Kothmale Community Radio/Internet Project: Expanding the Knowledge Base

|Abstract

Spectacular growth in information technology, and specifically the Internet, has the potential to offer a new set of tools for rural development. However, it requires special efforts to create appropriate access models for those who can neither afford Internet access nor have the language capacity to understand the content. The purpose of the Kothmale Community Radio Internet project was to test and demonstrate an access model that reduces these barriers and empowers marginalized communities in rural areas, enabling them to benefit from ICTs to expand their knowledge base and thereby support their efforts to tackle their development problems themselves.

Application Context 

Kothmale community radio station is located in the central hill region of Sri Lanka, and serves a population of 200,000 people. Sixty villages (with an average population of 400 each) and three rural towns (Navalapitiya, pop. 64,000; Gampola, pop. 56,000; and Hatton, pop. 54,000) are located within the radio station's target area.

The baseline survey conducted before the project confirmed the following factors, which inhibit the extension of ICT benefits to rural communities:

1. Lack of access facilities, such as computers and connectivity in the rural areas. Most people in the developing countries have little or no opportunity to connect to the Internet. The cost of computers is still beyond the purchasing power of the majority of individuals in developing countries. And among development partners there is still a great deal of scepticism towards ICTs as an appropriate means for development in regions where communities lack even the most basic services such as clean water and sanitation.
2. Language barriers in using the Internet. Language barriers prevent people from familiarizing themselves with the benefits of Internet-based information resources, which invariably requires an ability to understand international languages, especially English. Another factor is the high illiteracy rate among poor people.
3. Shortage of appropriate information products in local languages. There is a lack of information tailored to the needs and assimilation capacities of disadvantaged people in developing countries. In order to better adjust their investment decisions, people need updated information on market prices, new agricultural technologies, etc. Moreover, vital government information is not available online, and most countries do not have pro-poor ICT policies.
4. Lack of motivation to use information available on the Internet. Even where connectivity exists, people will not use ICTs unless they are motivated to do so. The prevailing modality of Internet access requires a certain level of competence from the user, which few individuals in developing countries possess.

A New Approach

The Kothmale Community Radio Internet Project, implemented by UNESCO, was the first pilot experiment in Sri Lanka to develop a suitable access model to address most of the concerns above. The Kothmale project uses community radio as an interface between the community and the Internet through a pioneering "Radio-browse" model, thereby introducing an indirect mass access to cyberspace through a daily one-hour interactive radio program. The model is based on the following interdependent components:

1. Facilities such as computers, dedicated Internet connectivity, and trained volunteers are available at the radio station for community members to surf the Internet.
2. The community radio station broadcasts a daily "Radio Browsing the Internet" program from 1900-2000 hrs. The broadcasters, supported by resource personnel, browse the Internet on-air together with their listeners, and discuss and contextualise information in local language. Thus, the radio program raises awareness about the Internet in a participatory manner. The listeners request the broadcasters to surf the Web on their behalf and the program transmits information in response to their requests. This information is explained and contextualised with the help of studio guests. For example, a local doctor may explain data on a health website.
3. The radio station develops its own information database from the requests received from listeners. In addition, the station provides skills to help the community to develop their own Web sites, and encourages them to produce content for the Internet. Nearly 20 individual websites were prepared by community members and hosted on the station's server.
4. The radio station, with its server, provides Internet access at two nearby public libraries. The access points turn the community radio station into a local Internet service provider.

UNESCO provided equipment and supported training of community volunteers. The equipment included six computers, two printers, a digital camera, a router and a server. Sri Lanka's Telecommunication Regulatory Authority provided a free leased line for the two-year pilot period to make the Internet available at the community radio station.

The principal local project counterpart was the Government Ministry responsible for Posts, Telecommunications and the Media. Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, Institute of Computer Technology, Journalism Department of the University of Colombo and Telecom Sri Lanka were among other partners.

The University of Colombo assessed the use of project inputs. For this purpose, the radio station maintained a log book and people visiting the station to surf the Internet were required to make entries about their usage. In addition, cookie files were kept in dossiers to identify the sites most visited by users.

The Institute of Computer Technology at the University of Colombo developed a vernacular database with information essential for rural communities. The database, hosted on the Kothmale server, exceeded six hundred pages; and the community radio continued to add more information based on the frequent query requests received from the radio listeners.

Internet access is free of charge and available throughout the day. Younger members of the community, and women, were among the most enthusiastic users. Due to high demand, users have to reserve their surfing time. The following comment made by a young user explains how he has been able to help his classmates through this facility.

With help of volunteers, within few weeks I mastered the Internet and now I can find whatever I want within a few minutes. Now I am very popular in school because I help my fellow students to prepare their school projects. Recently, there was a special meeting convened in school to appreciate what I have done using the Internet and computers to improve our studies. I have developed a Web site on scouting and I hope to develop this, as there is not enough information in Sinhala about scouting. I have decided to make my future with computers. It is a hard way ahead. I am the youngest of a family of ten, but with the access to these computers at the radio station I have some hopes about my future possibilities.

"Radio browsing" helped people to learn about the benefits of the ICTs, specifically the utility of the Internet. The daily program received an average of five to six requests, which provided the basis for discussions on Internet content and contextualising them in the local environment. Some of these requests were hand delivered while the majority were received on post cards. a few listeners used telephones to ask questions.

The volunteer resource people, such as the doctor, lawyer, teachers and other extension officers took keen interest in the radio-browsing program. The program allowed them to continue in their traditional role as knowledge brokers.

The new awareness of the Internet also encouraged those who are interested to go to the radio station and access the Internet directly, with the support of trained volunteers. More than 20 people visited every day to browse the Internet at the Kothamale community radio station. Only four access terminals are available at the station. But more people had indirect access in vernacular language through the daily radio-browsing programme.

The following few examples describe the utility of Internet access at Kothmale community radio.

1. The village baker found various recipes from the Internet to improve the quality of his products.
2. The funeral undertaker learned more about embalming techniques from Internet sources.
3. The village blacksmith browsed web sites to know more about modern implements for his trade.
4. An elderly woman visited a website of Buddhist sacred places of India, and was very pleased as it was beyond her financial resources to visit the sacred places in person.
5. A farmer accessed the Internet to find information on improved techniques of tomato growing and storage.
6. A group of local producers used the Internet and found export possibilities for "Jaggery," a local product of palm treacle.
7. An English teacher of the local school often visited with his class and downloaded lessons and games for learning English.
8. Many community members opened e-mail accounts at the radio station and used the facility to exchange e-mail with their relatives working abroad.
9. A listener visited to find information on bamboo craft and organised an exhibition of improved bamboo products, which he produced with the new knowledge acquired from the Internet sources.
10. A group of young people used Internet sources and networked with an organization abroad to form an environmental NGO. They then mobilized resources to launch a reforestation program in their community.
11. Radio provided location-specific weather reports (for the coming four days) by reading real-time satellite pictures and whether forecast data from Internet sites.

These are not mere anecdotes, but rather a few examples of what was happening on daily basis.

Implementation Challenges

Kothmale community radio, in true sense, was not a radio station owned and run by the community. The community radio station was managed under the state owned public service broadcasting service, which did not have a flexible administrative system to launch a business plan. To some extent this prevented the community radio from taking advantage of the Internet facility to raise additional income to maintain the leased line connectivity. Among the potential income generating activities were hosting of Web sites, offering e-mail services, conducting computer classes, etc.

The listeners, however, have formed an Internet Listeners Club to raise funds to support the facility. As an initial fund, they have collected US$300. The Listeners Club has sought permission from Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation to allow community ownership of the project.

Benefits and Costs

The mid-term assessment of the Kothmale project revealed that it contributed directly to:

1. an increased level of awareness concerning the benefits of ICTs;
   new livelihood ideas and model projects;
2. a high level of community participation and increased involvement of youth;
3. enthusiasm of local political leadership and a resurgence of commitment to the communities they serve;
4. more animated discussions about knowledge and expansion of the communities' knowledge base.

The Kothmale project was implemented with an initial funding of US$35,000, which included the project management, costs for connectivity, equipment purchases and installation, training, research (baseline and action research) and workshops for project partners. The existence of a well-equipped community radio in Kothmale reduced the project costs, as there was no need to incur expenditure on broadcasting production and transmission equipment. Moreover, the leased line connectivity was provided free of charge by the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, which took part in the project together with the Ministry of Information and Media and the state owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting corporation.

The community radio serves a primary target group of 200,000 people. It seems possible that with 90 Kothmale-type Internet Community Radio stations the entire population of 18 million people in Sri Lanka could transition to the correct side of the digital divide. It would not cost more than US$40,000 to establish a low cost community radio station Internet access. To spread this model throughout Sri Lanka requires a comparatively modest investment of US$3.6 million and the political will to allow the development of community radio.

The Kothmale project was the first experiment of its kind that successfully combined traditional and new media to bring the benefit of ICTs to a marginalized community in South Asia. With the lessons learned from the Kothmale project, UNESCO has now developed a global program to establish similar projects with other community radio stations, some of which are independent and have the operational autonomy to launch their own business plans.

Key Lessons

Empowering marginalized people to expand their knowledge base is one of the most effective ways the Internet can support people in their efforts to alleviate poverty. The technical and market information available via the Internet, if provided in an assimilative manner, can contribute to increased productivity and commercialization of local products.

Building good information networks opens a window for greater participation in the management of day-to-day social services, which are essential for economic and social development. Also, public Internet access facilities integrated with "radio browsing" can lead to increased participation in public life at the grassroots level, which will progressively improve the quality of local governance. In short, as the Kothmale project largely demonstrates, ICTs combined with community radio support poverty alleviation programs by facilitating the information needs of rural households, and by opening new windows of opportunity for rural youth in their efforts to be innovative and become active partners in program implementation.

The radio-browsing model can be highly effective with small, low cost community radio stations operated and owned by rural communities. It allows the community to reconstruct meanings from Internet information sources. Given that information becomes knowledge only when it is discussed and contextualised in the community, the radio-browsing model has many advantages over browsing the Internet individually, particularly when language becomes a barrier to understand the content.

Unfortunately, very few developing countries have provisions in their broadcasting regulations to allow and encourage independent community radio stations. Empowerment is not merely a matter of providing physical access facilities. It includes removing barriers for communities to own and operate their own communication facilities. In this regard, liberalization of broadcasting to include community radio (apart from public and private) is essential.

Case study author: Wijayananda Jayaweera, UNESCO's Regaional Communication Advisor for Asia.
Date submitted: June 8, 2001