Abstract
A community network is highly regarded as an alternative method for extending services to marginalized communities. However, the success of community networks remains low as the host community often fails to take the ownership of such projects in a sustainable way. The literature recommends the use of baseline surveys and needs assessment to identify fundamental roles that could be played by a community network within a given society. It is argued that aligning community networks to the needs of the community could potentially contribute to their success. This study conducts a baseline survey with the aims of understanding key roles that a proposed community network could play within the context of e-Government and m-Government services provision. Community in Oniipa Town in Namibia was selected as a case study. It was found that the identified community had a poor electricity infrastructure, but an encouraging growth of mobile phone adoption, even though mobile phone credit is considered expensive. Despite these challenges, the community showed a keen interest in m-Government and e-Government services. Accordingly, the proposed community network shall engage the community through a human-centered design methodology in an effort to develop e-Government services suitable for the community. The community network shall rely on solar energy and the use of e-Government and m-Government is expected to reduce population mobility in search of government services something that could reflect positively on climate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Pade-Khene, C., Mallinson, B., Sewry, D.: Sustainable rural ICT project management practice for developing countries: investigating the Dwesa and RUMEP projects. Inf. Technol. Dev. 17(3), 187–212 (2011)
Rey-Moreno, C., Sabiescu, A.G., Siya, M.J.: Towards self-sustaining community networks in rural areas of developing countries: understanding local ownership. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Development Informatics Association Conference, Port Elizabeth, South Africa (2014). ISBN 978-0-620-63498-4
Saldana, J., et al.: Alternative networks: toward global access to the internet for all. IEEE Commun. Mag. (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.2017.1600663
Stork, C., Calandro, E., Gillwald, A.: Internet going mobile: internet access and use in 11 African countries. Info 15(5), 34–51 (2013)
Ochara, M., Mawela, T.: Enabling social sustainability of e-participation through mobile technology. Inf. Technol. Dev. 21(2), 205–228 (2013)
Fuchs, C.: Sustainability and community networks. Telematics Inform. 34, 628–639 (2017)
Demidov, I., Pinomaa, A. Lana, A., Pyrhönen, O., Partanen, J.: Techno-economic analysis of network configuration of PV-based off-grid distribution system. In: 25th International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CIRED), 3–6 June 2019, Madrid, Spain, Paper no. 1874 (2019)
Lana, A., Demidov, I., Pinomaa, A., Carrillo, D., Pyrhönen, O.: Energy management methodology for fusion grid. In: Proceedings of IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Europe, ISGT-Europe 2019, Bucharest, Romania (2019)
Gumbo, S., Jere, N. Terzoli, A.: A qualitative analysis to determine the readiness of rural communities to adopt ICTs: a Siyakhula living lab case study. In: Proceedings of the IST-Africa (2012)
Fathian, M., Hoorali, M., Akhavan, P.: E-readiness assessment of non-profit ICT SMEs in a developing country: the case of Iran. Technovation 28, 578–590 (2008)
Van Belle, J.P., Vosloo, S.: The influence of location on the e-readiness of South African non-profit organisations. In: Garg, R.J., Mahadeo, J. (ed.) Bridging digital divide. Macmillan Advanced Research Series, Delhi, pp. 126–139 (2007)
Winschiers-Theophilus, W., et al.: Moving away from Erindi-Roukambe: transferability of a rural community-based co-design. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, May, Ocho Rios, Jamaica (2013)
Namibia Statistics Agency: Poverty dynamics in Namibia: a comparative study using the 1993/94, 2003/04 and the 2009/10 NHIES surveys (2012). https://cms.my.na/assets/documents/p19dnar71kanl1vfo14gu5rpbkq1.pdf. Accessed 10 Nov 2018
Namibia Statistic Agency: Namibia census of agriculture 2013/2014. Communal sector report (2015). https://d3rp5jatom3eyn.cloudfront.net/cms/assets/documents/NAC_2013.pdf. Accessed 12 Aug 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fröhlich, K., Nieminen, M., Pinomaa, A. (2020). Assessing the e-Readiness of Marginalised Communities for e-Government Services: A Case of Oniipa, Namibia. In: Thorn, J., Gueye, A., Hejnowicz, A. (eds) Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Underserved Areas. InterSol 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 321. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51051-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51051-0_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51050-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-51051-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)