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When Homepages are made @ Home

Lone V. Andersen
Student of journalism and trainee 
with the information unit of MS Nepal

WWW.MSNEPAL.ORG is now a reality. The designers of the website are 22-year old Abhinav and 20-year old Deepankar. They are brothers and run their own homepage company from their room at their parents house in Kathmandu.

Ganesh is one of the most popular gods in Nepal. With his elephant head he is easy to recognize. He symbolizes prosperity and the beginning of something new.
The very same words could also be used to describe the two brothers Abhinav and Dipankar Kasajoo, who work at the keyboard. They are self-made computer freaks and started their own cyber café in Tansen in 1996 at an age of only 19 and 17. Since then they have created the very first Internet magazine in Nepal and now they run their own company from their room at their parents house.

Not a single sunray manages to get through the flowered curtains and distract the computer screen. “MSNEPAL”, it says in bold letters.

One click with the mouse and the blue color of the background has changed a shade. Another new homepage is being born and the brothers are working concentrated.

The Internet is for everybody

“The first thing I do in the morning is to turn on the computer. After that I drink the tea that my mother has brought to me”, tells Abhinav and estimates that he uses about 70 percent of his awake time in front of the computer. 
The same goes for Dipankar, who also is deeply fascinated by the possibilities that the computer contains. They think that all Nepalese people – both from the cities and the villages- can benefit from the new Internet technology and that it can get the development of the country moving.

“In principle, a coffee farmer can use the internet for both selling his coffee at the world market and to seek information on how to get a bigger yield”, explains Dipankar and underlines the fact that it obviously requires that people have access to the internet and that they learn how to use it.

At the moment there are only about 15,000 people in Nepal who have access to the Internet and that is mainly big private companies and NGOs. Among private people it is only the chosen few and well off who have had the possibility to invite the world into their living rooms

But it is a market, which is growing rapidly. In Kathmandu a lot of new cyber cafés are seen in the streets and they are a clear contrast to the rickshaws and the small barber on the pavement.

Growing market for homepages

Ten minutes walk from Durbar square in Patan is WorldLink situated - the biggest provider of Internet service in Nepal. This is where Abhinav and Dipankar work with the design of homepages about 50 hours a week. By this they earn 15,000 rupees a month. The best thing about this is that our hobby has become our job. It is so fun and exciting that it does not feel as work,“ explains Abhinav. 

Next to working in the multifirm, the two brothers have their own little company called Cyber Nepal, which publishes an entertainment magazine on the Internet and offers design of homepages. The company does not make a profit from the magazine, but that is not the main purpose either. “The pay consists of the positive feedback we receive on e-mail from people who have read our magazine. That gives us the energy to continue our work”, says Abhinav, who admits that he hopes to make a profit from the company in the long run. 

MS-Nepal has chosen to support the brothers in their efforts by hiring them to design the new homepage of MS-Nepal, which you can find at the address- www.msnepal.org.

Showing Nepal to the whole world

Dipankar shows some photos on the computer screen and explains about their ideas. Their plan is to make a collage of photos from Nepal. Its purpose is to show what kind of work MS-Nepal is doing in cooperation with the partner

organizations. “Our ambition is that the stories from every MS-partners is to be told in a special design which at the same time gives an impression of the local culture”, he says. 
Even though the introduction of the Internet has opened the door to the 21st century, Dipankar finds it very important that the traditions and original cultural values of Nepal is not forgotten. He is proud of his native country and its multiple colorful culture and he sees the Internet as an opportunity to show his country to the whole world. Dipankar underlines the fact that the cyberworld cannot and should not replace the real world but only be a supplement.

MS Nepal’s communication strategy

The whole idea with the new homepage is a part of MS-Nepal’s new communication strategy that also includes training in barefoot journalism in print and on radio, information on tapes and the production of wallpapers. 

The communication concept was introduced at the partner seminar in the beginning of August where also the possibilities of the Internet were demonstrated. Only one fifth of the participants knew about this amazing new world and for that reason some money has been set aside for education in next years budget. Ib Schou, the information officer of MS-Nepal, has the idea that the partners themselves should contribute with stories, photos and even music for the homepage. The message has been positively accepted and has already given many creative contributions from the Nepalese partner organizations. 

The Danish development workers can also use the new homepage in an active way in their information and advocacy work. Jakob Jespersen has seen the light. In his opinion MS has the duty to inform the Danish taxpayers about how their money is spent. At the same time he also thinks of the homepage as a natural way of information for new potential development workers. Personally he has already contributed with photos and stories from his everyday life and his work. He hopes that it can give people in Denmark a fair opportunity to learn about “the real Nepal”.

Only few homepages in Nepali

The language used at the homepage is a mixture of Nepali, Danish and English - according to the target group. For example the case stories about the Danish development workers’ everyday life in Nepal are written in Danish. 

The language is one of the key problems, which can prevent many Nepalese people from getting the full benefit from the Internet. Only very few of the homepages have been published in Nepali so far. That means that the lack of knowledge about the English language is a barrier. 

On the other hand the Internet opens up for new information channels for that half of the Nepalese population that cannot read or write. That is because the Internet offers new possibilities of getting access to photos, sounds and video recordings. Especially among the young people there is a huge interest in the new technology. 

When Abhinav and Dipankar in 1996 opened the first ever cyber café and introduced e-mail service and multimedia-computers the interest from the people in Tansen was overwhelming. The two brothers gave free introduction to the computers and the young people were excited. In Nepal today it is only the students with wealthy parents who can benefit from the Internet in their education. A fact that the information unit in MS-Nepal has a dream of changing in the future. The hope is to open up several cyber cafés, which can give the poor but talented young people in Nepal access to the Internet.

Dreams of USA

Abhinav and Dipankar live most of their lives in cyberworld but they plan to go to the United States within the next couple of years. Their wish is to learn more about design of homepages in the USA but they do not plan to live there forever. “Nepal is our home country and when we have learnt new skills we can return to Nepal and design homepages for the world's biggest companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola”, says Abhinav and with that he reveals his greatest ambitions. 

With the Internet as the place of work the brothers are able to run their company from anywhere in the world. But for the time being it is run from their room in their parent’s house where they concentrate on finishing the new homepage of MS-Nepal. It is open to the whole world by clicking on www.msnepal.org.

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