guifi.net, a crowdsourced network infrastructure held in common

The expression “crowdsourced computer networks” refers to a network infrastructure built by citizens and organisations who pool their resources and coordinate their efforts to make these networks happen. “Community networks” are a subset of crowdsourced networks that are structured to be open, free, and neutral. In these communities the infrastructure is established by the participants and is managed as a common resource. Many crowdsourcing experiences have flourished in community networks. This paper discusses the case of guifi.net, a success case of a community network daily used by thousands of participants, focusing on its principles and the crowdsourcing processes and tools developed within the community, and the role they play in the ecosystem that is guifi.net; the current status of its implementation; its measurable local impact; and the lessons learned in more than a decade.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Exploring the link between ICT intervention and human development through a social capital lens : The case study of a wireless project in the mountain region of Nepal

While it is generally accepted that information and communication technology (ICT) can lead to development, the process through which this may happen remains unclear. At the core of this debate is the very definition of the term ‘development’. In this thesis, I adopted Amartya Sen’s definition. According to Sen (1999), human development is built upon a particular capability approach. He inferred that human development is the enhancement of human capabilities (freedom of choice) in order that people can live a life which they value and have reasons to value. The capability approach has, however, been criticized for its individualistic stance. In responding to this criticism, this thesis integrated the societal level by adding collective capabilities to conceptualize development. Such capabilities, which are not simple aggregates of individual capabilities, are built on collective action that can be fostered through social capital. Social capital is characterized as shared norms or values that promote social cooperation within and between communities. It can be further categorized into three forms: bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. Bonding refers to networks between homogeneous groups of people, bridging refers to networks between socially heterogeneous groups, and linking refers to vertical ties between different hierarchies of power and social status

Teachers’ experiences of ICT training in Nepal: how teachers in rural primary schools learn and make progress in their ability to use ICT in classrooms

This article reports on teachers’ experiences of ICT training in rural areas of Nepal. It discusses aspects of policy documents to help understand the Nepali educational context, before highlighting the challenges of establishing and maintaining infrastructure and professional learning opportunities across a country with challenging terrain and extreme environmental conditions. It then examines teachers’ perceptions in five rural primary schools about their experiences of training to use modern educational technologies in instructional activities. The findings indicate that none of the teachers received training in the use of ICT in their initial teacher education and that the Government has allowed non- governmental organisations to provide ICT infrastructure and training for rural schools and teachers. Although this is a small study, it offers insights into the gap between policy and practice and highlights the contextual challenges of Nepal’s attempts to operate on a global educational level as well as the challenges for teachers

In-betweenness in ICT4D research: critically examining the role of the researcher

The ICT4D discipline has faced criticisms of an uneven production of knowledge that reinforces a dichotomy between Global North-Western knowledge systems on the one side, and Global South-indigenous-Southern knowledge systems on the other. As a result, some ICT4D literature has examined the role of the researcher in reinforcing these biases and further exacerbating inequalities, thus highlighting the complex relationship between ICT4D researchers and the research process. Yet, most of this literature has focused on an insider/outsider researcher positionality. This paper explores the role of the researcher from the alternative position of in-betweenness, where researchers adopt more fluid and dynamic positions as reflexive spaces. To do this, we engage in a dialogical process of retrospective reflections based on ICT4D projects in Nigeria, Peru and West Africa. Through these cases, we identify how we experience in-betweenness in distinct ways: as liminal spaces, as performative spaces, and as spaces of disjuncture. We also examine how these forms of in-betweenness informed our research. We demonstrate that a researcher positionality of in-betweenness in ICT4D research can increase awareness of nuanced researcher roles and potentially avoid ethical dilemmas and reproducing biases

Exploring mobile learning opportunities and challenges in Nepal: the potential of open-source platforms

With the increasing access to mobile devices in developing countries, the number of pilots and projects embracing mobile devices as learning tools is also growing. The important role it can play in improving education is also positively received within education communities. But, providing a successful mobile learning service is still significantly challenging. The considerable problems arise due to existing pedagogical, technological, political, social and cultural challenges and there has been a shortage of research concerning how to deploy and sustain this technology in a resource constrained educational environment. There are studies mainly conducted in sub-Saharan countries, India, and Latin America, which provide some guidelines for incorporating technology in the existing educational process. However, considering the contextual differences between these regions and other countries in Asia, such as Nepal, it requires a broader study in its own challenging socio-cultural context. In response to this difficulty, the aims of this exploratory research work are to study the distinct challenges of schools’ education in Nepal and evaluate the use of open-source devices to provide offline access to learning materials in order to recommend a sustainable mobile learning model. The developmental study was conducted in University of West London in order to assess the feasibility of these devices. The main study in Nepal explored i) the overall challenges to education in the challenging learning environment of schools with limited or no access to ICT, ii) how ICT might be helping teaching and learning in the rural public schools, and iii) how an offline mobile learning solution based on the open source platforms may facilitate English language teaching and learning. Data collection primarily involved interviews, questionnaires, observations and supplemented by other methods. This thesis presents the sustainable model for deploying and supporting mobile technology for education, which is based on the findings emerging from completed exploratory studies in Nepal. It highlights all the aspects that need to be addressed to ensure sustainability. However, to translate this understanding to a design is a complex challenge. For a mobile learning solution to be used in such challenging learning contexts, the need is to develop simple and innovative solutions that provide access to relevant digital learning resources and train teachers to embed technology in education. This thesis discusses these findings, limitations and presents implications for the design of future mobile learning in the context of Nepal

Identifying socio-cultural determinants to access : implications for e-governance in the water & sanitation sector

This study identifies socio-cultural determinants to both access to technology, as well as access to water and sanitation services, to build an understanding of how technology use and service delivery interact to either restrict or empower groups to communicate their water and sanitation needs through e-government platforms. Even though South Africa's racist apartheid laws were repealed over two decades ago, water and sanitation services in predominantly black areas of Cape Town are still effected by the structural inequalities rooted in apartheid policies. Frustration over the state of water and sanitation services in these areas frequently erupts into violent and destructive protests. A key piece to reducing these inequalities lies in the city's ability to collect data on the state of water and sanitation infrastructure, and the City of Cape Town has promoted a number of e-Governance initiatives to streamline the process of collecting information from users of water and sanitation services. Among these initiatives is an SMS based fault reporting system, which was envisioned as an inexpensive method for users to easily report service failures to the city. Additionally, the city has adopted other web-based reporting platforms based on popular social media sites and email, which can be accessed using internet enabled mobile phones. However, despite high rates of mobile phone ownership in Cape Town, little is known about how people use them. It is important to know how people use mobile phones in order to gauge whether e-Governance initiatives are accessible to poor and vulnerable populations. This analysis is particularly important for highly stratified societies such as South Africa, since it has been shown that introducing ICT into a service delivery system will not result in social change, but will simply act to amplify the underlying intents and capacities that are already present in the system. The purpose of this study was to identify socio-cultural determinants to water and sanitation access and ICT use, to gauge the capacity of groups with marginal access to water and sanitation services to advocate for improvements using mobile phone enabled fault reporting. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional analysis using chi-square tests to identify correlations between socio-cultural data that was collected during three days of interviews in the township of Imizamo Yethu. A spatial analysis was also employed to visualise geographic patterns of access to water and mobile technology. The results indicate that mobility challenged township residents face barriers to accessing water and sanitation services, and also have limited options for reporting faults using mobile phones. Additional disparities in access to services and mobile phone use were found to be based on geography, economic ability, education, as well as place of birth (foreign born vs. South African born). The results indicate that marginalised segments of the population have very limited capacity to communicate their needs to the municipal government. Therefore it seems that e-Governance in the water and sanitation sector likely perpetuates some of the existing inequalities. Hopefully the information and recommendations brought forward in this study will prove helpful to those working to undo the social fractures caused by decades of exclusionary policies

Demystifying the possibilities of ICT4D in the mountain regions of Nepal

Despite the substantial investments in ICT4D projects in developing countries, the benefits are yet to be realised by the majority of remote communities. Inaccessibility to ICT has widened educational, healthcare, information, and communication gaps between urban and remote communities. This paper focuses on an interpretive case study in Nepal to widen our understanding of how locally-initiated ICT4D projects may help to narrow these gaps. The study utilises the Assets Pentagon Model to identify the strengths and challenges of the Nepal Wireless Networking Project in the mountain areas, and to identify implications for research and practice based on insights from the case

A resource management framework for sustainability of rural ICT4D projects in Zimbabwe

Developing countries are embracing Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a tool for alleviating poverty. There are, however, still challenges that developing countries face in trying to establish Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). Among the major challenges is the lack of proper resource management which results in poor sustainability of ICT4D initiatives. If these ICT4D initiatives are to be sustainable for the benefit of current and future generations, proper resource management methods are to be developed and applied. This study proposes a resource management framework that can be applied to the management of ICT4D resources with the aim of achieving sustainability. The framework is informed by theory, and validated through enquiry in the field. Qualitative research methodology was used as a research approach for this study where three rural ICT4D initiatives were used as case studies. The case studies were conducted in rural Zimbabwe to investigate how proper resource management can influence the sustainability of ICT4D initiatives. It was identified from the study that the lack of proper resource management methods adversely affects the initiatives’ sustainability. The proposed resource management framework will guide ICT4D resource management to enhance the initiatives’ sustainability