An open-technologies-based ICT deployment architecture for rural usage scenarios

The role of ICT as a catalyst for social change and economic development in developing countries cannot be underestimated. In essence ICT can significantly reward those who effectively and strategically make use of it with increased income, better quality of life, cultural, social, economic and political advantages. Many African Nations are adopting the use of ICTs as a tool to foster development by deploying ICT infrastructure in rural areas. These deployments include, Digital doorways (DD), internet kiosks and telecentres. Different sectors in the rural areas have different ICT needs. For example, schools require computers to promote computer literacy, facilitate e-learning and communications. ICTs may also be used to enable students in schools without science and maths teachers to receive lessons from remote teachers. Rural based SMMEs require internet access and e-commerce applications to conduct their business. Clinics and health centres may use ICTs for remote diagnosis of diseases, referrals and to disseminate health related information to community members. Ordinary villagers would want to make use of ICT services and infrastructure without having to go to a central place like a school or a telecentres. Despite a typical rural setting exhibiting a wide range of characteristics and needs, most of the traditional deployment efforts only address specific needs. For example, DDs are usually employed in schools as an ICT skills acquisition platform whilst Internet kiosks are used by the general community for Internet access. Most projects have provided access to ICT resources through deployments at centralised locations such as community centres and schools. This was mainly a cost saving measure which relied on sharing the cost of the infrastructure among the community but the benefits of the ICT infrastructure were mostly enjoyed by those already active at those locations. There is therefore the need for an ICT deployment architecture that can cater for multiple usage scenarios for the various community sectors. Thus, one needs to harness different technologies together whilst ensuring that deployment costs remain affordable when providing a wide spectrum of services. In this paper we propose an ICT deployment architecture enabled by open technologies that can support multiple use cases. The benefits of such an architecture are two fold. Firstly we provide a solution that takes a different approach in addressing the digital divide problem by providing ICT services and infrastructure in people’s homes. Secondly, by use of current technologies, we provide a deployment solution that is cost effective.