Infopreneurs in service of rural enterprise and economic development: Addressing the critical challenges of scalability and sustainability in support of service extension in developing (rural) economies

Abstract

The authors wish to continue sharing a ‘view from the practice’ in the continued creation and growth of an ‘ecosystem’ of social (information-focused) entrepreneurs – Infopreneurs® – in rural South African contexts. The paper will share the last two years’ work of ongoing research in a Living Lab fashion to understand and address the two critical challenges of scalability and sustainability in the utilisation of technology (primarily Information and Communication Technologies – ICTs) as enablers of a service extension network in under-serviced rural environments. It will provide an insight into the practical experience gained from work done in institutionalising support and mentoring mechanisms for community-level (village) change and service agents, i.e. Infopreneurs®. It will provide some lessons learned on the enhanced sustainability of the Infopreneurs® network through the ‘deepening’ of the service offering of the network, i.e. scope enhancement, leading to a more extensive value proposition. The objective is to present the results to date as a basis for utilisation by both private and public sector to utilise alternative, social enterprise mechanisms to deliver on social capital and services needed by communities at the so-called Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BoP). The paper covers mainly social change aspects of our ICT4D work. It reports on our efforts to utilise a range of social development approaches to ensure the ‘uptake’ and viability of the utilisation of ICTs to enhance economic and enterprise development at BoP. We also report on our efforts to plan for and monitor ongoing behavioural changes (in the area of entrepreneurial thinking and doing) by these young rural Infopreneurs