Papers by Gertjan van Stam
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
The Journal of Community Informatics, Dec 22, 2013
Framing*of*Research*and*Development* *Local*or*Foreign*Conversa)on?* ***Endogenous*or*Exogenous*P... more Framing*of*Research*and*Development* *Local*or*Foreign*Conversa)on?* ***Endogenous*or*Exogenous*Perspec)ve?* Condi)oned*or*Open*Mind?* ******Local*or*Foreign*Orienta)on?* Facts*of*Life* • We*see#differently* • We*value#differently* • We*judge#differently*
2011 6th International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Applications, 2011
ABSTRACT
Macha is a small and resource limited village in rural Zambia. Since 2003 remarkable progress is ... more Macha is a small and resource limited village in rural Zambia. Since 2003 remarkable progress is taking shape in Macha. Since that time, the village is connected to Internet via a VSAT satellite connection, integrated with a holistic and respectful vision based upon developing the potential of the local community. Thus the local community plays a major role in the development process. To operate the communications network a cooperative not-for profit company was set up, Macha Works, with its ICT unit LinkNet, owned by the community. Overall the Macha approach appears very successful and is now being scaled up to many more villages in Zambia. Macha itself is in a next stage of development. It is evolving into a center of expertise with training, talent development, innovation and experimentation in the fields of agriculture, alternative energy, appropriate types of entrepreneurship, and novel approaches in ICT fitting the African context. A cooperation with the University of Zambia i...
As access to digital platforms in Africa is mostly through 'mobile' networks, this paper addresse... more As access to digital platforms in Africa is mostly through 'mobile' networks, this paper addresses the mismatch of universalised reports on 'mobile' access and the experiences from digital health practice and cases in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Further, the paper shines a critical light on the meaning of terms like access and the 4 th industrial revolution from an African context. It argues for the need to invest in contextual research and development, also to gain a comprehensive understanding of how to access digital platforms in and from Africa.
Using power to achieve political goals is not a new strategy. This paper unpacks observations abo... more Using power to achieve political goals is not a new strategy. This paper unpacks observations about the use of power in the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Africa. This analysis shows the use of unequal powers by non-African academics, development actors and technical experts (including the power to set the agenda, fund and build), embedded deeply in the current structures of ICT development for Africa. It also looks at how benefits accrue to non-local development actors and outlines some of the unmitigated risks for Africa.
WebSci'20 Companion: 12th ACM Conference on Web Science Proceedings, 2020
This paper applies a trans-disciplinary analysis on the issue of data sovereignty, from an Africa... more This paper applies a trans-disciplinary analysis on the issue of data sovereignty, from an African perspective. The paper interrogates the residence of data and the African prerogatives for its processing. Harvesting from experiences in Zimbabwean health systems, this paper suggests that African governments can steward the collection and appropriate use of data resources, applying the principles of data sovereignty.
IST-Africa, 2020
Zimbabwe's national electricity supply is irregular and does not reach all health institutions. S... more Zimbabwe's national electricity supply is irregular and does not reach all health institutions. Solar systems are often proposed as 'a silver bullet', filling the gaps where grid electricity does not reach or where power instabilities need to be bridged. Although any power is better than no power, solar installations are rife with long-term issues that threaten their sustainability. The need to replace batteries at regular intervals places a significant financial burden on institutions, which many cannot carry. For solar systems to be sustainable in African settings, there is a need to recognise the complexities involved, the central nature of engineering, and the implementation practices in local and national contexts, as well as to make the balance between short-term needs and long-term consequences explicit.
The 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, IFIP WG 9.4, 1-3 May 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2019
This paper presents a transdisciplinary eHealth narrative as it appears to health professionals, ... more This paper presents a transdisciplinary eHealth narrative as it appears to health professionals, information and communication technology experts, and health practitioners in Zimbabwe. Harvesting from rich experiences and focus group discussions, the embedded authors present how various traditions position eHealth. Reflecting upon the genesis of the multiple perspectives-anthropolog-ical, computer science, medical, among others-this paper presents a practice of eHealth in Zimbabwe. The paper serves as a rationale for aligning eHealth with people, processes, systems and categorisations that consider the local cultures, the local way of meaning-making, and value local systems. 1 eHealth The World Health Organisation [1] defines eHealth as "the cost-effective and secure use of ICT in support of health and health-related fields, including health-care services, health surveillance, health literature, and health education, knowledge and research." eHealth is seen as crucial in achieving universal health coverage by 2030 as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal #3. In contemporary practices, eHealth comprises of rapidly developing and decentralised client-provider forms of health care provisioning based on facilities emerging from ubiquitous information and communication technologies (ICT) and the increasing mobility of people and resources. Further, eHealth enhances the accessibility of clinical data for decision making by health professionals at all levels and facilitates the visibility of information as feedback for continuous health improvement in communities, by individuals, and in the health systems. The growth of connectivity, devices, and platforms has a direct effect on the available channels of communication and information. The pervasiveness of ICT impacts all aspects of life, including healthcare and the prevention of disease, through new opportunities for information exchange between health clients and health providers. The richness of information flows is enhanced by graphical tagging through Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and by crowdsourcing [2]. eHealth, therefore, represents a field that is to be conceptualised not as subservient to current forms of health care, but as an integral part of such a care. eHealth does not necessarily replace the 'older
The 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, IFIP WG 9.4, 1-3 May 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2019
To inform program development in health in the rural areas of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe, Mini... more To inform program development in health in the rural areas of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe, Ministry of Health and Child Care authorised cooperating partners to execute participatory video projects in rural districts in Masvingo Province. The Participatory Video process was a result of the desire to go beyond prescribed, non-participative or cultural insensitive data gathering methods. Two videos were produced that significantly shaped thinking of stake-holders being informed on health-seeking behaviours and utilisation of services. This use of Information and Communication Technologies proved a fruitful way to engage, interact, and develop public conversations, giving a voice to formerly disenfranchised groups (e.g. ostracised religious groups or 'closed' communi-ties'). Participatory Video is recognised as a culturally aligned method appropriate for a setting other than the West.
The 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, IFIP WG 9.4, 1-3 May 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2019
This paper discusses eLearning in contemporary times in an African place. While the paper acknowl... more This paper discusses eLearning in contemporary times in an African place. While the paper acknowledges the importance of eLearning in that it facilitates distance learners' activities and bridges geographical gaps across the world, it notes that in convoluted environments such as those of Africa, eLearning raises a lot of critical questions, some of which are cultural, and others are ethical and epistemological. This ambiguity emerges largely because eLearning, as it is understood in Africa, comes in foreign packages. The paper argues for the decolo-nisation of eLearning-that external practices of eLearning, particularly those 'imposed' on Africa from Europe and North America, fail many environments in Africa. This failing is because such practices rubberstamp the long-criticised philosophy of one-size-fits-all which has been blamed for impoverishing Africa besides underestimating the potential contribution of the African continent to the global world. On this note, the paper concludes that unless we decolonise eLearn-ing and consider the issues of sensitivity, inclusivity, and attainability, eLearning will not be palatable or at least beneficial for most in Africa.
The 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, IFIP WG 9.4, 1-3 May 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2019
This paper paints a picture of how a method of research in an African we-paradigm looks like. The... more This paper paints a picture of how a method of research in an African we-paradigm looks like. The paper describes living research, where the researcher is an integral part of a community, being a recipient of communal grace and partaker in, and reporter of, the communal development of embodied knowledge.
The 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, IFIP WG 9.4, 1-3 May 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2019
This paper probes research being carried out by researchers foreign to Africa. From an assessment... more This paper probes research being carried out by researchers foreign to Africa. From an assessment of decennia of research, we address the many and varied ways in which the work of foreign researchers, often from countries with unresolved colonial baggage, cast their normalising shadows over African realities. From experiences in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among others, through the exposit of the complex and expansive array of influences and colo-niality, we paint a picture how foreign researchers benefit from enshrined and ongoing practices that dominate research scenes. These practices depreciate African research and development done by Africans, in Africa for utilisation in Af-rica. We propose the need to mainstream decoloniality and communiversity as to affect the primacy of African researchers researching in, on and for Africa. 1 Introduction Research in Africa, as the production of knowledge itself, is political. It is political because more often than not, research in Africa is carried out by foreign researchers whose objectives are sometimes not only biased but nefarious. This situation renders research in, on, and for Africa by foreign researchers suspicious and problematic. In this paper, we probe research for Africa by researchers flying in from outside Africa by reframing such research within understandings of stigmatisation and discrimination. These vices follow each other in social processes that can only be understood in relation to broader notions of power and domination. In this probing, we move beyond narratives of research collaborations being portrayed as mostly ahistorical, apolitical , and non-racial. Negating histories, power distances, and diverse epistemologies are part of a panoptical and normalising situation that Bert Olivier [1] shows to be part of an ongoing colonisation of universities by neo-liberal or capitalistic approaches. The authors are members of communities in rural and urban areas of Southern Af-rica, involved in various research works in natural sciences and the humanities. The research incorporates the implementation and effects of Information and Communication Technologies in Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, on a daily basis. In this work, we engage with local, national and international communities and researchers (in
EAI International Conference on Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Underserved Areas (INTERSOL 2018), 24 March 2018, Kigali, Rwanda., 2018
This keynote presents the narrative of a Western trained engineer
working with rural communities ... more This keynote presents the narrative of a Western trained engineer
working with rural communities in underserved areas in Southern
Africa. By reflexive interpretation and reinterpretation of physical
evidence (nature) and the narratives in communities (nurture) derived
from an interdisciplinary sensitivity, he presents insights in the
dynamic interface between technology and culture in rural communities
and their effects in meaning making and perception of the dynamics of
resource allocation and alleviation. From his 'in situ' embedding,
living and working with communities, Gertjan provides practical
examples and, through those, interrogates the modernist philosophical
operation of nature from culture and culture from technology and the
attendant practical disrespect of indigenous worlviews concerning
daily practices in the communities he studies. Using rural Africa’s
complex positionally, he argues for a sensitivity towards the locality
of knowledge and the recognition of local epistemologies, virtues, and
capacity
Conference on Strategic Narratives of Technology and Africa, Feb 9, 2017
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Papers by Gertjan van Stam
working with rural communities in underserved areas in Southern
Africa. By reflexive interpretation and reinterpretation of physical
evidence (nature) and the narratives in communities (nurture) derived
from an interdisciplinary sensitivity, he presents insights in the
dynamic interface between technology and culture in rural communities
and their effects in meaning making and perception of the dynamics of
resource allocation and alleviation. From his 'in situ' embedding,
living and working with communities, Gertjan provides practical
examples and, through those, interrogates the modernist philosophical
operation of nature from culture and culture from technology and the
attendant practical disrespect of indigenous worlviews concerning
daily practices in the communities he studies. Using rural Africa’s
complex positionally, he argues for a sensitivity towards the locality
of knowledge and the recognition of local epistemologies, virtues, and
capacity
working with rural communities in underserved areas in Southern
Africa. By reflexive interpretation and reinterpretation of physical
evidence (nature) and the narratives in communities (nurture) derived
from an interdisciplinary sensitivity, he presents insights in the
dynamic interface between technology and culture in rural communities
and their effects in meaning making and perception of the dynamics of
resource allocation and alleviation. From his 'in situ' embedding,
living and working with communities, Gertjan provides practical
examples and, through those, interrogates the modernist philosophical
operation of nature from culture and culture from technology and the
attendant practical disrespect of indigenous worlviews concerning
daily practices in the communities he studies. Using rural Africa’s
complex positionally, he argues for a sensitivity towards the locality
of knowledge and the recognition of local epistemologies, virtues, and
capacity
The book sends a strong message to who ever wishes to stop and reflect on their past stand point and face tomorrow with different approaches to issues pertaining to the rural African situation - whether one lives in Africa or in the West.
Gertjan van Stam was born in the Netherlands. From 2003 up to and including 2012, he and his family lived in the rural village of Macha, in the Southern Province of Zambia. Before that he stayed for 2 years in rural Murambinda, Zimbabwe. He has been involved with strategic developments in ICT, in Africa, since 1987. Currently, he is Research Fellow at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe.
His goal is to identify and inspire local talent and introduce appropriate technologies to build the necessary capacity for community-led activities to yield sustainable human development outcomes. His quest is for a logical framework for understanding dynamics of change in African communities and engendering leadership capable of inspiring, initiating, implementing, operating, and scaling up sustainable progress and the use of technology in the local community.
Since 2011, Gertjan has volunteered in strategy-making in the IEEE, the largest professional institute in the world. He works on Social Innovation, specifically in ’thought leadership and advocacy’, and is actively involved in serving and providing guidance for students in academic studies. His activities in Zambia were featured in IEEE’s The Institute, and his career was documented in an award-winning IEEE video at TryEngineering. The activities in Zambia were shown worldwide though BBC Clicks. Gertjan authored the book Placemark and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers on findings and lessons learned in rural and urban Africa.
This paper positions from an African perspective, a position often restrained or ‘out of reach’. From 12 years experience and ethnographic study of engineering activities in rural Zambia and rural Zimbabwe, the presenter introduces some general observations that require attention in education for innovation, especially supported by the use of ICTs.
The proposed model emerges from a vision for a University of the Future, where students learn explicit knowledge online and meet with professors and peers to connect and integrate within the local societal and cultural context. The model integrates principles of blended learning, peer assessment, and students from all disciplines.
Experiences in the Netherlands and Zambia demonstrate the relevance of the holistic approach. Three years of experience with the course has demonstrated the importance of the holistic webscience approach to ICT education. It provides an indication of the vast potential of ICT and social media to empower the education process worldwide.
The research found that a thorough involvement of stakeholders on the community level resulted in a high community acceptance, higher awareness, and adoption of the ICT services in Macha. Further, it found that context and culture play a significant role and need to be taken into consideration when designing management and communication strategies for stakeholders.
This presentation positions itself from a rural African perspective, a position often restrained or ’out of reach’. From 12 years experience and ethnographic study of engineering activities in rural Zambia and rural Zimbabwe, the author introduces some general observations that require to be addressed in the introduction of ICT in rural areas.
This case study of LinkNet Information Technology Academy (LITA), in rural Macha, Zambia, provides analysis and review of the position- ing, activities and constraints of LITA. It shows that, when training is properly aligned with rural practice, ICT training in rural Zambia is a feasible and beneficial activity.
Synchronous (real time) exchanges were initiated on a weekly basis through the use of a digital piano keyboard, a computer with Internet access, web-cameras, and video-conferencing software on either end of the connection. When the Internet connection was reliable, real time learning closely replicated traditional one-on-one music instruction in which student and teacher are physically in the same room. Synchronous communication was also investigated outside of individual instruction within group environments, in which the students joined with peers from across the globe in order to enrich the learning experience.
To supersede the poor audio quality of video-conferencing software between pianos, the participants of the study used Internet MIDI, a software application that enables two piano keyboards to control, synchronize, and exchange data electronically through MIDI technology. This technology made it possible to have a purely musical conversation within the lesson. To our knowledge, by participating in the beta testing of Internet MIDI, the participants of the study were among the first in the world to have access to such long-distance MIDI connections.
Real-time communication has many benefits, but because it is completely dependent on the quality of Internet connection, it can also be a frustrating experience if the connection is poor (e.g. audio reverberation, frozen video feed, dropped calls). Thus, it was necessary to seek an alternative form of communication – time-shifted learning.
In asynchronous (time-shifted) communication, lessons were exchanged between students and teacher via pre-recorded video, in which audio and video quality were not determined by the strength of the Internet connection. Once created, videos were posted and stored in password-protected albums on a variety of social networking sites. After the video was downloaded, the student or teacher could view it offline at a self-directed pace, pausing, rewinding, and repeating as many times as deemed necessary. Although positive, this form of learning can leave holes in the learning experience as it negates live interaction.
Due to drawbacks associated with real-time and time-shifted modes of e-learning when used in isolation, this study investigated the effectiveness of combining synchronous and asynchronous forms of communication within the learning experience.
The study confirmed the viability of e-learning through applied piano instruction. Participants determined that this arrangement is functional, and is strengthened with a reliable Internet connection. The study demonstrated that the most effective learning occurred when synchronous (facilitated) and asynchronous (self-directed) modes of learning were used in tandem.
By igniting holistic development 'bottom up', supported by fitting ICT infrastructure and Internet connectivity, in a motivating, inspired and edifying manner, real, enshrined, and sustainable progress is feasible.
of Ubuntu and love. This exploration constitutes an effort to pinpoint an embedded African mechanism that could furnish our passion for transformation, peace and unity in Africa. The chapter emerges from long-term, in situ trans-disciplinary, reflective ethnographic research and
life experiences in sub-Saharan Africa and further afield, augmented by literature research. In this whole endeavour, we advance the important argument that Ubuntu can be well understood as a metaphor of Communal Love. Such an understanding provides a strong and contextually sound
basis for peace and reconciliation.
This chapter critically examines the relationship between the meanings that researchers from the global north often make when carrying out research in rural Africa, and the way the world presents itself to them from the perspective of ontologies that govern global research and decision-making in areas of policy making and socio-economic development. We argue in this chapter that, since the European enlightenment, the dominant ontology for knowledge generation in Africa and many parts of the world has been Western scientism, yielding the paradigms of positivism and post-positivism (also known as post-empiricism). Both paradigms – positivism and post-positivism – assume that the world is ordered and regular and reality exists independently of the way we experience/observe, measure, and learn about it. Post-positivism additionally asserts that context, considered to be a set of external factors, affects the patterns of our observations. In fact, while positivists believe that the researcher and the researched person(s) are independent of each other, post-positivists accept that background, theories, models and values of the researcher can influence what is observed. Nevertheless, just like positivists, post-positivists pursue objectivity – objective truth – through experimentation and by recognising the possible effects of biases likely to influence the researcher.
Within the African, indigenous context, and the setting of Macha Works, how do narratives of engineering practitioners – those that shape technology – construe relationships with foreigners, how do they reference colonialism, and what happens at the node of the interaction of these narratives that would inform a narrative of the future?
The thesis is a research report to the local authorities of the African organization ‘Macha Works’ in the village of Macha in Zambia. The thesis describes experiences and observations in the African practice and the candidates’ reflections on the introduction of, and interact with, technology in a rural African community. He analyzes the usefulness of technologies introduced from the outside, in the community of Macha. He concludes that a new conceptual framework is needed to derive meaning in the stories about technology in Africa.
In African communities, significance is understood through the lens of shared values. In this context, the candidate proposes a new conceptual framework with five essential African values. He calls these the Big Five. African core values are critical to derive contextual understanding of African stories of technology and society. The Big Five are:
• Ubuntu, understood as ‘communal love’,
• Oratio, positioned as ‘communicating embodied knowledge’,
• Relatio, involving ‘relational resource allocation’,
• Dominatio, focusing on ‘maturity’, and
• Animatio, being the ‘continuous present moment’.
The research shows that these qualities distill meaning from narratives in Africa. In his dissertation, the candidate concludes that the meaning that African societies attach to technology is connected to African worldviews – and that the introduction of external technology poses problems when insufficient account is taken of such African virtue epistemologies.
Usually, technology is introduced from the West without taking into account an African view of the world. It is remarkable that via technology the historical structures and colonial relationships continue to be confirmed. In this way, imperialist and orientalist images keep defining African worlds.
Therefore, many introductions of technology are unhelpful in the local community, precisely because there is no connection with African meaning making. Technology – introduced without respect for African values and meaning making becomes part of a supra-colonial relationship between the West and Africa. The local experience and history that determine an African worldview are left invisible or denigrated. When a respect for the indigenous values for social significance in Africa is lacking, technology (which has been introduced from outside) has become an instrument of domination and inequality.
The study involves cross cultural interaction and takes a trans-disciplinary view on science. It involves Participative Action Learning and Research aimed at recognising the complex adaptive systems while being aligned with the ethics of the rural African environment. Emphasis is on the needs of the community, rather than of the individual utilising empirical evidence.
The good practices in Macha that inform strategy to make ICT accessible in rural areas are
• engaging the community, building relationships
• workforce development, unlocking productivity
• thought leadership, establishing authority
Often unnoticed, African Engineers are a diverse, alive-and-kicking group of people, embedded in the African society. They network within the local, national and international context and employ technologies through culturally established improvisation. Further, African Engineers are driven by original values as enshrined in Ubuntu and act upon the needs in communities. African Engineers persevere by being embedded in the social workings of African economies.
This address aims to sensitise all-and-sundry to recognise African Engineers as situated and crucial agents in technology. They are the embodied knowledge of technology and experts in its handling and use, for the benefit of African communities.