What is the project about?
The project aims to create a digital community network for the Ju|’hoan people living in the remote Nyae-Nyae Conservancy. They are co-designing a fully P2P offline social network, based on the Skuttlebutt platform, with inhabitants of the 40 villages scattered across the conservancy, where there are intractable connectivity issues. This will enable the Ju|’hoansi, among the world’s oldest living cultures, to exchange news and stories using digital audio for the first time on their own terms. As well as running focus groups throughout the area, the team regularly consult the community’s conservancy management committee, i.e. the Nyae Nyae Conservancy (NNC). APC Labs provides additional financial and technical support for the selection of the equipment and the development of audio component of the P2P application.
Institutions involved:
The !Huin!om project has the blessing and involvement of the San Council of Namibia and the Traditional Authority of the Ju|’hoansi. It is led by the International University of Management (IUM), Namibia, which teaches Management Science and ICT and researches in Social Science. With campuses throughout the country, students come from local communities with constrained social and economic circumstances. In the project, the IUM is supported by the University of Wolverhampton (UK), which has a similar mission of widening participation, and an international team of developers who are indigenous or support indigenous groups.
Check here for Candi Miller's photos and backstory on the Ju|’hoansi and the radio and Nyae Nyae feeding project.
Project representatives:
The Ju|’hoansi community network project has brought together ICT specialists, academics, storytellers, community workers and technology developers from around the globe:
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|Kun (Namibia) is a young Ju|’hoan man and self-taught techie based in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy.
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Kingo Mchombu (Namibia) is acting VC at IUM with 15 years of experience in indigenous knowledge sharing.
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Martin Ujakpa (Namibia) is the Dean of Faculty of ICT at IUM and leads the over-arching evaluation.
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Candi Miller (UK) has worked as a writer and academic with San communities for over 20 years.
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Nic Bidwell (Namibia) has 18 years of experience in rural/indigenous community-based ICTs.
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Luandro Viera (Brazil) lives in a Quilombola community and works on networks and distributed applications that put offline people as first class citizens.
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Ben (Aotearoa/New Zealand), from the Ngāti Nurou tribe of Maori people, and Mix (Aotearoa/New Zealand) are technologists developing an indigenous platform for tribal identity and community management.
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Nico Pace (Argentina) and Mike Jensen (Portugal) are APC staff members who lead community networks movement building and APC Labs, respectively
Meet the rest of the catalytic interventions' grantees!