The SIG-III Blog

It’s a little over a month old, but I’ve not yet posted about the following report by Bruce Etling, John Kelly, Rob Faris, and John Palfrey, so I will do so now. It is titled Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent, and is published by Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society.

Image by dweekly, used under the Creative Commons license.

I’m being kicked out of my office this afternoon while some of my university’s tech people work on my Internet connection. While I am without my computer I will work on SIG-III’s annual report, but I hope to be able to steal a bit of time away to read this report as well. If you’ve read it and have any thoughts or reactions, leave a comment below — I’d love to hear what you think.

On the same topic, I’ll also point to Nasrin Alavi’s We Are Iran. As with Etling et al’s report, I’d love to hear any thoughts you have on Dr. Alavi’s book. She’s even put a sample chapter online as well.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

SIG-III’s Ajit Pyati (above) has just published an article titled “Public library revitalization in India: Hopes, challenges, and new visions” in First Monday. Here is the abstract:

With India’s growing economy and status as an emerging world power, a new consciousness is developing in the country about the need to reinvest in public services. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) is an advisory body constituted by the Prime Minister to provide recommendations for improving India’s knowledge infrastructure. As part of this Commission, a set of recommendations has been developed to improve India’s long neglected library system. This article explores the implications of these recommendations, with a specific focus on India’s public library system and the social development gains that are often associated with public libraries. The potential of India’s public libraries to serve as community information centres (CICs) is highlighted, as well as the challenges that lie ahead in implementing a new vision for public library revitalization. The article serves as an invitation for concerted action, reflection, and dialogue with regard to this important and pressing issue.

The full article may be found here.

Article by Ajit Pyati. Blog post contributed by Aaron Bowen.

Images by rustybrick, Bob Xu, and Colin Zhu,
used under the Creative Commons license.

This past September 16, Financial Times posted an article about the contest between search engines for dominance of Internet search traffic in different parts of the world. Whereas Google is dominant in North America, they have had trouble breaking into markets in other parts of the world. In China, for example, the majority of Internet search traffic goes to Baidu.com. Yahoo holds an advantage over Google in other parts of Asia, and (according to FT) Naver receives 60% of South Korea’s search traffic.

The article discusses how and why different search engines are able to establish dominance in different regions:

Some common themes lie behind these local success stories, internet veterans say: Google has played second fiddle to rivals who invested much earlier, perfected their technology to work with local languages and came up with innovations that Google is now having to copy.

These companies have since been able to consolidate their hold thanks to their well-known local brand names and a strategy that often relies on combining search with a range of other portal-like services to keep users on in-house sites.

Article by Richard Waters, Robin Kwong, and Robin Harding in Financial Times. SIG-III Blog post by Aaron Bowen

Image by ازرق, used under the Creative Commons license.

Not many outside central Africa are familiar with them, but the libraries of Timbuktu are an extensive wealth of knowledge and culture. From today’s Der Spiegel:

Fabled Timbuktu, once the site of the world’s southernmost Islamic university, harbors thousands upon thousands of long-forgotten manuscripts. A dozen academic instutions from around the world are now working frantically to save and evaluate the crumbling documents…

Albrecht Hofheinz, an Arabist from Oslo, estimates that there are up to 300,000 forgotten manuscripts in Mali. Insect bites have discolored the pages, he says. “The paper disintegrates, is destroyed by mold or eaten by termites.” Time is of the essence. Some of the volumes are being photographed using a digital photo studio provided by the University of Chicago. The first of the documents are expected to be available on the Internet by the end of the year.

This will be an excellent resource for scholars of Islam and of central Africa! I look forward to watching this work unfold and progress, especially since it is the result of years of effort.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

Image by Idiolector, used under the Creative Commons license.

Last month Leigh Linden published Complement or Substitute?, a useful study that goes beyond the question of whether information and communication technologies (ICT) can make a positive difference in education and asks instead how they may be best implemented to make such a positive difference. Writing about Linden’s research on the World Bank’s PSD Blog, Ryan Hahn offers the following summary:

Employing a pair of randomized evaluations of computer use in classrooms in Gujarat, India, Linden found that computers improve learning outcomes when they are used as a complement to the normal curriculum, rather than as a replacement for the standard offering. He also found that the weakest students benefitted most, as the computers allowed for further practice of material already covered in the classroom. Finally, Linden also found that the computers were about as cost-effective an intervention as girls scholarship programs, cash incentives for teachers, and textbooks.

Image by World Bank Photo Collection,
used under the Creative Commons license.

What would be interesting to see now is the extent to which cultural attitudes towards education in Gujarat inform the effective use of these ICT in the classroom. Would the results be different in another city or another country that possesses different attitudes towards education? How so? I would love to see this research project repeated in one or more locations in different parts of the world. I would love to see how the results change or don’t change in different global settings. If you know of any similar experiments, please point to them in the comments — I would love to hear about them and have a dialog about the strengths of different digital education programs in different parts of the world.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

Image by kedguest, used under the Creative Commons license.

Today I ran across these two articles, one by Tom Peter in the Christian Science Monitor, and the other by Holly Jackson at CNet news. These articles note the use of Second Life as a venue for intercultural exchange, particularly at the virtual campuses different universities have set up in Second Life. (See for example the image of San Jose State’s virtual campus in the screenshot above). Peter says that

Around the world, universities, and even the US Department of State, are turning to online virtual worlds to create cultural exchanges. In these immersive, 3-D environments, users from around the globe can collaborate in ways that were previously impossible.

He also notes a group of university students in the United Arab Emerates who used Second Life to visit a virtual rendition of Darfur, make a pilgrimage to (virtual) Mecca, and interact with a group of Korean students to promote a cross-cultural exchange.

I find this a very worthwhile and exciting use of Second Life (or a second life clone such as IMVU, Gaia, or There). I believe such interaction will offer positive benefits as the world continues to grow interconnected and international projects such as Mainland Brasil (the Brazilian version of Second Life) continue to expand.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen

Eduardo Avila at Global Voices notes the introduction of a blogging contest for Peruvian high school students, sponsored by the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences [es]. The project website is here [es].

This week’s Data chart of the week from Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li’s Groundswell project features use statistics of social networks in different regions. Commenting on this chart from Groundswell, Josh asks

Does Korea have the highest participation because of CyWorld, or because Koreans love to connect?

Why are Germany, and especially France, so low? Is it something about the way French people behave online, or is there an opening for a great French social network (or the French version of an existing one, like Facebook)?

The data from France is something I found particularly interesting. Given that the French blogosphere is active, I would be interested to know why the number of regular social network users in France is comparatively low. Josh finishes his post by asking for reader comments regarding their thoughts on how social network use will play out in the countries listed in the chart. I invite you to do the same below.

True it’s a couple of years old, but I just ran across Siria Gastelum’s portrait of Mexican libraries in Críticas Magazine. Describing the Red Nacional de Bibliotecas Públicas (RNBP), Mexicio’s national public library system, Gastelum writes that

Established in 1983, the RNBP is run and funded by the federal government. The main office, in Mexico City, formulates all education and literacy programs for the entire network and provides each local library with its entire book collection, furniture, and equipment, as well as the outreach material and training for librarians. Local governments cover salaries for the personnel and allocate some extra funding, but there is no national standard when it comes to a public library budget.

Census statistics show that each public library in Mexico is visited by an average of 25 users a day, most of them students. Historically, the public library system has been linked to national education policies that make it mandatory for school children to visit libraries. However, this policy has transformed the library from a place to read for leisure to a place to get information only.

At first blush such a system certainly sounds different than a public library system in the United States. Whereas libraries in the U.S. would be more likely to favor localized policies regarding their collections and educational programs, Gastelum notes that the RNBP centralizes these functions in Mexico City. And whereas many libraries in the U.S. have taken efforts to promote themselves as a community plaza or gathering point as well as a library, Gastelum suggests the RNBP is specifically more of an information hub. The RNBP’s website doesn’t look like a website for a public library in the U.S. either — it is more of a place to find information about the system, rather than a place to search the system’s holdings or interact with a librarian.

What causes these differences? Gastelum quotes Katya Butrón at El Colegio de México, who says that “Most patrons have a negative perception of a library as an uncomfortable and uninviting space, a place for duty instead of pleasure.” Gastelum continues that

According to Butrón, attending a library is not part of Mexican culture. Even when the heavy governmental presence is not obvious for patrons, “the popular feeling is that libraries are just like any other of the many inefficient public services, ” she explains.

Authorities within the Mexican government are aware of this challenge, and have responded with a national literacy program (“Hacia un País de Lectores,” or “Towards a Country of Readers,” begun in 2001 by President Vicente Fox) and the construction of a new central library in Mexico City. This library, the Biblioteca de México José Vasconcelos, is in Gastelum’s words

…The “brain” or mother branch of all public libraries in Mexico. All the branches in the country’s 32 states will be connected electronically to this main branch, which hosts the country’s largest collection. Currently featuring half a million books, the building will eventually house 1.5 million volumes. Designed to serve 15,000 users a day, the 125,000-square-foot building by Mexican architect Alberto Kalach features 750 computers with free Internet access.

Images by joseluisl and rageforst, used under the Creative Commons license.

While this does sound like an enviable project, Butrón argues that a library like the Vasconcelos library represents the wrong approach to building a national interest in public libraries. She calls for a more localized approach, with more diversity of materials between different branch libraries within the system. The Digital Divide has also been a factor, with librarians in more remote parts of Mexico (and by extension less Internet access) saying a project like this does little to serve the needs of their patrons.

With this situation in mind, Gastelum calls for “a much needed dialogue” on the direction of librarianship in Mexico. She notes annual conferences put on by Asociación Mexicana de Bibliotecarios (AMBAC), Mexico’s equivalent of the American Library Association. Steven Kerchoff, Information Resource Officer for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico and library advocate, notes that at these conferences

[Mexican librarians] talk about outreach, they talk about advocacy, how to promote their library services to users and to people who are in a position to make decisions about funding… Library advocacy has been a hot issue in the States for a while and it’s now becoming really important in Mexico.

Challenges like these will be a part of any dialogue on future directions for Mexican libraries (just like they will be a part of any dialogue on future directions for public libraries in many countries). Time will tell how these issues and the dialogue they create play out, but both Butrón and Hortensia Lobato, Vice President of AMBAC, are optimistic that Mexican libraries and librarians will continue to integrate themselves into the bedrock of Mexican culture, both as a place to find information, and as a place to strengthen a local community.

Going through the archives of the excellent Global Voices citizen journalism website, I saw this post by Renata Avila. Renata describes a pair of projects underway in Guatemala — one developing library services for children, and the other implementing technology in Guatemalan schools.

Somewhat similar to Chile’s BiblioRedes project, The library project is called Caldo de Piedra. In their words, they are

…A charity that manages and stocks children’s libraries. These libraries are operated by parents and the community in support of local public and private schools to help girls and boys discover that learning is part of their lives. We believe in education in its broadest sense, where books are at the heart of an array of creative and artistic projects that engage children in a love of learning.

Edulibre’s website is written in Spanish, but Renata provides a translation of their mission statement:

Edulibre is a project by volunteers, professionals and students wishing to improve the access to technology for elementary school kids. Each of them gives their time by helping in different areas of the non- profit project.

They also maintain an Edulibre blog here.

Contributed by Aaron Bowen