[pn] e-choupals and best practice research

[Mark Warschauer]

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First of all, happy new year to all Papyrus News subscribers.

In my book, Technology and Social Inclusion 
(http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/tsi.html) and later in my Scientific 
American article, Demystifying the Digital Divide 
(http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/ddd.pdf), I discuss rural initiatives 
in India which brought computer/Internet kiosks to help meet the 
needs of the rural poor in a few dozen villages.  I myself was 
somewhat hesitant at the time to tout an initiative which was so 
small-scale, but I had a sense that the basic ideas were sound and 
could potentially be brought up to scale.

I was interested to read in today's New York Times 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/01/international/asia/01INDI.html) 
that an agricultural company has now created 3000 such rural kiosks 
in India, reaching villages with 1.8 million people.  The company 
apparently has plans to extend the network of "e-choupals" to 
one-third of rural India.  (For another report on the e-choupal 
program, see 
http://poverty.worldbank.org/files/14647_E-choupal-web.pdf)

The fact that the kiosks are established by an agricultural company 
rather than by a local government or non-governmental organization 
will of course change their character.  So far the main service 
offered by the e-choupals are listings of the market prices for 
crops.  This service, however, has always been identified as one of 
the main benefits to India's poor of rural kiosks (by providing free 
or low-cost access to information needed for their livelihood). In 
addition, now that the e-choupals are in existence, they will surely 
be used for other service as well, such as providing land-records or 
for interpersonal communication.

One of the reasons I am sharing this story with Papyrus News 
subscribers is because it highlights the value in social science 
research of identifying best practices.  I was certainly not the 
first to report on the potential of rural Internet kiosks in India; 
in a sense I was merely following up and further discussing what 
others had previously pointed to.  And one of the facts that I and 
others recognized was that these kiosks appeared to be low-cost and 
potentially sustainable, so that even though they were not yet 
widespread they appeared to have the potential to be.

Many people on this list are carrying out other types of educational 
or social science research on uses of new technologies.   I think 
this example points to the value of "best practices" research.  This 
line of research is sometimes questionable, because it can point out 
isolated examples that may not be sustainable in broader contexts. 
The trick, I believe, in carrying out this type of research well is 
also to identify the social, cultural, and economic conditions in 
which the best practices have emerged.  Have they been brought about 
only through the infusion of massively concentrated resources that 
are not duplicable elsewhere?  Or do they appear to be potentially 
duplicable on a larger scale?  Best practices research which 
considers both the value of good examples as well as their potential 
to spread can make an important contribution to making the world a 
better place.

By the way, here's a recent book--which I haven't had a chance to 
read yet--of best practice research on international uses of 
educational technology 
(http://www.iste.org/news/2003/06/03sites/index.cfm).  If you know of 
other recommended examples of best practice research on use of new 
technologies, feel free to pass them (or any other suggested links) 
on to Steve (steve_mc@kagawa-jc.ac.jp).

Once again, best wishes for the new year to all of you and your loved ones.

Mark Warschauer
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw