Divya Ramachandran
ABSTRACT
Technology arguably has the potential to play a key role in improving the lives of people in developing regions. However, these communities are not well understood and designers must thoroughly investigate possibilities for technological innovations in these contexts. We describe findings from two field studies in India and one in Uganda where we explore technological solutions in the domains of communication, microfinance and education. Two common underlying themes emerge from these studies: (1) local stakeholders can contribute cultural information relevant to design such as needs and practices through interaction with technology artifacts and (2) unique social network structures embedded within communities are crucial to the acceptance and potential adoption of technology. We end with a synthesis of the three experiences that draws some practical lessons for ICT designers to elicit meaningful feedback and participation from local stakeholders in developing regions communities.
- Beyer, H., and Holtzblatt, K. Contextual Design: A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs. Morgan Kaufmann, 1997. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Brewer, E., Demmer, M., Du, B., Ho, M., Kam, M., Nedevschi, S., Pal, J., Patra, R., Surana, S., and Fall, K. The Case for Technology in Developing Regions. IEEE Computer, 38 (6), June 2005, 25--38. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook 2003. URL: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ug.html (last accessed: March 8, 2004).Google Scholar
- Chen, S., and Ravallion, M. How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the Early 1980s? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3341, June 2004.Google Scholar
- Dourish, P. Implications for Design. In Proc. CHI 2006, ACM Press (2006), 541--549. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Frankel, J.L. and Bromberg, D. Combadge: A voice messaging device for the masses. Third International Conference on Innovative Applications of Information Technology for the Developing World (Asian Applied Computing Conference), 2005.Google Scholar
- Gaver, B., Dunne, T. and Pacenti, E. Design: Cultural Probes. Interactions 6, 2 (1999), 21--29. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Gaver, W. and Dunne, A. Projected realities: Conceptual design for cultural effect. In Proc. CHI 1999, ACM Press(1999), 600--607. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Get it Started: Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs. He's GotConnections. URL:http://www.wep.wharton.upenn.e6u/newsletter/fall04/connections.html (last accessed: September 22, 2006).Google Scholar
- Grameen Bank. Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Poverty Through Microcredit. URL: http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/bcycle.html (last accessed: September 22, 2006).Google Scholar
- Hutchinson, H., Hansen, H., Roussel, N., Eiderback, B., Mackay, W., Westerlund, B., Bederson, B., Druin, A., Plaisant, C., Beaudouin-Lafon, M., Conversy, S. and Evans, H. Technology Probes: Inspiring design for and with families. In Proc. CHI 2003, ACM Press (2003), 17--24. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kam, M., Ramachandran, D., Sahni, U. and Canny, J. Designing Educational Technology for Developing Regions: Some Preliminary Hypotheses. In Proc. of IEEE 3rd International Workshop on Technology for Education in Developing Countries, 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kam, M., Ramachandran, D., Raghavan, A., Chiu, J., Sahni, U., and Canny, J. Practical Considerations for Participatory Design with Rural School Children in Underdeveloped Regions: Early Reflections from the Field. In Proc. Interaction Design and Children 2006, ACM Press, NY, USA. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Maddison, A. The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. OECD, Paris, France, 2001.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Medhi, I., Sagar, A., Toyama, K. Multiple Mice for Computers in Education in Developing Countries. In Proc. of 2006 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.Google Scholar
- Millen, D. Rapid Ethnography: Time deepening strategies for HCI field research. In Proc. DIS 2000, ACM Press (2000), 280--286. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Parikh, T.S., Ghosh, K., Chavan, A., Sayal, P., and Arora, S. Design studies for a financial management system for micro-credit groups in rural India. ACM Conference on Universal Usability, 2003. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Parikh, T.S, Javid, P., Sasikumar, K., Ghosh, K., Toyama, K. Mobile phones and paper documents; evaluating a new approach for capturing microfinance data in rural India. In Proc. CHI 2006, ACM Press (2006), 551--560. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pawar, U., Pal, J., Toyama, K. Text-Free User Interaces for Illiterate and Seim-Literate Users. In Proc. of 2006 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.Google Scholar
- Plauche, M., Wooters, C., Ramachandran, D., Pal, J., Nallasamy, U. Speech Recognition for Illiterate Access to Information and Technology. In Proc. of 2006 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.Google Scholar
- Prahalad, C.K. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. Wharton School Publishing, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA, 2004. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rodgers, E.M. Diffusion of Innovations. The Free Press, New York, NY, 1995.Google Scholar
- Sachs, J. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. The Penguin Press, NY, USA, 2005.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions
Recommendations
understanding 'development' from the perspective of e-government, digital divide and ICT4D literature: a research agenda
dg.o '18: Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research: Governance in the Data AgeThis paper asserts that considering the growing importance and significance of e-Government initiatives around the world and the increasing priority it has on governments' agendas and investment costs, a more comprehensive understanding of 'development' ...
Empowering rural citizen journalism via web 2.0 technologies
C&T '09: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologiesOnce acquainted with the modern information and communication tools made available with the advent of the Internet, five Brazilian rural communities participating in a pilot project to develop a self-sustaining telecenter model, engaged in citizen ...
Integrating mobile technologies to achieve community development goals: the case of telecenters in Brazil
C&T '17: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and TechnologiesTelecenters and mobile technologies are two of the main interventions for reducing the digital divide and are primary tools for information access. The rapid and pervasive adoption of mobile technologies had called into question the necessity of ...
Comments