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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
PeopleLead 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
Outline: Warana Unwired
Rural PC Kiosks
Warana Background
Initial Ethnography
The Intervention
Results
Discussion
Rural Kiosks
Definition (for the purposes of this presentation):
– Rural center with PC as the focus of services
– Typically run as a small enterprise
– Socio-economic improvement as a goal Photo: Kentaro Toyama
ITC e-Choupal kiosk in Kodia, Madhya Pradesh
Rural Kiosks
A “bouquet of services” to generate value and revenue
Data sources:
– Extensive kiosk surveys• 300 kiosks, 1 year so far, 4
times each, 5 customers, 1 operator per kiosk
– Ethnographic studies• Longitudinal kiosk life-cycle
– In-depth interviews with kiosk agencies
• At least six organizations– Over 30 site visits in India
and Africa– Discussions with third-party
observers– 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 (Andhra
Pradesh)– 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
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
In Rs.
AgriLabour
Business Farming Govt. job Pettytrader
Pvt.job Retired Shopow ner
Workingstudent
UnskilledLabour
MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD INCOME vs. KIOSK INCOME
Monthly Household Income
Kiosk Income
Microsoft kiosk survey (2005)
Outline: Warana Unwired
Rural PC Kiosks
Warana Background
Initial Ethnography
The Intervention
Results
Discussion
Over 60% of population earn living through agriculture
Mostly small and marginal farmers with 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 “Bridge the Digital Divide”
54 PC kiosks in 54 villages
Cost: Rs.2.5 crores (US$625,000)
• 50% central gov’t• 40% state gov’t• 10% cooperative
“Warana Wired Village Project”
Warana sugarcane processing plant
FactoryFactoryFTP
FTP
FTP
PC
Warana Farmer DB
Standard PC network
Weigh stations
Landline phone
PC enabledKiosks
“Warana 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 Higher Educational Institutes
Facilities such as remote health service (tele-medicine), public grievances and redressal will be provided through this booth
Provide following facilities:- Computer based education- Open University access (IGNOU)
Original Goals of WWVP http://www.mah.nic.in/warana/#About Wired Villages
Outline: Warana Unwired
Rural PC Kiosks
Warana Background
Initial Ethnography
The Intervention
Results
Discussion
Summer, 2005: two months
• Participant observation• Structured interviews
– 200 farmers (users and non-users)
– 15 kiosk operators– 3 cooperative leaders– 5 cooperative staff
• Technical analysis• Survey
– 47 kiosks– Self-reported usage
statistics– Kiosk logging
• One all-hands meeting of kiosk operators
Ethnography and Data Collection
Joint work with Ken Keniston
Interviewing in the field
Seven Years Later
PC network still active
Farmers visiting kiosks
General pride in system
Bring Warana Nagar on NICNET [and Internet]
Create database of villagers on various socio-economic aspects
Provide Tele-education to both Primary and Higher Educational Institutes
Facilities such as remote health service (tele-medicine), public grievances 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
Outline: Warana Unwired
Rural PC Kiosks
Warana Background
Initial Ethnography
The Intervention
Results
Discussion
Warana Unwired!
SMS-enabled mobile phones
PC-based kiosks
Warana…
FactoryFactoryFTP
FTP
FTP
PC
Warana Farmer DB
Standard PC network
Weigh stations
Landline phone
PC-enabledkiosks
Original PC-Based Set-Up
GSM/CDMA
SMS network
FactoryFactoryPC
Warana Farmer DB
Standard PC network
Weigh stations
SMS-enabledphones
New Mobile-Based Set-Up
SMS
SMS
SMS
Pilot ExperimentImplementation
Begun October 2006– Naga spent 1.5 months at location
SMS Server implemented at processing center
– Based on SMS Server Toolkit [Goyal and 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 managing director
Involved IT manager at WWVP
Questions
• Technical: Can SMS-based system be implemented in this environment?
• Usability: Is SMS a viable medium for farmers?
• Social: Will farmers transition to use? Inhibiting factors?
• Financial: What are actual costs of system?
• Other: Any adverse impacts?
Outline: Warana Unwired
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 2006.– 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
System Cost/Farmer/Year (INR)
New PC System
394
SMS Mobile (kiosks)
159
SMS Mobile (without kiosks)
111
GPRS (no kiosks / SMS discount)
91
Current systemPotential savings: 1 million Rupees per year, over 54 villages ($25,000)
Costs
Achievable with GPRS or with SMS discounts ($30,000 savings per year)
Annual cost of PC system
Other Issues
Good• Advantage of mobiles
– Mobility – Battery power– Fast, 24-hour access– Potential democratization
of 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 repeat query solved the problem.
– Per-SMS cost accrues to farmer
Farmer from Satve village (one of pilots)
Initial disbelief turns to excitement:
“The information is exact and it is very good.”
Farmer from Angali village (not in pilot)
“I 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
Outline: Warana Unwired
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., 2006– Rajalekshmi, 2006– Ali and Bailur, 2007– Bailur, 2007– Etc.
ICT for agriculture– eSagu– e-Choupal– aAQUA
Advantage of mobile phones– Duncombe & Heeks, 1999– Donner, 2005 – The Economist, 2005 (“The Real
Digital Divide”)– Jensen, 2007
SMS-based solutions– Banks 2005– Goyal & Blagsvedt, 2005
Veeraraghavan, R., N. Yasodhar, K. Toyama. Warana Unwired: Replacing PCs with Mobile Phones in a Rural Sugarcane Cooperative, in Proc. IEEE/ACM Int’l Conf on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2007), 2007.
To our knowledge, Warana Unwired is the first project to replace an existing 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
