[wsfii-discuss] Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless

[Vickram Crishna]

The government established 'community' radio in Sri
Lanka also earned its way by enabling local people to
show support by donations in kind, and more than that,
this pattern is repeated in local radio stations in
Nepal. 

Economies work in ways other than cash. Unfortunately,
to buy internet bandwidth (and hardware) you need
cash, so models for taking care of that aspect still
need resolving.

--- Ian Howard <ihoward at netdotworking.com> wrote:

> Mbote Thomas!
> 
> Indeed.
> 
> Regarding my use of the term "economic value" here.
> In the design of
> networks in countries like yours, I have found that
> cash flow is the
> greatest challenge. Local governments are not able
> to subsidize. Foreign
> governments wish only to provide short-term capital
> investment. Thus,
> ultimately, most often in the developing world
> (lesser developed
> countries) the model for supporting a wireless
> network must be
> self-financing, and thus we must find the economic
> value, or there is no
> hope to find social value. In Canada, it is much
> easier for me to build
> a network that is first focused on social value.
> Many of the community
> networks here use such a model. They provide a
> social value, more than
> an economic value. That can be done because the
> costs are negligible in
> terms of the economic output of the community,
> whereas a network in
> Congo, for example, can be a significant cost in
> terms of the
> community's economic output, because costs are
> factors more and revenues
> are much more constrained. So, my use of the term
> "economic value", I
> propose, is perhaps appropriate here as my point is
> that the network
> will only survive if its economic value is greater
> than its costs.
> 
> Ian
> 
> 
>  Maketa wrote:
> > Hi Ian,
> > Very pertinent what you said below, maybe we
> should accept that some
> > project will have as only purpose to show a
> possibility, and it is
> > people themselves who must embrace  it or not
> according to their needs.
> >
> > Fundamentally what I draw from your reaction is
> that a model is
> > adopted only if it suits a community needs, and as
> there are so
> > different communities with so different needs ,
> because of the
> > difference in environments and mindset  in which
> they live, than an
> > universal business model is utopia. (So difficult
> to take the freifunk
> > or the server host based, or the FON , or the
> exotic model and
> > transpose it at it is in a different context, I
> know that nobody
> > proposed it !!!!!!).
> >
> > So we should look at model where all the same
> opportunities are given
> > to everybody and anyone according to his
> background, availability ,
> > willingness could grab it or not.
> >
> >
> > Just a quick pique to a previous direction that
> the discussion took, I
> > noticed the way you used "economical value" for
> you "if the network
> > fulfill a need the community will keep it alive",
> shouldnt you say
> > however "Social value"???  Why do we always
> associate something that
> > has a social value to money?
> >
> > >>>>
> > >:leaning to, such as in the phrase,
> > >"Demonstrate the economic viability of
> sustainable development,
> > promoting a variety of appropriate >sustainable
> technologies and
> > approaches suitable to local conditions and
> preferences." We believe
> > >that some models should be simply that, to
> demonstrate something, for
> > the purpose of testing it and >showing
> people(training) them. Then,
> > you later close the doors and if local peopl ewant
> that network, >they
> > will build it, as they will know how (if the
> project was done
> > right).To get back to your mention of >FM, I might
> simply redirect
> > your reference to state what is most important is
> that the network
> > fulfil >ssome crucial need of the community, such
> as an FM radio is
> > hungry for information, or that farmers >need to
> know market info. If
> > the network then fulfils a real need, than the
> network will be kept
> > alive by >the community. It will then have
> economic value.Cheers!
> >
> > !DSPAM:1,4631fec929642043112128!
> >
>
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> >
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> >
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wsfii-discuss
> >
> >
> > !DSPAM:1,4631fec929642043112128!
> >   
> 
> 
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> 


Vickram


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