[okfn-za] Open data in South Africa

Mon Nov 18 13:52:39 UTC 2013

Hi Adi

Do textbooks and past exam papers count as information in this context? If
you reckon Paperight counts an access-to-info project, I'd be very happy to
share details with you on how we're doing.

For those who don't know, I founded Paperight (paperight.com) to enable
copy shops to act as print-on-demand bookstores. After years working on
ebooks (electricbookworks.com), I came to think that ebooks don't always
solve the access problems that most South Africans face when it comes to
books, especially tertiary textbooks. (Access is limited in many ways by
money and geography.) The simplest way to distribute ebooks to people in
poor and remote locations is often to let copy shops print them out on
demand.

So we just provide copy shops with an online library to print from as
needed. For each book, they pay a small licence fee for the publisher,
which they then recover from their customers plus their charge for printing.

We've been going two years, and we're now making available almost 2000
titles from over 100 publishers through over 200 copy shops around SA. Our
network has delivered almost 10000 books, many of those in places where no
traditional bookstores have existed, like Khayelitsha. That said, there are
many challenges to growing the model to achieve much bigger numbers:
publishers are still reluctant to give us core textbooks, copy shops
struggle to find time to promote the service, and South Africans'
non-book-buying habits run deep. But I think we're beginning to have some
meaningful impact. We're focusing on universities now, where we could slash
the price of textbooks by up to 40%, if publishers were to distribute core
textbooks with us. (The publisher still would make the same gross margin as
they do from traditional editions, we save money because we replace
printing, shipping, warehousing and wastage with the much lower cost of
printing a copy out in store.)

Two school projects recently:

* Pelikan Park parents purchase study packs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs69YVQLI4U

* Silverstream High receives sponsored study materials and books:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMY3mRz0aBo

My natural inclination is to cheerlead for Paperight, but I'd happily share
the failures we've notched up along the way, I usually just need a beer to
get me going ;)

Arthur

On 18 November 2013 14:08, Adi Eyal <adi at code4sa.org> wrote:

> That's the longest quick note I have ever seen :)
>
> On 18 November 2013 11:06, Murray Hunter <murray at r2k.org.za> wrote:
> > A very quick note from R2K's experience - the bulk of our membership is
> made
> > up of front-line civic organisations whose primary concern is service
> > delivery, usually led by volunteer staff with low tech literacy. R2K's
> role
> > has mainly been in matching these orgs with PAIA-savvy organisations like
> > SAHA and ODAC (since they handle the direct access-to-info needs of R2K's
> > constituent organisations).
>
> My feeling is that a missing ingredient here is tech-oriented
> non-profits (or socially-minded for-profits) who can bridge the gap
> between data and information.
>
> > This points to a number of challenges and shortcomings in the civil
> society
> > environment: lack of analytic or technocratic capacity, low research
> skills,
> > tech literacy - and, quite possibly, a vexing lack of imagination on our
> > part when it comes to developing tools to mitigate all of the above. (It
> > also suggests is that much of the time, PAIA just isn't the tool for the
> > job, in as much as "access to information" requests are often really
> about
> > access to process and access to decision makers - i.e. citizens don't
> want
> > the 400-page document justifying decisions, they want the person who made
> > the decisions to come down to a community hall and explain those
> decisions.)
>
> I completely agree. 400 page documents need to be broken down into
> bite-sized information that can help me choose a better school for my
> child or lobby for better services from my municipality. Heavy
> advocacy work has its place but naively, I would like to think that if
> ordinary people had the right information, they could make better
> decisions to improve their own lives as well as those of their
> neighbours.
>
> > All this has made me personally sceptical of easy fixes of the 'tech for
> > transparency' variety - not to reject the concept out of hand, but
> because
> > because even civil society initiatives that have managed to bridge the
> vast
> > gap between those who have the skills and those who have the need, are
> still
> > figuring out what the hell to do with it.
>
> Technology, especially hi-tech, is the wrong target. It is expensive
> and has limited value. It is easy to get intoxicated by whizz-bang
> when a piece of paper has more value. Having said that, a light touch
> with technology could increase reach and potentially have larger
> impact than a non-tech approach.
> >
> > I'm curious to know if Ndifuna Ukwazi and SJC have had success in the
> past
> > year?
>
> We all are.
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> Adi
> >
> > MH
> >
> > Murray Hunter
> >
> > Right2Know Campaign
> > www.r2k.org.za
> > @r2kcampaign
> > c: 072 672 5468
> >
> >
> > On 18 November 2013 10:06, Justin Arenstein <justinarenstein at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> Adi,
> >>
> >> Hi. I think this is a crucial question, & think you should also be
> pinging
> >> ATI / PAIA orgs like ODAC and SAHA and R2K and SAHRC, etc, directly.
> >> Advocacy and policy work is obviously important, but only if citizens
> use
> >> the results. Civil society and activists seem to be struggling to
> translate
> >> 'ivory tower' policy work into tangible 'real world' benefits or
> services
> >> for ordinary citizens. It would therefore be good to understand whether
> the
> >> organisations at the forefront of ATI advocacy know of any tools /
> services
> >> that impact on ordinary citizens in a demonstratable / measurable way.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Justin
> >>
> >> Justin Arenstein
> >>
> >> SA Mobile: +27.82.374.0812
> >> US Mobile: +1.650.336.5878
> >> Skype: JustinArenstein
> >> Twitter: JustinArenstein
> >> Web: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JustinArenstein
> >>
> >> PGP Key Fingerprint: 8B19 3C53 2B40 453B F48D 9D7A 7346 A3AE DB88 30CD
> >> Do you want to email me confidentially? See: http://bit.ly/VLJt1N
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 18 November 2013 08:46, Adi Eyal <adi at code4sa.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi All
> >>>
> >>> I'm looking for access to information type projects in South Africa
> >>> that actually reach end-users and have impact on improving human
> >>> rights, social justice issues, service delivery or other hot button
> >>> issues.
> >>>
> >>> Transport apps and pretty visualisations are sexy but I'm looking for
> >>> examples that have real impact. I am struggling a little and I was
> >>> hoping for input from these mailing lists.
> >>>
> >>> Adi
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> Adi Eyal
> >>> Strategy
> >>> Code for South Africa
> >>> Promoting informed decision-making
> >>>
> >>> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> >>> skype: adieyalcas
> >>> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
> >>> web: http://www.code4sa.org
> >>> twitter: @soapsudtycoon
> >>>
> >>> For more information on how to participate in the open data community
> >>> in South Africa, go to: http://www.code4sa.org/#community
> >>>
> >>> --
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> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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>
>
> --
> Adi Eyal
> Director
> Code for South Africa
> Promoting informed decision-making
>
> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> skype: adieyalcas
> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
> web: http://www.code4sa.org
> twitter: @soapsudtycoon
>
> For more information on how to participate in the open data community
> in South Africa, go to: http://www.code4sa.org/#community
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