kuching | jan-15 | a research project implemented by universiti malaysia sarawak (unimas)

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Project

A Research Project Implemented by

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)

Supported by

MIMOS Bhd Malaysia, IDRC, and Telekom Malaysia

Overview

• Background of eBario Project

• Objectives of Project

• People Centered Approach

• Benefits of Project to Community

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ICTs for Development

• Rural communities are left out

• Information fosters development

• Can ICTs deliver rural (including remote)

development?

• If so, how, under what conditions, and is

anything else required?

• A RESEARCH initiative to introduce computers, VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminal), telephones, and Internet to villagers in Bario, a Kelabit settlement in Central Borneo.

• Implemented by University Malaysia Sarawak with funding from Malaysian government and IDRC, Canada.

What is electronic

Bario?

• To identify potentials for remote/rural communities in Sarawak to develop socially, culturally and economically from information and communication technologies usage & applications

• To experiment with methodologies to connect rural communities to new technologies

• The initiative is expected to demonstrate the many ways in which ICTs can be used to help marginalized communities in Malaysia to develop socially, culturally and economically.

What are the objectives?

Why Bario?

• Many candidate communities would satisfy criteria for a rural remote location

• Bario – highly isolated and remote

• UNIMAS known to community from previous research into bio-diversity

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Isolated and Remote

“It is one of those few places

in Borneo, and, more widely on

the map of the world where

you can get further away from

a known place, where in fact,

you be more away from what

most people call the world. It

is one of those few places

where you [or I] are likely to be

able to feel more remote, more

cut off from the great outside

world.” -- Tom Harrison

Where is Bario?

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Bario

Remote and Isolated

A Four Week Trek Through Dense Tropical Forest, Air and Logging Road

1950’s

Today Malaysia Singapore

Airlines (MSA)

Malaysia Airlines

Outside National grid & with little info and communication infrastructures

A technical challenge

Ensure success & benefits for

local people

Social and economic

challenge

• Smart School as a

demonstrator application that

includes SMK Bario and SRK

Bario

• A Community telecentre set up

– Gatuman B@rio (Bario

Telecentre)

Implementation ideas…

Technical Project

but

Community Oriented Content

Involving… • The Kelabit People

• University and Government

• Schools

• Private Companies

• Foundations

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Implementation

• Local context

• Baseline studies conducted

• Community members play an equal and active role

• Computers introduced systematically

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A LONGHOUSE BASED ‘COMMUNITY’

There are 10 long houses

dispersed widely in 17 villages

around Bario

20 to 40 families stay in a single

long house

Each family occupies ~25 sq m

with private rooms and open

kitchen

Long houses have common

veranda for meetings and

gatherings

Growing Rice

Harvesting Bario Rice

Kelabit Children

Now

Then

One of the first School Buildings in Bario - built by

villagers

Irau by a successful Kelabit family – 5 out

of 6 children are university graduates

Singing Old Kelabit songs to the family

Charting The Future

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Head Of The Community

Sharing Ideas…

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“Educated Elites” in

Discussions

On Logging in Bario

On e-Bario project

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Potential Areas for ICTs Development

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Technologies

Computers and Internet Access Provided to Secondary school

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Satellite Connection

Power Supply

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Computers and Internet Access for the Community

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Benefits to Bario • Education

– Computer literacy of students, teachers and community

– IT-based Teaching & Learning

– Distance Learning

• Culture

– Preservation of culture

– Family trees & oral traditions

• Commerce

– Tourism/E-commerce

• Accommodation booking

• Handicrafts, rice

• Agriculture

– Assembling, classifying and sharing information about rice production

• Health – Information on upper respiratory

ailment

– Medical information exchanged between medical staff in Bario, Miri, Kuching

– First rural Clinic with Internet access

• Community – Empowerment of community

– Telecentre sustainability

• Technology – Satellite Internet access

– Telephone

– Wireless network

• Tourism

• Human Resource Dev’t – IT Literacy

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Implications

• For development practice

– new skills for extension officers and field workers

• For institutional development

– knowing what skills are required and when to apply them

• For policy-making

– applying appropriate priorities

– making resources available

The Influence of Context

• Ask the right questions:

• How can technology help? not

• How can we use this technology?

• Emphasize the context to answer the right question

• Focus on social, cultural, political and economic profiles

• Integrate new facilities with existing practices

Participatory Rural Communication

Appraisal

• Multidisciplinary, participatory, interactive

• Helps field staff and extension workers develop communication programmes

• Qualitative, quantitative, ethnographic

• UNIMAS and E-Bario

– Surveys, focus groups, interviews, life-stories, meetings, visual ethnography, socio-cultural analyses

Thank you

bpoline@fss.unimas.my