what do we know about douala? @ idia2013

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT DOUALA?ACCESS TO INFORMATION IN AND ABOUT THE LARGEST CAMEROONIAN CITY

Marta PucciarelliAmalia SabiescuLorenzo Cantoni

New Media in Education Laboratory Faculty of Communication Sciences

USI, Lugano, Switzerland

IDIA Conference,Bangkok, Thailandia1 November 2013

RESEARCH PURPOSEExplore what “access to knowledge” means in the city of Douala, by framing challenges and tendencies in the production and distribution of oral, printed and digital information.

ACCESS TO..INFORMATION OR KNOWLEDGE?

Knowledge is contextualized, alive, embedded in social practices and produced in performative settings, while information is a set of representations or abstractions of prior episodes of knowledge production

(Christie, 2004)

ACCESS AS..PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF:

• Human knowledge (education, skills, know-how and human capital);

• Information (including news, data, and information of public concern, such as data about government and its activities);

• Knowledge-embedded goods (such as software);

• Tools for producing knowledge and knowledge-embedded goods (e.g. communication technologies)

(Shaver & Rizk, 2010)

WARSCHAUER’S MODEL:

PRINTED

&

DIGITAL

INFORMATION

WHY DOUALA?

DOUALA

METHODOLOGY

1. Desk research (mainly scouting digital resources) looking at information about the cultural and safety context of the city

2. Ethnographic observation3. Interviews (n. 40)4. Questionnaires (n. 200)

Two months fieldwork (Dec. 2012 – Jan. 2013)

KNOWLEDGE EMBEDDED IN THE ORAL TRADITION TOPONYMES

KNOWLEDGE EMBEDDED IN THE ORAL TRADITION

RADIO PROGRAMSTV SERIES

Produced and broadcasted in Douala for a local audience

ACCESS TO WRITTEN INFORMATION

• No public library: students’ library of the University of Douala

• Three bookstores, expensive books, no academic bookshops

• Only one Cameroonian publishing house

Physical resources

Challenges

• Foreign and private libraries

• Poor commerce of books in Douala.

• Cameroonian publications in limited editions due to the high production costs

Tendencies

Centre of Documentation and Information : the municipal archive

“(t)here is no standard of relevance in the research and selection of content: pieces of information are picked up from national journals and international magazines and added to the related shelf”

Physical resources: Challenges & Tendences


ACCESS TO WRITTEN INFORMATION Contents: Challenges

• Printed media controlled by the state

• Rare and expensive books

• “Access to information for education in Cameroon is a personal affair”

ACCESS TO WRITTEN INFORMATION Contents: Tendencies

• Documentation on Douala produced by foreigners

• Few private initiatives

DOUALA VILLE D’ART ET D’HISTOIRE (doual’art)

ACCESS TO WRITTEN INFORMATIONHuman resource

• Deficit of 30.000 teachers spread corruption

• Lack of meticulous archival work problems of communication

• Education Development Capacity Building project (World bank) in 2013, government performance rated as MODERATELY UNSATISFACTORY

ACCESS TO WRITTEN INFORMATIONSocial resourceNo public interest and initiative in providing access to information

• No policy, law or official text regulates the issue of libraries and books.

• No public financial support to infrastructures, contents production and training

Diffused private repetitions activities

ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFORMATION Physical resourcesChallenges

• No regular electricity• High cost of computers and Internet fees• Lack of low-bandwidth of Internet connection

Tendencies

• Diffusion of telecenter and second-hand computers

• Diffusion of Internet keys and 3G mobile solutions

ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFORMATION Physical resources: tendencies


Mobile owners


Smartphone owners

Mobile owners


Smartphone owners

AccessingInternet

Mobile owners

ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFORMATION Contents: challenges

Poor online information on Douala• Wikipedia• Public websites• Tourism websites

Tendencies

• Private initiatives • Open Education Resources

“(B)oth teacher trainers and in service teachers are computer illiterates; illiteracy at the school level (teachers and head teachers) was estimated at 96%. There is no public or private ICT pedagogic training centre within the national territory, conducting training for educators at various levels.” (Ndongfack, 2007, p. 10)

Human resources

Challenges

ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFORMATION

ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFORMATION Human resources

Tendencies

WikiAfrica Cameroun and Wiki Love Monument training

• Strategy for implementing the basic education sector ICT policy in Cameroon 2007-2012

• Programme officiel d’informatique pour le premier et le second cycle de l’enseignement général et les ENIEG (2010)

• National Program for Governance and Strategic Management (2011)

Not implemented homogeneously in private and in public schools

ACCESS TO DIGITAL INFORMATION

Social resources

Challenges• Bureaucracy, lack of communication between public departments• Network connectivity (512 k/s)• Little motivation in the demand and production of information

Tendencies

• Free access to Wikipedia through mobile phones

• Asian market of smartphones• Mobile for leisure• Telecenter for mobile services

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

• The predominance of orality and of the role of the civil society as holder and custodian of city growth and knowledge

• The interplay between information production and information access. Need to invest in documenting the city in parallel with efforts for improving access to information

• From oral to digital and the written media gap • Potential of radio BUT limited scope of outreach • Investments in digital production of information; • Locals access digital content using private connections and telecentres; • Usage of mobile phones for accessing leisure content (video streaming

and music) which once again suggests synergies with an oral culture.

• Private vs. public access

THANK YOU!

Marta [email protected]

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS?