Sustainability Failures of Rural Telecenters: Challenges from the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project
Sustainability Failures of Rural Telecenters: Challenges from the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project
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DOI：
10.1162/itid.2008.00025
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发表时间：
2008-09-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Kumar, Rajendra
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Best, Michael;Kumar, Rajendra
我们对印度农村的一个信息和通信技术促进发展项目进行了纵向审查，密切关注活动，并对50多个不同村庄多达100个互联网设施的用户进行了调查。印度泰米尔纳德邦的印度农村可持续接入项目取得了许多成功，包括明显的--尽管是本地化的--社会和经济发展影响，以及孵化一个--尽管不一致--的信息和通信技术促进发展初创公司(n-Logue Communications Pvt.Ltd.)。然而，最终，莎莉项目没有维持下去。在这里报告的具体结果中，我们跟踪了2001年11月至2004年2月期间在不同时间开设的36个私营电信中心的前景。到2005年5月，这36个电信中心中已有32个关闭。然而，在同一时期，同一地区由当地一个非政府组织开设和经营的42个电信中心中的大多数仍在继续运作。我们对这两组设施进行了比较分析。我们发现，信息亭寿命变化的最好解释是他们对n-Logue通信的满意度。此外，那些确实对其机构和技术支持表示满意的网站，与不满意的网站相比，平均多使用了一年。除了技术和业务支助问题外，我们发现，缺乏长期财务可行性是关闭私营电信中心的一个主要原因。许多中心没有实现财务可持续性；事实上，85%的受访运营商表示，财务状况是导致他们关闭的主要原因。最后，由受过计算机培训的个人拥有的电信中心，或有单独受过培训的操作员的电信中心，在较长时间内仍可继续运作。
We have examined longitudinally an ICT for development project in rural India, closely watching activities and surveying users at as many as 100 Internet facilities in more than 50 different villages. The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project in Tamil Nadu, India, enjoyed many successes, including palpable-albeit localized-social and economic development impacts as well as the incubation of an-albeit inconsistently-celebrated ICT for development start-up company (n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Ultimately, however, the SARI project did not sustain itself. In the particular outcomes reported here, we follow the prospects of 36 private telecenters which were opened at various times between November 2001 and February 2004. By May 2005, 32 of these 36 telecenters had closed. However, in the same time period, most of 42 telecenters in the same area that were opened and run by a local NGO continued to function. We provide a comparative analysis between these two groups of facilities. We find that the best explanation for variation in a kiosk lifespan was their level of satisfaction with n-Logue Communications. Moreover, those sites that did express satisfaction with their institutional and technical support were in service for, on average, an additional year compared with dissatisfied sites. In addition to technical and operational support issues, we find that the lack of long-term financial viability was a major reason for the closure of the private telecenters. Financial sustainability was not realized by many centers; indeed, 85% of the operators interviewed cited finances as a major cause for their closure. Finally, telecenters that were owned by individuals with prior training in computers, or that had a separate trained operator, remained operational for a longer period.