[GKD] Simputer Team Wins Award for IT Innovation
Simputer project bags Dewang Mehta award for innovation in IT from Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Apr 12 (IANS) The team that developed the Simputer, a hand-held device aimed at taking the Internet to the rural masses in India, has been conferred the first Dewang Mehta award for innovation in IT, it was announced Friday. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 500,000. The award, instituted by the department of IT in memory of India's tech evangelist Dewang Mehta who died April 12 last year, recognises innovations that have the potential to make a significant impact on national development. The Simputer as a concept has the potential to put computing power in the hands of the masses in the true sense of the word. The Simputer is one innovation that can break barriers that prevent the common man from using computing devices which are not only high priced but also exotic, a statement from the department said. The Simputer -- short for Simple, Inexpensive, Multilingual Computer -- was designed by the not for profit Simputer Trust. It uses the free Linux software operating system. The trust licenses the design to manufacturers. Seven trustees drawn from the faculty of computer science and automation of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Encore Software Ltd. conceived the project. The Simputer is expected to help farmers access commodity prices and other information and will also provide speech recognition in regional languages to help the unlettered use the device. Priced at a little over Rs. 12,000, the Simputer will be three times cheaper than a personal computer and cost about the same as a colour television set - a price level which is expected to help improve computer penetration in India. Ninety-two nominations were received for the first Dewang Mehta award. A committee of eminent persons was constituted to evaluate the nominations and give its recommendations, the statement added. Mehta, who was president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) for the last 10 years, died of a massive heart attack in Sydney in April last year. He was attending an IT meet in the city. The dynamic 38-year-old Mehta's name was synonymous with India's booming software industry. He led the industry's global push as the country's software exports zoomed to $6.2 billion in 2000-01 from $734 million in 1995-96. The Geneva-based World Economic Forum identified Mehta as one of the 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow. The basic thrust (of the award) was to identify a concept that was not only innovative but whose application would have had an impact on the lives of the common man. The committee observed that the development of Simputer stands out significantly higher than others and meets the criteria set out, the statement said. --Indo-Asian News Service ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/
Re: [GKD] RFI: Knowledge Management at the Project Level
I guess one possible answer for your first question is what we are noticing to be a major problem in most development projects in Brazil: the knowledge management in a project avoids that similar efforts are repeated by more than one agency when it is possible to converge to one single and coordinated action. For example, lack of knowledge management in Xingo (Brazilian Northeast) about each actor's objectives, nature and action involved in the process is responsible for agencies to establish more than one forum for discussion of local agenda with the same aspects and purposes, what confuses and disestimulates the local population participation. And it is also minimizing the results of the project and possibilities of shared activities toward development, since one agency is unknown by the other and so on. How to promote KM in a regime of distended deadlines which when they were established didn't take KM into account at all, good question we are trying to answer. Or at least how to elaborate a project taking these terms into account and all adverse conditions in a project. I guess the major problem, or at least our major problem, is how to convince actors to do such when their staffs achieve better reports for institutions without KM and consequently keeping their activities as a function of their solo performance. Perhaps guaranteeing that KM is an attribute of the institutions involved in the project is not enough for the project itself to present the benefits of KM, as you just said. Any help? Railssa Peluti Alencar General Coordinator Forum for Studies and Research in Development FEPED - Universidade de BrasÌlia www.multweb.com.br/fed Cel.: (11) 9911 6191 Tel.: (11) 3864 9667 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Address: Rua Caiowaa, 2046, Bl. 5 ap. 91 Perdizes So Paulo-SP 01258-010 ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/
Re: [GKD] Digital Divide vs. Social Divide.
Chris Bragg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: While I think there is a real value to the observation that many development projects stray on the wrong side of the 80/20 rule in an effort to ensure maximum value from the project, I cannot agree that the factors effecting decision making are in any way different from one community to the next, when viewed at the point where the decision is finally made. Whether a committee, election processes or referenda, or a single autocratic individual makes the choice the important fact is that the decision is made on the basis of existing knowledge and a necessity to reach a decision, for one or other reason. It may be that multiple people make the decision and then cast a vote, or it may be one person makes the decision, but the principle is the same in each case. In an ideal world, all decisions would be rational and evidence based. In the real world, amost none are. The experience, perception and understanding (i.e. knowledge) of those who perceive a need to make a decision and the quality and quantity of existing knowledge of those who make the decision, will impact on the decision whoever makes it. Whatever form and shape that knowledge takes, whether induced by a formal university degree, or a specific research study, or traditional folklore, or social awareness and political understanding of what is desirable or not, surely we can safely accept that in the general sense 'better knowledge' will lead to 'better decisions'. Better knowledge has the potential to lead to better decisions if you mean rational and evidence based decisions. But for many (most?) people rationality and evidence can be tossed aside at the drop of a hat. I have a health economist friend who does very good work for a number of agencies including WHO. Her work is very rational, accessible and based on good data. It shows what optimal level of investment in primary prevention could yield in long term chronic care savings and quality of life. Pretty basic stuff that some detailed costing data and a spreadsheet can generate. It also amounts to many millions saved that could be invested in education, welfare etc. Not to mention thousands of lives in which chronic care is prevented. Selling this message to the health fraternity is very difficult because innoculation, health screening, regular checkups etc. aren't empires. Running a hospital is an empire. Millions spent in imaging and other equipment is an empire. Nurses with a clip board do not make an empire. Apart from that, being rational doesn't leave much flexibility for political ploys. Cutting out breast imaging for women under a certain age may be rational because it yields no real benefits, but try selling that rational decision to a voting public in a marginal electorate. I think it is a common mistake for the rationally trained to believe that others appreciate rationality, logic and evidence. It is a mistake I made after 15 years as an academic. When I asked people to write up their arguments, evidence, methodologies and logic as a consultant I was simply regarded as an argumentative jerk. I was willng to accept the best argument from any source, but most of the people I worked with knew what I didn't- that rationality had very little to do with anything. Indeed, the vast majority of people have very little understanding of anything logical. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the barriers to aircraft over 1000 passengers is not technology- it is simply the fallout that a crash of a single plane would have on passenger risk perception. Again, the risks would not have shifted but people will not be amenable to a logical contradiction. If you really look, there are many structures, processes and policies in any society that are plainly irrational and which persist because it suits the status quo or because change is simply unacceptable to the populace as a whole or to influential groups. Self interest is an amazingly rational thing for the individual and a disaster for the whole. (shades of tragedy of the commons). If people don't have time to gather better knowledge we have to find ways to enable them to have time - and this means a better standard of living usually, basic needs like fresh water and food closer to hand and electricity/light to extend daylight hours, and as so rightly pointed out, the opportunity to apply better knowledge for immediate and long term benefit. Yes, when people (usually individuals) have the power to implement their decisions, then better information does indeed yield better decisions. But as pointed out above, once an implementation decision needs to be filtered through some approval process, then the politics of the group and the divergent interests of the individuals that comprise it come to the fore. Perry Morrison http://www.alteich.com/links/morrison.htm http://www.geocities.com/perrymorrison/oz_aboriginal_comms.html ***GKD is
[GKD] Free/Open Source International Development Software
Dear GKD Members, My organization has developed an internet application for the collection, analysis and dissemination of project data; recording e-readiness assessments; running discussion groups; maintaining ICT infrastructure statistics; maintaining calendars, among other things. You can run a demonstration at: http://www.leapfrogindex.org:8080/leapfrog/index.html (Use the pre-set default values. Feel free to create data. Only test data are used). If the international development community shows sufficient interest in using such a system as a whole or in parts, we plan to finalize the development and release the application (or parts of it) for free distribution under the GNU Public Licence http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html policy. This means that not only is our software free for anyone to use, but the source code for the software is also freely available to be adapted and improved upon, so long as credit is given to contributors along the way. Please indicate your interest in using such a system by forwarding this message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Yes and any other comments in the body of the message. Also, please cc: the GKD Moderator [EMAIL PROTECTED] A tally of the response will be made in due course and the next steps will be made known to interested parties. Please forward this message to anyone who might benefit from or have an opinion about such a system. Thank you for your time. For more information contact: Dr. Obi Anizor leapfrogindex.org 87 Oakwood Village Suite 2 Flanders, New Jersey 07836-9048 Tel : (973) 252-8641 Cell: (905) 301-1985 Fax : (973) 252-4265/(416) 605-1905 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, an NGO that is a GKP member*** To post a message, send it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/
