An article in the June 5, 2008, issue of Business Week addresses some of the challenges faced by the One Laptop Per Child project. Not surprisingly, these are same the challenges that any large-scale technology project in the developing world must overcome.
The article points out that:
- Importing a powerful new tool, like a laptop, into a culture that’s not acclimatized to using it and doesn’t fully understand its capabilities means that many of the tool’s features won’t get used.
- New technology requires ongoing support, and you can’t just delegate support to people in the country, such as teachers, after only 40 hours of training.
- New tools must integrate into communities and support–not contradict–that community’s way of doing things. The community could be the local village, the country, an organization such as a school or hospital, or a governmental system such as the health or educational system.
- You must run a development project like a business; you can’t achieve results when people are spread too thin and you take on too many tasks without a clear plan for executing them.
The article also describes the culture clash that arose within the OLPC project between Open Source advocates and those who wanted to partner with Microsoft. Open Source software is ideal for a project like this, which tries to reduce costs as much as possible, while giving students access to tools, including the software itself. But governments like known entities, and Microsoft is that, especially when it negotiates with governments to reduce software licensing costs.
In summary, executing a massive technology project in the developing world is complicated and has many, many variables, some of them unforeseen. The number of stakeholders involved is enormous. There are many potential points of failure. To succeed, projects must be planned carefully and resourced appropriately, and project implementers must pay attention to more than just the technology. They also have to consider the cultures they’re entering, the systems already in place and the people who will be working with the technology. In other words, it’s not easy executing an ambitious ICT for development project like One Laptop Per Child.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 6/20/2008 • Tags: ICT4d, Sustainability, Technology
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
Years ago amazing visionary, mentor, colleague, and friend Brian Cantwell Smith (philosopher, computer scientist, and brilliant idea generator) described Philosophy as the hallway from which all other disciplines were doorways. Physics, Art, Literature, and so on — the analogy works — they all open from a foundation of philosophical thought, inquiry, and critical awareness. For Philosophy, especially in the USA, this seminal position as the foundation of everything has waned for a number of reasons within the Academy, but the analogy seems so apt it should live on.
To that end, I’ll carry it further — if philosophy and philosophical thought are the hallway, then technology is the air duct (breathing new ideas and thoughts into all disciplines), and the electrical wiring (connecting heretofore separate “schools” of thought with new, energetic ways of doing things), and it is the lighting system (shedding light on new ways of visualizing, conceptualizing, and sharing information).
Technology is no longer a luxury enjoyed by only the World Wide Web countries (US, Europe, Asia) and technological solutions are far from being just for technologists – it is core to everything we do, to all “disciplines”. In the sciences there is a great amount of work going on in 3D areas — that innovation is moving to the Humanities too. The Arts have a close connection with technology that can be seen in digital media departments at top Universities: NYU UCLA. The work going on in Law schools in intellectual property reflects the new issues created with digital media, its ownership and use. Libraries and Information Schools are tackling new ways to archive and “preserve” digital assets. There are now large bodies of work in digital archives: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/ Biologists are making new discoveries by using new technology. In health there is amazing work going into visualizing data, showing trends and properties of data that may not have been seen before the tools existed. Surgery is being transformed by robotics work – robot-assisted surgery. Every discipline has incorporated innovations in technology into their research, methodologies, and practices.
We are all using new technology and Web 2.0 solutions in our everyday lives to find and form new communities, to collaborate, to communicate, and to share: Instant Messaging, Skype (VoIP), Google Docs, RSS feeds, podcasting. The question is no longer whether or not to make use of technology – the question now is how. At Intrah I’m joining a team that asks this question and works to find innovative ways of using new and existing technologies to make healthcare information accessible where it is needed most.
Posted by
Jess Mitchell on 2/22/2008 • Tags: ICT4d, Social Networking, Technology
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
In reading this article from BBC News on “The Invisible Computer Revolution,” a number of points seemed worth taking notice of. The article posits that a computer revolution is taking place in the developing world without attracting much notice from those of us in the development community. In the industrialized world, we are so used to interacting with our desktops and laptops (like the one I am writing this on right now) that we are ignoring the computer that has already penetrated the developing world: the cell phone. Because we don’t typically use the cell phone for computing tasks, we don’t recognize what a powerful and cheap device it is.
I have written about this before, but I wanted to highlight a couple of other points made by this article. First is the point that demand for cell phones in the developing world is driven by the user, not by nonprofits or aid agencies trying to put cell phones into their hands. We already know that for adoption of technology to be sucessful, it must be demand-driven. Rather than trying to sell a government on a cheap laptop, we should take advantage of the technology that is already in the pockets of so many people. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Of course, even in sub-Saharan Africa, the fastest growing cell phone market in the world, many people still don’t have access to a cell phone. But the article points out that access has grown much more rapidly in certain sub-groups, such as health care workers–exactly the population we are trying to reach. One application the article proposed was continuing education software for health workers, delivered by text message straight to their cell phones. Why isn’t anyone writing this software? Why aren’t we?
I think those of us working in ICT for development need to start using our cell phones the way our target customers use theirs: to retrieve and transmit information (rather than make voice calls). Then we might stand a better chance of coming up with ideas for technology-based solutions that work in their world, not ours.
For further reading, here is a terrific overview from MobileActive on a variety of ways cell phones and text messaging are being used to solve problems in the developing world.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 2/13/2008 • Tags: Cellphones, Development, ICT4d, Mobile Technology, Technology
1 Comment
Add Yours
With the start of the new year, it is traditional to predict trends for the coming months. So I thought I’d take a look at our ICT work and identify what I see as trends for our work moving forward and for ICT for development in general. I don’t think any of these predictions are earth-shattering, but they should be helpful as guides for our work and areas for further discussion.
Generally, I see two strong trends and then one I’m not so confident about:
- Greater focus on using cell phones and text messaging to connect systems to users
- Broader acceptance of Open Source technologies in nonprofits and in the developing world
- Increased use of social networking tools to improve communications among people doing this work and people using our systems (this trend is “iffy” because I don’t know if this is something that will really take off in 2008, at least in our organization)
Cell phones and text messaging
It is clear that cell phones are the fastest growing and probably most accessible technology for two-way communication in the developing world. Text messaging, in particular, has become an efficient way to send and receive necessary information, more ubiquitous than email. People in the developing world are more likely to have access to a cell phone than to an Internet-connected computer, they are familiar with the technology, and it is generally cheaper for them. Some unique uses of the technology I’ve seen recently are texting locations of mobile HIV clinics in South Africa and tracking epidemics in Rwanda.
We will need to take advantage of this trend to make our Web-based systems, such as iHRIS, easier for our clients to use, particularly in areas where there is no Internet access. The cell phone may even be a solution for accessing just-in-time information from online repositories, such as the HRH Global Resource Center.
Open Source technologies
I see a promising trend for Open Source technologies becoming more widespread in both the sectors that we work in–nonprofit and public health–and the countries where we work. As Open Source becomes more familiar and thus more trustworthy, the advantages will become too clear to deny. The costs are significantly lower, and the potential for turning over systems to local developers to maintain and grow is much higher.
For our part, we’ll be using such technologies as the Asterisk telephony system and possibly Open Source software on cell phones in addition to the standard LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) set of development technologies, as well as releasing all of our software developed in-house under Open Source licenses and actively encouraging outside developers to improve them. I expect we will expect our partners to also leverage Open Source technologies. Most importantly, though, I am hearing from the country level that strategic technology plans are being made based on adopting Open Source software for everything from servers to desktops. .
What about social networking?
I think the surge of social networking tools, such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and more, is a very exciting development for those of us who live with always-on, high-speed Internet connectivity. But how does that translate to our work in low-resource settings? I’m not sure, but many nonprofits are exploring that question now and sharing their ideas.
Social networking tools are so powerful and so popular because they tap into our very basic human desire to connect and share with one another. Last year we dipped our toe in the water through this blog and virtual learning environments, which were essentially online communities for sharing information. Perhaps this year we can use them more thoughtfully as a way to better connect with dispersed employees, volunteers and even our clients who are using the technologies we develop. We can exchange ideas, get feedback and work collaboratively faster and more effeciently than we have before.
But for that to happen, the tools have to be accessible, easy to use and compelling. We should start with a few small, targeted projects and see what happens. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, we should harness those free tools that have already been developed for us, tools like Twitter and YouTube. Tapping into the power of these tools will require creative thinking and a willingness to experiment, as well as time to see what works best for us and our community.
Does anyone have any ideas or predictions for 2008? Please share them in the comments.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 1/21/2008 • Tags: Cellphones, FOSS, ICT4d, Mobile Technology, NPtech, Open Source, Public Health, Social Networking
2 Comments
Add Yours
The facilitators of the pilot Data Driven Decision Making (DDDM) workshop held in Uganda last summer felt it was a success and received positive feedback from participants. Fourteen attendees filled out evaluation forms at the close of the workshop and all agreed that that the workshop met its objectives and DDDM was relevant to their work. Also, while only one person felt ‘very comfortable’ with the topic prior to the workshop, eleven did afterwards. Still, efforts must be made to support and sustain this type of work amongst decision makers in Uganda.
Ummuro Adano, Senior HR Systems Advisor for the Capacity Project, has said DDDM is a “mental shift that can take place over time” and cannot be fully accomplished through just one workshop. One participant agreed, and explained, “We learned that data use in decision making needs to be developed. It’s about ‘how can I prove this and what is the rationale?’ It’s having the inquiring process in the thinking and decisions that we make.“ He added that by attending the workshop, participants began to realize it was a lot more risky to make decisions without the use of data, “We also learned that data can be deliberately ignored to achieve certain objectives.”
When asked how attendees will use what they learned at the workshop in the future, one participant said they will train themselves to look for evidence in all decisions that they make. “We should be able to make a reference to a source of data so that people can confirm and be certain we are using data that is authentic,” he said. He also mentioned that it is important to share current records from the various sources, “We need a system in place to maintain the databases that we are creating and maintain up to date (information) because data that is out of date, as we learned, is not very useful in decision making.”
The workshop produced several outcomes that will help participants utilize DDDM in their future work and encourage other decision makers in Uganda. One activity produced a finalized list of HR policy and management questions for the Ugandan health sector. Another result was a list of next steps and actions that included strengthening the MOH Resource Center so that it can function as the effective HRH data storage facility that collects, integrates, and provides access to the various sources of data. The Resource Center will also promote using data for decision making.
Some participants offered other suggestions for how to sustain this work. One participant said, “We need to create demand for data among policy makers and managers. We need to motivate each other in terms of further workshops to engage policy planners at the level higher than we had so in the future they may demand a certain level of quality.” Another participant agreed and added, “These kinds of trainings need to be replicated, followed up, because we are getting to a stage where we are now, that we want now to use information more.” He said they need to follow up with trainings, etc. with as many of the decision makers as possible.
A follow up to the Ugandan DDDM workshop is scheduled for this summer. Other DDDM workshops are planned for Swaziland and Rwanda this spring, where information is now becoming available from their HR Information Systems and ready to be evaluated.
Posted by
Carol Bales on 1/8/2008 • Tags: Africa, Decision-Making, HRIS, ICT4d, Information Systems, Public Health
1 Comment
Add Yours
We are not workforce planning experts, yet it is one of our goals for the Capacity Project to develop user-friendly health workforce planning software specifically for low-resource countries. Last week, we brought together a group of workforce planning experts from all over the world, representing countries like Finland and Uganda and organizations like the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health. Our goal was to select a workforce planning model we could base our software on, specify features for the software and form a working group to advise on the software development.
Workforce planning expert Peter Hornby explains the complexities of workforce planning to workshop participants.
The most exciting aspect of the workshop for me was the conversation, which was constant, lively and collaborative. Everyone agreed that software was sorely needed. The greatest need for the software is to present a complex task in a simpler way so that planners and policy makers can easly analyze data about their health workforce and plan for the future.
The conversation revolved around the many complexities of workforce planning, such as ensuring that plans are affordable and balancing the needs of different geographical areas in a country, as well as the private and public sectors. Many issues we hadn’t even considered were raised by our group of experts. For example, I hadn’t realized that the data requirements for short-term and long-term projections are very different, yet both are crucial for effective planning. It was also important to consider how our software will help planners present their recommendations to decision makers in government, other stakeholders and even the media.
Finally, I learned that there is an art to workforce planinng, as well as a science. The planner must stand back and take a look at the set of assumptions made about the future of the workforce, and then fine-tune those assumptions to adjust for the context of that country. How can we support this artistic process in software? At this point, I’m not sure.
We walked away with a robust set of suggestions for how to start our first iteration of development, which is scheduled for piloting in Namibia only six months from now. And I learned more about the nuances and complexities of workforce planning than I ever imagined. Now the real fun begins as we start developing the software. But with this group of experts ready to provide suggestions, test prototypes and help write the documentation, I feel confident that we can produce an extremely useful tool. I, for one, am looking forward to the conversation continuing.
Workforce planning experts gathered together for a two-day workshop at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., to define specifications for workforce planning software.
Does workforce planning excite you? We are looking for contributors to help us develop our Open Source workforce planning software. We need help with documentation, testing and programming. If you’re interested, leave a comment or contact us.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 12/19/2007 • Tags: ICT4d, Software, Workforce planning, Workshops
5 Comments
Add Yours
