Software for Empowering Poor to Facilitate Information Access
29-11-2002 ()
Twenty one participants including researchers and project managers from eight sites of a UNESCO project on “Using ICTs for poverty reduction” met last week in Chennai, India, to determine the research approach and to review the beta version of special software interface “eNRICH” developed to facilitate information access based on the life events of poor.
Twenty one participants including researchers and project managers from eight sites of a UNESCO project on “Using ICTs for poverty reduction” met last week in Chennai, India, to determine the research approach and to review the beta version of special software interface “eNRICH” developed to facilitate information access based on the life events of poor.
The purpose of the project that has sites in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lank is to determine to what extent ICTs can be utilised by the poor people to empower themselves. The project focuses specifically on marginalized and poor people. The different sites have developed their own technological and organizational approaches to put ICTs into the hands of poor.
An innovative ethnographic research approach, developed by Don Slater of the London School of Economics and his team mate Jo Tachi, was the subject of first three days of the gathering. This participatory research approach will be utilized to determine answers to the questions such as “Can ICTs be utilized effectively to empower the poor, If so how? and If not why not?”
The last two day of the workshop was devoted to review the beta version of “eNRICH”, a software interface jointly developed by UNESCO and the National Informatics Center of India. This software solution will be used in all the project sites and also will be made available for other similar projects.
“eNRICH” enables easy generation of websites which encapsulate both information and communication needs in a single homepage. Users will have the facilities to browse and use authenticated websites relevant to their daily life events; users can vote on various community issues, use bulletin boards, e-mail, chat and voice messages to express exchange and communicate concerns and information. It also has a Learning Zone for users to follow skill based modules on various occupations. “eNRICH” has the option to capture all user patterns for designated research purposes. The multilingual version of “eNRICH” is being developed and will be introduced at the beginning of 2003.
The purpose of the project that has sites in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lank is to determine to what extent ICTs can be utilised by the poor people to empower themselves. The project focuses specifically on marginalized and poor people. The different sites have developed their own technological and organizational approaches to put ICTs into the hands of poor.
An innovative ethnographic research approach, developed by Don Slater of the London School of Economics and his team mate Jo Tachi, was the subject of first three days of the gathering. This participatory research approach will be utilized to determine answers to the questions such as “Can ICTs be utilized effectively to empower the poor, If so how? and If not why not?”
The last two day of the workshop was devoted to review the beta version of “eNRICH”, a software interface jointly developed by UNESCO and the National Informatics Center of India. This software solution will be used in all the project sites and also will be made available for other similar projects.
“eNRICH” enables easy generation of websites which encapsulate both information and communication needs in a single homepage. Users will have the facilities to browse and use authenticated websites relevant to their daily life events; users can vote on various community issues, use bulletin boards, e-mail, chat and voice messages to express exchange and communicate concerns and information. It also has a Learning Zone for users to follow skill based modules on various occupations. “eNRICH” has the option to capture all user patterns for designated research purposes. The multilingual version of “eNRICH” is being developed and will be introduced at the beginning of 2003.
Related themes/countries
· Bhutan: News Archive
· Bangladesh: News Archive 2002
· India: News Archive 2002
· Sri Lanka: News Archive 2002
· Information Processing Tools: News Archives 2002
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- UNESCO New Delhi
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