Rural Community ICT Applications: The Kothmale Model

Abstract

Spectacular growth in information and communication technologies (ICTs), and specifically the internet, has the potential to offer a new generation of tools for rural development. The internet, with its huge quantities and variety of content, i s increasingly becoming an effective delivery and exchange system for information and knowledge, continuing education and learning. However, rural ICT requires special efforts to create appropriate models for those who can neither afford the Internet access nor have the language capacity to understand the content. 1New information and communication technologies represent perhaps the greatest tool to date for self-education and value-addition to an individual or community's own efforts for development, yet poor rural communities do not have the necessary awareness, skills or facilities to contribute to their own development using ICTs. The majority and those with the least resources in South Asia are being left out of the benefits of these new technologies and more importantly, rural areas do even have a foothold in the revolution that ICTs are ushering in.Parallel to other increasing forms of inequity, there is an evident gap, widening at an exponential rate, between those with access to media and ICTs as p roductive tools and those without. Closing what has become known as 'the digital divide' is particularly important precisely because digital ICTs cut across and add value to all fields of development and offer applications to bridge the spectrum of inequities of which the 'digital divide' is only an extension or a symptom.The communication scenario along with the political context in the island nation of Sri Lanka is very much similar to most its South Asian neighbours. The metropolis and regional centres are witnessing rapid expansions in telecom and media sectors while telephones, electricity and clean drinking water are luxuries for many in the countryside.The absence of relevant experience is major barrier for rural ICT usage. One example that offers some useful insight and successful elements for a model is Kothmale Community Radio and Internet in central Sri Lanka. KOTHMALEThe internet project at Kothmale was initiated in 1998 -by UNESCO in partnership with a series of Sri Lankan and international agencies 2 -specifically to address 'the digital divide' The elements that make Kothmale stand out in the field of ICT projects are the 'marriage' of internet with local community radio and the innovation in raising rural community awareness of ICTs that this convergence has allowed. Radio Web BrowsingThe community radio station broadcasts a daily 'Radio Browsing the Internet' programme, and in this programme, the broadcasters, supported by resource personnel, browse the Internet on-air together with their listeners and discuss and contextualise information in local language. The radio programme thus contributes to raise awareness about the Internet in a participatory manner, the listeners request the broadcasters to surf the WEB on their behalf and the programm...

The Internet and poverty in developing countries: Welfare economics versus a functionings-based approach

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