D.Net @ PAN Localization Phase II

Ananya RaihanExecutive Director, D.Net

January 25, 2005

Goals

• Knowledge generation and sharing for broader constituency

• Thriving to play a visible role in ICT and development policy

• Sharing Best practices in South Asia and beyond

Brief of D.Net’s activities

• Research and action in six thematic areas– Access to Information and Knowledge– Governance and Human Rights– Human Resource Development– Institutional Capacity Building– Business Competitiveness– Economic and Policy Research

• Access to Information and Knowledge– Programme 1.1: Pallitathya: Sustainable Rural Livelihood Information Network

• Project 1.1.1:Impact of ICT carried Livelihood Information on Rural Communities of Bangladesh

– Sub-Project 1.1.1.1: Evaluation of Pallitathya Programme– Sub-Project 1.1.1.2: Can Access to Information Improve the Situation of

Temporary Domestic Migration due to Monga• Project 1.1.2: Access to Information for Improvement of Rural Livelihood• Project 1.1.3: Mission 2011• Project 1.1.4: Abolombon 2

3 programmes

10 projects

9 sub-projects

P A L L I T A T H Y A

Exchange of livelihood information for sustainable rural livelihood to contribute to the efforts of poverty alleviation

Why?

Theme 1: Access to Information and Knowledge

The Test Ground: Pallitathya Kendra (a common access point in the community)

Nilphamari Information CentreInaugurated at November 26, 2005

Bagerhat Information CentreInaugurated at September 17, 2005

Netrokona Information CentreInaugurated at October 16, 2005

Noakhali Information CentreInaugurated at October 23, 2005

P A L L I T A T H Y ATheme 1: Access to Information and Knowledge

Research & Content Development

Villagers come to Pallitathya Kendra for suggestions and advice

Villagers need information at the point of their need

Infomediary briefing in a regular meeting with villagers

Mobile Infomediary at door to door for reaching the un reached

Help Desk

Helpline

Issue based camping: link with local service providers

Feedback

How does the Pallitathya Kendra work ?

P A L L I T A T H Y ATheme 1: Access to Information and Knowledge

Brief of D.Net’s activities

• Access to Information and Knowledge– Project 1.1.5 Utkarsha: Information System for Improving MFI Services

(PKSF)– Project 1.1.6: Jeeon.com

• Sub-project 1.1.6.1: Bangla livelihood content development with Bangla CMS development

• Sub-project 1.1.6.2: Jeeon- Thikana• Sub-project 1.1.6.3: Jeeon-Karmashangsthan• Sub-project 1.1.6.4: Teletathya: People’s Call Centre• Sub-Project 1.1.6.4: Moni the Mobile Lady [ Audio-visual Content]

– Project 1.1.7: Innovative solutions• Sub-project 1.7.1: Solar Charger for Lap-top/ PDA (BUET)• Sub-project 1.7.2: Bangla PDA Browser and Sustainability

JEEONThe Information Knowledge Base (JEEON-IKB)

Off-line and online content database in Bangla

Particularly suitable for rural people – even those unable to read and write with the assistance of ‘Infomediary’

People get response to daily queries such as what, where, why and how in the areas of livelihood information requirement

P A L L I T A T H Y ATheme 1: Access to Information and Knowledge

Pallitathya Help Line• To understand the nature of information

needs that can be satisfied through a ‘help-line

• To identify the most cost-effective and efficient set-up of a ‘help-desk’

• To test the feasibility of a business model around activities of the ‘help-line’

• To identify how the ‘help-line’ model can be replicated or integrated with broader development projects

Mode of HelplineMobile to Mobile (Instant)Mobile to Mobile (3 days)Mobile to Letter/Email (7 days)Letter/Email to Letter/Email (20 days)

Mobile Infomediary helping the villager for asking livelihood queries to the Help Desk

Expert responding villagers queries from Help Desk at Dhaka

Received: Global Gender and ICT award 2005

Teletathya

Brief of D.Net’s activities

• Access to Information and Knowledge– Project 1.1.8: Sustainability of Telecentre– Project 1.1.9: Telecentre Times [Bangla and English version]– Project 1.1.10: Reference system for telecentre (Ugabytes)– Project 1.1.11: Bangla Localization Project

• Programme 1.2: Bangladesh Online Research Network (BORN) www.bdresearch.org

• Programme 1.3: Gunijan: Building a proud heritage www.gunijan.org– Project 1.3.1: Online Journal– Project 1.3.2: School Event

• Recently D.Net team has finished localizing a open source Content Management System, Joomla v1.12

• D.Net has developed local language content on 9 thematic area (mentioned earlier) which has about 30 thousand pages of local language content

• D.Net developed search engine in Bangla for using for searching content on www.jeeon.com

• D.Net is maintaining 3 websites www.jeeon.com, www.gunijan.org and www.abolombon.org in Bangla

• D.Net is providing training on local language content dissemination in rural areas

• D.Net’s team members are working as consultant for developing monograph on localization of ICTs to sensitize policy makers

D.Net’s current activities on Bangla localization

PAN Localization Phase II : D.Net’s Involvement

• Identification of content need of three stakeholder groups in rural areas

• Identification of appropriate channel for content delivery• Identification of proper form of content like text, image, audio, video

etc.• Development of training material for local language content

development• Development of training material to train people how to delver local

content (infomediary training)• Conduct local language content development training• Conduct content delivery training• Conduct research to assess the time and quality efficiency of

Manual and Automated Content Development. Some content will be developed as a by-product of the project, which will be open content.

D.Net is experimenting impact of access to livelihood information and knowledge through four Pallitathya Kendra (telecentres) since 2005. D.Net’s Pallitathya Kendra delivers local content to rural people and operates helpline on

• Agriculture• Health• Education• Awareness• Appropriate technology• Law and Human Rights• Non-farm economic activity• Disaster Management• Rural Employment• Directory Service

• From the livelihood questions database D.Net will identify content need

• D.Net will also conduct one-on-one interview for capturing cognitive aspects of content

Content need identification

Channels of Content delivery• PC-based:

– Off-line content• Direct browsing by the users• Searching and delivery of content by the infomediary

– On-line content• Direct browsing by the users• Searching and delivery of content by the infomediary• On-line chat• E-mail exchange

• Mobile Phone-based– Consultation with help desk exert through mobile lady

• PDA/Smart Phone-based– Off-line content

• Direct browsing by the users• Searching and delivery of content by the infomediary

– On-line content• Direct browsing by the users• Searching and delivery of content by the infomediary

• Printed content• DVD/CD Player-based

– Video content– Animation

Appropriate channel and form identification

Digital offline livelihood content in Bangla language

Villagers browsing livelihood content with the help of Infomediary

Appropriate channel and form identification

Video documentaryEducation cartoon for childrenLivelihood related video for general people

Villagers watching video documentary for livelihood information

Appropriate channel and form identification

Content Forms• Interactive

– Real-time Voice– Real-time Text

• One-way– Text-picture– Picture– Text– Audio– Video– Animation

Appropriate channel and form identification

Training module for content development and Infomediary training

D.Net will follow the following process for training material development

Deployment of experts for developing training modules on what?Identification of cultural and cognitive characteristics of end-usersFinalization of required skill mix of content developersDefining specific components needed for providing trainingDevelopment of first version of training modulesHolding workshop with expert groups for consultationPreparation of final version manual for conducting trainingUsing the manual in a trainingIncorporating lessons learnt from the trainingPublication of first version of training manualIncorporating lessons learnt from refreshers trainingTranslation of training manual in Bangla languagePublication of final manual for training

1. D.Net will select 15 participants for local language content development and provide a two weeks training to build capacity to develop content in Bangla for websites

2. After six month a refreshers training will be provided to the same group

3. There will be a survey among the participants to asses their skill improvement and the impact of training

Content development training

Information services

Impact report

Phases

Activities

Outputs

Physical set-up

Select contentDevelopmentteam

MOU for raw content collection

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Identify DomainKnowledge Institutions

Form Identify Prioritize Collect

Train content development team

Identify livelihood information needs

rank info needs

Develop content structure

Test usability by infomediary

Develop Update

Collect more raw contents

Conduct directory survey for update

Improve browsing facilities

Content development team ready

Domain knowledge ready

Prioritized content list and structure

Content raw materials ready

CollectRaw contents

Prepare digitized content

Test suitabilityfor delivery channels

CollectRaw contents

CollectDirectory info

Develop directory database

Content base and directory database ready

Develop browser

Collect feedbackfrom users

Content Development Process

• The same process will be followed for infomediary training through which infomediary training and refreshers training will be provided to 15 infomediary

• There will also be a survey to assess the skill improvement of the infomediary

Infomediary training

D.Net will conduct a research using the Bangla OCR developed by BRAC University to assess Quality and efficiency of Manual and Automated Content Development. D.Net will follow the following process

– Tracking time requirement for typing 0.5 million words of Bangla text

– Tracking time requirement for proofreading of content developed through typing

– Tracking time required for OCR of 0.5 million words of Bangla text

– Tracking time requirement for proofreading of content developed through OCR

– Compression between two to assess quality and efficiency of automated and manual content development

Quality and Efficiency of Manual and Automated Content Development

Thank you