Building Community Driven Open Infrastructure

Al Kags

Funding Area: Capacity building / Construcción de capacidad

Problem Statement: Our work involves working closely with local communities at the subnational level. On the one hand, we work with subnational governments to use data for decision making and we build ecosystems around communities to enable them use data and science to better direct their development. In our work, we have observed that Open Infrastructure can be out of reach of people, especially outside major towns. There are several ways that these communities are excluded: First, the communities often need more access to high-speed internet, which is essential for using open infrastructure. Second, they often need more resources for open infrastructure, such as developers and engineers. Third, the communities, which are usually rural and often remote, are often less connected to the global community of open infrastructure users, making participating in open infrastructure projects challenging. As a result of these factors, open infrastructure can be a barrier to participation for people in rural communities. This can have several negative consequences, including reduced access to education and employment opportunities, reduced access to healthcare and other essential services, reduced economic development and increased social isolation.

Proposed Activities: We have invested in developing a co-working space for changemakers in Kilifi County, one of the poorest counties in Kenya. Maono Space provides local community-based organisations, journalists, educators, and other changemakers with access to high-speed broadband internet, computer access, and training on using internet-based resources. This has helped to strengthen their knowledge and facilitate their contribution to local knowledge on the internet. Through the space, we have facilitated organisations to develop locally and internationally relevant content to increase the body of knowledge that is freely available. Our community has more than 50 community-based organisations and about 700 members. We propose to use these funds to enhance and strengthen the outcomes of the space, especially in the following ways: Increase the amount of accessible information in local languages that attract more contributors, maintainers, and users of open infrastructure at the local level. This will be done by translating documentation of freely available and commonly used open-source software into Kiswahili and creating training materials in Kiswahili. Strengthen the community of contributors, maintainers, and users by organising events that bring them together with more advanced players from Nairobi and others. These will include stakeholder workshops that discuss the governance and systems surrounding open infrastructure at the subnational level and how to strengthen them. The specific proposed activities and timelines are: Production/translation of information to attract and onboard contributors, maintainers, and users of Open infrastructure in Kiswahili. This will take 6 months. Resources required: translators and trainers Creation of training materials (including audiovisual materials) in Kiswahili to strengthen the local community players' capacity to use Open infrastructure. These materials will be made available for access globally. This will also take 6 months. Special Resources required: AudioVisual Professionals to work with trainers to script and develop the material. Organisation of a 3-day Hackathon with more established or advanced players to develop open-source software that can be used to strengthen local communities to open infrastructure, particularly for knowledge gain and sharing. This will be held five months from the start of the project. Organisation of a two-day stakeholder workshop to discuss ways to strengthen the governance, dissemination, and accessibility of Open Infrastructure in Rural and Remote communities. This will be held 3 months from the start of the project. This project will help to make open infrastructure more accessible to people in rural and remote communities in Kenya. It will also help to strengthen the community of contributors, maintainers, and users of open infrastructure in Kenya.

Openness: The project will make open infrastructure more accessible to people in rural and remote communities in Kenya and other Swahili-speaking countries in Africa by translating documentation and training materials into Kiswahili. It will also strengthen the community of open infrastructure users in Kenya and promote the use of open infrastructure for social good by organizing events and a hackathon. The use of Kiswahili is particularly important because it will help reach a wider audience and significantly impact Africa. Africa is a region often overlooked by the global open infrastructure community, and the use of Kiswahili will help bridge the gap between Africa and the rest of the world. Overall, the activities described will contribute to the openness of infrastructure globally by making open infrastructure more accessible, strengthening the community of open infrastructure users, and promoting the use of open infrastructure for social good.

Challenges: 1. Lack of consistent broadband internet access and electricity supply, which is often facing interruptions, 2. Lack of cost-effective, highly skilled trainers who can train in Kiswahili, 3. Cultural and economic barriers prevent people from participating in the project within the timelines. Despite these challenges, the project has the potential to make a significant impact on the openness of infrastructure in Kenya and around the world. By making open infrastructure more accessible and by strengthening the community of open infrastructure users, the project can help to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from the many advantages of open infrastructure. Some of the considerations that could help mitigate these challenges: We may partner with local organisations with the necessary linguistic skills so that we use local translators and trainers and be sensitive to cultural barriers.

Neglectedness: We have not been aware of any other funding available for this work. We have only been able to fund some of this work using our flexible funds.

Success: Increased number of people using open infrastructure in rural and remote communities in Kenya and other Swahili-speaking countries in Africa. We could track these with case studies of increased use of the project as well as the open-source solutions that are downloaded and used. Strengthened community of open infrastructure users in Kenya. This could be measured by tracking the number of organisations and individuals who are involved in the community or the number of events and activities that are organised by the community. Increased use of open infrastructure for social good in Kenya. This could be measured by tracking the number of projects that use open infrastructure to address social problems or the number of people who benefit from these projects.

Total Budget: 24500 USD

Affiliations: Open Institute

LMIE Carveout: Yes. We work in Kenya and the money will be used at Maono space in rural Kenya

Team Skills: The Open Institute works at the intersection between technology and policy. Our work primarily involves developing open source tools that are used by government and citizens for better decision making, more data driven advocacy and citizen engagement. We also have a lot of expertise in training communities to use Open Infrastructure for their engagement with government and other non-profit initiatives. Some of the tools we have built include opencounty.org, which has been adopted by several counties and sabasi.mobi - a data collection or survey tool.

How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)

Submission Number: 89