http://hdl.handle.net/10204/3071 2013-05-19T02:37:28Z http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6728 Title: Experiences, challenges and lessons from rolling out a rural WiFi mesh network Authors: Rey-Moreno, C; Roro, Z; Tucker, WD; Jay Siya, MJ; Bidwell, NJ; Simo-Reigadas, J Abstract: The computing for development community knows that technology interventions involve consideration of social, technical and environmental factors. Research into WiFi solutions has fallen off as ubiquitous mobile solutions penetrate even the deepest rural communities worldwide. This paper argues that the latest wave of WiFi mesh networks offers benefits that traditional top-down WiFi and mobile networks do not. In addition, we propose ethnographic and participatory methods to aid the effective rollout of mesh inverse infrastructure with and for a given community. This paper describes and then analyzes a mesh for voice rollout within a situated context. We explain how to conduct informed community co-design and how to factor in local socio-political concerns that can impact on the design, rollout and subsequent maintenance of community-based wireless mesh networks. While we have not yet analyzed baseline and initial usage data, we do have new lessons to offer. Description: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Symposium on Computing for Development, Bangalore, India, 11-12 January 2013. Published in ACM Digital library 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6699 Title: An overview of the role of social capital in development processes Authors: Marais, MA Abstract: The sustainability of ICT for Development (ICT4D) initiatives, and indeed any development initiative, depends on many different factors that has been summarised in terms of financial, social, institutional, technological, and environmental sustainability. This complexity has led to researchers suggesting bricolage approaches that try to make do with the resources at hand, improvise and muddle through to develop local and contextual solutions. An important factor in this kind of approach is the role of relationships, particularly as evidenced in social networks of contact consisting of strong and weak ties, that has been called social capital and linking or bridging capital. The concept of social capital has been shown to influence many different processes in development. In the use of resources the capability approach refers to the influence of social capital on the conversion of commodities, technologies and resources by a person into situated use. The adoption of an innovation is also influenced by social capital, especially via the important role that is played by trust. In the design of development interventions, various types of theories of change have been articulated and the role of social capital in some of these theories is investigated. This paper aims to summarise and analyse the influence of social capital on development processes as seen from the different perspectives mentioned. In terms of development, a fundamental insight is that social capital plays a role in mediating development outcomes through embedded and autonomous social relations that can resolve social problems at macro and micro levels. Social capital also consists in crucial cross-level linkages that need to exist to enable top-down initiatives to meet bottom-up development. Description: CIRN 2012 Community Informatics Conference: 'Ideals meet Reality', Monash Centre Prato Italy, 7-9 Nov 2012. Published in The Academia 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6687 Title: "Wagging the dog": How service delivery can lose its way in the procurement maze -- and could find it again Authors: Wall, K; Watermeyer, R; Pirie, G Abstract: Supply chain management (SCM) regulations for public sector procurement of goods and services have greatly improved the transparency of procurement procedures, increased the opportunities for alternative suppliers, and reduced the potential for corrupt procurement practices. There is evidence however that these regulations are often not implemented to best effect. In particular, it would seem that the SCM process, if allowed to be, is often the primary cause of extended delays in the appointment of contractors, leading to delays in the delivery of services. The SCM "tail" would appear on those occasions to be “wagging the dog", namely service delivery. The paper does not suggest the watering down of SCM regulations. On the contrary, it argues that municipalities’ top management should set clear timeframes for each part of the service delivery process, the SCM process included, and hold the respective officials accountable should they take longer without good reason. Because of the need to reduce service delivery delays, but also in order to improve the functionality of infrastructure services, a very good argument can be made for the procurement of capital works and professional services, which are generally very situation-specific and site-specific (and could also be community-specific), to be treated differently from the procurement of other types of goods and services. Description: Institution of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa Conference, George, South Africa, 3 September 2012 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10204/6681 Title: Extending connections between land and people digitally: designing with rural Herero communities in Namibia Authors: Bidwell, NJ; Winschiers-Theophilus, H Abstract: Dilemmas arise in designing digital systems that enable rural dwellers to create, store and share digital content about their connections with their land because the design and use if technologies manifests the priorities and assumptions of particular knowledge systems. This chapter focuses on the rural people of the Herero tribe, in southern Africa, and how to enable them to extend their local knowledge practices digitally. Description: Published as Chapter 11 in Part III: Sense of Place of the book. Copyright: Routledge publishing: New York, USA. 2012-06-01T00:00:00Z