A community-driven information system to develop next generation collaborative and responsive rural community (NCoRe)

Abstract

Much of the ICT interventions for rural transformation are exogenous in nature (development from outside), in the sense that they use a "push" approach towards development, without considering the nature and problems of an individual member of the rural community. Information and knowledge transactions, especially with dis-empowered people and groups, are a complex process and ICT needs to be appropriated and used in a way that helps resolve daily concerns. With this perspective in mind, this paper proposes NCoRe, an interactive community-driven information system platform to harness the potential of community participation in governance. In a digitally-connected global society, each individual in a community of people is not only a consumer of information but also a producer of information: a potential contributor in many ways to build a better community. NCoRe exploits the potential of community knowledge, making them available to the community and empowering the communities to interact, collaborate and participate in the development of society and transforming the way they live, learn and work. NCoRe is an ongoing initiative to build next-generation collaborative and responsive community by empowering the rural community of India with an ICT-enabled "capability framework" involving the self-help groups (SHG): the micro-communities within a village community.