Digital libraries for the poor : facilitating bottom-up innovation through video-based learning platform

Community-driven programs in South Asia have traditionally used local facilitators to disseminate information and external best practices. However, the massive scale of these programs has made this strategy both a time-consuming and an expensive exercise. Livelihoods projects in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh have piloted an innovative information and communications technology (ICT) based rural digital libraries project in collaboration with digital green, a non-profit organization in India. Digital green trains members of local communities about group facilitation, videography, and basic video production. These libraries are a decentralized, localized solution that combines the institutional platform with a digital knowledge platform to create multiple nodes of communication and learning in rural communities across the country. These localized solutions are created by face-to face experiments by communities empowering them and improving the adoption rate of new technologies. Leveraging a video production and screening platform, community organizations have started to develop a localized, scalable model for agricultural extension, financial literacy, health and nutritional awareness, and technology and livelihood training.