The Number in my Pocket: the Power of Mobile Technology for the Exchange of Indigenous Knowledge

Elizabeth Greyling and Niall McNulty

Introduction/Background

• The global information economy is driven by the Internet

• The African information community has limited access to ICTs for reasons of cost, accessibility, etc.

• Local African content on the web is low due to capacity to record, transfer and disseminate information

• Limited role of heritage and information practitioners as providers and gate-keepers of African information

• Limited buy-in to digital resources by local communities, retarding of digital skills development and socio-economic transformation

Introduction/Background - continued

• Increase in the use of mobile devices in urban, peri-urban and rural areas along city boundaries

• Mobile technologies are currently being developed for a wide range of applications, with functionalities to allow potential users to interact

• Libraries moved focus towards patron-focused services, in particular the provision of digital information material

• Ulwazi Programme - a micro-level intervention that combines IKS and appropriate technology to address the digital divide on the communities’ terms, prompted by their own experience of their reality

Goals/Objectives

• To enable local communities to become part of the global information society

• To make African stories part of the global information economy

• To build capacity in digital communication skills

• To make Libraries and Information services relevant in the quest for social transformation

• To promote community participation in local government structures

The Ulwazi model

• Three cornerstones on which the programme rests:

• Community - who is the most important member in the partnership

• Library - who is the anchor partner providing security, support and continuity

• Technology in use – the most dynamic aspect of the programme, using open source software and social media

The Community• We regard the community as the most important member in the partnership

because:

• Through volunteer field-workers, the community records their own knowledge in a community-specific way, adding an inalienable, imprescriptible value to it

• Participants communicate with each other in a community-specific way, enriching social interaction processes and thereby building social capital

• Social networks thus established promote the attainment of economic outcomes

• Community participation - contributes to the protection of local knowledge

Community participation

The Library

• Anchor partner – stability of position, both within the community and within the government structure through which it is established; providing infrastructure

• Providing training, supporting technology and data collection

• By virtue of the profession, the library provides content management and information skills

• Cultural and historical data is curated in a socially distributed fashion, as a ‘living document’, a ‘work in progress’

• The library is responsible for programme review and re-direction

• Outreach function is in step with UN Millennium Development Goals and the WSIS Action Plans that speak to access, capacity-building and development of local content in the vernacular

Training

Technologies used • We use a combination of open-source and social media applications for

archival and heritage purposes

• A conscious decision was made to use open source software based on availability, licensing fees and a common philosophy of sharing. These include:

• LAMP server hosts our website • MediaWiki used to manage the Community Memory database • WordPress used for blogging (main programme blog and project specific

blogs)• Creative Commons Share and Share Alike Licence

• Social media applications are used to create new entry points for the programme. These include:

• Facebook, Twitter & Flickr

How it works

• Potential volunteers are identified through consultation with local community leaders

• Training is then provided to volunteer field-workers in digital media, oral history and ICT skills

• They go back to their communities and collect stories, adding them to a collaborative website hosted by the Ulwazi Programme

• Field-workers also transfer skills to interested community members

• The system is open - anyone can access the information and add or edit a story

Going mobile – the number in my pocket• Access to the internet via mobile phones is more common in South Africa than via

desktop connections and most new phones come with a basic browser installed

• We felt we needed to develop a way to make the information in the Community Memory available on mobile phones and also to explore ways of collecting heritage resources through mobile phones

• As phase one, the Community Memory database was adapted to work on mobile phones

• A scaled down version of the interface was created, with limited graphics and functionality; a script was installed on the server which automatically detects when a mobile phone accesses it and which then serves the scaled down version to the user

• Currently , eight percent of visitors access the website through a mobile device

Analytics report: Mobile

The mobile field-worker

• As an extension of the already successful field-worker programme, we are thinking of implementing a mobile field-worker programme

• Interested members of the community would register with the Ulwazi Programme, and would receive training and clear instructions on how to conduct a mobile submission

• Using a free Gmail address, field-workers could submit an article, audio-recording or image via email from their mobile phone

• By setting up a unique email address on our server, post@ulwazi.org, and assigning it publishing rights in the database, all emails sent to this address could be converted into entries in the database

• The subject of the email becomes the title of the page, the content of the email becomes the copy of the page and any attached media inserted into the page

• For users without a browser on their phone an SMS gateway could potentially be developed, which converts the text message to an email

Technology in use

Analytics report: Visitors

Analytics: Global

Analytics report: Location

Analytics report: Search Terms

• Umemelo - traditional 21st birthday celebration

• Umbembesco - a Zulu traditional ceremony that forms part of ilobola negotiations

• Izaga - Zulu proverbs

• Zulu houses - information on traditional building practices

• Izinganekwane - traditional Zulu children’s stories

• Indigenous games - a category devoted to South African indigenous games

• Umbondo - Umbondo is one of the stages of lobola

Results

• We have proven that specific technologies for recording and uploading of Indigenous Knowledge in an ordered, structured and controlled manner can be done

• Currently around 700 articles, half of them in Zulu (the local vernacular), provide online access to local Indigenous Knowledge

• Web analytics show a steady increase in visitors - from Durban, the rest of South Africa and internationally

• Most of our visitors arrive through search engines such as Google which suggests that people are searching for local information online

• At a recent pilot project run at township and rural schools, the mobile fieldworker concept was met with great enthusiasm and easily mastered

• Over the past year, we have seen a steady increase in access via mobile devices

Lessons learnt

• High turnover of fieldworkers

• Incentives sustain interest

• Communication with fieldworkers problematic

• Training is a slow process

• The programme is labour intensive

• Community people are keen to participate

Limitations

• We are practitioners providing a service in a public library environment, relying on available research which leads to assumptions about ICT understanding and usage patterns

• Low levels of ICT literacy and understanding of the Internet in communities make it difficult to explain the objectives of the programme fully

• Despite efforts from the fieldworkers, participants have a poor grasp of intellectual property rights (Creative Commons) which limits their understanding of the implications of their participation in the programme

Potential outcomes

• Preservation and management of local Indigenous Knowledge

• Economic empowerment through skills development

• Enhancement of self-esteem and self-confidence impacting on advancement of social capital

• Knowledge provision carries the seed to behaviour changes and informed decision-making leading to social transformation

• Collaboration and knowledge sharing bring about cross-cultural understanding and tolerance

• Public libraries in Africa re-affirm their relevance in a digital era that threatens to render them redundant.

Ulwazi Programme

Thank you for your attention!

!!

www.ulwazi.org