Online+Thematic+Network+and+Community+Examples

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Potential Cases** > > > > > > > > //Identifying CoPs within the World Bank// > >> > http://www.water-for-food.ch/login (there is a guest login to have a look at it) - it just started recently, so they are not yet very active, but there are some things to see on how people introduce themselves to form a community. Contact is balz.strasser@helvetas.org > http://www.sdc-valuechains.ch/index.php?lID=2&navID=51 > > Like a crop growing up from under the ground, solutions from the field of information and communication technologies in agriculture are coming up fast... but their true worth isn't being appreciated enough and is going largely unnoticed by those who could replicate and benefit from such initiatives. > > Dr Krithi Ramamrutham, of the prestigious IIT-Bombay at Bombay asks: "How do you bring technologists, end-users and people in between together? We have been working on these problems at IIT Bombay for a number of years." > > This is the story of an interesting tool meant to benefit the Indian farmer. But how it came about, and what all took to make it happen, is almost as interesting as what it can do today... > > First, diverse strands had to be brought together. To get a solution that works on the field, IIT-Bombay merged Indic text input, iconic (icon-based) interfaces, meaning-based search, digital libraries, community fora, and water-quality sensors. This work also involved fields like e-pedagogy, multimedia content, computer-based training, education, and light databases. > > And the output? aAQUA (a corpus of quickly-updated, demand-driven agricultural information), translations repository (questions asked by farmers in Marathi get translated to English and Hindi), crop recommendations archived by keywords, a crop-keyboard browser (to see if questions have already been answered), a crop doctor (photographs for diseased crops archived by keywords), and bhav puchiye (market rates from across India displayed for farmers and agro-traders). > > "aAqua can be deployed in any domain -- education and health too. It's a very simple idea, actaully. You and I use it for discussing other things. Here, our focus is agriculture. We also need more images, multi-lingual capability, a query facility, and meaning-based search (to make it easy to use for the Indian farmer too)," he told this journalist. > > What's aAQUA? It stands for "almost all questions answered". Says Ramamrutham: "Earlier it used to be called AQUA. Very soon, we added a small 'a' in front of it, that stands for 'almost'. We want to be as realistic as possible." > > Their goal? An online forum allowing "questions from the grassroots to be answered by experts in the field". To make their task easier, there was help from automated agents to recycle archived knowledge. > > They've decided to translate many often-accessed documents into the local language. Likewise, they've created a browser that's specific to the agriculture field. > > http://www.aAQUA.org is where you can see the system come together and work out in action. On the left-hand side are several fora in Indian languages (Marathi and Hindi currently), and English. On right hand side are questions that just came in. The number of members is currently 890, including kiosk owners who represent a number of farmers. By now, the system has notched up some 3200 postings. A post could contains a sequence of Q&As, responses, and feedback. > > The main forum talks about all types of crops. One query, for instance, is about groundnut mulching, and it was answered by an expert of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (or KVK, the local agricultural support network in India). > > "What we've done is sign-up experts from various KVKs. Through photographs you can illustrate the process of using > the answers. Farmers can also post these pictures. You're able to zoom in and out of these pictures," says Ramamrutham. > > Farmers who use the system do feel it helps them. One farmer said he had found the textbookish info not-so-useful, but after visiting aAQUA, a farmer said he had got 90% of the yield he was hoping for, says the team behind the project. > > "When we talk in multilingual India, we often use more than one language even in a single sentence. This tool is multilingual, so you can insert English, Marathi and Hindi words in a single sentence, allowing for seemless integration from one language to another," says Ramamrutham. > > "You can anticipate the questions and be ready with responsive even before queries comes in. For instance, we did this in the issue of birdflu," he adds. > > "The thrust of our work is to develop systems and test them in the fields. Agriculture and irrigation are some priorities areas. So is language, so that information can be given and stored in the form that is accessible to the (Indian rural) end-user. In case the user happens to be semi-literate, we're focussing on various iconic interfaces," says Dr Ramamrutham. > > They've been working in an area in the central Indian state of Maharashtra around the Baramati, Pabal, Pune, Khed areas. Unlike a "normal research lab", the focus here is to actually be relevance to the field, as the professor puts it. > > "We are proud of some of our products, which have already been deployed and tested. We're also looking at commercialisation opportunities," says the IIT professor. > > "Our goal is to create an online forum that is both push- and pull-based. We're allowing questions from the grassroots, to be answered by experts in the field with assistance from automated agents that help recycle already-archived knowledge," says Ramamrutham. > > Work on this first prototype began in November 2003. Oddly, it started just as a course project; then it's potential became clear. "It has been in this shape for about a year," says Ramamrutham. "We started working on it in real earnest, when we saw its full potential. Specially, the work of having documents in different languages." > > "We are now trying to scale up. Our challenge is that aAQUA's reach should be larger. Earlier, most of our clients came from cyber-kiosks; but then kiosks started closing down, because they were not offering a wide enough basket of services," he adds. But the good news is that the base is widening now, and they're also in touch with other big players who they expect to make things grow. > > IIT-Bombay also has a fairly active natural language processing lab. "We try to get most of the language translated automatically, not directly but through an intermediate language known as UNL (universal networking language)," adds Ramamrutham. > > (In machine translation, Universal Networking Language is an artificial pivot language, that relies on the semi-automatic translation from the initial text into its pivot equivalent. Documents expressed in the pivot language can than be automatically translated into another natural language.) > > To access the aAQUA.org site you have to register as a new user, which is not a difficult task. User's past questions are listed, to link this with other earlier issues raised. Making this more user-friendly in a country where varied scripts and languages can act as a Tower of Babel, is a multi-lingual soft-keyboard. This is based on the 'barakhadi' method of writing the Indian alphabets; which is what children are taught when they first learn the alphabet. Without access to a keyboard -- but just a mouse -- one can answer the question in the local language, using a non-Roman Indian (currently Devanagiri) script. > > Once a question is raise, it goes to the experts, who have expertise in the field. Then, this comes back to the farmer who raised it. "This whole thing is web-based. Internet technolgies are being used to the hilt," adds Ramarutham. > > They've also created a technology called agro-explorer. Questions are raised in a more encapsulated form. Here, the idea is to create geographically-relevant information, rather than have a "whole large library" where you don't know where to start. > > In the "Crop Doctor", one chooses a crop. Photographs appear alongside, showing which pests might afflict a particular crop. If you click on a picture, there are curative solutions offered. > > Finally, the last bit on offer relates to pricing. There are many sites which give information, including the Indian government-run NIC. "But these come mostly in a tabular form, which is very hard to navigate. Even for us (who are educated), a large table can be intriguing. We've created an iconic interface, with a map of Maharashtra juxtaposed under various markets. Minimum, medium and maximum prices of that day are shown," says Ramamrutham. > > Sometimes, they run into unexpected problems. Market-yards are reluctant to give information about prices, due to "various practices" they prefer to follow. But, technology is also throwing up other options. "Just yesterday, I tested out a service that brings you agricultural prices via SMS (short-messaging service, on the mobile phone)," says Ramamrutham. > > If you register with the service, and send in an SMS saying 'mumbai onion', in a few seconds you will get prices of the onion in the markets of India's commercial capital of Mumbai. > > "If you just create information, assuming everyting and anything that might be asked, it becomes intimidating for the user. We are working on improving functionality and reducing response time," explains the IITian from a network of prestigious Indian institutions whose alumni was earlier better known for migrating to the West and playing a crucial role in the software industry there. > > Ramamrutham himself grew up in a village in Thanjavur, South India, but after an IIT education, used to work in the US till 1998. He had left India in 1978, and had studied and worked in Utah, US. "(Rural India's poor conditions in) power we can't do much about; networking we can manage. We did create a cached, off-line verion at the kiosk. Farmer can see this and also post any queries. We're most concerned about the quality of responses, how fast it gets back to the farmer, and whether it comes across in a useful way," says he. > > While Ramamrutham calls this a "great learning experience" or them, their work has also been recongised by the Manthan Award, a regional prize for sites with useful content. Says he: "We're looking for going to deeper ways to use this technolgy. For instance, preventive agri-medicine using climate-sensors for crop disease forecasts. Or forecasting disease, going by census and other information. We want to enlarge its scope of applicability." > > They've received requests from the Development Gateway Foundation, interested in the possibility of building such country portals. Maharashtra's government has linked aAQUA.org to its main page at __www.maharashtra.gov.in__ for farmers' questions to come in. Likewise, Pune's department of metrology sees its own use for this technology. MarathiWorld.com would like to use it to answer questions in career counseling. Drishtee, a project in North India, sees potential in this being a citizens' complaints system. > > "I think we're answering the questions and challeges posed (officials and cyberskeptics who doubt the role ICT can play in development) in a fairly systematic fashion, by not just sitting in our labs," says Ramamrutham. > > Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha > > > __[|http://fn.goa-india.org]__ | fred@bytesforall.org > > > > > Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 Useful Links
 * Linking Learners http://www.linkinglearners.net/
 * INARS http://www.dgroups.org/groups/inars/
 * AMARC - rural radio http://www.amarc.org/
 * Cyril's Hot Pepper group on DGroups (plus his workshop blog http://csroberts.blogspot.com/)
 * http://www.enaca.org/
 * http://www.leisa.info/
 * http://www.agroemprendedor.org/
 * [|http://www.uoguelph.ca/~hhambly/]
 * Cases on KM4D wiki?
 * Cases from Web 2.0 Writeshop? POINTER??
 * Can we get some UNDP cases from Kim Henderson?
 * http://europeandcis.undp.org/WaterWiki/index.php/Workspace/E-Moderator-Course#Facilitators
 * http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9906-wikistyle-textbooks-to-aid-poorer-nations.html
 * http://www.nabuur.com/
 * A bunch of examples listed on http://netsquared.org/catlist/tid/60/flexinode-1
 * Social Software Research Wiki https://socialsoftware-research.wikispaces.com/
 * Ghana Agricultural Information Network System http://www.gains.org.gh/
 * PestNet PestNet ( http://www.pestnet.org/ and http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pestnet/ ) and CariPestNet http://www.caripestnet.org/ deal with plant protection: insect pests, pathogens, weeds, quarantine issues and give tentative identifications. They use email; they are fast and the services are free to members. PestNet has been going for over 6 years, has about 675 members and more than 4000 messages have been exchanged; CariPestNet has a smaller membership and has operated since 2003. Both are highly successful.
 * Regional Agricultural Information Network (RAIN) of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA, [|http://www.asareca.org]).
 * http://www.ilo.cornell.edu/index.html //Ilo,// the Malagasy word for //lumière,// symbolizes our expectations for enlightened debate. Its second meaning, //to facilitate the joining of pieces together through lubrication,// embodies the spirit of teamwork and interaction of our partnership. Information sheds light on dialogue. Dialogue is the essential lubricant enabling the citizens of a country to move forward in a common direction. By bringing two experienced teams from Cornell and PACT together, //Ilo// is working to improve the policy making process in Madagascar.
 * Joitske Hulsebosch's review of communities:
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/08/practical-examples-community-of-ict4d.html - Community of ICT4D trainers
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/08/practical-examples-interview-with-bill.html - ILO/CIARIS experiences in lusophone Africa
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/07/practical-example-experiences-with.html - Communities of practice in India
 * http://www.intercooperation.ch/offers/download/ic-india/wp-1.pdf/view
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/05/practical-examples-cops-in-ghana.html - CoP in Ghana (http://www.ginks.org/)
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/04/practical-example-tech-forum-in-kumasi.html - Tech forum in Kumasi, Ghana
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/03/practical-examples-community.html - community empowerment network Central Asia
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/03/practical-example-ayuda-urbana.html - Ayuda Urbana, urban development in C and S AmericaAm
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/10/practical-example-communities-of.html - Communities of practice at CARE International
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/11/technology-e-collaboration.html - E-collaboration amongst Dutch development organisations
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/11/practical-example-thailand.html - Thailand
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/11/practical-example-community-of.html - Community of practice on e-government
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/11/practical-example-undp-in-india.html - UNDP's experiences in India
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/12/practical-examples-knowledge-sharing.html - UNDP's knowledge networks
 * http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005/12/practical-examples-knowledge-sharing.html - 5 examples from Latin America
 * ttp://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_joitskehulsebosch_archive.html - Obstacles to knowledge sharing in Ghana//
 * //http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/02/practical-examples-identifying.html//// -//
 * //http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/02/practical-example-aquasan-story-of.html//// - Aquasan, a CoP on water and sanitation see also// http://open.bellanet.org/km4dev/index.php?module=uploads&func=download&fileId=199 and the article below
 * //http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/02/practical-examples-km4dev_10.html////////">KM4dev//
 * http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/index.htm
 * "water for food", mainly on aspects of irrigation:
 * Then there are 2 on rural development, which are initiated by SDC, one on skills development and one on value chains. Both can be accessed from here:
 * //http://www.aAQUA.org//////// : Bringing various tools together... for the Indian farmer - By Frederick Noronha
 * http://europeandcis.undp.org/WaterWiki/index.php/Workspace/E-Moderator-Course#Facilitators
 * http://communitiesconnect.wikispaces.com/
 * http://communitiesconnect.wikispaces.com/Wiki+Wednesdays
 * http://mohonk.pbwiki.com/Armenia%20Project
 * http://www.km4dev.org/journal/index.php/km4dj/issue/current
 * http://webcastacademy.net/
 * Brian Lamb's workshop in Croatia last summer http://elacd.carnet.hr/wiki/index.php/Social_Software_Workshop Part of this larger project: http://elacd.carnet.hr/wiki/index.php/E-learning_Toolkit
 * http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9906-wikistyle-textbooks-to-aid-poorer-nations.html
 * http://info.worldbank.org/etools/WBIKO/TGtoolkit/index.htm
 * http://www.e-forall.org/projects.php e-for all - ICT in poverty reduction
 * http://vlibrary.cgiar.org/V?RN=520948592 global agricultural knowledge virtual library (CGIAR)
 * As part of a [|Framework for Technology Development and Delivery System in Agriculture] (pdf format), the Indian government proposes to establish an electronic gateway to agricultural information. (via IAALD http://iaald.blogspot.com/)
 * The July issue of the [|Knowledge Systems for Rural Areas Bulletin] published by GTZ in Germany brings together articles about various networking models from the rural and agricultural development sector. (via IAALD http://iaald.blogspot.com/)
 * CTAs Question and Answer service (article about) http://iaald.blogspot.com/2006/11/exploring-ctas-agricultural-question.html
 * The CTA [|Knowledge for Development] portal recently published some stories about information and communication management (ICM) experiences in some ACP countries.
 * BT, Cisco and OneWorld announced the launch of [|Lifelines India], a phone-based information service, which provides vital information to rural communities in India.
 * http://del.icio.us/iaald
 * http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/madagascar/gazetteer/
 * software, which was developed by Helvetas and and released as open source. It is Lotus Domino-based CoP software: [|http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/Knowledge%20World)]