IPI News Innovation Contest 2011 Winner Stephane Boyera: Bringing Media to Everyone in Africa

‘Majority of People Living in Rural Areas not able to Express their Opinions’

How did you become interested in African community media?

SB: The World Wide Web Foundation was originally (and still is) very interested in supporting small-scale farmers in rural areas of Africa. As part of our investigations, we explored how to leverage access to information (market information, agriculture information, etc), and found out that today the single source of timely information for people in rural areas is the community radio station.

Therefore, we decided to develop projects that could exploit the availability of radios, which in turn gave us the opportunity to meet [the staff of] numerous radio stations and get an insight into the challenges that these stations are facing and how the technology we have could help them formulate a better mission and achieve a greater impact.

Your project makes use of growing mobile web use in Africa. Why is mobile web expanding so quickly there?

SB: We have to be very clear what we are talking about here.  Mobile web usually refers to people accessing the web through a web browser on a mobile phone, usually a smartphone. The availability of such devices is indeed growing all over the continent, mostly because they are far more affordable and relevant to local conditions (electricity, access on the move while waiting for/in transport, etc.).

However, this trend concerns only a small fraction of the population and certainly not the vast majority of people living in rural areas. In the rural context, only the most basic phones are available, and a huge part of the adult population is illiterate. In such conditions, our work is to ensure that people can still benefit from digital society, using voice-based technology that is usable by everybody from all phones. This approach - interacting with web content without a web browser - is something we are calling the Web of Speech, which is different from the mobile web, which is not applicable in the rural context yet.

You’ve been involved in efforts to bring the Internet to rural and underprivileged communities in developing countries.  What particular considerations does this involve?

 SB: Connecting people to the Internet or to the web is not a goal in itself, but rather a way of improving lives. People are struggling every day and working very hard in their respective fields. It is essential to focus on their challenges and identify services that may help them. Learning how to use a new service is an effort, and people will dedicate the resources and make the effort if - and only if - they see the direct benefit immediately.

The technology itself is just a tool.  The real objective is not to bring the Internet to rural areas, but to help community radios, to help farmers, to help health centres.

How have you witnessed the Internet improve the lives of rural or underprivileged people?

SB: In quite a few ways.  There are now many examples of services aided by the Internet that are improving people’s lives, ranging from education to health and from agriculture to media.

But there are still a number of challenges to consider.  One of those is how to expand the current successes to a great number of people.  This is the problem of sustainability and scalability, which are essentials for the future of ICT.

Another is how to support the poorest among the poor.  Most of the approaches so far have targeted people who have a minimum level of education or literacy and who live in urban or semi-urban areas.  The case of people living in rural areas is far more difficult and needs further investigation, such as what we are doing on the Web of Speech (see for instance the EU-funded project VOICES www.mvoices.eu).

Finally, there is the issue of ensuring that current and future services can be managed locally.  The emergence of innovative services is linked to local expertise. It is essential that services no longer be developed in Washington or Paris or London, but in Bamako, Dakar, Ouagadougou, Kampala or Maputo. This is ultimately the only way that we can move from a pilot project to a true information society

Regional and community radio stations are particularly vulnerable to the kinds of political, financial, and societal pressures that can lead to self-censorship. How can your project improve the state of press freedom in rural Africa?

SB: In our experience, censorship - at least at this point in time - has not been the primary concern. Right now the biggest problem is that the majority of people living in rural areas are not able to express their opinions because they lack the resources, the opportunity, or the level of education needed to interact with media organizations.

It is essential to work towards a world where everybody can express his or her opinion, as in the Western world, through traditional and online media.  This is the major objective of our project.

That said, it is also critical to raise awareness among community radio stations about the responsibility of journalists in terms of selecting content.  It is essential to ensure both that laws protecting individuals are respected (e.g. laws against defamation or calumny) and that all people are able to express their opinions.  This is less about technology, and more about raising awareness about how to properly moderate content.

Our annual report this year is focused specifically on Africa.  What do you see as the biggest challenge to the establishment of a strong and enduring free media in Africa?

SB: Based on my experience there is a mix of factors that could help improve the role of media in Africa.

The first essential factor is inclusion. It is the role of media to be the voice of people on the ground. Our project in that sense is a first step in that direction: providing a technology solution to ensure that it is easy for all people to voice their concerns or opinions.

The second factor and major role of media is to provide appropriate information to people so that they can have an informed opinion.  In this respect, the media today often have difficulties accessing reliable information to support their investigations.  In many countries, there is still a culture of secrecy that creates a lot of barriers for journalists trying to double-check information.

The current Open Date movement in Western countries, but now also starting in Africa (see e.g. Ghana Open Data Initiative www.webfoundation.org/projects/godi/) is an incredible opportunity for media to play a role in building tomorrow's society based on transparency and accountability.