Executive Summary....... 

Introduction: what is appropriate technology, and why support it?..................... 

A problem of technology transfer – and a proposed solution......... 

Two Phases of the Project.... 

Phase 1: Launch of website with pilot technology transfer...... 

Phase 2: Full-scale remote technology transfer with multiple support centers...... 

What relevant sites already exist on the web?............. 

Work package cost breakdown for project Phase 1..................... 

Executive Summary

The goal of this project is to use the internet as a means for helping individuals and organizations to build and operate appropriate technology designs in developing countries, in order to permit a higher standard of living without reliance on complex mass-produced technology or large quantities of foreign assistance.Use of the internet is motivate by a concern that installations which rely on the travel of experts from the north are expensive, and often do not take root once the expert has left the project.As an alternative, use of the internet would encourage local residents to work from information from the web, without dependence on a foreign visitor.At the same time, the supporting team in the US or other country could work from a distance, and spread their effort over a longer period of time rather than requiring the project to either succeed or fail in a single period of a week or two.In this document the project is described in the following parts: 1) a description of the project vision, 2) results from a search of relevant sites already on the web, 3) the actual parts of the project work package, and 4) a proposal for how to fund the project.In short, it is thought that given the rapid advance in internet technology in recent years and growing interest in using IT for philanthropic purposes, this project has the potential to grow into a successful service over the long term.

Introduction: what is appropriate technology, and why support it?

In today’s world, and especially in advanced countries, we have come to think of technology as existing in a single state of development, with modern scientific R&D constantly pushing the technological boundary forward.“Appropriate technology” responds to this attitude by proposing that in fact different levels of technology will be appropriate to different locations, depending on cultural and economic conditions.In particular, for developing countries with low average incomes and ability to support complicated, mass-produced technology, it is preferable to implement simpler technologies which match the knowledge and skills of the location, and which exploit locally available materials.

Appropriate technology for developing countries has several advantages.Development by transplanting “western” technology (by western we here mean all countries with advanced industrial systems, including those in the “east” such as Japan) creates dependency on the west for knowhow.Furthermore, in the current age of globalization and relocation of manufacturing to low-wage countries, the transplanting of the technology can lead to both concentrated environmental problems in the developing countries and excessive amounts of international freight transportation.Appropriate technology, by contrast, is generally not as intensive and thus avoids the same levels of pollution; it also enables people to use local materials and understand the technology with which they are working, thus empowering them.

A problem of technology transfer – and a proposed solution

From a Western perspective, the first test with appropriate technology is to make sure that the device or practice will really be beneficial – often local know-how exists that will work even better and not undercut self-reliance.Assuming that it is beneficial, one of the biggest obstacles is the task of transferring an idea into the field so that it not only functions for demonstration purposes but actually takes root permanently in the recipient location.A typical pattern is that a development worker from some donor country goes into the field with information and possibly materials for a given project.The worker collaborates with local recipients in a community to build a device and makes sure it functions properly; time permitting, the worker may be able to remain in place for an extended period while the technology breaks in during continual use.At some point, the worker leaves, and in many instances the recipients, who did not truly master the operation and maintenance of the device, are unable to continue its use for long before it malfunctions.At this point they revert to whatever technique they used before the project was initiated.

The goal of this proposal is to make the transfer of technology more successful by replacing the “visiting expert” with “distance learning” of the technology in question, i.e. the experts stay in their base location (likely in a western country) and interact with the recipients remotely, using some appropriate combination of media.This approach (hereafter referred to as “remote technology transfer”) has several advantages:

1.It does not allow the recipients to become dependent on the expert during her/his stay in the community: if a technology is to be built and made operational, it must be done by the recipients own hands.

2.It allows the knowledge to multiply more rapidly than if each instance of technology transfer is dependent on a visit by an expert.

3.It frees up the considerable expense involved in transporting an expert into the field, which for many projects may amount to a sum equal to months or years of the recipients’ per-capita wages.

4.It reduces the dependence on international travel, especially by air, thus helping to reduce pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases.Also, the goal of many AT projects is to transfer a technology which is environmentally clean, so reducing pollution from travel is consistent with the overall goal of the project.

To some extent, remote technology transfer has been practiced for some time in the form of distribution of written plans for technologies.This type of work has met with some success in the past but has been limited by the time and cost of sending documents, especially in cases where several exchanges were necessary at a great distance.One goal of the proposal is to take advantage of information technology, especially the internet, in order to speed up and reduce the cost of information transfer.This service would include sending of plans over the internet and availability of on-line construction tips, but possibly also web pages with templates for making necessary calculations, or with video clips available for demonstrating key procedures.The “support center” which develops the website must also have facilities to build, test, modify, and develop prototypes so as to be able to replicate the fabrication of a technology which is happening in the field.

The extent to which the internet can support these tasks is determined in part by the cost to recipients to gain access, and the proximity to the installation location, whether on-site or perhaps at a nearby university in a developing country.This issue is discussed in greater depth below.

Two Phases of the Project

Two phases are envisioned for the project, as follows:

Phase 1: Design and launch AT support website, pilot run of remote technology transfer with trial partner in a developing country (partner is yet to be identified).

Phase 2: Full-scale interactive remote technology transfer, open to new recipients, with support services possibly spread among multiple AT support centers.

Phase 1: Launch of website with pilot technology transfer

One of the first major step in this phase of the project is for the web programming team to program and launch the AT Support Website which contains comprehensive plans for a chosen set of AT designs.These designs can be chosen from any range of applications, such as pumping, cooking, mechanical work related to agriculture (grinding, winnowing, etc), generation of electricity, and so on.One possible source of these designs is the technologies developed and disseminated by the S.T.E.V.E.N. Foundation itself.Alternatively, the team could identify other designs and work with their designers to include the necessary plans in the website.

Simultaneously with the development of the website, the team should conduct a thorough web search to identify other websites where AT designs are presented, as well as individuals and institutions based in developing countries that have web access and an interest in AT.A sample of website identified for this process is included below; this list of sites or others like it may provide designs for inclusion in the support website.The web search in developing countries will identify either potential recipients of the designs, or potential AT “beachheads”, i.e.outlets where potential recipients who might otherwise not have access can download/upload information from/to the web.A typical beachhead might be an agricultural or technical university which serves a given region in a target country, and which is already active in extension work to the said region.We can refer to the contact person or persons at this location as beachhead “operators.”

I anticipate that many of the potential recipients that the project intends to reach can benefit from the transfer of the AT designs, but do not currently have web access and may in fact have no previous experience with the internet or computer technology.The project will need to overcome this potential barrier, so another piece of Phase I is to study how the “last link” from the internet to the recipient might function, in terms of the following:

• The level of sophistication of computers and web access in the recipient country
• The ability of the beachhead operator to act as an intermediary between the programming team and the recipient, or alternatively the potential for introducing wireless technology and any necessary training so that the recipient can work directly with the programming team
• The cost of any new technology required for the link to be established.

Where the wireless connection is not established, the link between the beachhead and the recipient could be completed by printing out downloaded material, and/or by having the recipient visit the point of internet access in order to

The final step in Phase I is to recruit a partner in a developing country with which to carry out a pilot run of the remote technology transfer process.Recruiting could begin at the same time as the previous two steps, or it could also start once the website development is far enough advanced to present to a potential partner.It could be carried out by posting on the internet, or by communicating with organizations already identified through the web search described above.

The pilot partner should be representative of the recipients at which the project is aimed, that is, they should have a genuine need for and interest in the new technology.It would also be helpful if the partner is not already fully connected to the internet, so that some of the issues regarding the last link of communication, as described above, could be studied.A partner who is already internet connected may also be suitable, however, given that this will be the first time the approach is attempted.In any case, the partner should be willing to assist with documenting the process as it unfolds, as one goal is to learn as much as possible about its strengths and weaknesses, in preparation for Phase II.Hopefully, the opportunity to learn about new AT applications will be sufficient reward for the partner to be willing to participate; there may be some additional benefits in the form of learning about the use of the internet, learning to communicate with the on-line AT community, and the granting of any new IT equipment that may be deemed necessary for participation.

The goal of the pilot run is for the pilot partner to successfully transfer a technology into operation, based on the information from the web and the support of the programming team.In the beginning, the recipient will choose a technology to be transferred.Then during the construction and testing of the technology, the programming team will be available to answer questions, send additional information (e.g. diagrams, written explanations of key steps), or even test out problem areas in the support center and provide the pilot partner with answers.During Phase I the shop facility of the S.T.E.V.E.N. Foundation in Ithaca, which is equipped with a wide range of tools and materials, will serve as a support center.

One exciting possibility at this stage is to reduce the cost of the project to the recipients through the transfer of out-of-date IT equipment from the developed countries (computers, laptops, modem-cards, servers, and so on).With the rapid advance of the technology in the USA and other countries, a large volume of used but still quite functional equipment is generated every year.So long as this equipment is of a high enough version to be able to communicate with the state-of-the-art equipment in current use, it could support the project without the cost of new equipment.In addition, the programming team may be able to work from equipment of the same version so as to simplify communication (provided, of course, that the level of equipment is high enough to support whatever functions are essential for the project to succeed e.g. sufficient modem speed).

As an additional optional step, it may be desirable near the end of Phase 1 to seek funding from larger organizations for Phase 2, which it is expected will require a larger total budget.This step depends in part on the outcome of Phase 1.

Phase 2: Full-scale remote technology transfer with multiple support centers

Based on the work carried out in Phase 1, the goal in Phase 2 is to create an ongoing organization responsible for the remote technology transfer service, and then to make the service available over the internet to any recipient who approaches the organization.The structure created in Phase I through the combination of web programming and working with the pilot partner would therefore bear fruit in the form of a widely available and cost-effective mechanism for assisting recipient with the implementation of AT designs.This approach is intended to overcome the scarcity of individual experts able to go into the field: rather than requiring the expert to visit different sites in turn, the recipient communities can all have access to the information simultaneously.Also, the experience of working with the pilot partner should make the website better geared toward meeting the needs of the recipients (as opposed to members of the general public, in both developing and industrialized countries, who happen to be interested in AT).

A further goal of Phase 2 is to be able to provide interactive support for recipients as they work through a project. Simultaneous support for several recipients may prove relatively labor intensive, so it is likely that some type of ongoing funding source should be secured.Also, the funding and labor available at any one time may limit the number of recipients that can be supported, so some application process might be developed to select only those recipients best fitted to interactive support.There could be two classes of recipients, those who have access to the website and email correspondence only, and those who have full-scale support from the support center.

Another opportunity lies in collaborating with existing centers that promote AT (including the centers listed below under the web search) to create a “multicentric support network.”Each organization involved could promote its particular specialty over the network; also, requests for support coming from the recipients might be shared among the various centers based on expertise or available free time (i.e. a center which is particularly busy at one point might be able to delegate a question to another center in the network).Also, the multicentric network might allow recipients to request all-new types of technologies not previously promoted by network members, thereby helping to advance the cause of AT.Lastly, other AT promoters who choose not to join the project might still be able to benefit from the techniques developed to improve their own ability to transfer technology over the web.

Many of the other details of Phase 2 have not been determined at this time, so that the above description is relatively brief.In part, this depends on learning from the results from Phase 1 and formulating a more detailed plan at that time.

What relevant sites already exist on the web?

To learn more about material available on the web, I carried out a brief search, looking for sites with the keywords “appropriate technology” or related terms, and also looking at websites of organizations and individuals with which we had previous dealings.

The first result of note is that there does not appear to be already in existence a website with truly interactive capability beyond detailed plans for building AT devices.The following sites appear to be the closest to the mark:

·Village Earth (www.villageearth.org): includes various web resources such as the Appropriate Technology Sourcebook (/atnetwork/atsourcebook/index.htm) and an AT webboard (/atnetwork/wwwboard/index.html).

·Solar Box Cookers International (www.solarcooking.org).Many plans, several links to sites such as http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html.

Other AT organizations appear to have websites with general information about designs but no actual plans for download.These include:

·Earth Island Institute (www.earthisland.org)

·Servants in Faith and Technology (www.sifat.org)

·Centre for Alternative Technology (www.cat.org.uk) (does include a few “tipsheets” on hayboxes, ram pumps, and a few other technologies)

·Development Center for Approp Technology (www.azstarnet.com/~dcat/)

·Intermediate Technology Development Group (www.itdg.org)

As mentioned under Phase 1 above, this web search should be continued and expanded so as to uncover a larger number of sites concerned with AT, and also to look more closely at how these sites present information.One possibility is to search the websites of various universities in the developing world, to create a list of sites which mention AT.Universities where the STEVEN Foundation in the past had collaborated on projects, such as the university of Kumasi in Ghana, the University Sains Malasia, and the University of Recife in Brazil, would be good candidates.

Work package cost breakdown for project Phase 1

·The proposed work package Phase 1 is estimated to run for 12 months starting June 1, 2001, at a rate of approximately 10 hours worked per week.

·The proposed investigator for the project is myself working alone.Hourly rate of pay is to be $20.00/hour, which is comparable to my previous employment of university teaching (approximately $20-$25/hour on average).

·Breakdown of total time and cost of project is as follows:
 

	Hours		Cost
Website design	150		$3,000.00
Web search	50		$1,000.00
Study of IT for transfer	100		$2,000.00
Pilot transfer	200		$4,000.00
(Funding search)	50		$1,000.00
Total			$10,000.00
(Including fund search)		$11,000.00

·Of the total suggested amount, the S.T.E.V.E.N. Foundation seeks 50% outside matching funds from a donor; that is, 50% will come from S.T.E.V.E.N. Resources and 50% from the donor.

·To protect the donor’s resources, the time worked on the project will be billed by the hour up to 10% above the amounts suggested above, after which it will be expected that the project is completed without additional hourly pay.Thus if the project takes less time it will cost the donor less, but if it takes more time the cost overrun will be a maximum of 10%.

·As the need arises, the work in the project may be hired out to other individuals at the same rate of pay and with the provision that total payment not exceed the figures above.