the widernet project since 2000, building capacity at african institutions for academic...
TRANSCRIPT
The WiderNet Project• Since 2000, building capacity at African
institutions for academic collaborations• 4,700+ participants from 36 institutions across
sub-Saharan Africa and India (~30% women)• Collected over $2,100,000 in new & used
hardware, software for partners in Africa• Refurbished and shipped 1,200+ used
computers for partner universities in Nigeria, Liberia, and Ethiopia
• 700+ volunteers have put in over 15,000 hours• Focus on practical, cost effective solutions• Helping to build a digital culture (best practices,
user groups, student internships, gender equity…)
“see one – do one – teach one”
Internet
The Reality of the Internet Cost
• Freakishly expensive: 100x U.S.– Liberia 2011 : $150K for dedicated 1mbit
• Beware the aristocratic “Oh, let them buy bandwidth” attitude.
• 800 lb. gorilla effect
• Bandwidth Blackmail
• Internet an extraordinary sacrifice for institutions with other very compelling needs
The Reality of the Internet Connection
• Very slow: no audio/video, PDF paranoia
• Can only be used by a handful of users
• “Forget it between 10am and 3pm” as connection is saturated.
• Very rarely 24 x 7. Many institutions hard pressed to deliver 6 hours a day
• Frequent lapses of a day or more– Occasional lapses of a week or more
Mobile is King
• Europe 120%, Africa 53%
• mHealth, mGovernance, mCommerce
• Feature phones still outsell smartphones 4:1
• Usage is significantly different; rarely smorgasbord in developing countries
• Texting, email most common
The eGranary Digital Library
“The Internet in a Box”™
Replacing Bandwidthwith Storewidth
• 4,000+ GB information store inside LAN• Over 30 Million educational documents• Collection created and maintained by librarians• Multimedia, audio, video at full network speeds• No bandwidth costs• Augments a conventional Internet connection
Internet LAN
The eGranary Digital Library can provide thousands of networked computers high-speed access to millions of documents and multimedia files over a local area network.
Even when the Internet connection is broken!
LAN
X Internet
The eGranary is already installed in more than 450 schools, hospitals, clinics, and universities in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
The eGranary Digital Library
• Permission from over 1,800 authors & publishers (MIT OpenCourseware, Wikipedia, WHO, Math TV, Virtual Hospital, Khan Academy, etc.)
• Over 30 million documents• 50,000+ books, hundreds of journals,
hundreds of Web sites & CDs• Patrons open documents 100 – 5,000 times
faster than with their Internet connection• Built-in search engine and catalog. Looks
and acts just like the Internet.
WiderNet Project Internet Speed TestAverage Bandwidth by Organization in Kbits
9/21/04 -- 300+ tests
65,445
17,103
2,587831 512 508 437 117 111 105 92 90 70 66 56 54 52 39 36 23 16 13 11
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
An eGranary on a LAN is 4 to 5 times faster than an Internet connection at a U.S. university
2010 Evaluation ProgramSupported by the Rockefeller Foundation
• Logistics of implementing the eGranary highly dependent on the enthusiasm of a champion
• Many of our subscribers do not expect or use technical support
• Never enough access points (computers)
• Information literacy the most daunting task faced by librarians and instructors
User-Friendly Portals
• Having access to information is one thing, being able to use it well to meet a specific purpose is another
• Portals organize information into user-friendly, issue-centric interfaces– Health care, education, water
development, etc.
• Reduces the time and effort for new users to integrate digital resources into their mission
Solidarity Librarianship
• Area librarianship for groups of people with similar needs/goals
• One half of good service is about listening
• Wisdom of the crowd
• Reduces the time and effort for new users to integrate digital resources into their mission
Health Care Training in Zambia
With colleagues at universities in Zambia and the Sparkman Center for Global Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, we have identified, collected, cataloged 1,500+ resources and developed collections for teaching medicine, nursing and midwifery, and public health.
Liberian medical students exploring The Bones of the Skull, a 3-D interactive software.
• Networked with 100+ U.S. groups, international advisory board, and field partners to identify needs & resources.
• Over 2 million new disability rights resources added to the eGranary
• Thousands of these resources catalogued and mapped to 10 portals
• Curricula developed for training disability rights advocates
Global Disability Rights Library
Community Information Platform
Sponsored by the Intel Corporation
• CIP adds interactive “Web 2.0” capabilities– Create IDs and logins (LDAP security)– Built-in software for making unlimited Web
sites
• Easy to upload and share locally-made content
• Local content can be centrally developed and shared to other eGranary sites
• MySQL and PHP for local dynamic Web databases• Moodle: course management software• Drupal: Web content management system • WordPress: Blog software
Knowlegesphere
Gov’t OfficesClinics/HospitalsUniversitiesSchools Churches/MosquesPrivate HomesInternet Cafés
New ComputersRefurbished ComputersOLPC
Mobile Phones Kiosks
LaptopsPocket
Computers
Knowlegesphere
Gov’t OfficesClinics/HospitalsUniversitiesSchools Churches/MosquesPrivate HomesInternet Cafés
New ComputersRefurbished ComputersOLPC
Mobile Phones Kiosks
LaptopsPocket
Computers
Serve Millions of Educational Resources
to Thousands of Patrons…The Cost of Internet
Connection???
Silos in the eGranary
Web Content
Software
Catalog
Index
eGranary
Data
Web Content
Software
Catalog
Index
Local
Data
Web Content
Software
Catalog
Index
Others
Data
Silos Combine into Single View
Web Content
Software
Catalog
Index
eGranary
Data
Local Others
New Silos Snap-In / Snap-Out
Web Content
Software
Catalog
Index
Registered Silos
Data
Web Content
Software
Catalog
Index
Data
Silos Offer Flexibility
• Anyone can make a silo
• Silos can be made for specific groups or topics
• Ideal for government documents or local languages
• Silos can be created and updated centrally, then distributed via DVD or USB key
Hybrid 12-volt Power Model12-volt CoreeGranary Server, essential 12-volt computers, and wireless network powered 24x7 by deep-cycle battery bank.
Hybrid 12-volt Power Model12-volt CoreeGranary Server, essential 12-volt computers, and wireless network powered 24x7 by deep-cycle battery bank.
KnowledgesphereInstitutional and privately-owned battery-powered devices running for hours on their own charge that can access the services in the core.
Hybrid 12-volt Power Model
Traditional Systems220-volt new and refurbished computers and printers that are only usable when the power is on.
12-volt CoreeGranary Server, essential 12-volt computers, and wireless network powered 24x7 by deep-cycle battery bank.
KnowledgesphereInstitutional and privately-owned battery-powered devices running for hours on their own charge that can access the services in the core.
What’s Next??
• ILS (Evergreen, Koha…)
• Various language versions
• Machine cataloging
• Targeted collections for smartphones, tablets
• Asynchronous return pipe / GSM
• Bandwidth Optimization
• U.S. Prisons, etc.
Lessons from a Sandboxor, “What goes around….”
• Easy networking has been done
• Better distinctions about information
• Solidarity librarianship
• Community information is key
• Big difference between “doing no evil” and doing what’s right
• The more things change…
The eGranary Digital Library
Delivers!
The eGranary Digital Library
The WiderNet ProjectThe School of Library and Information Science
University of Iowa
http://www.egranary.org
Presenter: Cliff [email protected]