Local Language Content Development Case of D.Net Regional Conference on Localized ICT Development and Dissemination across Asia Vientiane, Laos, Presented By Fatema Begum Labony D.Net (Development Research Network)

Need Assessment D.Net conducted a need assessment study at community level The researcher used participatory tools like FGD, Interview and observations

Areas of content Need assistant study identified the following areas of livelihood content Health Education Agriculture Rural employment Disaster management Appropriate technology Legal and human rights Non farm economic activities Directory

Team Formation Content team consists of two level experts Content developers: Fresh graduate of a particular field (Ex. Doctor, Lawyer, Agriculture Graduate) Expert panel for validation

Identification of domain expert institutions D.Net identified domain expert institution who are generating knowledge or content. D.Net sign MoU with those institute to digitize, develop derivatives and disseminate through CDs, helpline and website.

Training of content developers Orientation of context of rural areas Introduction of different tools like Unicode typing, CMS, Unicode conversion, Photo editing for content formatting.

Content development Content developers digitizes, localize content and context Rewrite the content in a form which is understandable to community people Add appropriate image and addition clarifications

Content validation D.Net send the content back to domain expert institute and/or expert panel for content validation. D.Net also conduct field level validation of content both with the community people and with the infomediaries.

Content update and incorporation of feedback D.Net update content in a regular interval. D.Net also incorporate feedback from community people and infomediaries to make content understandable and useable for them. Demand driven content development based on feedback from helpline an infomediaries

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