubuntu is written 
and freely downloadable, namely, Distro SchoolOnffLine [4], SekolahNux 
[5], IPTEKNux [6], GoonDo. SchoolOnffLine is equipped with Moodle, 
MediaWiki, Wordpress enable schools to deliver Internet course without 
having to connect to the Internet. SekolahNux is equipped with education 
software similar to EduBuntu. IPTEKNux equipped with sciences software 
aimed for senior high school science major. While GoonDo is another 
alternative operating system for school.

In terms of infrastructure, the logical next stage would be the 
development of low cost Next Generation Network, a.k.a. Internet 
Telephony. Lead by Anton Raharja, the Indonesian has run the largest VoIP 
softswitch at http://www.voiprakyat.or.id. Supported by Internet Society 
Innovation Fund (ISIF), the softswitch is currently increased in capacity 
to Xeon 8 Core and run the ENUM Server to map +62 and any country code to 
VoIP numbers. Those who wish to build their own softswitch may download 
the CDROM iso file from http://www.briker.org. The e-book on Next 
Generation Network telecommunication Infrastructure in English and 
Indonesian is scheduled to complete and published in early 2010. It is 
hoped to enable People based Telco infrastructure in the region in 
upcoming years.

Subtle Strategies In Triggering a Societal Movement

Personally, I admire the power of  universal access, economic and social 
services, openness, human development and innovation. I believe in it. I 
witness its power when unleashed. It surely will be the key enablers to 
transform the society into knowledge based society.

Unfortunately, in practice at grass root level, it is not about the 
concept of “universal access”, “openness”, and “innovation”. It is more 
about how to create a self-movement within the society / community to get 
the universal access, to embed openness in their culture, to flourish 
innovation  within the 240 million Indonesians. Unfortunately, Indonesians 
may not heavily rely on the government for various reasons. It is an art 
in itself, to create a self-finance, a sustainable, self-propelled 
movement within such large number of people with minimal support from the 
government.

Being an activist with no funding, I am very much bias in most of my 
activities. All of the strategic actions would aim for maximizing the bang 
for the buck. Trying the provide benefit to as much people / communities 
at lowest possible overhead cost (no cost if possible) and facilitate the 
transformation of 240 million Indonesians into information / knowledge 
producers as the stepping stone towards knowledge based society. Thus, the 
strategic keywords would be,

Self-finance, Sustainable
Empowerment, Education

In short, keeping in mind that all activities should be community based 
and self-finance, some of the main strategies would be around “education” 
/ awareness process, such as,

Conventional and Electronic Media will buy “good” and “inspiring” stories. 
It helps in disseminating and convincing many Indonesian to join in. It is 
key for snowball effect needed to create the mass or the “economic scale” 
if you like.
Encourage students / people to become knowledge / information producers – 
the simplest act would encourage the students to be books writer or 
blogger or even help in answering questions in forum / mailing lists. 
Availability of abundant knowledge in local language would be the 
fundamental key to be able to lift the society off.
As more people wants to gain more knowledge, self-finance education / 
awareness process funded by the communities themselves. Self-finance is 
key in sustaining the process for long term movement.
Self-finance movement. As community / people believe in it, they will 
voluntarily, with no external pressure, invest their time and money into 
the movement. Thus, a self-finance sustainable movement will be 
guaranteed.

Enda Nasution, the Father of Indonesian Blogger, has estimated more than 
one million Indonesian blogger in 2009 [7].

In 2008-2009, the open source activists and the Indonesian Ministry of 
Research and Technology write e-books on ICT for Indonesian high school 
ICT curriculum based on open source software.  The e-book on ICT education 
for high schools has been released and can be freely downloaded from 
http://bse.telkomspeedy.com/. Within which, it described how to write 
articles on the Blog and Wiki. It is our hope to see the 46.5 million 
young Indonesian students in 240.000 schools to become information and 
knowledge producers.

In early 2009, with support from Ministry Research and Technology, we 
managed to run workshop on more than 12 cities in Indonesia and cover more 
than 6000 teachers and hope to influence about a million of Indonesian 
students.
The Foundation for Societal Cultural Change
As the fundamental infrastructure and supporting systems, such as, book 
writer, blogger and media, are gradually built and settled, our next step 
would be putting the foundation to shift the society into knowledge based 
society.

Early attempt, started more than seven (7) years ago, has been promoted by 
ICT Watch lead by Donny B.U. through their Internet Wise (Internet Sehat) 
movement [8]. Today, Wise Internet (Internet Sehat) has becoming an 
accepted jargon for accessing Internet wisely to prevent young Indonesian 
in accessing inappropriate content. The e-book on Wise Internet is freely 
distributed via the Web [9].  Since the end of 2009, ICT Watch is busy 
struggling 'Freedom of Expression on the Net' as the Indonesian cyberlaw 
tends to be abused by the power. [10][11]

It seems the foundation of society cultural change in Indonesian would be 
on the hand of women and young Indonesian.

The philosophical foundation of women's IT Literacy is expressed by dr. H. 
Basyir Ahmad, the mayor of Pekalongan City in Central Java Province, 
Indonesia. He mentioned that “As we lift the weakest point in the society, 
the whole society will be lifted”. Women is considered the weakest point 
in the society. Today, Pekalongan City is one of the most active city in 
Indonesia to provide Internet access to the communities as well as women 
empowerment for ICT knowledge.

IT literacy for Women (Perempuan Melek IT) has been promoted by One 
Destination Center (ODC), lead by  Nurlina Purbo, who has been 
volunteering for close to two (2) years now. She carries several laptops 
visiting urban neighbourhoods and running three (3) days free demo for 
mother / women. Today, she provides free woman IT literacy training at 
home every saturday morning.

The responds is unbelievable, lots of demand for such simple activities as 
mother becoming  the key for children education. They need the ICT / PC 
skill to teach their children as the kids received it in their school. 
Women needs account skill & IT for saving and loans activities in their 
neighbourhood, accounting for their small shop at home and some of them 
even goes to more advanced activities, such as, buy and sell via Facebook, 
or electronic forum, such as, http://www.kaskus.us.

The approach is captured and published by MetroTV on e-livestyle 
talkshows, DaAi TV on  Volunteering program and many written media / 
newspaper and creating more snowball effects. At MetroTV e-livestyle the 
IT literacy for woman talkshow hit the highest rating ever for their 
program. It significantly shows that the need for such activities is very 
high.

The early IT literacy for woman is supported by HIVOS
(http://www.hivos.nl/english) in the Netherland and managed to educate 
close to 100 woman in Jakarta's urban areas. The e-book for women's IT 
Literacy program has been freely published on the Web [12]. To cover more 
ground in Indonesia, the State Ministry of Women's Empowerment 
(http://www.menegpp.go.id/) is currently supporting women's IT Literacy 
activities. With MENEGPP support more than 5 cities has been covered. We 
hope to see more cities covered in the upcoming years.

Summary

Low cost Internet access and open source software has gain siginificant 
acceptance within the Indonesians. Next Generation Telecommunication 
Network would be the next task to set People's based Telco infrastructure 
and low cost if possible free Telco services to the people.

“As we lift the weakest point in the society, the whole society will be 
lifted” says  the mayor of Pekalongan City, dr. H. Basyir Ahmad. Women and 
Young Indonesian students would be the foundation for societal cultural 
change. It is currently in its early stage. More than 6000 teachers and 
one million students are currently geared into the new ICT curriculum 
based on open source software. Thousand of women in at least 6 different 
cities are exposed to ICT. It is our hope to see Indonesian knowledge 
based society in the years to come.

References

[1] The History of Internet in Indonesia (Sejarah Internet Indonesia), 
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/Sejarah_Internet_Indonesia 
[viewed 03/01/2010]
[2] Wajanbolic e-goen, 
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/Wajanbolic_e-goen 
[viewed 03/01/2010]
[3] Ministry Act No 7/2009 on Wireless Broadband, 
http://www.postel.go.id/content/ID/regulasi%5Cfrekuensi%5Ckepmen/permen%5Cpm%207.pdf
 
[viewed 03/01/2010]
[4] http://sourceforge.telkomspeedy.com/projects/schoolonffline/
[5] http://sourceforge.telkomspeedy.com/projects/sekolahnux/
[6] http://sourceforge.telkomspeedy.com/projects/ipteknux/
[7] “Blog is like a knife” (Blog Itu Ibarat Pisau), 
http://www.selular.co.id/majalah/m-life/1id367.html [viewed 04/01/2010]
[8] Donny B.U., “History of Wise Internet Movement” (Sejarah Internet 
Sehat), 
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/Sejarah_Internet_Sehat_oleh_ICT_Watch
 
[viewed 04/01/2009].
[9] http://ictwatch.com/internetsehat/download-materi-internet-sehat/ 
[viewed 04/01/2010]
[10] 
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/17_Desember_2009_-_Luna_Maya_senasib_dengan_Prita_terjerat_UU_ITE
[11] 
http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/wiki/index.php/Juni_2009_-_Ujian_Bagi_UU-ITE_kebebasan_berpendapat_Prita_vs._RS._Omni_Internasional
[12] http://opensource.telkomspeedy.com/speedyorari/


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