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Follow the BlogDon't forget – you can always post, read, and carry out online conversations with the C3 team at our blog. C3 and Transmedia in the Newshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/bud_caddell/4186330101/sizes/m/
transmedia branding / what consumes me, bud caddell Flickr Photo Download: Seven Core Concepts of Transmedia Storytelling AWooldridge (storyt) (storytellin) on Twitter Entertainment - The Bookish Dilettante Blog - The Bookish Dilettante Closing NoteWireless internet, ICT entrepreneurship and social impact in rural Peru (Part 2)
As part of a project funded in part by the Carroll Wilson Award via MIT's Entrepreneurship Center, CMS grad student Audubon Dougherty spent the summer in rural Peru filming a documentary about Banda Ancha Rural, a project subsidized by the Peruvian government that aims to bring wireless internet access to remote Peruvian villages. In the first installment of her piece, Dougherty describes the scope of the ICT project and begins to describe the more than 40 internet “cabinas” she visited. Cabinas are small-scale internet operations started by local entrepreneurs who agree to buy computers in exchange for basic computer and business training. The cabina owners then charge a small fee to members of the community who want to use the computer to access the internet. This second installment of Dougherty’s piece discusses the social significance of the cabinas and the technical challenges facing the project. It was striking to see how important computers became for cabina proprietors whose standard of living was otherwise extremely low. In one village outside of Cajamarca, we visited a cabina that was part of the entrepreneur's house. It had dirt floors, thatched roofs, chickens everywhere and an outhouse several meters away. For the proprietor, keeping the computers in his home was a top priority. This man had studied computer science and was also an elementary schoolteacher; local kids saw him as a resource, and began to rely on the internet cabina as a place they could go to get help online with math or history lessons. The proprietor's six-year-old son worked quietly at one computer as we interviewed his father. Although the proprietor joked with me about his son's technological prowess, it spoke to a crucial need for ICT projects in rural communities: sustainability. Many entrepreneurs start internet businesses but then leave the area to pursue job opportunities elsewhere; conversely, older cabina owners rely on their children to run the business, only to be left without managerial or technical skills once their kids go elsewhere for college or to find employment. Training the younger generation is essential, the proprietor told me, not just for their own education but for the continuation of the business itself, and to enable villagers to communicate with the outside world. A few hours away was another teacher, Jhovany, who doubled as an internet entrepreneur. She wanted to upload news and information about her community to a website. Although Rural Telecom offers a section of their website for entrepreneurs to upload information about their village (contactorural.com.pe), many proprietors don't receive enough training on the web interface or don't fully understand citizen journalism and the incentive for publicizing their village. In a small town a few hours outside of Lima, we observed a similar initiative facing different challenges. With help from a CEPES (Peruvian Social Studies Centre), a local NGO, internet-enabled computers have been set up by a farmworkers' cooperative as a resource for their dues-paying members. Although the computers are functioning and trainers are available, there has been little community outreach to explain the benefits of internet literacy to migrant farmers and their children. The clients who do show up complain about the installation of Linux on the machines, since the standard in universities and other internet cafes is Windows. Although open source software is sometimes hailed as a solution to technological development in marginalized areas, in this context it is a hindrance; not only do users face a steep learning curve to navigate the operating system, but they have not been able to set up Windows-based chat applications, the most popular mode of communication for friends and family in other areas. Paying for Access The downside of garnering a loyal clientele is that internet users become upset when the connection goes down. We met young users, now used to relying on the internet for information and communication, who will commute to the nearest city to find an internet café - a trip that is often long and unsafe. A few proprietors we met have begun to supplement internet services with offline gaming consoles, such as Playstation, so they can stay open and make a little money when the internet connection breaks. One woman used the revenue from gaming to pay her electricity bill, which had gone up with the installation of new computers. Some entrepreneurs we met were artisans, hoping to sell their stone carvings or painted crafts online, though few had the technical knowledge to do so. Alejandro Cipriano, who lives in a mountainous area outside Huancayo, became an internet entrepreneur after a friend in Lima started selling his traditional painted gourds (mates burilados) via email orders—some of which came from as far away as Japan. Although Cipriano’s internet connection has been down for months, he still hopes to eventually have his own website and sell his goods directly to international consumers online. We also heard about a nearby Andean village that had transformed their economy through online self-education. A governmental ICT manager told us how the community made money by fishing fresh river trout, but could only sell the fish to local buyers. With the arrival of the internet, they found online resources outlining the process for canning trout. This revitalized their industry, allowing them to sell preserved river trout as far away as Lima. The Peruvian jungle presented a completely different context. Native tribes still live throughout the Amazon and, despite tribal land disputes that blocked roadways for weeks, we were able to visit two native villages where internet connections had been set up. Although leaders from both villages wanted to preserve their traditional way of life, culture and language, they saw technology as a critical means through which to develop their community - to further education for children, to stay informed about the latest prices for agricultural products, and to communicate with people in other areas. We spoke to a teacher in one native community who emphasized the need for more governmental support for technology education, including more computers and lower rates for internet connections. "I would also like my school to have a video camera like yours," he told me, "so the students would be able to put footage from this village online." Perhaps if I embarked on this project five years from now, I would be able to focus on the innovative uses of internet and communication technology in areas previously cut off from all forms of communication. But the rural internet project is still in development. Until the government or private telecoms can increase funding to secure stable, affordable wireless connections and expand training for entrepreneurs, progress is slow. While pressing needs for basic services in extremely rural areas remain - for better education, phone lines, improved roads - there still exists a great desire by rural Peruvians to develop their communities through technology. Cell phones, for instance, have become the primary means of communication in remote areas and are faster, cheaper and more reliable than computers. It is this sector that has the greatest potential for innovation and social impact. Perhaps the next time I visit Peru, internet will be in wider use through mobile devices, and I can make an entirely new documentary - from my phone. Audubon Dougherty is a filmmaker and digital activist interested in the role of media in international development. She studied writing at Emerson College before transferring to Smith College to complete a degree in anthropology with a focus on visual culture. This led her to the field of human rights, where she traveled to Southeast Asia in 2006 as a blogger and photographer to assess disaster relief projects assisting tsunami survivors. She returned to Thailand the following year to provide multimedia training for an organization serving Burmese migrants and undocumented workers. As a communications specialist for a labor union, she helped develop a new media program which utilized e-communication, streaming video and mobile messaging to help organize 22,000 home care workers in Massachusetts. Outside of work, Dougherty formed her own video production collective, producing and directing films for exhibition at festivals and on the web.
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This issue of the C3 Weekly Update compiled and edited by Daniel Pereira (dpereira@mit.edu) for the Convergence Culture Consortium.
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