GLOBAL JUNIOR CHALLENGE 2000
PROEJCT
SUBMISSION FORM
1.
*
Project Name: “Bridging
the Digital Gap (BDG): Entering into the domain of Internet”
2.
*
Country:
Bangladesh
*
City/Region: Mirpur/Dhaka
3.
*
Name of the organization
presenting the project:
Institute of Computer, Management and Science (ICMS)
URL: http://geocities.datacellar.net/icms_bd
4.
*
Type of organization
presenting the project
q
X School
q
University
q
Public institution
q
Private institution
q
Company
q
Association and NGO
q
Research Organization
q
Cultural Institutions
(museum, foundations, galleries, and similar)
q
Other, please specify:
5.
*
Project coordinator
(person we will communicate with for all further information and confirmation of
participation):
¨
* Name
and Surname: Hakikur
Rahman
¨
* Address:
Mirpur 10-B, Avenue-1, Plot-3, Dhaka-1221, Bangladesh.
¨
* Telephone:
880 2 8012458
¨
Fax:
¨
E-Mail:
icms@bangla.net, hakik@sdnbd.org
(Due to the
postal problem in Bangladesh, email correspondences are preferred).
6.Please
specify the project Web address:
http://geocities.datacellar.net/icms_bd
7.
*
User category (select the
age group of the project users):
q
Up to 10 years
q
Up to 15 years
q
X Up to 18 years
q
Up to 29 years
8.
*
Does your project aim to
help young people (up to 29 years old) to find a first job?
q
No
q
X Yes
9.
*
Provide a brief abstract
(one sentence) of your project (this is how it will appear in the database):
To provide
computer literacy among the low income community in sub-urban area of the
capital city through hands on
practical sessions and make them suitable for the global society with the
challenge of achieving their first demanding job and thereby, bridging the
digital divide.
10.
*
Provide a brief
description (one page) of your project (make sure you include where the idea
came from, who developed it and who works on it now):
In 1992 a
project was initiated with the assistance of Radda Barnen, a Swedish NGO who was
providing support through gathering low income community youths completing
minimum 10 years of schooling and ICMS was providing introductional computer
literacy programme in association with some local donors and internal revenue of
ICMS. With the assistance of some more funding arrangement and technical support
ICMS has developed a self generating sustainable programme and has taken this
challenge of educating youths of the poor society towards a minimum computer
literacy of six months with understanding of Microsoft Office in Windows
platform and familiarising the usage of the Internet. This project has provided
these youths their dream of lifetime through a hard struggle of sustainability
and adversities of the contemporary society.
A time came
during 1994 when the project faced the most difficult period which even hindered
the very existence of it. However, through
all out effort of the Management Committee and devoted participation of the ICMS
staffs, now the project has reached 12 years of celebration from its inception
in the year of 1989 as a subsidiary of its parent organisation, Detosearch.
Up until
now this project has been appreciated by all sections of people. Providing
computer literacy has certainly brought hopes and aspirations to this group of
youths who would never be able to educate themselves in this field of education.
Moreover, these youths are given preparatory courses to a more advanced
computer programme which leads to a sophisticated diploma in computer management
and science. The project declares that if it could sustain for more ten years,
it would bring subsistence upgradation in ICT based knowledge group in the
country.
11.
*
Since when has your
project been up and running? (please note that projects have to be up and
running at least by 30thSeptember 2000)?
(mm/yyyy)
Start of Detosearch, the parent organization:
April 1982.
Establishment of ICMS:
October 1989.
Bridging the Digital Divide project :
November 1992.
12.Objectives
and innovation:
¨
Please explain the
objectives and the context of your project.
The aim is to
provide computer literacy to the students of low income community from sub-urban
town in Mirpur located 20Km away from the Dhaka city centre with a population
base of more than 3 millions. Mirpur area is well known as the resident area of
middle class people of the capital and this is the reason of establishing the
project here. Majority of the people of this community are deprived of proper
education facilities.
¨
In what way does it
try to achieve its objectives?
The project has
taken the programme to prepare the participants for proper computer education to
bridge the digital gap. A target group of 40 students for six months would enrol
160 students in a year with two shifts. The idea is to prepare these project
participants towards the second phase of the institute’s programme, where they
could write programmes through learning programming tools and techniques.
¨
Which
opportunities/problems does it address?
Inevitably
opportunities are tremendous. These youths are gathering initial knowledge on
ICT and in a way assists in human resource development of the society. However,
inadequate resources, insufficient operational fund, demand of ICT knowledge in
the socio-economical context and diversity of demand leads to congestional
operation of the project.
¨
Please explain what is
unique or special in your project
This project is
solely unique, in a sense. It is computer school, but, participating all three
phases of this project a successful participant would reach the sophisticated IT
platform in the context of current demand of the society and the participant
would become an asset of the nation.
13.Results:
Please
answer AT LEAST ONE of the following questions
¨
Describe the results
of your project as per today
¨
How does it fulfil
user needs?
¨
How many users on
average interact with your project per month and what are the preferred formsof
interaction?
¨
How does it contribute
to improve education and training for young people?
¨
How has it improved
participation by professionals, children, youth and other stakeholders?
¨
How does it promote
the use of new technologies for educational and cultural development by
professionals, children and youth?
¨
Describe how you
measure these results.
Integrating
technologies in the socio-economical context of Bangladesh the overall situation
has given the project a unique entity which leads to adopt innovative
methodologies regarding ICT based education platform and Internet connectivity.
Low bandwidth and low transparency in the Internet has forced to formulate
adjustments in necessary hardware. Preliminary ICMS is connected to a local
commercial ISP, but in a short time ICMS server is going to be connected through
a dedicated leased line to a non-profit ISP, namely SDNP Bangladesh (Sustainable
Development Networking Programme of Bangladesh). Future provisions are there to
accommodate own VSAT or broadband access to ICMS node at Dhaka with extensions
to some other nodes distributed throughout the country. Also, provisions are
there to accommodate some other forms of ICT programmes like, awareness building
activities in sustainable development, promotion of e-governance, sharing of web
based information through Internet, promotion of distance education and tele-medicine
through effective institutional collaborations. These efforts would lead to a
successful achievement of ICMS.
14.Sustainability:
¨
What is the full
duration of your project (from beginning to end)?
q
Less than a year
q
From 1 to 3 years
q
From 3 to 6 years
q
X More than 6 years
¨
What is the
approximate total budget for your project (in USD)?
q
Less than USD 10.000
q
From USD 10.001 to
30.000
q
X From USD 30.001 to
75.000
q
From USD 75.001 to
500.000
q
More than USD 500.000
¨
What is the source of
funding for your project?
q
Sale of products or
services
q
X Grants
q
X Fee
q
Advertising
q
Commission
q
X Sponsorships
q
X Other, specify:
Local donation.
¨
Is your project
economically self sufficient now?
q
X Yes, since when?
1995.
q
No, when is it
expected to become self-sufficient?
15.Transferability
¨
Has your project been
replicated/adapted elsewhere?
q
No
q
X Yes, where? By whom?
Few NGOs
are working in this field, but not quite in the tune of ICMS.
¨
What lessons can
others learn from your project?
Preparing
the community peoples with pragmatic hierarchy of ICT based education platform
at different level of age would bring ultimate up-gradation of a knowledge based
literate group who could be the target group the country’s top IT employers
and this would bring bright lesson to other agencies working in similar fields.
q
X We are available to
help others starting or working on similar projects
16.Please
provide us with a few keywords (max 8) which best characterise your project.
Separate each one with a space and do not use [enter]. These keywords will be
used in our project database and search engine, which will be published on our
Web site. (Avoid general terms such as "Internet" and "Web")
Digital
gap, global society, e-governance, tele-medicine, distance education
17.background
information (optional)
¨
Background: Tell the
story of how your project came about (you may include partners, sponsors, the
team, how you were funded, etc.)
¨
Barriers: What were
the major barriers or challenges to implementing and gaining the acceptance of
your project?
¨
Solutions: How did you
go about solving the problems or barriers?
¨
Future plans and wish
list: Briefly describe future plans or ambitions for your project and what would
you require making them true.
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