When East Meet West: in ICT4D Onno W. Purbo onno@indo.net.id IDRC Sabbaticant Acknowledgement I 'd like to thank International Development Research Center (IDRC) for the sabbatical award as well as the support in the last 12 months. It is a rare lifetime opportunity that not many people in Indonesia and may be in many developing countries will experience it. Thank you IDRC. Disclaimer I am neither a social scientist nor a policy maker, rather an engineer by training. I am very much bias on my experience in ICT community based development in Indonesia. The Course of the Work During the course of the work, I had the opportunity to spent sometime at IDRC office in Ottawa, participating ICT4Poverty in Harvard University, participating in World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and Return to Society on Information Society (RSIS), interact with many ICT regulators, activists, as well as techies from many countries, in various conferences and workshops, in Vientiane Laos, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Chennai India, Dhaka Bangladesh, Johannesburg & Pretoria South Africa and many other regional and international activities to come. Including join the ICT4D mailing list. In addition, IDRC and BellaNet have been very helpful in providing the facility to host the softcopy of my work at http://sandbox.bellanet.org/~onno/. A total of more than 400Mbyte is currently hosted in the sandbox to enable any Internet users in the world to download and get the maximum benefit from the work. Some who download has copy it to CD-ROM and distribute to others in CD-ROM in their respective countries. Furthermore, in December 2003, BellaNet has providing a mailing discussion group called wifi4d@dgroups.org to host the needed technical discussion on WiFi and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). More than 100 members are now registered in the mailing list. The traffic is currently moderate at few mails per week. Two books, on WiFi and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), has been drafted and edited. A hardworking team supported by IDRC has been struggling on the language as well as the substance of the book. Printed materials may extend the coverage of the knowledge spreading. A Life-time Cultural Experience in ICT4D During the course of the work, it is not the technology side, not the policy side that amazes me. Being someone from the east, interact and observing those in other eastern as well as western side of the world. To be honest, listening, hearing reactions, comments, suggestions on our problem in the east from the west, it is full of unexpected surprises. I think I am very much bias, I am still one who think and has an eastern mind-set. In many interactions and hearing other responses, it is the way of thinking, the past experiences, the cultural boundaries set the mid-set and clearly defined the way people react to certain questions and situations. The west, North American, Europe, Japan, Korea etc, may safely define as those who live in a law abide community, less / low crime rate, no corruption, wealthy countries, strong industrial and research ICT communities, and producing technology goods. Unlike the west, the east, the developing country, such as Indonesia, we have a totally different environment, high corruption rate, high crime & cyber-crime rate, high percentage of people live in poverty, mostly user & consumer the technology goods, not much ICT industrial and research activities. The worst side of it, one can easily buy law and policy. The basic instinct & reaction would be different in these two significantly different environments and highly tuned for its respective environment. As human, I believe, we have a minimal instinct to survive. In a higher level of society, it is our instinct to give our benefit others. As in the end of the day, one's value is highly depends on one's benefit to others. It is not surprising to see the western way of thinking, mid set and paradigm are defining the world today. Western world has proven their ability to improve their living standard and reach the current level. Unfortunately, the survival instinct, the way in providing benefit to others is highly depends on our situation and condition. The western way in survival may not immediately suitable for the east. Although the ultimate objective may be the same, way to reach the objective may have to be total different to suite the country condition. Let's observed a simple example of miss-match between west and east. In the free open source software (FOSS), the west seems to insist that open source is a good solution as it provides a low cost solution and enable developers and local ICT industries. There is nothing wrong with such argument. It fits perfectly in many western situations. However, in eastern country, like Indonesia, especially if we want to win the heart of the public at large, such argument may unfortunately fail. Open source software is competing fiercely with a US$3 Microsoft CD in the market. Low cost and developers enabling is not the big issue. It is the functionality of the open source software, the usefulness of the software that may create the open source software penetration the east, especially in Indonesia. People are looking for solution for combating e-mail virus spreading, solution for secure network, solution for reliable server, solution for reliable proxy server etc. Such solution may be easily found in Linux or open source software. The biggest challenge would not be in policy issue rather in capacity building, spreading the knowledge on open source software. Funding and cost is not a big issue, as all processes may be self-finance community based. Sound familiar? Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up It seems there are always two sides of the coin, e.g. Top-down vs. Bottom-up Supply driven vs. Demand driven. Encourage Consume vs. Encourage Produce Written law based vs. Community consensus. Copyright vs. Copyleft, copywrong. Closed Source vs. Open Source Project based vs. Community based movement Project-funded vs. Self-funded Organized vs. Unorganized Centralized vs. Distributed Centralized Cost vs. Distributed Cost Short time project vs. Long-term community based Structured Telco Infrastructure vs. Community based ICT infrastructure Multinational Investment vs. Collective community funded Etc ... We can always expand these two (2) opposite paradigms. It is an art to decide which path to be taken in ICT for development. A painful decision, between See result vs. see sustainable process Rope cutting, celebration, media coverage vs. Silent on going process The path selection is highly tuned to the strength and the condition of the society. I personally would likely to choose a path that would * Create the most significant impact to the society. * But, require minimal funding from outside of the society (self-finance if possible) * And, sustainable in the long run. Unfortunately, in some developing countries, it means the path follows the right hand side of the table. In most cases, no spotlight, no media coverage, and no celebration. Those who has a strong Vision Believe Dedication Commitment May survive in running the path shown in right-hand side of the table. The Art In Sustaining A Development It seems, it is not the technology; it is neither the deployment nor the installation processes. I personally think that the major problem in the development is mainly in how to sustain a development process. A long-term sustainable development process that should run on its own with minimal support from the outside world. If at all possible a development process that generates goods, services and knowledge for the community as well as its surroundings. False starting ground in initiating a development process and use a wrong path might lead to an unsustainable development process. In some cases, no development ever taken place, all installed equipment wasted and, thus, loss in development investment. It is not difficult to find development projects that failed during its development processes and waste of development budget. There are success stories in development processes that able to sustain and grow in a long period of time. One of the examples is the IDRC funded Indonesian Digital Library Network. Started as a voluntary work of a small group of students in an under-budget library at Institute of Technology Bandung with basically no budget to buy book collection. These students volunteer to help manage the library computing facility. Having involved voluntarily in running the library computing facility, exposed to all the problem, it is clear that some sort of digital library platform would be best suited to bridge the gap of non-existence new library collection and low cost knowledge acquisition. The volunteer students lead by young Ismail Fahmi in year 1999 initiate a simple digital library. The initial digital library software creates a small movement among several libraries in Indonesia towards digital library. Identifying the strength would be in interconnecting all libraries and sharing their resources. Thank you for IDRC for supporting the future development of the digital library software. It then turns the whole initiative into a larger digital library network in Indonesia that, in August 2002, connects 80 libraries into the network. It is interesting to note that the sustainability of the network is mainly due to the distribution of the code as open source. People adopt and use the code as part of their digital library for free. The code merges and owns by each connected library. If I understand correctly Ismail Fahmi's group may sustain their activities from some consultancy work etc. Today 2004, Ismail Fahmi has becoming the leader of digital library network in Indonesia. He just finished his master degree in the Netherlands and continuing his study towards Ph.D. The Indonesian digital library network is getting strong at http://gdlhub.indonesiadln.org. The group keeps upgrading the software as demand keep coming. They are now spreading the source code and the digital library software into many institutions as well as many countries. My personal impression on Indonesian Digital Library Network, they reach the current stage & success mainly because prior to engage in IDRC research work: * Ismail Fahmi's group has been exposed to real library problems for sometimes. * Ismail Fahmi's group has been introduced & involved with other libraries. * More important factor is that Ismail Fahmi was a leader as an electrical engineering student. He was very active in the electrical engineering student society. It seems some of the basic ingredient to success is: * A knowledgeable leader. * Prior exposure to real ground problems. * Network with many institutions & people. The sustainability of the network is made possible due to * Distribute the code as open source. * Every single constituent owns the movement / the infrastructure. Example of Simple Self-Finance ICT4D Movement Initiation It was all started in early September 2003 in Ottawa, Canada at Richard Fuchs's office at International Development Research Center (IDRC) eleventh floor. Richard Fuchs, Nancy Smyth and me were getting together and talked about the possibilities to build a more solid open source development communities in Indonesia. Next few months, after going though many stages & phase of community based development; and funded entirely by the communities. Indonesia today has its own community based discussion platform as well as several free servers or open source development. All of these activities are self-funded by the Indonesian communities. Groups.or.id the free mailing list discussion platform is running. As of 1 January 2004, total number of mailing list is 1541 with total unique e-mail subscriber of 34,410. To be honest, the number is too much lower then the claimed total Indonesian Internet users. No one owns the project / initiative, it is an initiative of the Indonesian people. The historical achievement can be traced back in the logbook of Indonesian mailing server project at http://www.ictwatch.com/milisproject/. The first mailing list server is a Pentium III 600MHz. The machine is as a result of collective donation from many people, such as, Donny B.U, Irwin Day, Bona Simandjuntak, David Sudjiman (Leader of KPLI Jakarta), Rio Martin (ITENAS Student), M. Ichsan (Admin Visionnet), Nies Purwati (Secretary General Mastel), Rusmanto (Editor Infolinux), I Made Wiryana (Prof at Gunadarma), Mas Wigrantoro RS (Coordinator GIPI Indonesia), Heru Nugroho (Secretary General APJII), Anton (Manager of Telematics Indonesia), KPLI Jakarta, Onno W. Purbo, Nona and Anonymous. On 31 October 2003. The mailing list server GOUPS.OR.ID was born! Work is currently underway to build various other servers, such as, free webmail / popmail server, development server, as well as many other server for open source communities. Currently there are three (3) servers in addition to the first Pentium III mailing list server. Most of the open source developers can now be find at developer@groups.or.id. Glimpse Impression On Various Visits. I had the opportunity to spent sometime at IDRC office in Ottawa, participating ICT4Poverty in Harvard University, participating in World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), Return to Society on Information Society (RSIS), as well as various conferences and workshops, in Vientiane Laos, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Chennai India, Dhaka Bangladesh, Johannesburg & Pretoria South Africa give the opportunity to interact with many ICT regulators, activists, as well as techies from many countries. Interacting with the regulators and some of the leaders, it is clear that * Most have interest to ICT enable their people / country. * Most talk on objectives and vision level. * Some talk at Strategic level. * At tactical level, most will talk on project, donor funding etc. as well as other typical top-down approach. * There is some East-West miss-match in some of suggested concepts. * Some of the regulators are merely bureaucrats and administrators, not the real leader who can drive the actual movement on the ground. More concern on administrative regulatory aspect such as right and licenses. Interacting with the techies especially on the workshop conducted in Dhaka Bangladesh and Pretoria South Africa, it is clear that most of them are, * Surprisingly very knowledgeable in ICT technology. * Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) seems to be the most interesting topics of all as it is quite new for all. Most of them has been exposed to WiFi and Linux / Open Source Software. * Adopt western industrial model in deploying the infrastructure. * Some of the techies, especially open source techies, would go for low cost solution in deploying their network. * More concern on the operation of the system. Need more drive / support to educate others / surrounding communities. Some Suggestions In Injecting A Sustainable ICT4D in the East What is lacking from the glimpse interaction with both the regulators and the techies is, * Not many ICT knowledgeable leaders among both regulators and techies. The one, who has the vision, knows the way, shows the way and goes the way. * Less concern in human / community capacity building, a long-term activities that no spotlight, no media coverage, no celebration, no rope cutting. * Not many explicitly talk about the publication local ICT books, article in magazine / newspaper. Not many strong local groups of ICT authors who produce the practical ICT knowledge in local language. The next questions are, * How can we effectively inject sustainable development process into the system? * How can we have a sustainable result from the investment? * How can we identify the knowledgeable leader in one society? The one that may sustain the development processes. As mentioned earlier, I personally would seek * Create the most significant impact to the society. * But, require minimal funding from outside of the society (self-finance if possible) * And, sustainable in the long run. Self-finance community education process would be my personal highest priority. To sustain a digital divide bridge deployment, a supply created-by-demand strategy would be crucial. Most failed approaches will likely to use demand created-by-supply path. Demand in information infrastructure as well as ability to exploit the abundant information & knowledge in the infrastructure will only happen in an educated society. Failure to increase the society's level of education will likely to impede the development of information infrastructure within the society. Key success in deploying the information infrastructure would rely heavily on the quality & skill of the human resources. Ability to distribute the needed knowledge & skill at low cost would be crucial in creating demand & needed skilled technician to deploy the infrastructure. Ability to access ICT knowledge in English would be a plus. Interestingly, please note that funding is not the primary concern in deploying ICT infrastructure. If I may put it in point form, the simplified steps would be something like, * Create platform for people to do 2 ways interaction. It is basically to facilitate tacit (implicit) knowledge exchange. It may be Internet mailing list at no cost. * It may take 1-2 years, before some of the individual start analyze and synthesis the collective community knowledge. It is published in written form, such as, magazine, books. It cost US$ 1-2 to access the knowledge by buying the book or magazine. They will produce publications in magazine and books and receive US$ 25 / article or US$ 500 / book. * Some may need physical contact through seminar and workshop to be convinced. We are normally looking at 500-1000 participants / seminar. It costs US$ 3 / person to enter such seminars as many vendors may likely give sponsorship. * In the end, it creates demand within for the "digital divide bridge". Once the demand increases business will respond to the opportunity else persuade people to invest their money into deploying the "bridge". A 50 cents/student/month in a school network or US$15-30/house/month in a US$2000 neighborhood network investment with Return of Investment within 1-2 years is a good enough incentive for people to invest their own money into the "digital divide bridge". Success stories & word of mouth is the typical process to spread the words. * Deploy & maintain the "digital divide bridge" may be done at 50 cents/student/month at school or about US$ 15-30/month/house. Ah, we finally have financially sustainable digital divide bridges with minimal support from the Bank, the government & hopefully license free. * In the end, as more and more people connected to the Internet, pressure will be high for the regulators to work on their policies. Hoping no distortion made during the processes. As shown clearly, all the sequences are self-finance. The normal (not the ideal) sequence would be awareness, demand, business response, and regulation. These steps would not be completed over night. It will take years to complete these steps. Committed leaders & personals are needed for such long-term deployment ICT movement. What Development Agencies could do to facilitate the processes? A careful intervention should be performed in one of the point in demand creating processes. It can be in * 2-way interaction platform - to accumulate & manage community tacit knowledge. * Information analyzing & synthesis processes. Testing & development processes. * Encourage explicit knowledge creation, e.g., in book and article. * Expedite explicit knowledge distribution. Those are the processes that involving a large number of people. It is a long-term process, with very limited interest from commercial sectors to sponsor the process. The communities are currently relying on free services over the Internet. Language barrier would be one of biggest barrier in south-south development strategies. It really impedes the collaboration processes. I personally don't know the best solution to such barrier. Just to give some ideas on the kind of intervention by donor agencies to facilitate the process without disturbing the self-finance & sustainability process of the movement, some of them are, * Creating free mailing list platform at the country's Internet Exchange in confining the discussion traffic bandwidth in the country. It might be possible to work together with yahoogroups.com (http://groups.yahoo.com). To be honest, yahoogroups.com may be the best free mailing list service in the world today. * Encourage knowledge producers. For example, having some sort of ICT book competition to encourage young authors. * Supporting a development server. Where young programmers can try their ideas. In return, they have to publish their knowledge gain from their experiments, in terms of magazine articles, books, both in their local language and English as well as put their script and code under GNU License. The development server might be the most strategic movement. For example, a lot of young Indonesian developers ask me if I have access to free web server with PHP & MySQL capability to test their script. If such approach would like to be performed, we can set the condition for these young developers to publish & share their work under GNU license if they use the server. There are several prerequisites conditions to be considered, namely, * The Development Server should be physically located at the national Internet Exchange for practical reasons, i.e., removing any bottleneck in accessing the service. In Indonesia, the Indonesia Internet Exchange has local bandwidth in the range of Gbps. It is good for the local ISP as we create demand for local connection while reducing the high cost International bandwidth. This may cost some money (funding). * The local co-location service provider must do physical maintenance of the server. There are several co-location / hosting service provider in the country. This may cost some money (funding). * The largest Open Source community in the country must transparently do access management of the development server. Kelompok Pengguna Linux Indonesia http://www.kpli.or.id is currently the largest Linux Open Source Community in Indonesia. Depending on the agreement, this may or may not cost any money (funding). * Every individual / groups should be allowed to access to the development server under certain condition, such as, o All scripts / code must be published under GNU Public License (Open Source). o Must be able to proof publish articles in magazine. o Ability to publish book would be a plus. o Ability to publish work in English would be a plus plus. The Catch Major catch in the suggestions would be: * It is a long-term (years) process. * Rely heavily on the existence of informal committed ICT knowledgeable leader. * Deal with personal, individual, community - not institution, organization.