Community health info-activism the community

health way.

communityhealth.in

The Need• The community health movement

needs to be ‘Googleable’ in order to exist in the minds of younger students, researchers, activists and health professionals.

The Need• The journey of the movement has to be

documented especially since new public health ventures starting all over India have shown the tendency to forget history.

Alma Ata? Health For All By 2000? What's that?

The Need• In this Age of Information social movements

can no longer rely on just simple sloganeering. People want information and methodical analysis. Not just activism, but info-activism.

These needs have to be addressed by community

health activists….….the community health way.

What is the community health way?

• Not ‘Plan and push’ • But ‘Engage and co-create’

What is the community health way?

• Not a single entity creating an authoritative textbook which is pushed onto everyone.

• But a collective effort by the community of health activists to create an information resource that is relevant to each of them.

Why do we need an online resource?

• Because new internet based technology allows simultaneous, multi-lingual creation and access of information from all locations in the health movement in India.

This is appropriate technology.

Why do we need a wiki website?

• Wiki technology allows us to create unified pieces of information from a variety of sources.

• Each co-creator is however accountable for his or her contribution.

• It supports very fast, dynamic changes in information.

Why do we need a wiki website?

• The wiki ethos supports the representation of contesting viewpoints on each issue.

• The closed nature of the website allows for the creation of an alternative, subaltern viewpoint on mainstream health issues.

• Its simple to use. Millions use wiki sites already.

What have we already achieved?

• A growing map of the people, organisations, books, films, courses, ideas and concepts that constitute the health movement in India.

• An growing archive of the stories and historical documents of the movement.

• A growing map of the health system in India

What have we already achieved?

• An idea of how much we don’t know.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know. ” - US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

• Some insights into the dynamics of building a community of editors and readers.

The communityhealth.in structure• Core group.

• Community of editors.

• Community of users.

Offline forms for the internet challenged

Some frustrations

• “This is Lalit’s project.” - Not much community participation.

• “Yet another website.”- Not much intellectual understanding of this new technology/process.

• “I am too inferior to write.” - Post colonial paralysis of the Indian psyche.

Looking Ahead

More editors

Visitwww.communityhealth.in

communicatinghealth.wordpress.com

Thank you