the etuktuk project

“Asian Voices” is a monthly radio magazine programme produced by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) from Singapore. It brings you news, views and interviews on Asian media and communication issues from an Asian perspective. In this first issue of “Asian Voices” Kalinga Seneviratne joins the ‘etuktuk’ team at Kothmale Community Radio in Sri Lanka on a live broadcast from a Tamil tea estate community in the hills. Also included in the program are the following segments:

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The project doesn’t just use radio. Members of the team use a tuk tuk — a motorised three-wheeled vehicle — loaded with a laptop computer, wireless Internet, generator, printer, camera, telephone and scanner.

This mobile broadcasting unit, dubbed an ‘e-tuk tuk’, allows the team to transmit audio information in two ways — using loudspeakers mounted on the vehicle’s roof and broadcasting over the radio via the telephone line.

Historically, news in Sri Lanka was distributed by people who would beat out messages and news as they moved from village to village. Ben Grubb, coordinator of the project, describes the e-tuk tuk as a “modern day, internet-connected drum, beating out news and information as it travels”.

And local people are encouraged to develop their ICT skills. “We encourage skill development in communities, so that they are able to plan, record and edit their own programmes,” says Grubb.

In doing so, he says, the e-tuk tuk, “encourages participation from those who would otherwise be unwilling or unable to access the [radio] studio, due to caste, gender, time or other cultural and logistical factors”.

The etuktuk was recently announced the winner of the Stockholm Challenge GKP award! We are grateful for the recognition of the challenge jury, who said the etuktuk was “a project that electronically expands the community center into isolated rural areas.” The award ceremony took place as part of the 3rd Global Knowledge Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We had a great time at the conference and it was inspiring to see others taking on the concept of the etuktuk. Alcatel-Lucent had their own etuktuk on display. This concept vehicle has already been at several major expositions around the world. Alcatel-Lucent see potential for the etuktuk’s to “enable cost-effective expansion of the broadband footprint” into rural areas. Another etuktuk inspired project was presented at the GK3 conference – the etrike! This is a proposal to build a mobile telecentre to service the urban communities of Manila in the Phillipines. We look forward to working with both these initatives!

For more information on the Stockholm Challenge GKP award please visit the challenge website. http://www.stockholmchallenge.se/news/news/1929

The tuktuk, a three-wheeled motorcycle, is a familiar sight on the streets of South Asia. Its usefulness for getting people from place to place, squeezing into the smallest lanes and over the bumpiest roads, has made it indispensable. But in the rolling hills of Kothmale in Sri Lanka, the humble tuktuk has evolved into something much more than a mode of transport.

The eTUKTUK is a self-contained mobile telecentre and radio broadcasting unit, housed within a traditional three-wheeler, which literally takes the Kothmale Community Multimedia Centre (KCMC) to the community’s doorstep. For more than eight years, KCMC has been serving as an interface between rural communities in the central hill region of Sri Lanka and new communication technologies. The eTUKTUK is stocked with a laptop, battery-operated printer, camera, telephone and scanner, with Internet provided via a CDMA-enabled wireless connection and a 1000W generator for electricity.

By directly accessing villages, eTUKTUK immediately strikes a chord with the local community, and it makes new technologies less daunting by presenting it to users in a familiar environment. The weekly route of the eTUKTUK is broadcast over the radio to inform listeners of the location and time that it will arrive in their community. The two loudspeakers mounted on the roof rack and powered by an amplifier and CD player can narrowcast radio programmes and announce the telecentre’s presence in a village. Judging by the scores of curious observes that the eTUKTUK attracts, it can safely be said that for once, reinventing the wheel actually did make sense.

The previous article is an excerpt from the UNESCO photo study publication ‘from access to engagement’. To download the publication click here

UNESCO releases Photo Study publication on Community Access Centres

The origin of this photo-study publication lies in a simple question: “How can we best capture the exciting developments that are taking place in Community Access Centres?”

Community Access Centres take different forms and go by different names: Community Learning Centres; Community Multimedia Centres; ICT Centres; Telecentres; Resource Centres or Community Libraries. . But whatever their name, the fundamental idea is the same: to facilitate progress from “Access to Engagement”!

In ways small and large, Community Access Centres provide support for breaking the chains of illiteracy or aiding the vocational skills of people displaced by conflict. They have helped young women improve their ability to express themselves and articulate their opinions via community radio or community television. They have also provided young people with useful and marketable skills crucial to their own development. The Centres expose communities to new sources of knowledge and provide hands-on experience in the integration of new technologies such as the Internet with more traditional channels of communication.

Community Access Centres are spaces where local communities translate the vision of human development in ways that make sense to their lives. This photo publication takes you to the places where such wonderful things happen!

To download the publication click here

The etuktuk project was highlighted by a recent publication from AED as an access solution in the telecentre movement.

Three organizations, the Academy for Educational Development (AED), Microsoft® Corporation and IDRC’s telecenter.org collaborated to develop this book, Making the Connection: Scaling Telecenters for Development. Two AED staff, Barbara Fillip and Dennis Foote, were the principal authors of the book. Other AED staff contributed content, developed the published version and created this HTML version. Also, many of the case studies presented in the book are from projects that AED’s Information Technology Applications Center has carried out over the last two decades. Microsoft® provided the funding for the writing and publishing of the book and to develop and host the HTML version for the web. Microsoft® staff also contributed case studies from projects that they are supporting around the world and provided invaluable insights to improving the book’s narrative. The professionals at IDRC’s telecenter.org program also contributed significantly to this book by providing case studies, suggestions for enhancing the narrative and feedback to make the publication more effective

Making the Connection: Scaling Telecenters for Development – This book identifies and discusses the most pressing issues facing the global telecenter movement, presents a condensed view of the current state of knowledge with regard to telecenters, and highlights possible paths forward. The book was developed through a partnership between the Academy for Educational Development, Microsoft® and IDRC’s telecenter.org. The primary goal of this book is help people move forward, to inspire them and whenever possible, to guide the growth of this movement.

The book’s URL: http://connection.aed.org

The time for Community Radio has truly come. The tremendously enthusiastic response that the exhibition on “Community Radio: Innovation, low cost solutions and access” got at the BES Expo -2007 earlier this month in New Delhi, India, demonstrated this loud and clear. The exhibition, organized by UNESCO in collaboration with Plan India, OneWorld South Asia and Care India was an attempt to create awareness about Community Radio and show case low cost technology that can be used to set up radio stations.

The exhibition was held against the backdrop of the new Community Radio policy allowing NGOs and not-for-profit organizations to set up community radio stations for development purposes.

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Exploring New Modalities: Experiences with Information and Communications Technology Interventions in the Asia-Pacific Region – A Review and Analysis of the Pan-Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme.

Author: Michael Dougherty

The Pan-Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme for Asia-Pacific is directed at encouraging original and innovative ICT solutions to development problems. This publication reviews and analyzes 56 projects from 14 different countries funded by the Programme between 2002-2005. Projects are focused on access to information and communication; capacity building and education; policy and social research; technical innovation; environment and agriculture; and health and medicine.

The following is an excerpt from the publication that focuses on the work of the etuktuk project thus far. To download the pdf click here.

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eTukTuk– the Sri Lankan experience
Up in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, near Kandy, I came across an amazing experiment in taking the fruits of ICT directly to the poor. The eTukTuk project is part of the Kothmale Community Radio station and Multi-media Centre. A cursory look at the eTukTuk and one would be tempted to dismiss it as just another Bajaj autorickshaw that’s as common in Sri Lanka as coconut palms. But this is no ordinary three-wheeler: inside the tuktuk is a complete radio-station and telecentre – with computer, printer, scanner, digital camera and Internet connection.

The eTukTuk is the most accessible of telecentres – it putters along the dirt roads of Kothmale, travelling to distant villages, bringing the benefits of ICTs to the homes of the people.

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eTUKTUK, TAKING INFORMATION DOWN THE BUMPY DIRT-ROAD IN SRI LANKA

Up in the hills of Kothmale, about 25 kilometres southwest of Kandy in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, a strange hybrid vehicle can be seen sputtering along the dirt tracks of Kothmale’s villages. At first glance, it is an autorickshaw or tuktuk, a familiar sight on the roads of South Asia and as common on the streets of Sri Lanka as sarongs.

But this is no ordinary three-wheeler. This is the eTukTuk, the world’s first radio-station and multimedia centre on three wheels.

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