Downscaling the Web ICT4D Information and Communication Technologies

A look back at Downscale2016

by Victor de Boer|Published August 31, 2016

On 29 August, the 4th International Workshop on Downscaling the Semantic Web (Downscale2016) was held as a full-day workshop in Amsterdam co-located with the ICT4S conference. The workshop attracted 12 participants and we received 4 invited paper contributions, which were presented and discussed in the morning session (slides can be found below). These papers describe a issues regarding sustainability of ICT4D approaches, specific downscaled solutions for two ICT4D use cases and a system for distributed publishing and consuming of Linked Data.. The afternoon session was reserved for demonstrations and discussions. An introduction into the Kasadaka platform was followed by an in-depth howto on developing voice-based information services using Linked Data. The papers and the descriptions of the demos are gathered in a proceedings (to be published online).

downscale2016 participants — Downscale2016 participants

During the discussions the issue of sustainability was addressed. Different dimensions of sustainability were discussed (technical, economical, social and environmental). The participants agreed that a holistic approach is needed for successful and sustainable ICT4D and that most of these dimensions were indeed present in the four presentations and the design of the Kasadaka platform. There remains a question on how different architectural solutions for services (centralized, decentralized, cloud services) relate to eachother in terms of sustainability and when a choice for one of these is most suited. Discussion then moved towards different technical opportunities for green power supplies, including solar panels.

The main presentations and slides are listed below::

Downscale2016 introduction (Victor and Anna) (slides)
Jari Ferguson and Kim Bosman. The Kasadaka Weather Forecast Service (slides)
Aske Robenhagen and Bart Aulbers. The Mali Milk Service – a voice based platform for enabling farmer networking and connections with buyers. (slides)
Anna Bon, Jaap Gordijn et al. A Structured Model-Based Approach To Preview Sustainability in ICT4D (slides)
Mihai Gramada and Christophe Gueret Low profile data sharing with the Entity Registry System (ERS) (slides)

The proceedings of the Downscale are at : (https://figshare.com/articles/Proceedings_of_the_4th_Workshop_on_Downscaling_the_Semantic_Web_Downscale2016_/3827052/1).

Visiting professor Hans Akkermans, ICT4D expert André Baart, CEO at Babafla, AI specialists Gossa Lô and Chris van Aart from Dutch tech firm Bolesian and video & media expert Leeuw van Moerkerken from Leeuw Film visit UDS for a AI/ICT4D ongoing collaboration in education and research, with UDS researchers Francis Dittoh, Gideon Ali and many others. Anna Bon represents VU Amsterdam in the ICT4D workshop, that will take place in a rural community nera Nyankpala, The team will meet the Department Head of the Computer Science Department, Dr. Barik, the Dean of Engineering Prof Seini, the Director of International Relations, Prof. Courage Setsoafia. And we will meet Prof Saa Dittoh in a writing workshop about the book about Indigenous Knowledge and the Plug-in Principle. To be continued...

30 June - 1 July - Connecting Worlds Conference at NU gebouw VU. Keynotes from Saa Dittoh and Narayanan Kulathuramayir. 7 June 2022 - start of ICT4D in the Field course. 1-8 May TMT-OKP funded W4RA Second Workshop in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, with women entrepreneurs for Regreening, marketing of non-timber forest products. W4RA and Reseau MARP. 22-28 February 2022 TMT-OKP funded W4RA workshop with AOPP in Mali, about seeds 7-12 February 2022 - TMT-OKP funded W4RA Workshop in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, with women entrepreneurs for Regreening, who produce non-timber forest products. W4RA and Reseau MARP. 9-16 November 2021 "Cyber Security in and for the Global South". An interdisciplinary seminar organized by Universitas Indonesia and VU Amsterdam. 26-27 August 2021 Academic Conference "Digital Society and Global Citizenship" location: VU (tbd) and online. 28 June 2021 Final Student Conference ICT4D in the Field - 6 projects presented on AI in and for the Global South. 2-4 June 2021 Webinar "AI in and for the gLobal South" online event with 9 AI expert lectures. 28 May 2021 Start ICT4D in the Field course. 31 March - 20 May 2021 ICT4D master course at VU. 26 March 2021 Panel Discussion DIgHum - Education and the Digital Society. 26 February 2021: Francis Dittoh presented the paper Tibaŋsim: Information Access for Low-Resource Environments at ICICT 2021 Conference. 15 December 2020 at 13h CET: Anna Bon defended her PhD thesis Intervention or Collaboration? Redesigning Information and Communication Technologies for Development in the Aula of Maastricht University. 11 December 2020: Sophie Vos and Hella Schaefers presented again at the IFIP conference the Food Security Project Sustainability and Ethics by Design. 26 November 2020: Sophie Vos and Hella Schaefers present their paper at the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute.

Although the Internet offers a wealth of information, and the World Wide Web has become today's paradigm of information and knowledge sharing on the planet, it is still inaccessible to the illiterate and to most rural communities. Moreover, most websites offering information about Africa are written in English, French, and other European languages. Few, however, contain relevant content information in local African languages. Furthermore, the Web is only accessible with an Internet connection, which most rural households do not have, relying instead on radio and mobile phones for communication. These are all important obstacles to overcome. But we believe this is possible to achieve - due to today's advanced ICT technologies and the local and international technical-scientific expertise present in the W4RA collaboration program.