Exploring the Off-Net
A conversation about using offline networks to transfer digital content. Guest contributor: Asch Harwood, tech and innovation designer/practitioner
Karen G: Asch, you and I have been discussing for some time this issue of sharing content offline via Bluetooth or Secure Digital (SD) cards. When we were working together on the use of SMS in Polio eradication in Pakistan in 2014 you first mentioned the term “sneakernet.” You were describing how young people were sharing anti-polio vaccination videos in northern Nigeria via mobile phone — and you mentioned how UNICEF began doing its own videos about the importance of vaccination, which travel organically via the Off-net and can also be shown or shared by health care workers. We both noted how extremist groups were creatively trading content without the internet and debated whether it was irony or tragedy to be inspired by innovative communication by the Taliban and other extremist groups.
Those writing about the sneakernet use this term because people use their two feet — their sneakers — to walk content over to their friend which they then transfer by Bluetooth or by SD card. One early example was Christopher Kirkley’s great music compilation of Music from Saharan Cellphones, which received media attention in 2012 as an example of cell phone file sharing.
I wanted to pitch a different term, because 1) I don’t like the word “sneaker” in general — just saying it feels kind of weird in my mouth — and 2) the word feels very anglo-centric. I like “Off-net” because beyond playing with the Bluetooth symbol as seen in the title above, it puts the focus on “offline,” rather than what people have on their feet as they walk content from place to place. This way of communicating within a network is different from old-school networks in the sense that we’re talking about sharing digital content, rather than simple conversation.
My experience with the Off-net was in Chad and Niger, where I interviewed listeners of radio programs produced by Equal Access who described transferring content offline by going to radio stations to copy recorded programs onto SD cards so they can listen at home on their phones or on the radios with their families. Listeners said they sought copies of episodes at the station because they found the serial drama format compelling — and they wanted to share the episodes, and also listen more than once. In Niger and Chad, Equal Access recently prototyped “transfer hubs” at community radio stations and learned, from users, that Xender was the preferred mode of offline file transfer in the region, which touts itself as “easier than AirDrop,” and “faster than Bluetooth.” With technology consistently improving, there seem to be few barriers to offline content transfer.
What do you think of the “Off-Net” as an umbrella term for offline transfer, to encompass the range of ways people share and talk about sharing: Bluetooth, USB and SD-card sharing, Sneakernet, Side-loading, Peer-to-Peer File Sharing, the air-gap system, etc.?
Asch H: The “Off-net” — It works! In a sense, the Off-net is the offline version of the viral video, boosted by the exchange of content between trusted networks. There is no need for an internet connection or even cell service — simply two inexpensive phones paired via Bluetooth, or a phone or other device with a USB port or SD card slot.
There is an increasing body of research demonstrating that people with only simple feature phones are using them to watch and share movies and music around the world. In Uganda, researcher An Xiao Mina investigating entertainment sharing via Bluetooth found that sharing kung fu movies and pop songs is ubiquitous among young people. She noted that groups of three or four people were willing to gather around a small feature phone to view the film. For a smartphone, the groups were even bigger. Similar research in India and Armenia has also documented the practice of using phones to watch and share movies via local Bluetooth networks. Another researcher in South Africa notes how side-loading content is appealing because there is no cost associated.
In Afghanistan, Pakistan and across the Middle East, leaving a phone’s Bluetooth connection on “discoverable” allows young people to discreetly meet and chat, an innovation to get around prohibitions on men and women speaking to each other in public. As you noted, even al-Qaeda and the Taliban use mobile media and local Bluetooth networks to spread propaganda and recruit new members. Similar recruitment tactics were reportedly happening in the Central African Republic, where violence was being recorded with mobile phones and then shared via Bluetooth. Likewise, focus groups conducted by UNICEF in both Nigeria and Pakistan have revealed that the practice of sharing violent content offline is indeed happening in high risk areas.
Some organizations are also trying to seize the opportunity of the Off-net for positive social change objectives. UNICEF’s polio program is sharing educational videos in northern Nigeria via Bluetooth. Media Matters for Women who distribute radio programs to “last-mile women and girls” via mobile phones in Sierra Leone and Mercy Corps, who share good practice videos with farmers in Timor Leste using extension agents to distribute the content for phones, hand-to-hand.
Karen G: It’s clear to me that in the communication for social change sector, there is huge potential for getting more “bang-for-your-buck” with digital content by fostering Off-net transfer in addition to traditional broadcasting or digital streaming. The question I have, now that I’ve seen the Off-net in action, is this: how will we track and measure how, and how far, content travels?
I’m imagining needing boots on the ground to measure this phenomenon, just as contact tracing required extensive leg work during the Ebola epidemic. Or perhaps embedding an SMS or WhatsApp number into digital content to ask listeners to check in when they hear content…? Let’s leave the conversation there for now and invite readers to send us ideas, suggestions, analogous cases or their own experiences. Thank you, Asch, for making the time to engage in this digital dialogue with me.
Asch H.: My pleasure!
