The Gobi News and Information Triangle

Author : Layton Croft
Date added : 2000-08-31

Brief Project Background

This story is set in Mongolia, a country larger in size than the U.K., Germany, France, and Italy combined, but with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants. Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia began political, economic, and social transitions to a democratic market system a decade ago. Nearly a quarter of the population lives in urban areas, with the rest in semi-settled towns and as nomads moving from pastureland to pastureland across vast steppe.

Results

More specifically, this story is set in the Gobi, a quasi-desert region that covers the southern half of Mongolia and the majority of Inner Mongolia in northern China. The Gobi is Mongolia’s least densely populated region, and its people are known for their rugged sense of innovation and individualism. The Gobi is home to the majority of Mongolia’s camel and goat populations, a key contributing factor to the regional economy’s dependence on animal-origin products such as cashmere, wool, and meat.

But notions of living and thriving in vast, rugged and virtually desolate territory are old hat to Mongols; indeed Chinggis Khaan and his mighty hordes ruled the largest empire in recorded history, and conquered it thanks largely to highly sophisticated and efficient information systems. These systems didn’t require electricity, modems, or portals-technology that would’ve been mighty hard to come by in the 13th century-but rather well-oiled human networks of individuals and organizations committed to the same purpose and with vested interest and stake in ensuring success through the regular, timely, and accurate supply and delivery of information.

This story is about how Mongols in today’s Gobi and in the capitol city Ulaanbaatar have built on Chinggis-era principles and approaches while blending appropriate ICT resources to improve information quality and quantity for nomadic herders and urban entrepreneurs nationwide.

Dalanzadgad, which means 70 ponds, is the capitol of South Gobi province. Before 1999 Dalanzadgad was home to the South Gobi Aimag Media Center, a state-run organization responsible for producing and delivering a bi-weekly newspaper as well as producing and broadcasting a twice-weekly radio program, and even the occasional TV program. The Media Center was fortunate to have access to a massive regional radio transmitter station-built by the Russians in the 1970s-which is capable of broadcasting on the LW frequency up to 500 kilometers in all directions, covering a big chunk of both Mongolia’s and China’s Gobi.

But the 1999 Free Press and Media Law outlawed all state support and control of media entities in one fell swoop. Despite ostensible editorial and management freedom and autonomy, the price rural media like the South Gobi Media Center paid was no money, no experience operating according to free market conditions, and yet no in changes in expectations from listeners and readers to receive, largely for free, the same media products and services they’d received for 70 years.

Indeed, Mongolia under Soviet influence and protection boasted an impressive and effective network of information and communication technologies and human networks, all designed to ensure that every last nomadic herder knew and followed the ideology, rules, news, and whims of the central party. The almost overnight dissolution of these networks wreaked havoc not only on people’s ability to receive, share, and use information, but equally as much on their understanding of where they fit-as “free” individuals and members of institutions-in terms of having the rights and responsibilities to actively seek, produce, share, and use information however they wanted. They suddenly went from being told exactly how, where, when, to whom, and why they should communicate to having total freedom to do whatever they wanted within the law. Many froze like deer in headlights.

Many others got angry, and did something about it. They voiced their frustrations that the quality and quantity of needed and useful information-such as weather forecasts and national and local news-had eroded and should improve. Information is essential to everyone’s life, and for herder families who at any point in time live several hundred kilometers from the nearest telephone or Internet center, receiving timely, accurate, and relevant information is often as vital as food, shelter, and clothing.

The staff of Dalanzadgad’s South Gobi Media Center made the courageous decision in late 1999 to register their entity as an NGO, thus becoming one of the first-ever independent media entities outside Ulaanbaatar. They changed their name to Gobi Wave Information Center, and wrote and began operating according to business and marketing plans. Gobi Wave decided to cut its losses with the newspaper and ceased its production. It increased the amount of its radio airtime, and expanded the nature and variety of radio programming. They hit the pavement and generated revenue to sustain their operations by selling paid advertisements and other audio production services.

But a big problem remained: Gobi Wave reached a potential 200,000 listeners across six Gobi provinces but didn’t have the staff or capacity to report news much beyond Dalanzadgad’s town limits. Gobi Wave needed more access to more news and information from the Gobi, Ulaanbaatar, Asia, and the world in order to provide a product that more people would demand and therefore an outlet more advertisers would want to pay for.

Meanwhile, up in Ulaanbaatar, an enterprising young journalist had launched both an NGO-Fourth Estate Media Center-and a business-ArigNews-around the same time Gobi Wave started filling southern Mongolia’s airwaves. Fourth Estate specializes in media development and public relations consulting. ArigNews is Mongolia’s first online daily newspaper, and is delivered in either Mongolian or English languages, depending on which the customer wants. Launching ArigNews was a large undertaking, as an army of qualified journalists and translators were hired to report original news stories about Ulaanbaatar and Mongolia’s vast rural regions each day, meeting an upload deadline of 17:00 p.m., just in time for customers to get the day’s news before turning off their computers at work and heading home. ArigNews struggled at first to get both paying subscribers and advertisers, but the struggle to get regional and rural news posed an ever greater hurdle to the success, and survival, of the enterprise.

As Gobi Wave and ArigNews faced real, market-era obstacles to their success and survival, the Mongolian Foundation for Open Society (Soros Foundation) was in the process of providing grants to establish rural-based Internet and information centers. Though provided up front with computers and satellite-based Internet access, these centers opened their doors as public places that must be financially self-sustaining, and therefore began from day one by charging fees for their services. In early 2000, such an Internet information center opened its doors in Dalanzadgad. It was excitedly received by local citizens and officials alike, who heralded this new facility as South Gobi’s stepping stone into the Information Age. But at once this center was greeted with confusion and even anxiety by many others, as few knew how to operate a computer or understood its utility, not to mention email and the World Wide Web.

After a grand opening ceremony and the wowing of many wide-eyed locals who got a peek into the gadgetry and possibility of computers and the Internet, the center witnessed an unexpectedly low number of customers. Some schoolchildren would come after school to play games, but few other Dalanzadgad or South Gobi citizens took real interest in the center. The center’s staff concluded that it needed to both market its products and services and at once launch a public education campaign about the possibilities and benefits of computers, email, Internet, and so on.

One day in the spring of 2000, the founder of Fourth Estate and ArigNews was on a work trip to Dalanzadgad when he met up with the staff of Gobi Wave. After an hour they had shared their respective stories and described the problems their organizations faced. In the afternoon, he walked across the street to check out the new Internet center and send some work emails to colleagues in Dalanzadgad and in the United States. He got talking with the manager of the Internet center and soon learned of his own problems in attracting paying customers.

The next day people from ArigNews, Gobi Wave, and the South Gobi Internet center were sitting together, sharing their stories, their needs, and what they could offer. ArigNews said it needed more regular and reliable coverage of rural regions, and particularly the Gobi. The Internet center said it needed to educate as many South Gobi people as possible about how its products and services could benefit them and improve their lives. Gobi Wave said it needed more access to regional, national, and international news and information, and moreover wanted to better market its products and services to both listeners and potential advertisers alike.

The common threads and windows of opportunity became apparent:

• All three entities are in the information and communication business and require outside revenue to sustain their activities (i.e. no more state subsidy or control);
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• All three can theoretically influence and enhance market demand and potentially increase their income by constantly improving the quality of their products and services; and
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• If each or all three fail to take action to improve their product quality and marketing efforts, they will go bankrupt.

Likewise, a multi-faceted solution became equally as clear and inspiring to all three entities, symbolized by their pledging to provide products and services for free to one another. Specifically:

• Fourth Estate and Internet center staff agreed to train Gobi Wave staff in basic computer, email, and Internet skills;
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• The Internet center agreed to waive Internet use fees for Gobi Wave staff in turn for free advertisements and public service announcements broadcast regionally to up to 200,000 listeners about the new Internet center and its variety of products and services;
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• Fourth Estate agreed to give free subscriptions of ArigNews to Gobi Wave, which they would email daily, as well as permission to include any of ArigNews’ content in its radio programming (attributing ArigNews); and
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• Gobi Wave agreed to send weekly Gobi news reports and market price information via email to ArigNews, who likewise agreed to attribute all such news items to Gobi Wave.

As a result of these agreements and mutual cooperation, these three organizations creatively solved their repsective market problems using a combination of innovative approaches to ICT and trust. And as a result of their innovation and collaboration, more herders are now satisfied with their radio news and information supply, more South Gobi citizens are curious to learn more about computers and the Internet, and more ArigNews customers are informed about goings on in rural Mongolia. Also, today both Gobi Wave and the Internet center have web sites.

The success of the Gobi New and Information Triangle was not achieved without problems, however, many of which were a function of misunderstanding or miscommunication. But the fact that all three parties had access to and were skilled in using various ICTs facilitated rapid and fluid communication and resolution to their problems.

But this story is not over, as the future of this triangle holds many opportunities for development and growth. Gobi Wave is likely to soon receive a grant of a new FM radio station. The new station will serve as a local revenue generator for its own as well as Gobi Wave regional radio operations. It will be a resource for expanded program production for broadcast regionally and by other local and national media, for a fee. The new station will be equipped with technology to stream and share programs via the Internet. Gobi Wave staff will increasingly use email and the Internet to link with other FM and regional LW radio stations to share professional tips, lessons learned, and success stories, as well as to share new and archived programs and other audio files.

Another opportunity for partnership is for Gobi Wave, the Internet center, and Fourth Estate to launch a customized information service to Gobi Wave listeners across the Gobi. This way, interested listeners can send their information requests to Gobi Wave, who will then use the Internet center’s and Fourth Estate’s human and ICT resources to research and compile a complete answer or reply. The information request and a partial reply will be broadcast regionally via Gobi Wave (and put up on a joint Gobi Wave/Internet center, Fourth Estate web site), and the complete reply will be printed and delivered to the requestee upon receipt of payment of an agreed-upon fee.

Lessons

Layton Croft

Program Director for Information Systems

Gobi Regional Economic Growth Initiative

layton@magicnet.mn

layton@gobi.initiative.org.mn

tel-976-9911-9618

Project Information

Total budget in US$ : -

Contact Information

Layton Croft

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