Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

SPARK LIBRARY EVOKATION_Executive Summary

***This is a draft of the Evokation I plan on submitting. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment on anything you feel could be improved. I am also soliciting collaborators, if anyone is interested in continueing the development of this idea. You can see an overview and links to the other sections below. THANKS!




URGENT EVOKATION


Spark Library Partnership:

Information Access, for the Largest Number, at the Least Cost


A PLAN OF ACTION FOR

SOCIAL INNOVATION SUBMITTED

TO GAIN FURTHER SUPPORT

FROM THE EVOKE NETWORK AND

THE WORLD BANK INSTITUTE

Executive Summary


In order to realize the full potential of many of the initiatives put forth by the Evoke network and begin sparking real change, individuals on the ground need access to information. Libraries are key spaces in the public domain that offer free information resources and services to communities. This Evokation suggests that we begin constructing libraries - thousands of libraries - that are re-imagined to be more appropriate for the 21st century. To make this work economically, each physical structure becomes a partnership between a centralized funding agent and the local community. The overall strategy is intended to balance local culture with digital culture, which will provide the duel benefit of access to global information networks while preserving the unique attributes of each community. Instead of creating 10,000 clone libraries, we create a process that creates 10,000 different libraries - each as unique as the people that create them.

The plan of action called for by this Evokation is to:

Year 1 - assemble a multi-disciplinary team of strategists to create the design and economic formula necessary to create such libraries

Year 2 - develop a short term strategy for the construction of a number of prototype libraries in communities in Africa

Year 3 - begin answering grant requests from communities seeking libraries

Place: The Library

Libraries, by definition, are collections of sources, resources, and services AND the building in which these are housed. Additionally, libraries serve as a critical piece of the public domain; a symbolic space that accommodates our persistent desire for collectivity. The evolution of information technology, specifically the Internet, has allowed the idea of the library, which is rooted in free information sharing, to grow beyond its physical constraints and participate in the expanded field of information being created, organized, and shared online. full text


Challenge: The Digital Divide

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing global connectivity is here: the World Wide Web has made it possible for anyone, anywhere to access anything. In reality, however, that is not the case. In 2009 just over 25% of the world’s population were classified as Internet users, with conspicuously low percentages of Internet penetration in both Asia (19.4%) and Africa (6.8%). The EVOKE network itself is a useful example of the constrains posed by the digital divide, and reinforces the case for widespread proliferation of public libraries, which serve as key access points to the bank of online knowledge while simultaneously serving as agencies culture. full text


Idea: Spark Library Partnership

This section will outline a vision for a new type of library focused on staging a relationship between both the incredible array of resources available online and the physical building that embodies the local culture. The attempt will be to offer organized access to the greatest population, at the least cost. The basic tenants of the Spark Library Partnership are: 1) to provide zones of information access (e.g. libraries) that combine wide-spread knowledge sharing with local insight in an effort to trigger the discovery of solutions to immediate and compelling problems through 2) the establishment of structures that are a combination of standardized, technologically equipped cores and auto-constructed bodies. full text


Money: The First $1000

If this project were to receive funding I would propose using the first $1000 in attracting collaborators and advisors, establishing basic web presence, preliminary fund raising, and filing for 501c3 non-profit status in the United States. full text

Views: 171

Comment by David Dewane on May 8, 2010 at 10:35am
A.V., locbal...locable...hahhahaha - that is perfect. it describes so accurately the sentiment I am trying to capture.

Sharing is a big deal - and I think it will happen but not without your usual polotics. If you think of interlibrary loan it is very systematized. On the other hand, there is the way museums share pieces of art or artifacts... It happens all the time, but there seems like a lot of wheeling and dealing between curators.

The most exciting sharing I foresee is what will happen online in forums similare to this (which is more part 1 than part 2). People finding good solutions to local problems that will spread regionally through improved communication networks.
Comment by David Dewane on May 8, 2010 at 10:35am
@Turil & Wintermute: I agree with your comments that the the core idea of the proposal did was not clear enough. I have added a statement at the very beginning of the executive summary that I feel is as explicit about the who/what/where/when/why as I can be at this point. What do you think about it and do you think the timeline is helpful/believable? I will jump back into the individual sections and make try to add/modify some sections to give greater clarity to the thrust of the doc**ent.
Comment by David Dewane on May 8, 2010 at 11:01am
@Turil: "For me to feel comfortable deciding if this is a project that is doable and likely to be successful, I'd need to know what the project you're thinking about looks like in the real world." This is a bit of a Catch 22. There is not enough money or professional architectural/engineering energy to build 100% of all these libraries. Instead, we'll have to take an approach that facilitates a partnership between a central funding provider (putting in the least possible) and the community (putting in the most possible). This is why the Elemental is such a strong case study. If you look at the time-lapse development of the project you see the basic infrastructure with big gaps that get filled in by the community according to their need and means. As a designer, you can only see so far into the future and then everything becomes a bit uncertain. In that sense I can image what the basic "starter kit" for a library might be, but I cannot (and in a lot of ways DO NOT) want to predict what the final result would be. That depends on what direction the community takes it in.

I hope this does not sound like a cop-out. I am using the Elemental as a placeholder because they are some of the only people that have ever pulled a project like this off. They could not have predicted the final outcome either. You just set the stage and see what happens. One way they were able to get hints was to have community meetings where they provided drawings of the building elevations with gaps in and let people use colored pencils to fill in the gaps with whatever they wanted. It is interesting to compare these to the final results. I don't have the means yet to go through a similare exercise, so have to rely on them for now. I will continue to think about this, though, and hopefully come up with an original or explicit way to get the jury to connect to what I'm after in a more precise way.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on May 8, 2010 at 11:37am
Your additions help!

I'd also suggest you add something like what you said in your response in the comments about the difference between the unique knowledge materials and the digital stuff. It's clear in the comment, but not in the proposal itself. And that's one of the most interesting and unique elements of your project!

Also, I just realized that you haven't formatted your proposal in the way I believe they want it. You've got an "executive summary" which, while a great idea, and very useful, is not specifically what they've asked us to use as a format for submissions. But looking at the wording of the submission requirements I see that it only says that submissions "must include" those four elements, but doesn't say it can't have other elements! And now I'm wondering if an executive summary at the beginning is ok. Because if so, that would indeed make the proposal easier to read! Hmmmm...

Finally, did you read the new FAQ where they say that you can list which of the three main awards you are most interested in and why? For example, you can list a specific mentor that you think would really help your project. I put this info in my Money (and other resources) section.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on May 8, 2010 at 11:41am
Oh, and remember to include a response to their request for your opinion on why your project will succeed where others have failed. I'm not sure how you might approach this, but it's probably something important to think about.

And finally, as for your comment about me being able to picture what your ideas look like in real life, I simply meant the practical stuff that you added, like the fact that you want to actually build buildings and be a facilitator organization to make that happen. So you're good now.
Comment by David Dewane on May 8, 2010 at 12:45pm
@ Turin: I based the proposal loosely off the Stanford Business School guidelines under section 3 here: http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/02/21/the-4-rules-of-evoking/

I'll check with a mentor regarding the formatting, but if it is a problem I could put it into one big blog. I was planning on making the request a separate piece and am definitely going to make a case for a specific mentor.

Thanks for the note about the digital/physical
Comment by David Dewane on May 8, 2010 at 12:58pm
@ Turil: "your opinion on why your project will succeed where others have failed." Interesting indeed...and kind of happening on two levels:

First, as far as I can discern, there is simply a lack of libraries and information access generally in Africa - though I have only done limited research here. I was recently discussing this with a friend who is currently in Kampala and he only knows of two libraries in the entire city - and they are both paid membership tied to universities. If you want to get online and don't have a home computer with the web you have to go to an internet cafe. This is totally mind-blowing for a city of 1.4 million people. Unacceptable, actually. So to this end I am suggesting we can succeed where others have perhaps not tried.

Second, I am suggesting a type of library different than that currently found in the US. The research I have done on this subject has led me to believe that post-digital libraries are radically different in their use when compared to pre-digital libraries, and should be updated. In the US and Europe there is already a robust library infrastructure that is very wonderful but painfully slow to adopt the major changes called for by the 21st century. Africa is in this sense poised to leapfrog ahead of the OECD in terms of both appropriateness and, in my view, sophistication.
Comment by John D. Boyden on May 8, 2010 at 7:30pm
Internet Topic Libraries sounds like the way, it limits the info load, can refer to other lbraries.How do you make use of the other Internet libraries? Delivery system: One Sat phone, One SAT Internet connection, One Printer, one laptop computer = One Library access to all libraries. (Sorry I didn't have time to read the wh*** proposal, basically responding this THIS base proposal summary) +1 Collaboration. Don't forget to get a couple proof readers!
Comment by Gene Becker on May 12, 2010 at 6:50pm
Hi David, I finally got a chance to review your proposal. It seems well-motivated and very ambitious, and you have certainly done a lot of homework. I do have a few thoughts in response, which may or may not be helpful ;-)

You talk about post-digital libraries and I think that is an important concept. Definitely it doesn't make sense to replicate the US library system, which was created for and by a different world that no longer exists. However I don't think you've pushed the idea hard enough in your analysis. I'd like to see a deep look at your vision for what a post-digital library is -- not just physically, but functionally, and the role it plays in society. You have elements of this in your material, but they don't come together into a coherent wh*** vision. As a result, I don't know what you would propose to build, and I'm not even clear why you need a physical building.

OK, a few more random thoughts:

* I like the idea of a library as a center for knowledge production. I also like your thoughts about grass-roots organization and emergence based on local style, interests & expertise. There's a really interesting model for this kind of thing -- hackerspaces. In fact, I think hackerspaces could be considered a prototype of the 21st century library. Check out http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/ for example.

* You said something along the lines of, an iPad and an Internet connection can provide access to a global library full of information, no need to replicate it locally. Yes, and that's one of the reasons traditional libraries have struggled to find their post-digital role, right? So maybe the ideal library of the future would be, everyone has an iPad or something like that. Obviously that won't work for the $2/day lifestyle, but there's an existing model that has demonstrated viability, the Grameen Village Phone program. One person in a village takes care of the phone, and provides access to mobile communications at low incremental cost for the entire village. So, drop in the iPad or even a cheap PC / OLPC, and you have solved a big piece of the info access problem for your local libraries.

* One of the most crucial elements of a library, and one that you don't seem to talk much about, is the librarian. In the context of a local village, the librarian could be a teacher, an elder, someone who curates information and tools and provides the seed around which a community of learning and cultural production can emerge. In my view, the locally-grounded librarian is much more important to the success of your idea than any physical building.

* Regarding the construction of library buildings, I actually think that making them a key part of the project will slow you down and anchor you to the past too much. There's a huge cost associated with buildings, and a risk that they will not end up being the right venue for the kind of post-digital library functionality you aspire to. Instead, I would let the idea of location be more free-floating. Maybe the library is in the village iPad lady's home. Maybe it is the Internet cafe. Maybe the school, the town governmental offices, or a community center. If your idea really requires the space for storage of artifacts, use of tools, and places to work, then people will find the space in locally appropriate ways.

I hope this helps, ping me if you want to discuss further.
Comment by Shakwei Mbindyo on May 12, 2010 at 8:01pm
David, this is an excellent evokation. Their is a verse that reads "my people perish for lack of knowledge" which speak to the importance of access to information.

I have looked specifically at the issue of the digital divide which is dear to me as this is the space I work in. The digital divide is a reality - much of the developing world has poor telecom infrastructure, poor access to electricity, costly fees associated with internet access, low eLiteracy etc... Many look at this and argue that digital solutions cannot work in Africa. I look at this and see that digital solutions MUST work in Africa! The question is what is digital - is it just internet? Taking into account the unique situation in Africa, how can we adopt various technolgies to make them useful in this environment - look at solutions like mPesa and how this simple technology it was translated to meet the needs of Kenya and has now transformed the financial sector. Please read The Talking Book and see what Cliff Schmidt is doing in Ghana.

If we can expand our defnation of digital and library, we can develop solutions that are innovative and responsive to Africa's needs.
Read also: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/africas-booming-tech...
Good luck with your Evokation and feel free to contact me - I am happy to help where I can.

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