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NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
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- Social Web Tools for Developing Countries: Yankana.org
Social Web Tools for Developing Countries: Yankana.org
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Yankana is a project designed to help non profits located in developing countries to adopt and benefit from social web tools in their fields of work, without technical skills, financial resources for infrastructure or english language knowledge.
Supporting organization:
Fundacion de Ayuda por Internet (Fundapi) - fundapi.org
URL:
www.yankana.org
City:
Guayaquil
State/Region:
Guayas
Country:
Ecuador
Give and Take: Describe your project's top three needs
Type of expertise needed:
Management Expertise Expertise on creating fundraising strategies to reach international donors and expertise on sustainability models for emerging markets.
Type of expertise needed:
Policy/Program Expertise Expertise on creating and executing international expansion strategies and advise on program evaluation methodologies to measure the reach of goals.
Type of expertise needed:
Technical Expertise Expertise on web usability techniques for people with disabilities and expertise on deep customization of open source software to accelerate developing time.
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
In developing countries where most non profit organizations lack basic technical skills required to setup and suitably utilize social web tools and where organizations have limited financial resources for the required technology infrastructure, there is a need to help this entities by providing them with web based tools that can improve the effectiveness of their work while bridging the existing technological gap.
Yankana is a project developed and promoted by Fundapi that aims to provide non profit organizations located in developing countries with ready-to-use social web based tools and services, allowing them to empower their daily activities by adopting the tools without the need of having technical knowledge or sacrificing their limited resources in technology infrastructure. In addition, by establishing relationships and exchanging experiences through Yankana’s online non profits community platform, organizations can virtually work together and develop their own campaigns, focusing on what they
know best: helping those in need.
Starting with organizations based in Ecuador, South America, Yankana seeks cooperation with other international organizations to expand its reach into other countries and languages.
Fundapi is a non profit foundation based in Guayaquil, Ecuador that has been working with ICT projects since 2001. Its main goal is to promote the use and adoption of technology in least-developed areas while helping minimize the digital divide; in special with initiatives related to telecommunications and technology infrastructure, e-government, content development and consulting services for non profit organizations and foundations.
* Yankana is a word derived from the quechuan language that means “tool for work”.
Sustainability (financial) model:
Yankana is open to donations and collaboration from other entities willing to offer their support. Its sustainability model relies on yearly, yet affordable, maintenance contributions. Each contribution fee covers hosted web services and tools, software setup and support according to each service category:
Basic: Hosted CMS based website including domain name, web based e-mail accounts, support and access to Yankana's community website.
Medium: Hosted CMS based website including domain name and blog, web based e-mail accounts, web based collaboration tool, support and access to Yankana's community website.
Full: Hosted CMS based website including domain name, blog and wiki, web based e-mail accounts and mailing lists, web based collaboration tool, support, access to Yankana's community website, software tools for creating podcasts, online videos and fundraising campaigns.
All service categories include an introductory course aimed at teaching the proper use of the tools available. All setup, configuration and technical issues are managed by Yankana's support team.
Technology Vision:
Web based services working on GNU/Linux servers. Open source customized tools: CMS/Blog (i.e. Joomla, Drupal), Web based e-mail (i.e. Squirrelmail + Sendmail + Spamassassin), Community website (PHP based), Wiki (MediaWiki) and others.
Potential obstacles:
Low penetration of internet access in some areas; however, as internet access coverage increases, so will the potential users of these services.
Resource Needs:
Hardware: To install and setup hosted solutions.
Developers: To accelerate project development. Funding: For operational costs and personnel. Staff: To contact non profit organizations and introduce them to Yankana's potential. Advertising: To generate public awareness towards this project.
Key Milestones:
Estimated on a 90-day period: Day 1-20: Designing and testing new social web tools and services to offer. Day 21-45: Configuration and set up of web services platform. Day 46-56: Creation of non profit organizations base to target services. Day 57-77: Beta testing with selected non profit organizations. Day 78-89: Service tuning from feedback and experiences. Day 90: Launching of service.
Project Summary:
The digital divide that affects developing countries is more than just the lack of access to the internet. It also has to do with lack of, or minimal, content development as well as limited use of appropiate tools to get the best of the net. Taking these issues into account, how can most non profit organizations located in developing countries attempt to create content with local relevance while using appropiate tools if their technological skills are limited, usually they don't have the required hardware and sometimes not even speak english?
With our help!
Yankana is a project designed to help non profit organizations located in developing countries to utilize, adopt and benefit from social web tools in their fields of work, without requiring technological skills or financial resources for infrastructure, and with support in their native language. Yankana is a project created and promoted by Fundapi, a non profit organization based in Ecuador, South America, that has experience with ICT initiatives for development since 2001.
Comments
This is a good idea but
This is a good idea but you'll need someone to train everyone on how to use these programs and the web in general. The costs can be reduced if these trainers would volunteer. It's a good cause after all...
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Mary-Anne, link building division.
great cause
Hello, just a line to let you know that I voted for your proposal on my ballot. I think this is a viable project that should be considered for support. Good luck with your initiative!!
THANK YOU for voting for us
Thank you for your comment and for considering our proposal in your ballot.
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar
Adding Content to Access
The discussion whether it is access or contents is ofcourse a non-discussion: one can not be without the other. That is why I support proposals that want to develop access (both hardware and software) AND/OR to develop contents to people that currently are on the wrong side of the digital divide. Especially in developing countries we talk about many millions of individuals that are in that situation. Many of these are farmers without access to market information, or information on how to improve the cultivation of their crops and the processing of the produce. Especially small farmers are rapidly loosing market access because they can not compete with large farmers that do have this access. For those farmers we plan to develop a tool to assist them in learning from each other and to comply with increasing demands on traceability and compliance with quality demands. Please look at the Farmer 2 Farmer Learning project that I nominated. This provides an example of content that needs access and vice versa.
Friendly greetings
Don Jansen
RE: Adding Content to Access
Hi Don,
Thank you for your post. I agree with you and that´s why in the last couple of years we have been working also in promoting low cost internet access services in our country: to increase internet's penetration rates so more people can get online. Eventhough, access and content are interdependent: the more use and benefit that people find in access, the more likely they will require it. We usually have found that the ones that have access are not taking real advantage from it, and the ones that do not have access do not identify it as a tool that can help them on their activities.
That's why our project aims at helping people discover what they can do with technology so they can develop their own strategies with the tools available.
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar
A must do initiative
I know for a fact that there are many nonprofits in latinamerica that remain invisible and have limited reach because they dont know how to get involved with digital tools and solutions available. Your project is a great way to support them and foster their development. Good luck!
THANK YOU
Thank you for your message and don´t forget to vote for us!
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar
LONG OVERDUE!!
I’d like to take this opportunity to challenge lglira’s previous comments.
Indeed, telecommunication infrastructure, especially in these parts of the world, may be in dire need of improvement. However, this does not make it a sole priority over what Yankana is proposing.
I ask myself, what is the point of setting up telecommunication networks, when there is no effort or apparent direction on how to empower people to make the best out of these tools? Why don’t we just print books and give them out for free? According to the previous commentator; this would just suffice to fix illiterateness in the world.
Having the tools and knowing what to do with them is, although related, two different issues. What we, as individuals who have extensible benefited from what today’s technology brings, need to realize is that beyond having the tools, there needs to be a clear idea of what needs to be done to maximize their potential.
I applaud Yankana, specially the organization behind it – Fundapi, for taking a stand and realizing that this so-called “technological gap” needs to be addressed and for making a true effort to find partners in this endeavor.
Regards
THANK YOU
Hi Erik,
Thank you for your comment. Our hope is to help people discover their own potential through technology so they can benefit from the tools available like it's currently being done in developed nations.
Although we have some connectivity initiatives in place, this time we are focusing on social change with the help of social web tools.
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar
nice idea
Great idea, but the principal problem in the third world is the access to telecommunications. A network technology which provide low cost access and support web2.0 services. Over the network layer you could deliver all web2.0 services (blogs, wikis, IMs) and education, health, microlending, etc.
My organization is working in the access layer and we are looking for partners to deliver services like yanakana. Because of we are based in Peru I think we could collaborate.
http://microtelco.culturalibre.info/
THANK YOU
Hi,
Although there are still areas without telecommunications coverage, the digital divide problem is more than just a technical issue. The real issue is technology appropriation; to get communities and organizations to adopt the solutions and use them as an ally for their development, as a tool to solve their own needs, communicate and create new relationships.
Yankana aims precisely at organizations and communities' empowerment through technology, so they can understand and benefit from the solutions available and adopt them in their daily activities.
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar
Looks like a GREAT model
There is obviously a great need being addressed, as Daniel commented. I do wonder about the theoretical/pedagogical approach; i.e. whether you allow for the empowerment of local nonprofits to learn and grow in their use of technology or whether they remain dependent on your help and training. I also wonder about the accountability between your group and the nonprofits and communities it serves.
That said, this is clearly a worthwhile endeavor and I think it is one of the clearest manifestations of the work NetSquared is trying to do.
--ivan (quixotic1.com/Genocide Intervention Network)
THANK YOU
Hi Ivan,
Thank you for your comment! Our approach is to help nonprofits to start adopting these tools and to provide them with enough support to make them confident to rely their work on these solutions. We strongly believe, as I am sure you will agree with me, in the power technology has to change and improve productivity at nonprofits' workplace. Once organizations start discovering their own potential through social web tools; they will start developing their own initiatives, and if required, we can help them migrate these tools to their own infrastructure.
Based on our own experience, while it is a fact that nonprofits struggle with funding, technology still takes a lesser place, not because of lack of interest, but as a direct result of their limited resources. Those who are lucky enough to have access to the internet; they may not fully benefit from its vast potential; thus this is still another related issue that we hope to address with this project.
Our commitment with nonprofits and communities that join this project is to become their strategic partner in order to accelerate the adoption of solutions available and to provide them with updated training on social web tools and issues from their own point of view.
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar
Meeting a tremendous need
THANK YOU
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for your post! In fact, there are different cultural and social considerations that need to be taken into account as part of the existing breach between developed countries and the rest of the world. We intend to help minimize this divide by helping communities from their own cultural perspective.
Regards,
Eduardo Bejar