the etuktuk project

Kosala Keerthirathne, the projects research coordinator, was an invited speaker to the OurMedia 6 conference held in Sydney, Australia where he presented a paper on the activities of the etuktuk and the findings from his research.The OM6 Conference Organizing Committee received close to 200 proposals, from over 35 countries, including academics, activists, community media practitioners, artists, media and social researchers. Participants will represent over 60 universities and research centers worldwide (including 11 from Australia) and over 50 community media organizations, NGO’s and alternative media/arts collectives.

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Today I thought of visiting the Kanapathiwata tea estate line houses to test some of the Digital stories. Pavi had made a Digital story from our last visit to Riverside line houses. We thought of showing the Digital story to the kanapathiwatta people and see how the feedback is.

We left the station at around 3.00 p.m in the etuktuk. We did not carry the usual etuktuk equipment in it because we were not going on a usual recording trip. We go the lap top and pavi got the cassette recorder. From the station to mawathura town it takes about 5 minutes to get there. Its straight down hill. One of the line house colony is also situated in mawathura too which I did my research earlier.

This time we were visiting the upper parts of the Kanapathiwatta estate. From Mawathura we had to take the galath road , a narrow road up hill. After travelling 10 minutes up hill I the main road we took the dusty narrow road which lead to the kanapathiwata tea estate line house community. The road condition was very bad. After few minutes bumpy ride I the tuktuk we could see the houses. There were about 20 line houses situated from the top of the hill to bottom. These line houses were different from the riverside line houses. The river side line houses had 4 houses in a single line and the space for each house was very limited. But here only two houses are there in a single line. And the houses seem to have more space. The houses looked very neat and clean from the outside. Electric cable can be seen going I to the houses which meant that they got electricity too. Water taps were seen in some of the houses. Some houses had nice small gardens too.

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This video was made by Pavitheran from the Kothmale Community Radio Station. It is the result of several visits the etuktuk has made to the community living in the line houses at the Riverside tea estate. It tells the story of the struggles the community have in obtaining fresh drinking water. Pavi along with members of the community have used the video to lobby the local politician to give assistance in fixing the problem. Later in a live radio interview on Kothmale Community Radio the politician agreed to find a solution, as yet he hasn’t acted upon this promise but the community are confident that he was genuine in his intentions and the problem will be resolved.

This work is indicative of how the etuktuk and the local research team is engaging with the local community and mobilising and facilitating their use of mixed-media to solve and the radio station to solve local issues.

The film is in the Tamil language and does not have subtitles.

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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In recognition of emerging need to harnessing information officers/librarians, for the new developments in the community information field, the Sri Lanka Library Association (SLLA), in collaboration with UNESCO organised a Workshop on ‘Life Long Learning through Community Information Provision in a Digital Environment’. The workshop was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo, from 6th to 7th December 2006.

The case study of Kothmale Community Radio was presented by Mr. Sunil Wijesinghe. He shared his experiences through a very informative and thought provoking presentation on ‘Community as producers of information’. He explained the history, setting up of the Kothmale Community Radio (KCR) and expansion of services and development of the webpage in detail.  How community information is created by the members of KCR station especially young children was elucidated.

Mr. Kosala Keerthirathna’s vivid illustration on the e-tuktuk via the KCR webpage caught the keen attention of the audience. He also demonstrated how the e-tuktuk is put to fulfill the information needs of citizens in remote villages and also for the provision of ICT training to under-equipped rural school children.
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The etuktuk was presented at the Wireless Cultures and Technologies Workshop at the University of Sydney, Australia. The presentation was made by Ben Grubb and Jo Tacchi from the Queensland University of Technology.

Wireless technologies and cultures could be said to encompass anything from WiFi-enabled laptops and handheld devices to wireless broadband protocols such as Bluetooth and Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) as well as a range of cultural and community movements centring on wireless networks. While these emerging technologies are of great critical and particularly business interest worldwide, there has been little cultural research and analysis accompanying their uptake in Australia. This lack of attention is notable, given the intense discussion of new wireless technologies in Europe and North America.

This ARC Cultural Research Network workshop aims to generate debate about the current and potential uses of wireless technology in Australia. It will draw together a number of speakers from academia and industry to showcase the kind of research and development taking place in relation to wireless use, with a view to understanding the Australian context in relation to international experience. Among other things, it will provide a voice for growing demands for quality wireless provision in public and private settings in this country. It does this by exploring the benefits of established cultural research methods and theories for understanding the rationales and desires behind technology design and adoption.

Click here to read more about the event.

It was a partly cloudy day and we were afraid that rain would interfere with our journey. We had planned several visits to nearby locations in the etuktuk. Our first destination was to a daycare center located in a nearby tea estate. Estate people leave their children in this day care centre when they go to work during the day. The center is located about 1 kilometer towards ‘Galatha’ area from Mavathura town, approximately 2 kilometers from the Kothmale CMC. The terrain is a hilly area covered with tea plantations.

We got there at around 10.30am and the estate superintendent and the matrons welcomed us warmly. The etuktuk was accompanied by a van and we were able to take two station announcers, researcher, computer trainer, and a local photographer with us. Normally the tuktuk alone could house only three persons including the driver. But occasionally it can be expanded to 4 people with some discomfort.

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