"In 1994 the government established a Telecommunications Development Fund, financed by the national budget, to catalyze additional private investment in payphone service in rural and urban areas with low income and low telephone density. The Fund has been very successful. Between 1995 and 2000 it su
...
pported the provision of payphone service to more than 6,000 rural localities with about 2.2 million inhabitants, thereby reducing the proportion of Chile's population living in places without access to basic voice communication from 15 percent in 1994 to 1 percent in 2002. In addition, some 25,000 individual rural telephone lines are being provided. The subsidies awarded cost the government less than 0.3 percent of total telecommunications sector revenue during the funding period, and Fund administration cost about 3 percent of the monies granted. The Fund's success was due largely to extensive reliance on market forces to determine and allocate subsidies, minimal regulatory intervention, simple and relatively expeditious processing, and effective government leadership. Competition among existing and new operators for the rural market and subsidies led to substantial reductions in cost to the government compared to earlier public sector investments in similar facilities. Commercial success has hinged on operators using the subsidized payphone infrastructures to also provide individual business and residential telephone lines and, subsequently, add value through new services (including voice mail and internet access in some areas) over this network. Interconnection was the single most important regulatory factor of commercial viability, with access charges in some cases surpassing 40 percent of rural operating revenues. The design of the Fund proved robust, and remains the leading example of a costeffective slution to reduce access gaps in basic communication in emerging economies. Some questions remain, however, about whether the services can be sustained in the long term, what to do with the small residual rural population still excluded, and whether anything needs to be done in urban areas. These questions-in addition to limited design improvements suggested by the Fund's experience, as well as work still in progress on quality standards and monitoring-are relevant to the Fund's proposed extension into more advanced modes of communication and access to information, as well as to other countries learning from the Chilean experience." (Executive summary)
more
"Describes the activities and publications of the innovative Community Publishing Process in Zimbabwe in order to train 7,000 village community workers, the majority of whom were women. Through a community based, participatory process of publishing, the project aims to enable marginalized groups to
...
use their creative energies to build dynamic leadership, tackle poverty, take charge of their lives, and make the decisions to shape their future. Representatives of the village readership participated in creating the books and civic education manuals, contributed material orally, and tested and distributed it through local book launches. The project also initiated a series of children’s traditional stories and a book about children’s rights, produced with 500 children aged from three to seventeen. A local leadership programme for writers provides training in journalism and editing, and the publication of a monthly journal from a village publishing house equipped with a computer, duplicator and stapler. The author concludes by stating “as women radically questioning autocratic institutions and processes, we have been able to shape a tool that can be used by marginalized groups anywhere to claim their voice in the public life." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1731)
more
"La presente obra recoge trabajos pioneros de investigación que reflexionan, a partir de una perspectiva cualitativa y etnográfica, cómo las nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación en su aplicación al sistema escolar y a iniciativas de gestión local reproducen las pedagogías tradic
...
ionales y las formas dominantes de ejercicio del poder. Otros, sobre la necesidad de impulsar una cultura Internet, fundamentada en la praxis social de un "Derecho a la comunicación y a la cultura" y un "Derecho Internet" que permitan la concreción de una verdadera participación ciudadana y un libre acceso al conocimiento, con respeto de los derechos personales e individuales, como los de la privacidad e intimidad." (Tapa posterior)
more
"Wie verändert sich ein Dorf durch Prozesse der Technisierung und Industrialisierung, insbesondere aber durch die Verbreitung technischer Medien, vom Telefon über Hörfunk und Fernsehen bis hin zum Computer? Welche Folgen zeitigt dieser Prozeß vor allem für die Häufigkeit und die Qualität/den
...
Charakter der nicht-medialen, zwischenmenschlichen Kommunikation unter den Dorfbewohnern? Mit der Dissertation von Thomas Muntschick liegt erstmals eine Untersuchung vor, die am Beispiel einer kleinen ländlichen Gemeinde den Weg der Technik in den Alltag der Menschen nachzeichnet. Er untersucht den Prozeß des Wandels menschlicher Kommunikation durch technische Medien und zentriert seinen Blick dabei auf das subjektive Erleben der Bewohner des Dorfes Polle an der Oberweser." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
more
"For several years there has been an awareness in the Philippines of the need to ensure that investments in natural resources research produce options which farmers may adapt and adopt. The Philippines Council for Agriculture and Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) 1991 Review highlighted th
...
e need to address inadequate links between farmers, outreach systems and research. The report underlined the limited number (11 percent) of "mature technologies" which had been adopted by farmers. This case study grew out of an FAO/UNDP communication for development project which aimed at improving the exchange of relevant agricultural information between research, extension networks and farmers in five regions of the Philippines. The field work in each site was started using rapid appraisal techniques. It soon became evident however, that technology and information per se were insufficient elements to propel an increase in agricultural productivity and rural incomes. Other demands were voiced by the communities, which in turn pointed to the need to make services in all sectors more responsive to barangay needs, including credit supply, infrastructure development, marketing, health and education. The farmers' definitions of problems and their underlying causes indicated the limited impact which agricultural information and communication have, if not coordinated, with other services. This explains why agricultural development needs to have a systems perspective. From a systems perspective, it is necessary to identify all the actors involved. In this context it was clear that the Department of Agriculture's extension system is only one of many actors which influence farmers' decision making hence the necessity for systematic mapping of the agricultural information linkages that are important to farmers." (Abstract)
more
"This book records and interprets, in a narrative form, how groups of villagers and fisherfolk in Manila (Philippines), in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu (India) and in the states of Tlaxacala, Oaxaca and Michoacan and in a suburb of Mexico City (all in Mexico) tried to bring about social change through
...
what one may call "people's communication". "People's communication" is a mode of communication which depends for its efficacy on people's energies rather than on technology." (Introduction)
more
"Ein Bild sagt mehr als 1000 Worte. Das stimmt, aber leider nur in ganz wenigen Bereichen, wo die Gestalt, die oberflächliche Beschaffenheit der Dinge im Brennpunkt der Betrachtung steht. Meist ist es aber andersherum, Worte sind viel aussagekräftiger und als Kommunikationsmittel viel universeller
...
als Bilder. Und erst die richtige Kombination von Wort und Bild ist dem einzelnen Medium überlegen, und das gilt in Schriftkulturen ebenso wie in der Kommunikation mit Analphabeten. Die wahren Potentiale der Bildkommunikation werden meistens überschätzt und andererseits nur selten voll ausgeschöpft. Hier setzt dieses Buch an, und versucht Aufklärung in historischer und universeller Sichtweise. Das Verständnis der europäischen Mediengeschichte soll es leichter machen, sich in die noch überwiegend orale Welt Afrikas zu versetzen und eine systematische Beschreibung der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Bildkommunikation setzt den allgemeinen theoretischen Rahmen. Entsprechend einer situationsfunktionalen Herangehensweise werden danach Grundfragen der Kommunikation mit Analphabeten angesprochen und die Rahmenbedingungen der Kommunikationssituation von Programmen und Projekten der ländlichen Entwicklung in Afrika beschrieben. Darauf aufbauend folgen zwei zentrale Beispiele, wie bildgestützte Kommunikation schon erfolgreich in Afrika entwickelt und eingesetzt wurde. Deren kritische Betrachtung und vergleichende Analyse führt dann zusammen mit den angewandten Grundlagen zu praktischen Empfehlungen." (Verlagsbeschreibung für die zweite Aufl. 2000)
more