e-Lamai


 * eLamai or Ngerabit eLamai**
 * Main Country of Operation:** Malaysia
 * Contact:** Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Kota Samarahan, 94300, Sarawak Malaysia
 * Home page:** [|www.coeri.org/elamai]

Long Lamai Telecentre or Ngerabit eLamai is one of the research projects of Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics (CoERI), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). With the participation of the local community of Long Lamai, Telecentre project focuses on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for community development. Ini sejajar dengan pendekatan CoERI yang memastikan penduduk setempat terlibat secara penuh di dalam setiap fasa This is in line with CoERI’s strict approach of community engagement in implementation of project. The telecentre has a wooden made building and up by PV solar technology, modern electrical wiring, a satellite dish for providing internet, three table top computers (without hard drives—as a way of saving energy), three netbooks all of which have Internet connections via the satellite service, a printer and a scanner. eLamai is funded by Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) under the Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme (DAGS) and Government of Japan. This project is a step in replication of eBario, a multiple award-winning initiative of UNIMAS. The objectives of the project include but not limited to; 1. To improve and enhance the standard of living, education and socio-economic status of the community, and; 2. To help in bridging the digital divide between urban and rural communities. Long Lamai is a remote rural community, located close to the border between Indonesian Kalimantan and Sarawak. Flying from Miri City to Long Banga Airfield and an hour on boat to Long Lamai is the only way to get there. The community has a population of 500 people and the majority of the people are Penans. They are one of the smallest ethnic groups in Sarawak and are mainly subsistence farmers. The community has very limited interconnections with the outside world. The only public phone (pay phone) is Long Banga village which is about 1.5 Hr walk or 1 hour boat ride. The CoERI projects under DAGS rollout are unique in nature that before implementing the project, all the target communities have no road access, no communication services availability, very limited economic and development activities while less health and education facilities. But the community needs to say “yes” to the project. So each project has a real challenge of covering the gap of digital divide in target communities. The long Lamai is first Penan community that has the opportunity to embrace with ICT. The community is self sufficient in terms of food and have a great resembles with “Pandora in Avatar” as Professor Micheal Gurstein mentioned in his blog but the only way to communicate with outside community is the Payphone and internet in telecentre. The telecentre is inaugurated in December 2009. CoERI has developed an extensive training program for local community. CoERI has developed the training manuals (for ICT) in local languages and till today a group of 6 trainers is trained so the telecentre has own human and technical resource for future training programs. For maintenance of solar system a manual is designed by CoERI Engineering group. One member of 6 trainers has undergone a course in citizen journalism. The community has presence on facebook and many of them are writing blogs on http:// ngerabitelamai.blogspot.com. In terms of research collaboration and community participation in research production the telecentre Manager (Garen Jengan), Headman of community (Wilson Bian Belare) and eLamai project leader Dr. John Phoa have presented a research paper, entitled “Building an e-centre in a Penan Village: Views from Above and Below” in 2nd eBario Knowledge Fair (4– 6th November, 2009). He has also presented another paper entitled “Engaging rural community in Sarawak, Malaysia with ICT development by replicating e-Bario model: A case study of Long Lamai community, Sarawak, Malaysia” in the 6th International Conference of Technology, Knowledge and Society, Berlin, Germany (Jan 15-17, 2010). Five members of community has participated in training workshop for telecentre managers and related staff held on the occasion of 2nd eBario Knowledge Fair. Two challenges are faced. 1. How to bring people-centre development to an isolated community, by communication and who are outside the development radar of the government of the day. 2. To engage the community to say that they can be at part with other communities in terms of socio-economic development. For both challenges, the programme engaged the community through a process of discussion and explaining the potentials of ICT. This is important to gain the trust and confidence of the community. All major decisions are made by the community. The methodology used is called participatory action research where the researcher merely acts a facilitator.
 * Brief description of the project;**
 * Why was the project started;**
 * Objective;**
 * Target group and Geographical reach.**
 * How is the project innovative?**
 * What are the achievements of the project?**
 * The challenges faced while implementing project and how was it overcome?**

This e-Bario model can be applied to other rural communities world wide. It is successful because it is bottom-up development unlike the typical to down model which has universally proven to be unsuccessful.
 * Replication Model;**

The eLamai is the replication of eBario model which is initiated in early 2000. As like eBario, eLamai is also led by community and a management committee is looking after the affairs of the telecentre. CoERI has designed the intervention for capacity building of community; as well as a business model for telecentre. The only way that the community can communicate with outer world is the internet and payphones that are installed under eLamai project. So community is very much dependent on the services of telecentre and actively involved in management of telecentre, hence this will contribute in scalability of the project. The community is designing the homestay program as a community activity and they will look to share any financial return from the homestay with a portion of funding going to financially support the on-going maintenance of the Telecentre itself. An additional element of the contribution to sustainability is that attached to the telecentre itself are three pay phones (the only phones in the community). The community uses the phones by purchasing a card from the telecentre and the telecentre has priced these cards with a small surplus to be available for Telecentre support.
 * Scalability of the project;**