Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
among migrant Kelabit. As a network conducted
on the Internet, the discussion list includes Kelabit
who are living in Miri, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching,
Bario, Bintulu and Singapore. The main concern
is to find ways of documenting “extinct” Kelabit
words, terms and phrases, while at the same time
promoting the use of the language
All this points to the idea that the Internet
has become a new means to maintain solidarity,
within an increasingly stratified and occupation-
ally mobile population, and in the face of new
types of development intervention described. In
fact, the significance of Online Kelabit Society, in
reproducing and maintaining solidarity among the
Kelabit has been likened to the traditional roles of
ruma' kadang
(the longhouse) by one of its regular
users. This is because it provides space for the
exchanges of ideas and advice, which are impor-
tant elements of communal living in a longhouse.
This suggests that ICT makes it possible for the
Kelabit to form new networks and to reproduce
effective organization and actions. At the same
time, the presence of ICT facilitates a greater
agency and capacity for political engagement to
question, assess and debate these developments,
and to form links with other agencies which might
be useful. The various technologies available at
the telecentre, for instance desk tops, associated
software and the Internet, are currently being
used to strategize the Kelabit position in their
encounters with commercial logging activities
in the Highlands. Examples of this are the docu-
mentation of oral histories and the recording of
images relating to cultural and historical sites
found in the Highlands, as well as the marking of
their Global Positioning System (GPS) points.All
these are uploaded into a Geographic Information
System (GIS) database at the telecentre, to allow
for the construction of a land-use history in the
form of a digital map, and spatial and temporal
analyses of past land use in the region. These in
turn are useful historical and legal documents in
negotiations with agencies involved in conserva-
tion and logging.
In so many ways, the telecentre nowadays
has become more than a venue to provide equal
access for new technologies in the Highlands. It
has increasingly become a place and forum for
the Kelabit to present and manage other “devel-
opment” issues currently facing them in Bario.
This trend was made evident through a recent
conversation with the local manager, in which he
said that, 'e-Bario is not just about ICT anymore.
We are also into introducing and managing the
implementation of solar power in Bario and have
bought a printing and laminating machine for the
Centre. So, now people in Bario can print their
photographs very easily. We produce the same
quality as the shops in town, but at a cheaper
rate for our people.' Furthermore, he continued
that 'e-Bario has now become the secretariat for
all sorts of events and activities in the Kelabit
Highlands. Both the church and Council of El-
ders use the centre to organize their religious and
administrative activities.' At the time I spoke to
the manager, the Centre was organizing the World
Wildlife Fund “Heart of Borneo” Project's yearly
symposium in Bario and also for the annual Kelabit
Highlands Food and Cultural Festival. Put simply,
ongoing negotiations and explorations are taking
place to make e-Bario significant and relevant to
the people in the Kelabit Highlands beyond the
imagined practical outcomes of the initiative, and
far beyond the original intentions of the project
proposal.
concluSion
In conclusion, what can we learn from e-Bario
especially with regards to ICT for community
development and its effect at the grass roots level?
Experiences in e-Bario made it clear that the
introduction of information communication tech-
nologies has been mediated and reconfigured by
webs of social relations and the intricate interplay
of social, political and cultural conditions specific
to the Kelabit Highlands. As a result, the social
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