KT Warana Unwired

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Warana Unwired

Kentaro Toyama

Assistant Managing Director

Microsoft Research India

Based on work with Rajesh Veeraraghavan

TCS Excellence in Computer Science

January 9, 2008 ± Pune, India

With an Examination of Rural PC Kiosks



People

Lead Researcher ± Rajesh Veeraraghavan

Collaborators ± Kentaro Toyama ± Ken Keniston (MIT) ± Vibhore Goyal ± Sean Blagsvedt ± Nimmi Rangaswamy

Interns ± Naga Yasodhar (Cognizant) ± Renee Kuriyan (UC Berkeley) ± Savita Bailur (London School

of Economics)

Rajesh visiting a farmer¶s family in Warana

Photo: Rajesh Veeraraghavan



Outline: Warana Unwired

Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion




Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion



Rural Kiosks

Definition (for the purposesof this presentation):

± Rural center with PC as thefocus of services

± Typically run as a smallenterprise

± Socio-economicimprovement as a goal Photo: Kentaro Toyama

ITC e-Choupal kiosk in Kodia, Madhya Pradesh



Rural Kiosks

A ³bouquet of services´ to generate value and revenue



Data sources:

± Extensive kiosk surveys 300 kiosks, 1 year so far, 4

times each, 5 customers, 1operator per kiosk

± Ethnographic studies Longitudinal kiosk life-cycle

± In-depth interviews with kioskagencies

At least six organizations

± Over 30 site visits in India

and Africa ± Discussions with third-partyobservers

± Literature in journals, books,web sites, whitepapers

Methodology



Projects examined:

± n-Logue (Tamil Nadu) ± Drishtee (North India) ± ITC e-choupal (Madhya

Pradesh) ± TARAhaat (Uttar Pradesh) ± MSSRF (Pondicherry) ± Dhan / SARI (Tamil Nadu) ± Akshaya (Kerala) ± World Corps (Andhra Pradesh)

± Bhoomi / Comat (Karnataka) ± Rural e-Seva (AndhraPradesh)

± Warana WDV (Maharashtra) ± Datamation (Delhi) ± Etc.

Methodology



Srinivasan, Janaki (2004)The Effects of e-Governance Implementation on Women:

A Study of the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project, Madurai.Masters Thesis, Indian Institute of Information Technology.

Kiosk in Tamil Nadu

Kiosk Business a Challenge

Rural kiosk in Tamil Nadu



12-year-old boy taking typing lessons in Retawadi, Maharashtra

Vigyan Ashram monthly report (Nov 2004)

Kiosk Business a ChallengePhoto: Kentaro Toyama



Proud father of printshop and kiosk owner in Sirsa, Haryana

Private e-mail communication

Kiosk Business a ChallengePhoto: Kentaro Toyama



Various published articles

Sustainability is nearly impossible!



Difficult to Break Even

Dhawan, Vivek (2004)

Critical Success Factors for Rural ICT Projects in India,Masters Thesis, IIT-Bombay



Even surviving kiosks are

supported by other business

6

In Rs.

gri

abour

usiness ar ing ovt ob etty

trader

vt ob etired hop

o ner

orking

student

nski ed

abour

MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD INCOME vs. KIOSK INCOME

onthy Househod n o e

iosk n o e

Microsoft kiosk survey (2005)




Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion



Over 0% of population earn livingthrough agriculture

Mostly small and marginal farmerswith 1-3 acres of land

Typical income of <$2 per day

Agriculture in India

Photos: Rajesh Veeraraghavan



Warana is withinKolhapur district, Maharashtra

Warana, Maharashtra, is a

subdistrict of Kolhapur (second

wealthiest rural district in India)

Sugarcane cooperatives and

refineries

first one in 1959

now numbering 25

Warana Nagar

Tatyasaheb Kore (1914-1994)



Warana¶s main cooperative: 75 villages 50000 farmers 25,000km2

1998: Asia¶s first projectto ³Bridge the Digital Divide´

54 PC kiosks in 54 villages

Cost: Rs.2.5 crores(US$ 25,000)

50% central gov·t

40% state gov·t

10% cooperative

³Warana Wired Village Project´

Warana sugarcane processing plant



Factory

FTP

PC

WaranaFarmer DB

Standard PCnetwork

Weigh stations

Landline phone

PC enabledKiosks

³Warana Wired Village Project´

WWVP technical infrastructure



Bring Warana Nagar on NICNET [and Internet]

Create database of villagers on various socio-economic aspects

Provide Tele-education to both Primary and igher EducationalInstitutes

Facilities such as remote health service (tele-medicine), publicgrievances and redressal will be provided through this booth

Provide following facilities:- Computer based education- Open University access (IGNOU)

Original Goals of WWVPhttp://www.mah.nic.in/warana/#About Wired Villages




Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion



Summer, 2005: two months

Participant observation Structured interviews

± 200 farmers (users andnon-users)

± 15 kiosk operators ± 3 cooperative leaders ± 5 cooperative staff

Technical analysis Survey

± 47 kiosks ± Self-reported usagestatistics

± Kiosk logging

One all-hands meeting of kiosk operators

Ethnography and Data Collection

Joint work with Ken Keniston

Interviewing in the field



Bring Warana Nagar on NICNET [and Internet]

Create database of villagers on various socio-economic aspects

Provide Tele-education to both Primary and igher EducationalInstitutes

Facilities such as remote health service (tele-medicine), publicgrievances and redressal will be provided through this booth

Provide following facilities:- Computer based education- Open University access (IGNOU)

Were goals being met?



Why not«?

Technology ± No local language interface

Plans to localize exceeded budget

± Connectivity poor Dial-up, no more than 10kbps

Round-trip time for data still two days

Infrastructural ± Centers not designed for students, patients, etc.

Social / political / economic

± Lack of budget to fulfill expectations ± Farmers¶ awareness of PC function limited ± Farmers¶ need for Internet/multimedia functionality limited

Interest in PC and Internet existed, however

± Lack of training and qualified trainers



Internal account MIS:

Register land

Issue harvesting permits

Sell fertilizer through credit

Query quantity of sugarcane

harvested

± 10 times a year for farmer

± Small matrix of numerical data

Actual Use

WWVP village PC kiosk



High maintenance cost ± At any time, a few in disrepair

Intermittent power

Network flakey ± Low-quality dial-up

PC not optimally used

Cooperative considering discontinuation of system

Mounting Challenges

PCs not in best condition



Can we preserve the functionality of the

existing PC-based system while making the entire system cheaper and more

effective?

The Design Problem




Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion



Warana U nwired!

SMS-enabledmobile phones

PC-based kiosks

Warana«



Factory

FTP

PC

WaranaFarmer DB

Standard PCnetwork

Weigh stations

Landline phone

PC-enabledkiosks

Original PC-Based Set-Up



GSM/CDMA

SMS network

Factory

PC

WaranaFarmer DB

Standard PCnetwork

Weigh stations

SMS-enabledphones

New Mobile-Based Set-Up

SMS



Pilot Experiment

Implementation

Begun October 200 ± Naga spent 1.5 months at location

SMS Server implemented at processing

center ± Based on SMS Server Toolkit [Goyaland Blagsvedt]

7 pilot villages and 7 kiosks ± PC-based system left in place, but

kiosk operators asked to use only if necessary

Under auspices of cooperative¶s managingdirector

Involved IT manager at WWVP

Questions

Technical: Can SMS-based systembe implemented in thisenvironment?

Usability: Is SMS a viable mediumfor farmers?

Social: Will farmers transition touse? Inhibiting factors?

Financial: What are actual costs of system?

Other: Any adverse impacts?




Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion



Software logs of« ± SMS Server ± Central database

Survey of kiosks ± 7 pilot (mobile) ± 7 non-pilot (PC)

Interviews with kiosk operators

Interviews with farmers

Data Collected



Implementation and Usage

System required one month of tweaking in field to customize.

Running continuously since October 200 . ± 24-hour access

SMS Server requires reboot once a month.

1238 unique farmer requests served in first three months. ± Slightly more than expected number, based on statistics from PC-based

system

80% of requests are about sugarcane output.

Response time is generally on order of seconds.

Results



WaranaWarana UnwiredUnwired± ± Estimated Cost SavingsEstimated Cost Savings

System Cost/Farmer /Year (INR)

New PCSystem

394

SMS Mobile(kiosks)

159

SMS Mobile(withoutkiosks)

111

GPRS (nokiosks / SMS

discount)

91

Current system

Potential savings: 1 million

Rupees per year, over 54

villages ($25,000)

Costs

Achievable with GPRS or with

SMS discounts

$30 000 savin s er ear

Annual cost of PC system



Other Issues

Good

Advantage of mobiles ± Mobility

± Battery power ± Fast, 24-hour access

± Potential democratizationof access

Bad ± SMS not suitable for all

queries or data

Land registration not

implemented via SMS ± Data-availability dependent

on server

± Minor error rates (3.2%)due to SMS unavailability

In all cases, a repeatquery solved the problem.

± Per-SMS cost accrues tofarmer



Qualitative ResultsQualitative Results ± ± Solution Truly MobileSolution Truly Mobile



Farmer from Satve village (one of pilots)

Initial disbelief turns to excitement:

³The information is exact and it is very good.´

Farmer from Angali village (not in pilot)

³I saw messages are coming on the mobile phone.There is no problem. So where is the question of success? Let us have it, also.´

Farmer Responses




Rural PC Kiosks

Warana Background

Initial Ethnography

The Intervention

Results

Discussion



Related Work

Rural kiosks ± Heeks, 1999

± Jhunjhunwala, 2000 ± Keniston, 2002 ± Roman, 2003 ± Pal et al., 2004 ± Kumar, 2004 ± Toyama et al., 2004 ± Nedevschi et al., 2005

± Srinivasan, 2005 ± Kuriyan et al., 200 ± Rajalekshmi, 200 ± Ali and Bailur, 2007 ± Bailur, 2007 ± Etc.

ICT for agriculture ± eSagu

± e-Choupal ± aAQUA

Advantage of mobile phones ± Duncombe & Heeks, 1999 ± Donner, 2005 ± T he Economist , 2005 (³The Real

Digital Divide´) ± Jensen, 2007

SMS-based solutions ± Banks 2005 ± Goyal & Blagsvedt, 2005

Veeraraghavan, R., N. Yasodhar, K. Toyama. Warana Unwired: Replacing PCs with MobilePhones in a Rural Sugarcane Cooperative, in Proc. IEEE/ACM Int¶l Conf on Informationand Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2007), 2007.



To our knowledge, Warana Unwired is the first project to replace anexisting ICT4D PC-based network with a mobile-based system.

Expensive many-PC system replaced with an affordable single-PC

system

Is this development?

± Minor impact on farmers¶ lives (e.g., savings of $10 per year)

± Cost savings to sugarcane cooperative (e.g., $25,000 per year)

Shouldn¶t overstate case for mobile phones

Future work: Simple IT systems for agriculture cooperatives

Discussion



Thank you!http://research.microsoft.com/~rajeshv/warana.htm

[email protected] ; [email protected]

Photo: Rajesh Veeraraghavan

KT Warana Unwired

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