KUCHING: The Kampung Buayan community, a rural village situated in the Ulu Papar district of Sabah, has received the Self-Sustainable Community Mapping Platform from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).
A team lead by Associate Professor Dr. Tan Chong Eng, senior research fellow at the Institute for Social Informatics and Technological Innovations (ISITI), UNIMAS, interacted with the Buayan community for a participatory project, and the study – which was supported by UNIMAS – began in September 2019.
When the university was given funds to expand the successful eBario initiative to four other Borneo sites, UNIMAS first forged a relationship with the locals. This was more than 10 years ago. Up to the decommissioning of VSAT five years later, a number of additional projects and operations, including the deployment of the eBuayan telecentre in 2010, were successfully completed.
“The internet connectivity, as well as the electric power, remain a challenge and it is imperative that the community be not left out in the quest for advancement,” said by site leader, Professor Dr Jane Labadin.
“The necessity for the community to maintain its resilience has made this even more obvious in the post-pandemic age. Utilising their assets – their culture, values, customs, and heritage – the community has expressed a desire to map out their collective knowledge, which would serve as a resource for future values,
“These needs have been met by this platform. This system platform is made up of hardware and software solutions that are especially made to address the problems that rural areas face, such as unstable power supplies, a lack of qualified technical assistance, and poor ICT literacy,”
The system enables 24/7 service provision to serve the Buayan community in cultural mapping through a highly efficient and cost-effective solar-powered server platform that is accessible and manageable via rural transportation. The platform has been built to achieve a higher level of reliability and dependability with the minimal technical support required.
The software system’s usability is created for simple operation and handling by the local people with just rudimentary ICT knowledge. This is because community cultural data is stored on community property; as a result, there is also a high level of protection for the privacy of local indigenous data.
Buayan village head, Mositol Sondigon, expressed his gratitude to UNIMAS and assured he and his community will ensure rich and meaningful content remains available for the new generations.
The Buayan community hopes that the relationship fostered with UNIMAS will remain intact for future collaborations.
