A presentation made to the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver Canada April 25, 2013 giving an update on the current status of community based ICT for development initiatives (Community Informatics).

1. Community Informatics and ICT4D
Where We Are and Where to Go from Here
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training
Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA
gurstein@gmail.com

2. The Good

3. E-Bario

4. E-Bario

5. E-Bario

6. K-Net

7. K-Net

8. K-Net

9. E-Krishok

10. E-Krishok

11. E-Krishok

12. E-Governance India

13. The Not So Good

14. ICTs Africa

15. ICTs Africa

16. ICTs Africa-Rwanda

17. ICTs Africa-Rwanda

18. The Ugly
Thomas Hobbes Designs An APP
Background:
–Getting clean water is a problem in slum environments
–So finding sources of clean water should be something of benefit to
citizens—yes?
–So as a class project at a major university students were invited to
develop a smartphone “app” to help the folks in the slum to find clean
water
–What they did was to link a gps to a crowd sourcing too and allow folks
to input the specific location and quality of the (commercial) water sellers
as they worked their way through the local community
–Sounds pretty good, yes?

19. ICTs/Mobiles-->Development?
•Integration?
– Design “developmental programs” offline based on
computers with integration of mobiles
– Mobiles become input/output devices
– ICTs become data-management/processing
– Community site/telecentre as organizing/mobilizing
focal point
– Broad design process linking back to overall
programs

20. Community Informatics
Enabling (empowering) “communities” with information
and communications technologies (ICT’s)
• CI is of equal interest to practitioners, researchers/techies, and
policy makers
• CI for practitioners—how to do what they do
• CI for researchers/techies—how to make the work of practitioners
supporting the grassroots more effective
• CI for policy makers—the Digital Divide, ICT 4 Development,
community centred policies and policy development

21. What is Community Informatics?
• community focused planning, designing, & implementing
ICTs in an Information Society
• enabling/empowering (bottom up) communities and
community processes with ICTs
• moving beyond the “Digital Divide” to “effective use” to
support:
•social cohesion,
•social and economic inclusion
•civic involvement,
•socio-economic development
• the “social appropriation”/community ownership of ICTs

22. Some Background
• a bit of bio
• WSIS I and now WSIS +10
• the development discourse
• Community Informatics

23. Some things have changed
• focus is now on mobiles
• major donors have moved away from ICTs and
“connectivity”
• huge increase in connectivity via mobiles
• much of new Internet access is via mobiles

24. But
• mobiles have limited visual footprint
• mobiles have less functionality for many purposes
• mobiles are also costly (in many instances)
• huge increase in connectivity via mobiles
• much of new Internet access is via mobiles
• many still don’t even have mobile access
• mobile penetration driven by private sector/markets
• still a very significant set of unmet needs re:
development
• increasing economic inequalities in LDC’s and within
DC’s…

25. So, some things to discuss
• where to go for community based initiatives
• major donors have moved away from ICTs and
“connectivity”—where to go with this
• raising the profile on inequality as that underlies all the
other issues—connectivity, access
• Community Informatics where to from here—the need is
there but what about the “demand”?

26. What’s Different About CI
• CI puts communities as users at the center of ICT design,
development and implementation
• CI enables communities to achieve their multiple goals and ensure
community technology “ownership”
• CI includes the user, the use, and the larger social context in the
design
• CI links researchers, practitioners/commuities and policy makers in
problem based system design
• CI includes a range of disciplines: CS, Social Work,
Communications, Planning/Urban Studies, Development Studies,
Sociology, Anthropology

27. Stakeholders in CI
Researchers/Techies
PractitionersPolicy Makers

28. The Stakeholders
Private Sector
–Knowledge
–Capital
–Markets
Governments
–Resources
–Regulatory authority
–Havee responsibility
Communities
–Have the need
–Have local resources
–Are there for the long term

29. The CI Approach to ICTs
Access
Adoption
Social Appropriation
Effective ICT Use

30. Now Where To Go…
•Where not to go is to develop stand alone services -- these fail
and are unsustainable
•Where to go is to build the demand and expectation for effective
and efficient service delivery from/to and with the
users/communities –
•Enable existing processes/activities using ICTs to make
processes more efficient and effective
•Build the ICT component as a facilitator/extender to other
activities

31. Lessons Learned for Community ICTs
1.Only bottom up community based strategies work
2.Policy plays a key role
3.Research plays a significant role
4.Partnerships are essential--with governments, private
sector, existing institutions,
5.Significance of networking for scaling up
6.Technology does matter (but not that much)

32. Because…
•The Real Power of ICTs comes when communities are
enabled with Community Based ICTs and where a
Community Informatics approach empowers local
communities to use ICTs for…
–Local development
–Local health service
–Local economic development
–Local environmental management
–Local resource development

33. The Challenge!
To re-think system design placing “effective use” by "communities"
(virtual or physical) at the centre:
- as the owners or subjects of systems
- placing information systems in the broader context of their links
to social/community systems
- giving equal weight and design emphasis to making systems
useful and usable to communities for their purposes for:
+ economic and social development,
+ cultural production and survival,
+ managing climate change and adaptation
+ facilitating market access, quality control, loss mngmt
+ democratic decision making and participation
- taking a problem focussed approach to system design

34. Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
Centre for Community Informatics Research,
Development and Training
Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA
http://www.communityinformatics.net
gurstein@gmail.com

35. Additional Resources
Email list: ciresearchers@vcn.bc.ca
E-journal: http://ci-journal.net
Blog: http://gurstein.wordpress.com
Twitter: @MichaelGurstein
Wiki: http://cirn.wikispaces.com/
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_informatics