Citizen Engagement in Practice - Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement - page 71

and letters, posters leaflets and booklets, cassettes, pictures and so on). In
addition a radio set would be available for each circle. Plans are in place to
monitor the system on the basis of usage and application of information
(i.e. not just by the simple availability of information). Indicators elabo-
rated by participants in the Reflect circles include: numbers of landless
families; migrants and preventable deaths; development funding; literacy;
and participation in decision making. Thus there is built-in evaluation of
the pilots, based on criteria defined by the participants in the pilot. Moni-
toring and evaluation have been planned both of the systems themselves
and of the Reflect ICTs project more widely (Beardon 2005).
4.4.4 Nepal Wireless
The case reported here is a participative project which was the brainchild
of a single individual, Mahabir Pun, a computer engineer who had studied
for a Master's degree in Education in the USA. When he returned to his
native Nangi, a mountainous village in Nepal, he resolved to set up a com-
puter network which would provide computers and Internet connection to
Nangi and its neighbours. On the website http://nepalwireless.net/, Pun ex-
plains that he realised that he would need to bring computers to the villag-
ers to show them exactly what they could do with ICT (Pun n.d.).
When his school in Nangi received a gift of computer parts from an
Australian school in 1997, Pun assembled computers in wooden boxes to
equip classrooms. He tried to obtain a phone connection, which could be
used to connect to the Internet. The villagers got a radio phone but the line
was not clear. The cost of a satellite phone was beyond their means. Pun
wrote to the BBC reporting his experiences and his story was published in
2001. As a result of the publicity, Pun received help and support from
around the world and learnt of 802.11b wireless technology, which could
be used to connect computers in a network and to the Internet. Two foreign
volunteers came to Nangi to help set things up, and more people followed.
A small pilot scheme ran successfully in September 2002. Pun appears to
have engaged people through demonstrating the potential of ICTs - by de-
veloping their awareness of the capabilities, helping them to articulate their
needs and to recognise potential uses which will benefit them.
Subsequently, the network has been extended to seven villages. The vil-
lages are connected by wi-fi, although shortages of powered wireless de-
vices and poor weather conditions mean the connections are not constant.
The original relay station set up at the top of a tall tree, 10,800 feet above
sea level, and consisting of a TV dish antenna and one litre measuring can,
is still working (Since1968.com 2004).