Roman R. and Blattman C. (2001) Telecenter Research for Telecenter Development: Obstacles and Opportunities, in Journal of Development Communication: Special Issue on Telecenters 12[2]

Online: http://ip.cals.cornell.edu/commdev/documents/jdc-roman.doc

Authors, starting from two telecentre projects in rural India, one called the Cornell-TANUVAS Project carried on by the Communication Department of the Cornell University, and the second one called SRI project and carried on by the Harvard’s Center for International Development, describe a set of challenges for research fieldwork in the area of ICT for development.

First, authors list the three approaches they will adopt in carrying on research in the two projects:

• Community Information and Communication Needs Assessment
• Telecentre Evaluation
• Social & Economic Impact Evaluation

In the paper, however, they describe only the first research phase. Methods used to approach the field where interviews, participatory group exercises, and a household survey. Authors talk about two kinds of challenges given that information needs and the value of communication access which are intangible, complex and multidimensional in nature, and thus naturally difficult to understand, assess, and most of all quantify: ‘methodological challenges’ (specific technical problems that limit how telecenter research is designed and carried out) and ‘contextual obstacles’ (characteristics of the contextual environment where the study takes place that influence how research is conducted).

• Methodological Challenges:
  • Absence of specific indicators (Participatory Rural Appraisal, Whyte, Ernberg)
  • The ‘play-safe’ syndrome in a situation of uncertainty
  • Assessing ICT needs in a context of poverty and isolation (misunderstandings, unfamiliarity, Ernberg; The villagers simply could not demand what they do not know, and they cannot ask for what is beyond their daily experience or expectations)
  • Confusing expectations: feeding response errors: the tendency, most commonly among survey staff, to promote and advertise the advantages of ICTs and the telecenter project
• Contextual obstacles
  • Research versus implementation objectives
  • Tensions between expectations and reality
  • Ideological and cultural asymmetry (passive resistance against the participatory approach)
  • Bureaucratic versus constructive conceptions of research
  • Breaking some (field work) rules

The article, then, presents a list of guidelines to deal with the explain research issues:

• Understand what surveys can and cannot do for telecenter research: in terms of assessing needs and opportunities, we found that the most valuable insights into the telecenter value and services sometimes arose from field visits and interviews, not survey data. Some hints to better use surveys:
  • Focus on familiar and measurable characteristics
  • Avoid abstract questions about information and activities
  • Use surveys to refine opportunities and impacts already identified through thorough qualitative study
• Develop a multi-dimensional, multi-instruments research approach. it is important to clarify the following issues: objectives of research, who is in charge of research, what research tools to use.
• Capacity building can be a powerful product of your research (attitude changes)
• Integrate the role of community development into the research approach
  • Avoiding the pitfalls of “Information Brokering”
  • Community building through self-learning

The authors end by stressing the need of more rigorous research program.