<incom> Open eNRICH: Tools for the underprivileged-Community Media & ICT News (Modified by Geert Lovink)

[CI Newdelhi]

Community Media & ICT News (March 2007, Issue 1)
March 15, 2007

Open eNRICH: Tools for the underprivileged

Knowledge is power as the popular saying goes and in today's world, 
this power can be attained through the access of information. 
Information, with technology as its medium, holds the key to 
development which contributes to the betterment of the human society. 
However development remains largely insignificant and incomplete unless 
it touches the society at the grass root level and the progress of any 
nation is determined by the progress of its villages and rural 
communities. At present NIC in collaboration with UNESCO and One World 
South Asia is developing Open eNRICH 4.1 addressing the technical, 
design and access issues.

In a country like India or any developing nation for that matter, rural 
communities severely lack resources that enable them to get on to the 
road of development. Technology here acts as a balancing factor and 
helps to leverage the underprivileged.

Open eNRICH is one such project that has been leveraging rural 
communities and villages by the use of technology. It was started by 
National Informatics Center (NIC), Delhi, Government of India and 
UNESCO as a part of the cross cutting theme on the eradication of 
poverty. The project has been innovating and researching social and 
technological strategies to put ICTs (Information and Communication 
Technologies) to work in the hands of the poor in order to change their 
circumstances. The focus of the project is not so much on technology 
itself, but on its innovative use to empower the poor with tools.

Technically speaking, it is an Open Source Content Management Software 
which clubs Tomcat and SQL together and uses Jsp (Java based). It is 
comprised of two main components viz. Desk Manager User Interface or 
DMUI (a browser-based site administration and analysis tool for 
Managers and researchers) and Community Browser User Interface or CBUI 
(an interface that is used by the community members) which lend 
re-usability to the entire solution framework. DMUI, the back end 
interface, acts as Site Manager, Content Publisher, and Content 
Organiser & Analyser (for researchers). The Community Browser, the 
front end on the other hand faithfully displays what it receives from 
DMUI. The software also has its own autonomous spaces for community 
people to post content and interact among each other.

The software is installed at a community multimedia center or 
tele-centre where rural communities can use the software for exchanging 
and accessing information. The personnel from the tele-centre (desk 
manager) is trained on how to use eNRICH and the community center takes 
the responsibility of getting the community to use the software. The 
desk manager guides this community to the software whenever they need 
relevant local information and the community center works with 
established community based organizations like Self Help Groups to make 
it easier to ensure community participation. The software is also 
compatible with WAN, LAN and the Internet and allows for communities to 
independently upload, download, print and share any information that is 
of use to them.

Ramnath Bhat, from VOICES an NGO based in Bangalore, and Programme 
Coordinator of Namma Dhwani Community Multimedia Centre says, "Open 
eNRICH is an excellent medium to store and exchange information on 
various categories like agriculture, health care, trade or basically 
any other category that is relevant to that community. This works 
particularly well in communities that have a unique problem. For 
example, the people in Budikote village in the Bangarpet Taluk 
frequently suffer from eye ailments. By using Open eNRICH as a medium, 
we have uploaded information on eye ailments on various multimedia 
formats like photographs and videos which has helped a lot villagers in 
identifying their ailments and helped them in taking measures for 
prevention and cure.

Rajkumar, former desk manager for Namma Dhwani CMC in Budikote says,”In 
the earlier days, if villagers had to buy or sell something like 
livestock, it would mostly be through middle men or via information 
from their relatives or friends who were staying in other villages. But 
today, if a villager from Kolar wants to sell his cow, he can access 
eNRICH and upload the information for other people to see. A potential 
buyer residing in Mandya can access this information and contact the 
villager in Kolar and complete the deal if he is satisfied with the 
price."

However in spite of its success and user-friendliness, the project is 
not free from issues that hamper the enthusiasm of the community user. 
The software is unable to work in places where computers are equipped 
with Windows 98 since eNRICH works mainly with UNICODE fonts, and 
Windows 98 doesn't support them. There are also other factors like bugs 
in the software and a 2 MB upload limit (for any file format like text, 
audio, video, image, etc) that makes things very difficult for the 
community user and prevents him from making the maximum use of this 
facility.  

Ramnath says "Currently our focus is on removing the bugs from the 
software and there is still a long way to go as this is a very young 
project. Another thing is that the general community is used to the 
Windows platform and this is in conflict with the Open Source movement 
that we support. But this project has achieved great success in terms 
of community participation and has encouraged several community groups 
to come to community centers and use ICTs for their needs."

The possibility of utilizing this content management system in 
innovative ways is rather large and the effect it has on the rural 
communities is very significant. Trading commodities between 
communities, who so far had large physical distances between them, 
could be accommodated as this technology can gap these distances. This 
alone would lead to a massive change in the structure of the 
agricultural markets where the distance between the producer and the 
consumer would greatly lessen. Middlemen would become a thing of the 
past, thus enabling the producer to not only get his worth for the 
commodities, but it would also end up reducing prices to a large 
extent.

The software could also be extensively used for gathering public 
opinion, which would bring more relevancies in getting first-hand data 
from the rural sector. On the other hand, since the software could also 
be used to gather opinions, it could altogether garner support for a 
transparent system in governance.

Sivakumar.C, an official with the NIC Headquarters in Delhi says,  "As 
of now Open eNRICH has now gone through more than 500 valid downloads 
from our web site in 59 different countries including India, Nepal, Sri 
Lanka, Bangladesh and countries in Africa.  This alone shows the 
response that the project is getting from all parts of the world."

Open eNRICH offers tremendous potential that is waiting to be tapped 
and exploited for the benefit of one and all and more so for the 
underprivileged. The true challenge lies in identifying the most 
suitable and cost effective technologies that address the local needs 
and challenges of the rural masses and only by initiating more ICTs and 
projects, can the government and individuals truly usher in a 
revolution at the grass root level.

Story contributed by Sandesh Shenoy- a freelance journalist and content 
writer who contributes articles for Businessgyan Business Digest and 
its online version www.businessgyan.com. By integrating traditional and 
new media, community multimedia centers link local and global networks 
and bring digital tools and new opportunities within the reach of 
millions, opening new gateways to information, communication and 
knowledge. A community multimedia centre (CMC) combines traditional 
local media, like radio, TV and newspapers, with new technologies, such 
as computers, internet, photocopiers and digital devices like cameras 
and audio players. CMCs are a unique way for poor communities, often in 
remote rural areas, to overcome common obstacles to their full and 
profitable use of ICTs, including the vast potential knowledge 
resources of the internet and other digital media. UNESCO’s global 
pilot project with CMCs is supported by the Swiss Agency for 
Development and Cooperation

Businessgyan.com is about conversations, collaboration and broadcasting 
on business. This platform enables this through its discussion forums, 
articles, blogs written by members, and business broadcasting about 
their products and services.

Contact: Jocelyne Josiah ACI/NDL j.josiah at unesco.org, Seema Nair, CMC 
Asia Coordinator, s.nair at unesco.org

Links:

UNESCO New Delhi http://unesconewdelhi.nic.in
UNESCO Communication and Information Sector www.unesco.org/webworld
UNESCO Community Multimedia Centre Initiative 
www.unesco.org/webworld/cmc