warana unwired

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

rajesh@berkeley.edu ; kentoy@microsoft.com

Photo: Rajesh Veeraraghavan