[cr-india] Sri Lanka (fwd)

[Frederick Noronha]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

** SRI LANKA. LISTENING TO THE WEB ON THE RADIO
   By BBC News Online's Alfred Hermida

Radio is bringing the internet to people in a mountain
village in central Sri Lanka. Every day for an hour,
presenters in the studio translate and read out web
pages on topics suggested by the listeners.

The aim of the Kothmale Community Radio project is to
provide access to the web to villagers who do not have
computers and may not be able 
to speak English.

The web is an expensive luxury for most in Sri Lanka
and many areas have no internet access points at all.

"This digital divide we talk of is not something
artificial or only academic in Sri Lanka. It's a real
problem," said M J R David who helped to set up the
project.

"In the cities, children have access to the internet
and e-mail, and the use of telephone is increasing.

"But in the countryside, very few people even have
telephone connections. And in five or six years, all
the same children will be standing in the same queue
for employment," he explained.

The project was started almost three years ago with
funding from UNESCO. It has proved a big success, with
no shortage of volunteers to help out.

"There's always a queue at the computers," M j R David
told the BBC programme Go Digital.

During the programme, listeners are encouraged to
write in or turn up at the station to use the
computers there to find out information on 
the web. If the sites are in English, the bilingual
presenters will translate and read them out over the
radio.

To make the villagers get the most out of the
internet, the radio station brings doctors, lawyers or
teachers into the studio so they can dig out the
relevant information from the web and explain it to
the listeners.

The internet is also used by other programmes to
research stories and incorporate information, news,
weather reports and music into their broadcasts.

The concept of extending the internet via radio to
rural regions in developing countries was devised in
1996 during discussions between UNESCO and community
radio broadcasters. The idea was that the two 
mediums could be integrated to make the internet
accessible to a wider audience.

Tuesday, 5 February, 2002, 08:41 GMT  From: 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1796000/1796236.stm
More about Kothmale Community Radio at:
http://www.kothmale.net/ (a very informative site in
English but RealAudio isn't working) (via Sergei
Sosedkin, IL, DXLD)

Via DX Listener's Digest, USA


=====
73 

Jose Jacob, VU2JOS
National Institute of Amateur Radio
Box 1555, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500082, India
Telefax 91-40-3310287
www.niar.org

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