 |
|
|
|
|
 Origins.
In 1993, when Colnodo began offering digital communication
services to the NGO community in Colombia, many already believed
in the potential of the new information and communications technologies
(ICTs)—but exactly what was possible, or how to achieve
it, was still unclear. The time it took to train themselves
in the new ICTs in many cases conflicted with the time it took
for organizations to implement the development projects that
were, after all, their primary mission—and not knowing
English was often an added frustration.
The Neighborhood Information Units, established in 1996 with
the financial support of the International Development Research
Center (IDRC), arose as a pilot project to begin to determine
whether community decisions would improve with first-hand access
to interactive information and communication tools.
The NIUs. The Neighborhood Information
Units (NIUs) are public Internet access centers located in marginal
areas of the city of Bogotá. They operate today in the communities
of Bosa, Suba, and San Cristóbal.
These centers offer access to the new ICTs, and to online information
systems and services about the community and its institutions.
Initially open only half-day on weekdays, the centers now offer
extended schedules of more than eight hours a day, whenever
users require. While an hour of access can cost up to US$3 in
downtown Bogotá, rates at the NIUs do not exceed US$0.75 per
hour.
NIU users are primarily young people between 7 and 20 years
of age, more often male than female. However, workshops have
been held specifically for women—a notable example is a
group of women between 25 and 45 years of age, employed as construction
workers. The most popular applications are e-mail for communicating
with relatives abroad, use of the Internet for job searching,
and, for the youth, access to music.
Management and administration. Each
NIU is located within a community base organization (CBO), and
is run entirely by that organization. Colnodo carefully chose
organizations that:
 are
legally incorporated and well-recognized within the community;
have
been in operation for at least three years running; and
encourage
participation by women, both in their management structures
and in their activities.
 The
organizations selected, which average 15 years experience in
their communities, are Kerigma
Theatrical Foundation (Bosa), AVP
Foundation for Social Development (Suba), and the Southeast
Adult Education Program Foundation (PEPASO) (San Cristóbal).
The project's development has been widely documented, in a variety
of formats.
All NIU activities and services are coordinated by a group of
women that belong to the local community, and who have additional
responsibilities within the host CBO. Their responsibilities
with respect to the NIUs are extensive:
render
services to the public, including introducing customers to the
use of the computer and Internet;
promote
the NIU within the community;
design
and execute informational and training activities, both for
members of the CBO and for the community at large;
routine
administrative tasks.
 Because
they have near-total responsibility for the administration and
operation of the centers, the development of each individual
NIU has depended largely on the amount of time and initiative
its coordinators have been able to devote to it. As a result,
not all NIUs have progressed to the same degree. Other factors
have ranged from isolated technical problems to national political
and economic crises. However, all three NIUs recently celebrated
5 years in operation, and all have been self-sustaining for
the past two.
A certain managerial and operational flexibility has been critical
in achieving this success. Modifications and adjustments to
the original project have arisen along the way—including
revisions of CBO organizational plans, realistic reevaluation
of coordinators' responsibilities and time constraints, and
a strengthening of the relationship with Colnodo to encompass
more than just technical support.
Impact. The NIUs have yielded different
benefits for different kinds of users.
Benefits for customers. While benefits
vary from customer to customer, the construction workers' story
is significant. The NIUs have provided the opportunity for them
to learn to present their own proposals and to communicate more
effectively in writing—enhancing their employability no
matter what kind of job they're looking for.
Benefits to the coordinators. The
biggest impact of the project for coordinators has been to motivate
them to learn and to value themselves as women, as professionals,
and as beings capable of taking on new challenges. The project
has strengthened their self-esteem and security, as well as
their commitment to the community. In addition, training has
contributed to their overall professional development.
Benefits to the community based organizations.
The project has contributed to public recognition of the CBOs'
goals and initiatives. In the same way, the NIUs have fostered
documentation and diffusion of local information, to the extent
that several centers have come to be included in official plans
for local development as projects of support for communications
initiatives.
 National
Impact. In mid-1999, the Colombian Ministry of Communications
asked Colnodo to assist in the development and implementation
of the third phase of its plan COMPARTEL—from
"compartir telecomunicaciones," or "sharing telecommunications."
Under COMPARTEL's Social Internet Program, the Ministry had
begun the bidding process with multinational companies for the
establishment of Community Internet Access Centers. In contacting
Colnodo, the Ministry hoped to glean best practices from the
first Colombian experience in offering community access to ICT.
Today, two of the NIU CBOs (the Kerigma Foundation and PEPASO)
operate AMI-COMPARTEL centers, under commercial licensing with
Telefónica Data Colombia.
 Challenges
and new paths. Colnodo's NIU project still faces certain
challenges. For example, the inability to offer lower access
charges means that NIU usage rages remain constrained by customers'
ability to pay ($1500 pesos—or around US$0.75—is the
maximum hourly charge as fixed by the Ministry of Communications
under COMPARTEL). Perhaps a more worrying challenge are the
adverse economic, political, and social conditions ravaging
the country, as these severely limit the NIUs' prospects for
growth and strengthening within their communities.
Under the circumstances, however, the project is pressing ahead
with new opportunities. In response to ideas generated during
the NIU development process, Colnodo has undertaken two parallel
activities: one dedicated to developing a low-cost local Georeferencing
System; and the other dedicated to developing a Community
Internet Access Center Registration System. And the latest
news from Colnodo relates to the experience of converting two
NIUs to AMI Centers under the COMPARTEL plan, a process that
began in 2001. The model is very new, but the business plan
anticipates surpassing the break-even point and achieving profitability—creating
significant economic benefit for the host organizations promoting
communication and development within their communities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
