Knowledge Network for Augmenting Grassroots    Innovations

(Project Id: 203-970423a)

Funded by the infoDev Program, The World Bank

FINAL PROJECT REPORT

SRISTI, Ahmedabad

November 2002

This report is the joint property of the World Bank and the Grantee Organization(s). The material reflects the individual, professional experiences and opinions of the Authors, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of either the World Bank or the Grantee Organization. Information from this report may be copied and distributed freely when the source is appropriately cited. infoDev funding of the project should be noted in the citation. 

Contents

1    Project Summary Sheet..................................................................... 3

2    Introduction........................................................................................ 4

3    Project Implementation and Results................................................. 5

3.1  The Project Approach............................................................................. 5

3.2  Outcomes Compared To Objectives........................................................... 7

3.3  Unexpected Outcomes............................................................................ 8

3.4  Challenges........................................................................................... 9

3.5  Project Inputs..................................................................................... 11

3.6  Effectiveness and Efficiency.................................................................. 11

3.7  Development Impact............................................................................. 11

3.8  Impact of the use of ICTs..................................................................... 12

3.9  Monitoring and Evaluation Activities......................................................... 12

4    Lessons Learned.............................................................................. 13

4.1  Assumptions....................................................................................... 13

4.2  Management and Organization of Project.................................................. 13

4.3  Communities of Interest and Partnerships................................................. 13

4.4  The Use of Information and Communication Technology............................... 13

4.5  Capacity-Building and Training................................................................ 14

4.6  Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning........................................................ 14

4.7  Dissemination Activities......................................................................... 14

4.8  Scalability and Replicability.................................................................... 16

5    Conclusions....................................................................................... 16

5.1  Future Plans....................................................................................... 17

5.2  infoDev Funding................................................................................... 18

5.3  Concluding Remarks.............................................................................. 18

6    List of Annexures............................................................................. 19

1           Project Summary Sheet

12       Introduction

Knowledge Network for Augmenting Grassroots Innovations (KnowNet-Grin) is a global initiative to give voice to creative and innovative people at grassroots

Honey Bee Network brings together those creative and innovative farmers, artisans, mechanics, fishermen and women and labourers who have solved problems through their own genius without any outside help whether from state, market, or even NGOs. Such self triggered and developed innovations whether technological or institutional are scouted, supported, sustained and scaled up wherever possible with or without value addition and linkage with formal science and technology. The idea is to generate incentives and benefits for the innovators. The innovations could be developed by individuals or groups. These may have been developed in recent past or long past and some times the innovations or creative practices might have become part of traditional knowledge. Thus, we also look for outstanding examples of traditional knowledge, which help in conserving and utilizing natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Honey Bee signifies a philosophy, which is authentic, accountable and fair. It believes that cross pollination of ideas by exchange of information across language and cultural boundaries, may increase societal capacity to spur, spawn, stimulate, and sustain grassroots innovations and provide resources for sustainable development.

The network encountered several problems in reaching out to the innovators and hence the genesis of Electronic Knowledge Network for Innovators "KnowNet-Grin".

Key Challenges: Creating the E-Knowledge Network

• Creating and extending an electronic network of innovators linked with users & peers through village based kiosks with multimedia/multilingual database, communicating in local language 
• Facilitating systems to encourage innovators discuss specific innovations for faster maturation of ideas & innovations
• Generating demand for grassroots innovations throughout the world, developing market for ideas & innovations and enabling the network to support such exchange
• Developing systems to secure Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for small innovators

These challenges are specific to the focused activities taken up by SRISTI in the project. Other challenges have been mentioned in the IIMA report of the project.

This report contains some lessons of successes as well as failures and provides suggestions for ICT based delivery models, with a community centric model and integrated approach to problem identification and solution. In this context our new concept “Gyan Manthan Kendra” (Knowledge Center) is an effort worth mentioning. This center was developed with community involvement and it was run by a committee of community representatives and activities involving women and children are promoted as well as local resource database is being developed by the community.

13       Project Implementation and Results

3.1           The Project Approach

The project proposed using information technology for networking innovators and Traditional Knowledge (TK) experts using multimedia/Multilanguage interfaces. While on one hand testing of technology to make real-time communication using multimedia was a critical issue, developing a user centric interface for database was on the other hand an important facet of the project. Both issues were dealt with the best available expertise and hence interventions (already described in IIMA report) suggested by experts were taken for implementation. Research on developing interface was taken up to identify needs of innovators and TK experts.

Another core area of interventions was in value chain enabling feedback on innovations form formal centers for excellence. Over last 15 years, Honey Bee network has been trying to link formal centres of excellence through direct and indirect linkages for adding value to the innovations and making their march towards market easier. Through this project we decided to operationalize an electronic knowledge network (KnowNet-Grin) of grassroots innovators scouted through various channels by the Honey Bee Network & SRISTI, Grassroots Innovations Augmenta­tion Network (GIAN), National Innovation Foundation (NIF) and a Global Registry of Innovations (GRI). The knowledge network helps in building bridges between formal and informal sciences, education, and learning communities. ICT can help access to databases and multimedia technology enabling exchange across various languages and cultural boundaries may increase societal capacity to spur, spawn, stimulate, and sustain grassroots innovations.

The project intended to provide real-time access of multimedia/multilanguage database of innovation from village kiosk centers and enable interaction in real-time through multimedia interfaces to innovators to interact with experts and peers. At the time of submission of project proposal it was hoped that IT revolution in India would reach the villages or at least the blocks and there would be a way/technology that would allow broadband (which could support multimedia) access to the proposed village kiosk centres. However at the time of implementation we encountered acute problem of connectivity and found that maturation of technology to be able to provide last mile connectivity would take much longer than was hoped. This led to a change in strategy and development of a new model for kiosk that could provide access to database in real-time but feedback may be delayed.

The “e” Knowledge Network – IIMA - WAN

A prototype network (IIMA-WAN) with multimedia / multilingual database for the “e” Knowledge network was developed and tested at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. (More details about the prototype are available in IIMA report).

Network Nodes in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and other states:

In Tamil Nadu:

SRISTI entered into partnership with Dhan Foundation (Development of Humane Action) to put Honey Bee Kiosk application in its network of about 20 kiosks in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu. This partnership was initiated through our regional collaborator SEVA (Sustainable-agriculture and Environmental Voluntary Action), also based in Madurai. One node was put up at SEVA Madurai office, where innovators coming to interact are able to access information, while another Kiosk was put at Sevaiyoor, field office of another partner organization CCD (Covenant Centre for Development) in Virudhnagar District of Tamil Nadu, which provided access to traditional knowledge holders coming to the centre.

Other States:

MoU has been signed with AISECT (All India Society for Electronics & Computer Technology), Bhopal for installing 100 Kiosks in Chattisgarh state. However the project is yet to be operationalised. Another MoU has been signed with Drishtee.com, under which we intend taking up a pilot in Sirsa, Haryana. Under the later partnership we intend to test a revenue share model for the services provided by the kiosk, through centre’s run by entrepreneurs. For the services rendered the revenue would be shared in the proportion of 80 + 10 + 10 among Kiosk Operator, Drishtee and SRISTI respectively. The revenue thus generated by SRISTI would be used to meet the cost of the network portal viz. <www.honeybee.org>. Discussions have been going on with Panchmahal district administration in Gujarat for putting up the kiosk on their network. None of these projects has been implemented as of now.

In Gujarat:

Details of nodal center in Gujarat are provided in the IIMA report.

Gyan Manthan Kendra, (Community Knowledge Centre), linking kiosk community with experts:

Experiences gained from various access models for the community in which we explored partnerships with education institutions, innovators, NGOs and private/government initiatives, led us to go in for a new model. This model conceptualized as “Gyan Manthan Kendra” (GMK) developed partnership with the community in running the centre. Aithore village in Mehsana district of Gujarat was identified to test this model. The overall experience in this model was satisfactory. We hope to take up these centers in other parts of the country. GMK would connect across language and cultural barriers and would become crucial link in the knowledge network, allowing direct interfacing with the community. The idea is not to use kiosk to just link ignorant locals with expert externals (some of it will happen though) but churn knowledge within village and then make the village a provider of knowledge as much as receiver of knowledge.

Network Portal & other web-platforms:

4           Lessons Learned

While computer PC (Personal Computer), as an interface device, was an idea on which we worked; however, other interfaces were also thought of. It was found during bi-annual Shodhyatras (journey/walk to scout innovations and TK) that projector with simple laptop conveyed the idea of innovation to a larger group, as it initiated discussion in a larger group, which was also one of the ideas behind the project. The outcome of this observation was that we commissioned development of a portable touch screen kiosk which could also be used for the project. Another effort that was tried but required more resources to conceptualise and initiate was a mobile museum.

4.1           Assumptions

Assumptions have been discussed in the IIMA report, they remain the same for both projects.

4.2           Management and Organization of Project

The project included:

Project Implementation Team:

The project team of SRISTI & IIMA worked on the project. The team members of SRISTI were:

Technology Manager: Developed the technology framework of the project and looked after the development of the software.

Software developers: A team of software professionals, including programmers, multimedia professionals, and server administrators

Content Development Team: Editors and Associate editors developed content for the websites and the kiosk

Field Team: Scouted, documented and verified the innovations

4.3           Communities of Interest and Partnerships

For expanding the network into other states, regional partnerships were forged with SEVA, Dhan Foundation, Covenant Centre for Development (CCD), Madurai, Tamil Nadu for kiosk installation in their network and field center (see Annexure-VI). Another partnership was forged with Ms. Drishtee.com, New Delhi for putting Honey Bee kiosk in their network at Sirsa, Haryana, which remains to be operationalised. Recently we have entered into partnership with AISECT, Bhopal, M.P. for installation of 100 kiosk in Community centers run by AISECT in Chattisgarh, this partnership is also to be operationalised.

Partnership details with academic and research institutions are covered in IIMA report.

4.4           The Use of Information and Communication Technology

Issues of technology have been dealt in detail in section “Challenges 3.4” of IIMA report. However it is worth mentioning here that some of critical areas where our assumption of using technology to get desired results could not be matched by the available technology. Some of these areas were:

1)     Real-time multimedia connectivity

2)     Indian language technology

3)     Voice to text technology

These three technology areas were crucial to help develop tools for enabling exchange of information/ideas between various literacy groups. Another area is cost effective technology, i.e. open source/ free software, much of the available technology available for Indian languages did not support open source platform, hence the cost of development of applications and that of replication was high.

4.5           Capacity-Building and Training

During the initial implementation stage we went ahead with installation of kiosk at Gandhian Vidyapeeths and at some innovators place. Although the initial software interface was not advanced but still the user found it difficult to use the computer (peripherals/physical user interface), the problem was at the end of using internet/email and peripheral devices such as mouse, keyboard, mike etc. We organized a two days training program for all the kiosk operators in Ahmedabad and made them familiar with the operation of computer and handling of peripheral devices besides training them how to use internet and email. At the time of installation, extensive training was given to the local kiosk operators who were then given the task of running the kiosk and training the local community. We started a process of feedback on the user interaction and these feedbacks were then taken for solving the problem of the kiosk. New suggestions provided by the community were incorporated and improvement and modification in the software module as well the interface were done on the basis of the feedback received.

At the Gyan Manthan Kendra, Aithore, the local community, was motivated to take ownership of the community center and run the kiosk activities and generate revenue for meeting the cost of telephone line and operator. We provided support for running the center for an initial period until the community was ready to take up the activities.

4.6         Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning       

Evaluation of the work done and learning from it has been integral part of the project implementation framework. Much of the monitoring methodology, its impact and results have been discussed above.

4.7           Dissemination Activities

Dissemination and awareness building on innovations and traditional knowledge is a key component of all activities of SRISTI. In various kinds of events organised/participated by SRISTI team information dissemination about innovations/TK through kiosk and various multimedia equipment was done. In Indian Science Congress January, 2001, two touch screen kiosks were put under Department of Science and Technology theme stall of “Innovative India” in New Delhi. Similarly at various events multimedia kiosk and project systems were used to create awareness about innovations. Broadly the dissemination activities are listed as under:

Agricultural fairs:

Agricultural fairs are vibrant traditional institutions in rural India where a large mass of people assemble either for religious or cultural celebrations or for exchanging agricultural information. Loksarvani / Honey Bee Network organises stalls in these fairs for sharing information with farmers. SRISTI has participated in over thirty such fairs. The experience gained has been extremely useful. We put computerised local language textual as well as multimedia databases at these stalls for sharing with farmers what we have learned from others of their kind (see Annexure- IX ‘Pictures’).

List of such fairs attended during project period.

Shodh Sankal: Lateral Learning Workshops

SRISTI provides scope for lateral learning among those who solve problems and not those who merely articulate the problem. In that sense, it experiments with a solution augmenting approach rather than just the problem solving approach. To strengthen lateral learning among the grassroots innovators SRISTI has initiated the concept of Shodh Sankal – a chain of experimenting farmers. Such meetings encourage several farmers from the host villages to share their own innovations and take a major responsibility towards the networking and diffusion of ideas. Innovations database is shared with innovators and feedback is generated on innovations and TK, which are discussed in these meetings.

List of such Shodh Sankals organised by lead innovators

Media:

The project was in the limelight in the print media and a case study on the project was published in many journals & websites (See annexure- X).

 List of all articles published about the project

• “With IT villages – Special Report”, Down To Earth, 15 June 2002
• “Facilitating India’s Knowledge Revolution Through Electronic Networks”, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), March 2002
• “Reaching the Grassroots”, Dataquest, 9 May 2002

4.8         Scalability and Replicability

While replication of networking model has been discussed in the IIMA report, this section reports on replication of knowledge sharing amongst innovators/TK experts and stakeholders (experts, students, entrepreneurs etc). Since we observed that real-time communication was not possible to connect innovators with center of excellence and experts. We replicated that in the forum of innovators/experts/students consultations and organised design and technology workshops. 

These workshop provided avenues for interaction and feedback on work of innovators. In virtual space we are attempting to develop collaborative platform for allowing exchange between various stakeholders for value addition in innovations. A platform known as the Honey Bee Communities (for details see Unexpected Outcome section) was developed to allow interaction of volunteer group for design and technology development. Another platform SCAI, student chapters for providing business development support has been formed (www.scai.org.in) which organises business plan competitions. Both of these initiatives are an effort to involve a larger community of stakeholders in the value addition process.

35          Conclusions

This project attempted creating a value chain for value addition to grassroots innovations by linking peer groups of stakeholders. Although there were technological hurdles faced in the initiatives, still there was a lot of learning for making further efforts in making this value chain feasible. SRISTI has focused on next level of interventions and is proposing to develop support framework for sustaining these interventions. It is proposed to develop an Academy for knowledge sharing and research on grassroots innovations and TK, a design lab (stationary, mobile) for rapid prototyping of innovations and a multimedia museum of innovation for creating awareness amongst stakeholders. We have recently got some support from European commission for taking up research for developing framework of these interventions. Lessons learned from the InfoDev pilot project has emboldened us to take this project to next phase. We look forward to take up preparation for next phase of the project as suggested in future plans.

5.1           Future Plans

Sustainability of the intervention and strengths of the model has been discussed earlier in this report. Ease of replicability and user response suggests that model has its own inherent strength that makes the learning process of the community quicker. Having gained learning ourselves from the pilot project we are ready to take the next phase of the project. The second phase of implementation involves:

Phase 2: Portal enbaling value chain network <www.indiainnovates.com>

a) The concept behind this portal is to link entrepreneurs, financial institutions, marketing hubs, technology parks, etc. and encourage entrepreneurs to explore the possibility of converting some of the innovations into commercial products. This would be integrated with the Online Clearing House of Innovations (to be developed), where in the investor’s and entrepreneurs would have a platform for interacting and discussing the business terms with GIAN. These nodal points would be networked with our proposed portal <www.indiainnovates.com> for networking the stakeholders.

b) The multimedia database having multi‑language interface will also be useful for innovators apart from attracting entrepreneurs and investors from different regions.  The database hosted at SRISTI site will help explore the possibility of finding voluntary or other supporters and stake holders in grassroots innovations. A prototype online platform (Honey Bee Communities) has already been developed for this purpose. The queries received from the potential entrepreneurs and investors will be forwarded to the innovators connected to the network portal, linked with the kiosks. It is here that the existing social and inter‑organizational network of Honey Bee will come to the rescue and help in connecting electronic and textual databases. SRISTI is already working on a 200,000 USD$ Government of India, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) project “Grassroots Green Innovations Indian Language Database” (GILD) under the NISSAT programme. Under this project we are creating a huge multimedia database of 1500 innovations & TK and 300 textual databases. This database would be made online on open source platform for open access after necessary Prior Informed Consent (PIC).

Phase 3: Global network of Grassroots Green Innovators

The knowledge network will be activated in different countries both in north and south among scientists, organic farmers, green consumers and marketeers, venture capitalists, etc., so that following three goals are achieved:

i) Real time connectivity among problem and solution generators across the globe particularly among those interested in green innovations

ii) Exploration of forming golden triangle across the world so that a small scale entrepreneur in say, Canada may source an innovation in India, seek funds from US or Canada and set up an enterprise in South Africa or a Latin American country. The forces of globalization will be harnessed for grassroots innovations so as to counteract the increasing monopolization of market place by few players. Such a monopolization is neither in the interest of democracy, polycentric economic development nor will help move the factors of production to their most favoured and efficient locations and entrepreneurial targets. 

iii) The incentives for conservation have to emerge essentially through value addition as already being tried at small scale by SRISTI through IDRC support and earlier through the support from PEW Conservation Scholar Award. However, without these incentives, the conservation of biodiversity and other natural resources cannot be achieved by keeping people poor. The economic opportunities available in the markets of developed countries through increasing green consumerism are enormous. This potential demand can provide a market-mediated model of poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and innovation augmentation if the proposed knowledge networks around the world are created and operationalised. 

The greatest hope for such a thing to happen lies in our faith in the increasing voluntary spirit and emerging civic society consciousness in north and south which believes in providing fair opportunity to efficient and environmental‑friendly solutions to be scaled up. If such a model does not exist today despite millions being spent on information technology or on poverty alleviation, it only shows poverty of imagination and timidity of thinking among the elite institutions and global institutional leaders.  In any case no major reform has often come from the top. The simmering from the grassroots captured by Honey Bee network of creativity and innovation will eventually stir the conscience of civil society and other institutions of establishment.

5.2           infoDev funding

Honey Bee network has successfully shown the values of peer group networking in adding values to grassroots knowledge and outstanding traditional knowledge. This pilot project helped us in increasing awareness by making our databases online for various stakeholders. The pilot helped in developing several conceptual framework for value addition such as design workshops, virtual design lab, technology exchange etc. Another area understood on use of various interfaces for communicating with grassroots user groups.  At the end of this process we have learned lessons that we intend to take up concrete action through next phase.

5.3           Concluding remarks

As a pilot initiative this project has demonstrated a model that needs to be taken up for strengthening and providing institutional support. We also need to take this network to the next stage of implementation to network communities in other continents such as Africa and South America as part of the second phase of the activity besides of course networking in South Asia and other Asian countries.