Powering Up: Community Information Systems, Marginalization and Empowerment
Increased confidence to communicate information to outsiders
Some individuals expressed an increased sense of confidence when communicating information through the video media, compared to presenting this information face-to-face. For example a middle-aged male from Tepulang recorded a video piece, intended for presentation to elected regional leaders, describing the importance of the forest for the community and the need for any forestry companies to consult with the community before starting logging operations in their traditional territory. In the video he expressed some strong opinions about the village’s rights to its forest and his expectations of the responsibilities of the regional government to regulate this situation.
This man is often accused by other members of the community of being opinionated in the community, yet having difficulty in expressing his views when talking to government officials. Because of the informal nature of the way in which the video was recorded he was able to be articulate on the video. This medium allowed him to state his feelings in a way that he had not been able to in the past.
Decreased self-esteem and frustration among community members
Mastery of technological skills was considered highly desirable by people in both communities. At the outset of the CIS project emphasis was placed on the responsibility of the computer operators (i.e. those trained to use the equipment) to pass on their skills to other people in the community. This gave other community members high expectations that they too would receive computer training. However, skill transfer to other members of the community was not as successful as hoped at the outset of the CIS project. These limitations in access were mostly due to the CIS project only being able to install one set of equipment in each community. This led to a bottleneck in the number of people able to receive training in the CIS skills. Use of some tools such as the video camera and digital camera were much more widespread through the villages, but computing skills were restricted to a few.
The operators’ level of commitment and approach to training was very different between the two communities. In Benung the computer operators would train other community members in response to direct requests. Demand from other community members was not high, perhaps because of a relatively high concentration of older people in the community, who tended to show less interest in being trained. By the end of the project fieldwork, seven people had been trained to varying levels by the community operators in Benung, and the training had been informal and unstructured.
In Tepulang the computer operators agreed to give two structured computer training courses. The first was completed successfully, but the second failed because of disagreements that grew into open conflict between the operators. After this conflict emerged, few people from the community, including the operators, continued to show a high level of interest in the project.
Increased economic opportunity for computer operators
It was strongly believed in both communities that learning new, in particular computer, skills would “allow the youth to get jobs in companies in the region” (respondent Tepulang). As a result of the skills learnt during the CIS project, two operators, one from Benung and one from Tepulang, were employed by the regional government. One of these operators had previously felt that getting this type of work was “beyond my imagination” (respondent Benung). Both were explicit about their feelings of pride and betterment, which in turn are indicative of increased capacity for empowerment.
Computer operators who remained in Benung were also able to apply their new technological skills to moneymaking ventures through recording videos, transferring them to video compact disc (VCD) and selling them outside of the village. Operators were requested to record videos by the regional government, the Department of Tourism, an NGO and other individuals. In addition to providing economic benefits, this helped the operators to develop wider networks in the region.
However, the intention of the training in the CIS project was not to focus on job related skills, especially if they resulted in village operators being hired into the commercial marketplace rather than remaining in the community in which they were trained. Although the individual may have increased his or her capacity for employment and empowerment, the community as a whole lost capacity as they lost a valuable resource for developing the CIS and passing on their skills to others in the community.
Empowerment and the community
This section will examine the empowerment impact of the CIS project on the communities. This is indicated by an increased ability of the community to influence decision-making processes and other events within the wider region.
Increased social influence with regional decision-makers
During the CIS project there were two prominent examples where information was used successfully to communicate with groups outside of the village and influence events in the wider region. Both these examples involved illegal logging on Benung’s traditional lands by neighbouring villages.
The first incident involved multiple incursions by illegal loggers from the neighbouring village onto Benung’s traditional land. The village leaders confronted the illegal loggers and video taped the incident. During the confrontation the loggers admitted fault, apologised, and departed. Four months later the same group of illegal loggers returned to the forest and began to poach timber again. The village leaders wrote to the local government requesting a meeting, where they presented the recorded evidence from the previous encounter. The government was sympathetic and ordered all the felled timber to be returned to Benung. They also threatened the illegal loggers with severe fines if they encroached again.
Increased social influence with other communities
The second incident involved illegal logging by Tepulang on the traditional lands of Benung. As logging activities increased in the area, the people of Benung and Tepulang decided it was necessary to document the location of the boundary between the two villages. On a prearranged day, elders from both villages met and walked the boundary between the two villages, agreeing on the position of the boundary without conflict. Using a video camera, people from Tepulang recorded the entire process.
Six months later Tepulang began logging in the vicinity of the boundary between the two villages. Soon after operations had commenced Benung claimed that the logging operation was straying onto their territory. A joint village meeting was called. The computer was set up in the meeting hall and the video taken during the boundary walk was displayed. As a result of the information contained on the video, the conflict swiftly was resolved, and the logging operations withdrew from the contentious area leaving the felled timber behind.
Both these examples show the community of Benung using the information gathered as part of the CIS project to resolve conflict with outside groups successfully. However, it cannot be assumed that these successes indicate a long-term increase in power for local communities. It is also unlikely that these incidents of themselves will lead to greater involvement in regional decision-making processes.
Empowerment capacity and the community
The analysis of empowerment capacity at the community scale explores how groups within the community, defined by gender, education level and age, as well as the community as a whole, gained increased empowerment capacity through the CIS project.