Summary: 11th IFIP WG 9.4 Conference, May (22-25), Kathmandu, Nepal

Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) is a well established research area in both academia and practice. The question of whether ICT is useful for developing world is answered with big ‘YES’. However, the process by which ICT may foster development, in the context of developing countries still remains a much debated issue. Academics and practitioners are attempting to understand and stimulate the development process that specifically emerges from technology diffusion.

The idea of IFIP WG 9.4 conference, chaired by Professor Maung Sein, University of Agder, and co-chaired by Dr. G. Harindranath, Royal Holloway, and Dr. Bjørn Furuholt, University of Agder, in Kathmandu with the theme partners for development: ICT actors and actions was to draw special attention to the role played by multiple actors – public and private, activists and entrepreneurs as well as other kinds of intermediaries – within ICT4D processes and their associated impacts on socioeconomic development. The conference provided a space for articulating a variety of approaches and views from these different types of actors in relation to ICT and national development. Nepal, the host country for this year’s conference, presented a unique opportunity to engage with such actors given the growing significance of ICT in this landlocked, mountainous, and developing country.

The conference was attended by the collectives of IS scholars, researchers, ICT entrepreneurs, social activists, IT experts, healthcare champions, and government officials. The objective of this conference was to exchange our knowledge and experience from both academia and practice. Therefore, the discussions in the conference was oriented towards how the ICT intervention can enable (or disable) people to access healthcare, education, commerce, and government services, in addition, to identify future research possibilities in ICT4D areas and the role of IFIP WG 9.4 in promoting these possibilities.

The conference heated up with a pre-conference debate and discussions. The discussion was centered on the landscape of ICT4D and the potential for the IFIP 9.4 group. Three experienced practitioners and academics in the field, Rahul De, Sundeep Sahay, and Renata Lèbre La Rovere, presented their thought provocative position papers. The papers raised ICT4D research issues, such as corruption, caste, trust, coordination, and visibility. IS researchers and scholars, such as Leiser Silva, Roger Harris, and Shirin Madon also wrote short position papers even though they were unable to attend the conference. All discussants in the pre-conference discussion agreed that institutional, social, political, and cultural aspects are fundamental for implementation and adoption of ICT. Likewise, local participation and local knowledge are essential for ICT4D projects to achieve their objectives. Mutual informing between academia and practice, and the role of IFIP WG 9.4 platform were other important issues discussed during the pre-conference.

The conference started with a keynote speech by Dr. Mahabir Pun, Magsaysay award winner and the team leader of the Nepal Wireless Networking Project. He shared his experiences of the wireless project. He described how he started the wireless project from a simple idea of connecting mountain villages to internet. He used social networking and media, and the collective action inside and outside the mountain communities. The project succeeds to connect more than 135 remote villages through internet connection since then. The project started with the objective to provide better education and healthcare services to the remote communities using ICT. For this purpose, he stated, the wireless project is working together with different other champions such as OLE Nepal, thamel.com, NREN, Gandaki Boarding School, Kathmandu University, and Kathmandu Model Hospital. He explained the implementation of ICT services in Nangi village is just an example that can be replicated to other rural areas. In his presentation, he stated that most of the ICT4D projects fail because they lack understanding of local context; and, do not develop local contents. He added, lack of income generation activities is also a main challenge in the ICT4D projects. For this purpose, the wireless project is working with www.thamel.com and other partners to promote ecommerce and ecotourism activities. Dr. Pun stated that appointing medical expertise in rural areas is very difficult. Therefore, telemedicine can work as a magic stick to virtually bring that expertise in the remote places.

Prominent speaker and participant, Geoff Walsham, Emeritus Professor of Management Studies (Information Systems) and one of the initiators of ICT4D research, talked about early beginnings and future opportunities in ICT4D research. He explained how some research elements in ICT4D research are still common from the inception of IFIP WG9.4 conferences to date. The important elements are contextual understanding, and participatory designing, for instance, inclusion of local people and indigenous development. He also mentioned that ICT is one of the necessary elements in development process, but not the sufficient. Then, he directed our attention towards future challenges and opportunities in ICT4D research domains. He expressed that ICT4D research is becoming a more multidisciplinary by nature, and IS scholars need to derive knowledge and expertise from various other disciplines. However, at the same time, he mentioned that the opportunities for doing action research and exploring new methodologies and technologies also opened new doors to IS scholars. He also advocated that academic theories can be useful to conduct empirical case studies vis-à-vis practice. Finally, he appealed the conference participants to consider the ethical agenda, thus permitting the least advantaged to share in the benefits that so many people in the world now take for granted.

In addition to Keynote speeches in the conference were panel debates, papers and posters presentations, and demonstrations. Total 48 papers and 5 demo/posters, in addition, a set of 4 ‘Nepal Showcase’ posters and 6 IPID posters were presented in the conference. Authors of submitted papers were from various developed and developing nations, such as South Africa, Norway, UK, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand, USA, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Albania, Canada, Ireland, Malawi, Sweden, Thailand, Colombia, Ethiopia, Greece, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Switzerland, Tajikistan, UAE, Vietnam and Nepal. Large number of contribution from all around the world provides some evidence that the IFIP9.4 group continue to remain relevant to the ICT4D audience. Paper sessions were oriented towards important ICT4D themes, such as contemporary research, theories, impact assessment, context, mobile for development (M4D), eGovernment, public internet access, open source software, mHealth, eHealth, and relevant ICT actors and their actions for national development.

There were three panels in the conference. These panels were chaired by Sundeep Sahay, professor, University of Oslo, Jacques Steyn, Head of School of IT Monash University, and Robert Davison, Editor-in-Chief, EJISDC. They raised proactive debates on practicing, teaching and publishing ICT4D research. The panel provided a good opportunity to bring various actors from academia and practice in a single platform. One of the panelists, Rabi Karmacharya, Executive director of OLENepal, emphasized on developing local contents for ICT4D project sustainability. Dr. Dhital, an initiator of telemedicine project in Nepal, suggested telemedicine can provide virtual doctors to the remote places. Likewise, panelists from academia focused on applying action research to promote mutual informing between academia and practice.

One of the attractions of IFIP WG9.4 conference was IPID session. Where, postgraduate students presented their research works and raised challenging questions during their presentation. The aim of the session was to support postgraduate students in their research in a creative and friendly atmosphere where they can discuss and help each other. The session was helpful for postgraduates to share their experiences in the ICT4D field in order to gain more knowledge on how ICT use for development can be improved. The session was co-chaired and facilitated by Chrisanthi Avgerou, Professor, LSE, and Gudrun Wicander, IPID chair.

Overall, the conference concluded with the end-note that technology is a means of generating information which can be used to enhance the capabilities or freedom of underprivileged people to improve and lead their lives which they value. Having said that, we need to understand local context, need to develop local contents, need to involve indigenous actors, and need to conduct more action research. And, IFIP WG9.4 conference can serve as a central platform to exchange information, knowledge, and experience from ICT4D research and practice.

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.

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ICT, SOCIAL CAPITAL AND DEVELOPMENT

While the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in fostering socioeconomic development is generally accepted, the process through which this may happen remain unclear. In this paper, we take a social capital perspective and propose that ICT helps to create or strengthen social capital of communities which in turn leads to development. To illustrate our proposition, we conducted a qualitative case study in the Myagdi district in the mountain region of Nepal. We studied the Nepal Wireless Networking Project (NWNP) and examined its role in building social capital, and the consequences of extended social capital on socio-economic development process. Our findings indicate that the project is enabling the villagers to create, maintain, and extend their bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. Subsequently, this social capital assists them in developing and improving their education, healthcare, communication, and generating economic activities. We also identified several challenges such as, over dependency on single actor, high illiteracy rate, poor physical infrastructure, language, and lack of participation that may impede the social capital building process.

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ICT and Society

Current news on growing rate of internet usage and installation of mobile towers in Nepal shows that more and more people can have access to pools of information and bridges of communication. The growing web of information and communication technology (ICT) can be a boon to people living in urban areas in general and remote areas in particular. Plenty of literatures, anecdotes, and empirical studies show that proper design, implementation, and execution of the technology can leads to extended social ties, better education and healthcare opportunities, and advance commerce activities, at the same time, more inclusive participation in political decision making.

In the context of Nepal, assessment of information and converting it into valuable knowledge, however, remains an issue. Likewise, the threat of social exclusion is another important issue that needs to be considered before realizing the joy. We cannot ignore the fact that majority of the population is still out of technology reach. And, the extension of towers is just one of the necessary conditions of development, but not the sufficient condition. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen argues that the primary end objective and the principal means of development should be focused on individual substantive freedom, such as education, healthcare, environment, gender equality, and political participation; so that they can lead a life they have reasons to value.

Even philosophically, technology means more than just a technical intervention. The word technology derives from the Greek techne and logos. Logos means word, thought, reason, which in turn could be interpreted as a form of knowledge. Techne means art and craft and is one of three ways of knowing as described by Aristotle, the others being episteme and phronesis. Techne describes the practical knowledge used when producing art and craft, episteme describes the abstract theoretical knowledge in science and phronesis describes the social knowledge used in our everyday relations with other people. The impact of the ICT therefore, should be directed towards phronesis or social welfare.

To warrant and back up this unequivocal claim provided below some statements made by prominent people working in the area of ICT and society in Nepal.

Mr. Karmacharya, executive director, OLE Nepal, stated:

Getting more teachers training, building schools, building classrooms, in spite of this, we are not saying that we should stop it, but in parallel let’s start looking into quality. One of the best ways is to introduce computers like OLPC in the classrooms… other thing technology can do is from the communication aspects, it improves the access, so now they[students in rural and remote areas] can go to school and access lot of quality education materials. Many places every year in remote areas don’t even get the textbooks, sometimes the books arrived when the academic year is over, so we are facing lot of these challenges. By introducing technology we can update and send the materials immediately, and easily access the materials. These are the things we can do with technology.

Dr. Dhital, Doctor, Kathmandu Model Hospital, Stated:

Currently we are in a very initial stage [talking about telemedicine project]…daily video conference can provide continue training to the health workers in the remote area. And secondly, at the time of emergency, they can bring patients before camera. Our effort is that health workers here in the village become efficient. The people in this village should trust them more, and ultimately it will benefit village people.

Mr. Joshi, Director, www.thamel.com expressed:

In the rural areas, there is always a misconception that there is no market. What works in urban obviously not work in rural areas, but the thing is all the rural areas have there own socioeconomic dynamics. Where we can plug in the technology and create some kind of socioeconomic opportunities… people in every village in the mountains like Nangi and Tikot are working somewhere else…So there are people making money and there are people sending money to villages…right now the remittance service in the middle of four or five villages can stop villagers to come down to Beni (district headquarter). If we bring that remittance service in the village then they don’t have to come down.

In the similar strand,

Dr. Pun, Team Leader, Nepal Wireless Networking Project expressed his optimism:

One of the reasons I involved in this project is because I have seen that this has good potential to provide some very basic services to the rural community. Like health and education services…Because there is no way Nepali government is going to build hospital and bring doctors in the rural areas … as it cost so much money to do that… also you can see a lot of good schools and colleges are in the urban areas… students are getting opportunity to get quality education there but students in rural areas are not. So there is a huge education gap…therefore, I think ICT can help to bring this education gap closer. Similarly, to make this project sustainable we have to generate income, that’s why we are working in ecommerce project and internet telephony.

Finally, this article acknowledges the role of information and communication technology in fostering socioeconomic development, however, at the same time, put emphasis on understanding the process through which this may happen.

Crafting research proposal

One of the interesting, challenging, exasperating and demanding moments of PhD is writing research proposal. I had a similar experience while writing my proposal. I experienced the tantalizing moments of finding research topic, structuring research questions, finding theoretical framework, research methodology and philosophical underpinnings. Through this article I would like to share the experience of intellectual labor pain, which may be helpful to other PhD candidates. Beware, this is one of the many ways to explore and inscribe research proposals. I coined it as crafting because it is both a science as well as an art.

My exploration started with finding a suitable research topic. In my opinion, finding a research topic doesn’t imply finding a title for the research. The topic implies the comprehensive knowledge of the phenomenon that you want to examine. I followed two basic principles to identify my research topic. The first principle was my personal motivation for the topic, for instance, I was interested in understanding the link between information and communication technology (ICT) and socioeconomic development of developing countries. Therefore, I started to read related literature, case studies, and UNDP reports, furthermore, discussed with researchers and practitioners in this research domain. After reading loads of literature, I was still not be able to find a link between ICT and development. Aha! And that was the clicking point in my exploration moment; consequently, I formed my initial research topic. The topic was ‘finding a link between ICT and socioeconomic development in developing countries’. Now, the second principle was relevance of the topic to the contemporary society (academic and non-academic), for example, I asked myself what are the implications of my study on policy makers and practitioners of the third world countries, likewise, I asked, whether academic world were interested in this research topic. By going through the reports and research articles, I identified the relevance of subject; I found that the topic of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) was a hot subject of discourse in academia and non-academia. Therefore, I decided to continue with this research topic.

The second task after finalizing the topic was to identify the philosophical, theoretical, and methodological underpinnings. Initially, to me, the term ICT4D sounded easy; however, after going through the process of inquiring its anatomical features, my views were completely different. I identified four complex topics and philosophies concealed inside this easy looking term ICT4D. The ICT4D was composed of multidisciplinary subjects, ‘I’ information, ‘C’ communication, ‘T’ technology and ‘D’ development. It was a pretty tough time to find relevant theories that integrate all these four fragmented alphabets. To understand this gigantic subject, I decided to read multidisciplinary literature, such as computer science, information systems, and development studies. As Richard Heeks stated, from computer science we learn what is possible with digital technology; from information systems we learn what is feasible with digital technology; and from development studies we learn what is desirable with the digital technology. At the same time, I attended many ICT4D related seminars, summer schools, workshops and conferences. During that time I always tried to relate gained knowledge, experiences, and insights with my research topic. It truly helped me to blend my scattered knowledge. Three courses that directly contributed to understand the subject were philosophy of science, theory of information systems, and research methodology. The philosophy of science course taught me to understand the meaning of concept through micro-analysis of the concept; the theory of information systems helped me to understand the ICT and its implications on society; the research methodology course helped me to find the suitable method, tools, and techniques for data collection and data analysis. Finalizing research methodology is an equally difficult part of the proposal crafting process. The philosophical understanding, such as paradigm, ontology and epistemology helped me to recognize the particular theory and methodology for the research topic. These philosophical, theoretical and methodological connections are important to define our work as a science.

Crafting a research proposal is a hermeneutic circle as Gadamer expressed,” The hermeneutic circle is an iterative process through which a new understanding of a whole reality is developed by means of exploring the detail of existence. Understanding is linguistically-mediated, through conversations with others in which reality is explored and an agreement is reached that represents a new understanding,” similarly, crafting requires to read in breadth and depth, to relate concepts with theories, philosophies and methodologies, to write and rewrite, to present, discuss, listen, and sometimes defend. Writing research proposal is not a mere process of copying and pasting ideas, but it’s a rigorous process of Structuration through learning and reflecting. The outcome (research proposal) of this intellectual labor pain will leads to rigorous and relevant empirical study vis-à-vis theory and practice.