“B2Bpricenow.com is an e-marketplace in the Philippines. Through this on-line market place farmers, fisherfolk and small and medium enterprises can access market prices and trade products. This can be achieved either through their website or by cell phone. Split into two phases, the project began by obtaining content for the site from a variety of agricultural and fishery cooperatives and training them to both access and post products on the website. Through free technical support and hosting by Unisys, B2Bpricenow.com is able to offer its services for free. The second phase is focused on getting these groups connected to the internet and actual transactions occurring on-line.” [see http://www.sustainableicts.org/infodev/B2B.pdf

The Sustainable ICTs site offers quite a few case studies, of which this is perhaps the most related to what we are trying to do, and considerable guidance on embedding projects so that they stick.

Ann Light (human-computer interaction specialist), Dorothea Kleine (economic geographer, project manager) and Macarena Vivent (ICT4D specialist, project director Chile) from the Fair Tracing Team have just completed an intensive round of fieldwork with our producer partners, the co-operative Los Robles in Chile. We visited the vineyards and the winery production facilities, interviewed workers, vintners, employees and management and conducted focus groups and participatory design workshops. Here are some photos: 

Observing the work in the vineyards…

Interviewing vintners and workers…

Holding focus groups with workers (finding out about their perspective on the wine value chain, on consumers, on Fairtrade, and on technology) ….

Conducting a participatory design workshop with the co-operative’s employees (conceptualising the value chain, mapping information flows and processes, identifying current data formats and technology in use etc.)…

Meeting volunteers, technophiles and creative students to discuss local content creation..

…and agreeing on next steps with the Directores (representatives of the members of the co-operative) and the General Manager of Los Robles, Francisco Della Maggiora Silva (in the picture with Macarena, Ann and Dorothea).   

Los Robles were very friendly hosts – they even raised a flag for each of us on our multinational research team! (But despite Ann’s extensive efforts of persuasion the Union Jack refused to unfurl properly for our photo…)

Yes, there was lots of very good wine. But we also raised a glass of typical Chilean “Mote con huesillos” (yummy peach syrup with dried peach and boiled wheat) in Curicó’s famous Café Montero in honour of Maria Montero, our valiant Research Assistant who stayed in London to hold the fort while we were away on our fieldwork visit to Chile. Cheers, Cote!

“This e-book provides an overview of successes and failures in the development and adoption of ICT in agriculture and the rural sector. They provide illuminating case studies of technological innovation with lessons applicable for agricultural production, the rural sector and national strategic priorities. They emphasize that ICT development as perceived by the eventual beneficiary is a critical success factor for anyone working in ICT.”