Wandering the World…

I am back in Finland again.
(Have I ever mention how much I like this place? - If you have never been to Finland before, you need to reconsider your life goals)
Part of why I like the University of Joensuu is because of their strong international programs, and in particular their connection to Africa.

I recently accepted a position as the coordinator of the EDULINK ICT4D Consortium of African and European Higher Education Institutions.
Last year we wrote a grant proposal to the EDULINK funding call (a part of the European Union’s efforts to support and develop ties with the developing world), a couple of months ago we heard news that they accepted it, and this last week I sent out an official confirmation of the EU funding to each of the partner institutions.

The current partner institutions include:

• the University of Joensuu, Finland;

• Tumaini University/Iringa University College, Tanzania;
• the University of Southern Denmark, Odense;
• UNESCO Centre for ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London;
• the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana;
• Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique;
• Maseno University, Kenya;
• C. A. Diop University, Senegal

And with the following two associates:

• the Association of African Universities (AAU)

• and Entertainment Robotics, a private company that develops ICT4D.

The specific objective of this project: To strengthen each of the partner institutions potential for effectively producing and utilizing ICT for development; specifically improving academic curriculum and research capacity through (1) workshops, (2) student and faculty exchanges, and (3) online contributions to a virtual hub (for collaboration, resources, and open sharing of results).

I am excited about the position because it allows me to be flexible in where I live (as I can do most of the work online), and the project is focused on an area that I feel passionate about. I feel we can make a difference, even though progress usually turns out more slow than we would hope (it is more like sitting and watching a tree grow than it is like watching a train pass).

As you can see from my previous blog entries, instead of western countries simply offering aid to the developing world (and often unintentionally making things worse than before) - I’m a strong believer that it is MUCH better if it is a two-way flow of ideas and communication, synergistically coming up with solutions together that no one partner could on their own, helping with the “development” of the European partners as much as with the African ones.

We need to get rid of the idea that Africa is a poor person that we need to pity and help! In my opinion, such an attitude is patronizing and simply fosters dependency. Africa is truly rich, and they have all they need and more!
In a sense they might benefit from association with Western countries, but in that same sense Western countries need Africa just as much or more. It seems much more healthy and helpful to have relationships and attitudes that encourage a two-way synergistic sharing and implementation of ideas and resources (where the end result is better than either party could come up with by themselves).
Hopefully the fruits of this consortium experience will be ICT4D innovations, curriculum, and research that meet real needs and contribute to improving the quality of lives and the human potential of all involved.

Questions:
Along those lines, my questions for you in this blog entry are ones that we asked at the TEDC conference participants in August:

• What do you think are the unique strengths of Africa and its people?

• In your opinion, what is it that Africa and Africans can share with others, to help “develop” even Western countries, and make the world a better place?
• (I ask these questions about Africa, because that is where a lot of the EDULINK project partners come from, but you can answer them with regards to any another “developing” area too.)

Taking the ideas from the last two entries (about mistakes in development/ aid - wanting to help but making things worse) - I wanted to share a coule specific examples that are representative of many of the mistakes I have seen here in Uganda with ICT4D projects (Information and Communication Technology for Development).

Story 1
About 4 hours outside of Kampala, I drove with two friends to an area that was nick-named the “wireless village”. Essentially, in the middle of nowhere Africa, some people from the US (Inveneo) had spent a ton of money to create a way for 5 remote huts (in an area without even electricity) to receive wireless Internet access that the community could use for free.

The roads got so bad that we had to park the car and walk to the first “kiosk” location - actually a man’s home. Everything is powered by solar panels that the man of the house maintains, and works through high-powered antennae and satellites. And people from the community or rural areas come to access everything from market prices for goods to new farming practices to email access (email surprisingly was the least utilized, because most of the people they knew were in the villages). It was such a big deal that I was told even CNN came out to do a story on it, and (to my surprise), the people I talked with actually used it and really appreciated having it - at least for two years until about 6 months ago when one part broke and the whole system crashed. The part can not be found in Africa, and it seems like the American partners are less than responsive about coming to fix it any time soon. The village people now blame the local staff who were left in charge. The one person taught to maintain it has now moved on to a different city and job, the people continue to wonder if it will ever work again, and in the mean time the technology collects dust.

At the same time, children in a near-by refugee camp are dying at an alarming rate because of a lack of food, water, and inexpensive anti-malaria medication.

Story 2
I visited a similar telecenter and community radio project (with initial funding by UNESCO and other big boys), powered by huge solar conductors - and once it was set up the partners pulled out. Now the simple costs of Internet access (which are way more than rent) are forcing the operation to raise and sell pigs and produce on the side to try desperately to stay operational. And in the mean time, they also have a part that broke which they need someone to come out and fix before the Internet is up and running again.

Similar to the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead’s observation regarding development in the 1950s - people brought tractors to developing countries to increase their productivity, but quickly fuel would run out, or part breaks and no one could fix it - so this wasted technology cluttered the ground like an elephant graveyard.

The main problem
As I see it, perhaps this is because most of development (especially in ICT4D) seems to come because people develop a pet project (and/or technology) and in order to make themselves feel good (and sometimes in order to capture an untapped market) they try to find poor places in the world to inflict it upon. It isn’t really done for the people, but for the donor or volunteers (to feel good). They literally want to help in the worst way.

It is easy for us all to see the world (and the lives of the people we are intervening in) through the lens of our discipline, or academia, or our business industry, etc… & asking what we can do to “help” these “poor people” who are “less fortunate” than us through those myopic lenses.

Any better ideas?
In trying to think of better ways to be involved in the lives of other people, here is what I have come up with - but I am interested in what you think about it.

Instead of what I described above — why not try as much as possible to take off your predisposed lenses, and just see people in developing countries as humans first (not potential recipients of your specific pre-determined project/research - but humans, with hopes and fears and dreams as real as your own). If you want to be involved in their lives, before predetermining a project or specific outcome, why not first discover what their most pressing needs are (in light of your own as well) and see if there can be some synergy. Instead of you being the benefactor and them the beneficiary - why not try to build relationships where you try to listen more than speak and you each work together (a two-way flow) in order to synergistically create something better than either could on your own!

After all, what is the most valuable use of our brainpower, resources, time, network, energy? And at the very least, how can we do more good than harm?

Just returning from Denmark (land of some of my ancestors), where I presented a paper at the Aarhus School of Business - “Knowledge 360″ conference.

Perhaps the best thing about presenting my paper “Tools and Techniques for Online Cross-Cultural Knowledge Communication” - was that people in the audience knew about research and resources regarding cross-cultural innovation that I was not yet aware of. And it is always good to make connections with people who are doing interesting things which promise some potential of future collaboration.

One of the strangest things is that one of the most prolific faculty at the business school there, Connie Kampf, used to be the friendly girl serving me and my friends Orange Julius when we were teenagers at the Eden Prairie Center shopping mall in Minnesota years and years ago! (It is easy to remember because it was located near the arcade where we could get free tokens for getting good grades on our school report cards.)

In the last couple years, since we have both received our doctorates, I randomly met her in Malta, again in Estonia, now in Denmark and will see her later next month in the south of France!

Just goes to show what a crazy, small world this is - and that you never really know the potential or future of any ordinary person you meet on the street!

*So don’t give up on me just yet, I might one day do something worthwhile. (No promises - but I’m just saying it is a possibility.)

Paul Rusesabagina spoke on Tuesday at BYU. I liked how he titled his presentation: “Hotel Rwanda: A story yet to be told” - because the story is not over yet, and each of us can be a small part of making it a better story than it otherwise would be.

In both Rwanda and Burundi there was a genocide of nearly a million people in the last two decades (15% of the population). Paul Rusesabagina stands in stark contrast to the ethnic violence as an example of someone willing to risk his own life to stand against the prejudice and senseless violence that erupted there.

He argued that the majority of the ordinary people do not hate each other so much, but that very poor leadership will take advantage of differences in order to divide and conquer.

He shared some powerful and sobering stories of the past and current situation.

For example, imagine trying to rescue dozens of people from an ethnic group (different from you) who are being called “cockroaches” and exterminated - police stop your car, they call you a traitor, and demand you to take their gun and shoot everyone in your car or else they will shoot you. You know they are serious because you see dead bodies scattered around you. What would you do?

Paul Rusesabagina faced this exact situation, he did not back down, did not give in, and through quick thinking was able to tell the guards that he understood they were tired and frustrated, but that there was an alternative situation, another option to solve the problems they face. He said he learned through this experience that as long as you can get people to speak with you, then you can always negotiate an alternative course of action. He was able to save the lives of not only these people, but over a thousand others who took refuge in the hotel that he managed.

Towards the end of his speech he encouraged all of us there: “Don’t stand by. Stand up, and do what you can, do what you can to help Africa. You can do something.” He said that if you don’t stand up for what is good, then the world will fail, but that we are the hope of the world if we do stand up. He said that if you want the world to get better, you can make it better. If you want it to stay the way it is, it will stay.

The question I ask myself is:

How can I stand up? What best could I do that would actually make a difference?

Listening to him made me think about the conference I am helping organize in Africa (Uganda) this summer - Technology for Innovation and Education in Developing Countries (TEDC 2008). It seems like a small drop in the ocean of what could be done to assist those in disadvantaged situations, but at least it is something.

I am always keeping my eyes and mind open for other meaningful things that I could be involved in, or even just be aware of and support in some way - so if you can think of anything, then let me know. I feel like getting involved in things that help are usually reciprocal and end up benefiting all involved.

Thanks for all who participated in an interesting seminar! Don’t forget the next seminar at Kitee on 21.11.2007 (see http://www.clintrogersonline.com/blog/?p=77)

We still need some work on figuring out the best ways to handle video and audio in this environment (especially for people who wish to join us from developing countries), but at least this represents a start at trying to include people at a distance in these PhD seminars.
I’m sure one day we will look back and think about how primitive these tools are, but for now it is the best we have.

• Report by Erkki’s trip to South Africa & Discussion with Marjo from San Diego (unfortunately, although we could hear her great, the mic didn’t record Marjo very well as we tried to capture her voice from Skype into Adobe Connect): (Duration - 00:31:36) http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p92688056/

• Introduction to Temtim (his connection was not working, so I used some material that he gave me in advance to introduce him) and report on our paper that I presented in Sweden (Duration - 00:06:07) http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p31931981/

• Discussion led by Javier regarding how to better reorganize the existing EdTech and IMPDET web pages. (Duration - 00:31:36) http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p53044092/

• Discussion led by Clint about research by the Gallup organization regarding what is it that people have in common who are excellent at what they do (in business, education, sports, entertainment, etc.). We discussed the one thing they found these people had in common. (Duration - 00:24:50) - For part of this time (starting at about 00:17:00) we broke into groups and I do not think anyone will want to watch that part. http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p38892677/

• Continuation of the previous discussion…reporting on each others strengths. (Javier also suggested a questionnaire for anyone to take which helps you identify your strengths - can be found by clicking on this sentence) (Duration - 00:14:41) http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p64215209/
  

• Presentation by Andres about his research in Tanzania (his audio was not very consistent for us, but you can actually hear the first parts of it better once his slide show starts in the recording than we did in real life). Once you are viewing it, you can also see in the “file share” pod a document called presentation.pdf - click on it and save it to your computer, or you can also find it as an attachment on my blog entry about this PhD day. He has requested that we please review the presentation document and email him any feedback you have for his research! (Duration - 00:17:34) http://connectpro64128288.emea.acrobat.com/p80216809/

I have some questions for you now:

1. Did you watch any of these?
2. Were they helpful?
3. Should we continue to do this?
4. Any other suggestions/ideas to make it better?