Dot Com Mantra: Social Computing in the Central Himalayas 1 Dot Com Mantra: Social Computing in the Central Himalayas Payal Arora 2 Table of Contents FORWARD………………………………………………………………………………..9 PREFACE…………………………………………………………………………………12 I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………..…….16 Local as celebrity………………………………………………………….16 Social learning with computers……………………………………………18 Methodology………………………………………………………………22 Techno-revelations for development policy and practice…………………26 Organization of the argument……………………………………………...28 II. FROGS TO PRINCES: TAKING THE LEAP……………………………………33 The pathway to good intentions: The development story…………………33 New technology and social change………………………………………..39 Anthropology of the artifact: Contexts - communities - conducts………...47 Human ingenuity, technology and development in India…………………53 PART 1: Almora…………………………………………………………………………..61 III. THIS IS INDIA MADAM!......................................................................................62 In search of a man-eating catfish………………………………………......63 Here comes Sonia Gandhi!...........................................................................70 Swami mafia……………………………………………………………....71 In God we trust, the rest is all cash: The simple villager?...........................79 IV. NEW TECHNOLOGY, OLD PRACTICES……………………………………..92 3 It’s all in the family………………………………………………………92 The darling child of development: The cell phone……………………….98 Cashing in on technology………………………………………………...101 Playing low key…………………………………………………………..103 Chullah and the pump: Gender and technology………………………….107 PART 2: Computers and Rural Development………………………………………… 112 V. GOODBYE TO THE PATWARIS……………………………………………...113 Peasant revolutions of the past and present……………………………...113 New intermediaries in the making…………………………………….....116 E-agriculture solutions coming to town……………………………….....122 Kisan sangattans………………………………………………………….125 Consensus, contention and circulation of conversation……………….....128 Learning to decide……………………………………………………….148 VI. EXCAVATING RELICS OF AN EDUCATIONAL IDEA: THE ROMANCE OF FREE LEARNING………………………………………………………………………152 Ethnographer as archeologist…………………………………………………....152 Digging up the past………………………………………………………………155 School as you go…………………………………………………………………159 Private distance from public education………………………………………….163 Playground kiosk democracy…………………………………………………….166 A beautiful idea………………………………………………………………….170 PART 3: Computing and Cybercafés…………………………………………………….175 VII. COPYCATS AND UNDERDOGS OF THE HIMALAYAS……………………176 4 The after-school center…………………………………………………176 You scratch my back, I scratch yours…………………………………..178 Who’s the boss?........................................................................................187 The perfect thesis………………………………………………………...197 The “epidemic” of plagiarism……………………………………………202 VIII. LET’S GO SHOPPING!.......................................................................................206 New educational consumers…………………………………………….206 Shop till you drop………………………………………………………207 Mona Lisa and bathroom tiles………………………………………… 216 Are finders keepers?.................................................................................222 IX. LEISURE. LABOR. LEARNING……………………………………………...224 Orkut saves the day……………………………………………………..224 Can the poor come out to play?..................................................................226 The tale of two people…………………………………………………....234 The blasphemy of leisure………………………………………………...240 X. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….245 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………...255 5 List of Figures Figure 1.1: Map of Uttarakhand, India, [Copyright: Ranjiv Rawat, uttarakhand.net].....19 Figure 1.2: Researcher (bottom left) with balwadi teachers at USNPSS……………….24 Figure 3.1: House on the hill in Almora……………….……………………………….63 Figure 3.2: View of settlements in Almora..……………………………………………63 Figure 3.3: Signs of cybercafés on entering Almora town………………………….......67 Figure 3.4: Lala bazaar in Almora town………………………………………………..67 Figure 3.5: Mirtola ashram………………………………………………………………78 Figure 3.6: Letters to the Gods: Chitai temple [Copyright: Kamal K Joshi]…………..78 Figure 3.7: Women fetching water……………………………………………………..82 Figure 3.8: Woman and girl carrying firewood………………………………………..82 Figure 4.1: A village home …………………………………………………………….92 Figure 4.2: A balwadi (pre-school) gathering………………………………………….92 Figure 4.3: Chullah (stove) in the house [Copyright: Dr. Sushil Sharma]……………..107 Figure 4.4: Village water pump [Copyright: Suresh Bisht]…………………………….108 Figure 5.1: Uttarakhand Seva Nidhi……………………………………………………128 Figure 5.2: Farmer meeting session…………...………………………………………129 Figure 5.3: Woman presenter at farmer’s meeting…………..………………………..129 Figure 5.4: Farmers share current pricing of produce…………………………………134 Figure 6.1: HiWEL Learning Station in Almora town…………………………………153 Figure 6.2: HiWEL Learning Station at Hawalbagh village…………………………...153 6 Figure 6.3: Boys at computer kiosk in Andhra Pradesh, India…………………………168 Figure 7.1: Signage outside cybercafé……………………………………………….....177 Figure 7.2: Cybercafé in Almora town…………………………………………………177 Figure 9.1: Matrix appropriated………………………………………………………...225 Figure 9.2: Digital romance fantasy…………………………………………………..225 Chart 1: Comparison of intercolleges on computers in Almora……..………………...227 7 Glossary of Terms AIR -Air India Radio Arya Samaj –Indian political party Atta –Flour Balwadis –Pre-schools Bhagwat Gita- Indian sacred text Bhoomi project –Technology project in India Bhotiyas –Tribal people of the Himalayas BJP- Bharatya Janata Party, main opposition party in India Brahmins –Priestly caste BSNL –Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Government telecommunication company Butta -Corn CBO - Community Based Organization Chai -Tea Chipko –Movement to save the forests in the Himalayas; literally means to “stick” Chow mien –Chinese food dish Chula - Stove CICs- Computer Information Centers Crore- Hundred million rupees Damru -Drum DG - Digital Green Didi –Sister DIT –Department of Information Technology DLIF - Digital Library for Indian Farmers Doli -Cot Doordharshan –Government Television Station E-chaupal – Movement for agricultural markets by ITC Ghee –Clarified butter for cooking GIS –Geographical Information System Harijans –Untouchables HiWEL –Hole in the Wall Education Ltd. IAS –Indian Administrative Service ICT –Information Communication and Technology Jalagams –Water catchments Karva chaut – A custom where a women’s fast for the long life of her husband Kethibadi - Farming Kisan - Farmer Lakh- Two thousand dollars LS- Learning Stations Mahila- Woman Mandi - Government market Mehendi –Henna 8 MIE - Minimally Invasive Education Mission 2007 – Current national project to create connectivity across Indian rural villages Neem -Herb Netas –Politician NGO –Non Government Organization NIC- National Informatics Center NRI –Non Resident Indian Nula – Water pump Paan –Beetle nut Padma Shri- Second highest honor bestowed by the government to its citizens for their contribution to the country Pahadi –Hill people Pakodas- Fried Indian snack Panchayat –Village leaders Patwaris- Middlemen Prasad –Holy offering Rajputs –Warrier caste Sadhu- Sage Sangattan -Collective Sarpanch –Village head Soochna Kutirs –Government cybercafes Swami -Sage Thakur – In this region, this title signifies royal and noble rank Upanishads –Holy scriptures Uttara – Government information portal USNPSS- Uttarakhand Seva Nidhi Paryavaran Shiksha Sansthan 9 Foreword Mark Warschauer Professor of Education and Informatics, University of California, Irvine In a recent discussion of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program’s desire to place computers in the hands of every Indian child, one laptop enthusiast was asked how he was so confident that rural children, who may have never been to school, could make productive use of laptops for learning. “Well, after all,” he replied, “they are digital natives.” Deterministic views of the positive power of technology are seldom as extreme as this; after all, how many people believe that simply being born in the information era will endow certain capabilities on youth, even if they and their friends, relatives, neighbors, and teachers, may never have touched a computer? Yet the belief that new technology has some magical power to solve or bypass complex social, educational, economic, and political problems is certainly widespread, as witnessed, for example, by the OLPC program itself (for one critique, see Kraemer, Dedrick, & Sharma, 2009). Unfortunately, the most common counter to this naïve techno-optimism is a narrow-sighted techno-pessimism that focuses solely on the problems associated with new media and fails to recognize their potential value in individual and social development. Techno-pessimists deny that those on the margins could benefit from any use of computers, since presumably all other more pressing social and economic problems would need to be solved before the poor could productively deploy new technology. 10 Chris Dede succinctly foiled both the techno-optimists and pessimists with a simple metaphor. As he explained in testimony to the U.S. Congress: Information technologies are more like clothes than like fire. Fire is a wonderful technology because, without knowing anything about how it operates, you can get warm just standing close by. People sometimes find computers, televisions, and telecommunications frustrating because they expect these devices to radiate knowledge. But all information technologies are more like clothes; to get a benefit,