Extract from DFID Study on E-Commerce Options for Third World Craft Producers

In March 2002, Michael Jenkins was sub-contracted to work on the ethical tourism elements of  "E-commerce options for Third World craft producers", Final technical report, DFID Knowledge and Research Project R7792. 

Below is an extended extract, illustrating some of the initial thinking on the subject:

The advent of the Internet and related technologies has created a range of new products for mass markets. Digital formats have been widely used to distribute the following:

• Text and multimedia (web pages, and document formats)
• Books, magazines, newsletters (in text and audio formats)
• Music, spoken word recordings, photographs, video
• Software (business and domestic), games etc.

In essence the digital formats for text (eg txt, doc etc), web pages (html), audio/video (mpeg, Windows media, Real etc), photographs (jpeg), and others offer a number of significant advantages:

• They can be copied perfectly without degradation (analogue copying, such as tape to tape, always loses quality with each generation)
• They can be stored on a computer or other information appliance; and on permanent removable media, such as floppy discs, CD-ROMs, DVDs etc. Some of these formats, such as CD-ROM, are very cost-effective compared to traditional media (eg paper, audio/video tape etc).
• They can be distributed by email (as attached files) and by the Internet (as downloadable files, or as streamed media). The on-line music exchange Napster and others revolutionised the distribution of popular music through its peer-to-peer network of users.
• Digital formats can be highly compressed (at selectable rates) for low-bandwidth delivery
• Production software is commonly (and often freely) available, making use of standard formats and specifications. This also means that digital content can be easily migrated without loss of quality into future formats.

Some of these new formats and products offer new opportunities for ‘digital’ fair trade products. We identify the following as potential opportunities for craft producers, ATOs and others:

• Music: mp3 (mpeg3) music files have become commonplace in recent years, especially with young people who have access to a computer and the Internet. So-called ‘World’ music, from indigenous artists, is a significant market globally. Fairly traded world music could promote local/regional artistic culture (as do many existing craft products). The Internet offers the potential to disintermediate the traditional publishers/labels, allowing artists to reach consumers direct. The same formats can also be used to produce and distribute spoken-world recordings: traditional stories etc.

• Design: many craft products draw on indigenous art and design forms (eg in textiles, ceramics, wood products etc). These designs, and contemporary variations, have commercial value: especially as global communications (satellite television, the Internet etc) make increasing use of local cultures for recreational entertainment: part of what Rifkin (Rifkin, 2000) identifies as the long-term shift from industrial production to cultural production.54 Designs can be mediated and distributed in digital formats, both to keep the designs alive, and to generate income for artists, producers and communities.

• Digital postcards and greeting cards: Digital formats make it easy to send photographs, postcards and greetings cards digitally via the Internet and email. A number of web sites already promote these services. Greetings cards are produced by a number of artisan groups (including those in India and Bangladesh), and marketed by ATOs in Europe and the USA. Digital formats would allow the appropriate promotion of local art forms, and give promotional opportunities to producer groups and individual artists.