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Telecommunications for Rural Development
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Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 15:29:59 -0400
From: Don Richardson
Call for Participation
"Partnerships and Participation in Telecommunications for Rural Development: Exploring What Works and Why"
October 26 & 27, 1998 University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Online pre-conference: October 1 - 21, 1998
Theme
This conference will focus on telecommunication technology for participatory rural development in the Canadian context. It also looks at how lessons learned in Canada might be applied by people in other countries, and how lessons learned in other countries might be applied in Canada.
Keynote Speaker
Our keynote speaker will be Iqbal Quadir, a founder of Grameen Telecom. Grameen Telecom is a company dedicated to bringing the information revolution to the rural people of Bangladesh.
Grameen Telecom is providing GSM 900 cellular mobile phone service to 100 million rural inhabitants in 68,000 Bangladeshi villages by financing 50,000 members of the Grameen Bank (a cooperative bank owned by poor Bangladeshi people) to provide pay phone service, and provide direct phones to individual subscribers. Selected member-borrowers of the Grameen Bank purchase a cellular phone with financing from the Bank, and make the telephone available to all users in their village. As the project develops, fax, email and Internet services will be added. The village pay phone service is likely to become the largest wireless pay phone project in the world.
Conference Design
This conference has two components. The 3 week online pre-conference will provide opportunities to discuss past, present and future uses of communication technology in rural areas. Areas of interest identified during the virtual discussions will be examined at the face-to-face event within the contexts of Reviewing the Past, Generating Results, Future Directions and Measuring Impact. The aim of the conference process is to identify key recommendations for rural telecommunication development across sectors.
THE ON-LINE PRE-CONFERENCE IS FREE AND IS OPEN TO EVERYONE.
The online pre-conference will include the following:
1. Lessons Learned from Past and Present Participatory Rural Development Strategies - This will involve revisiting some of what we've learned from the past-the Fogo Island experiences, the Challenge for Change program, Farm Radio Forum, etc.-and finding ways to integrate what works with the new potentials offered by rural telecommunications. 2. Current Rural Development Activities Involving Telecommunications & Internet - This will include topics such as Community Access "Telecentres" and Community Media Centres in Canada, Africa, Asia and Latin America; current rural telecommunication improvement initiatives in Canada and developing countries; new ICTs for learning and service (Distance Education, Telemedicine, Professional Development, etc.). 3. Future Activities: Building on Lessons Learned - This is our forum for applying lessons learned to new telecommunications and Internet technologies for rural development. It will include discussion on concerns such as improving rural telecommunications policy to realize "universal service", improving rural telecommunications and internet project planning, and identifying opportunities for collaboration among rural stakeholders.
Registration at the 2 day face-to-face conference is CDN$ 349 or US$ 300. You may register online at http://www.snowden.org or email your postal address to register@snowden.ca to receive a registration form via regular mail.
The face-to-face conference on campus at the University of Guelph will consist of four half-day workshops designed to generate specific recommendations to enhance rural telecommunication project planning. Each workshop will begin with a speaker or panel, and key case studies will highlight experiences relevant to each workshop.
The workshops include:
a. Reviewing the Past: Communication for Development Lessons Learned b. Telecommunications for Rural Development Today: Generating Results c. Future Directions: Recommendations for Project Planning d. Measuring Rural Development Impact: How and What to Measure?
Submissions
You are invited to submit a discussion paper for the on-line pre-conference. Papers will be used to focus on-line discussion. Such papers may also be published in the conference proceedings. We especially seek case studies that clearly demonstrate important learning in telecommunications policy and practice for rural development as being useful. Submissions can be made in any language, but the on-line pre-conference web site will be designed in English.
Poster sessions, video screenings and other media presentations are invited for display at the face-to-face conference. We are open to innovative ideas; please contact us with your suggestions.
Interested participants should provide a 300-500 word summary of their paper or presentation by mail or email. Email submissions should be included in the body of the message instead of as attachments.
Summaries should include a full title, the author's name, author's affiliated organization if applicable, email address, telephone, fax and postal address. A brief biography of the author would be appreciated. All presentations will be made in English.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS is June 26,1998.
By email: conference@snowden.org (Please put "Conference submission" in the subject line.)
By mail: Don Snowden Program for Development Communication co/ Telecommons Development Group 512 Woolwich Street, Suite 200 Guelph, Ontario N1H 3X7 Attn: conference committee
For more information on the conference contact Susan Rimkus, conference coordinator, at srimkus@uoguelph.ca.
Conference sponsors: Don Snowden Program for Development Communication, Foundation for International Training, IDRC, Industry Canada, OMAFRA, SR Telecomm, TeleCommons Development Group and the University of Guelph.
Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact one of the conference organizers at sponsor@snowden.org for additional information. ```
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