Class 3 Readings

I really enjoyed Hans Rosling's talk about the importance of data.  I think he did a great job of demonstrating this in his presentation. The quote that really hit home for me and that I think most applies to the projects in this class is when Hans mentioned that "the improvement of the world needs to be highly contextualized. It cannot be considered at a regional perspective".

When I met with my group for the midterm, we looked at this question critically in regards to our task.  Here is the task that we were given:

At first we started to solve the problem and then we realized that we needed to specifically define who the person was that we were transferring the money to.  If it were to be to individuals in Africa, there are a wide spread of individuals of different demographics and access in that country.  After defining the individual with the following parameters: a person who makes (household) about 60-100usd per month with no bank access.  This very much helped to better approach this assignment.

 

Class 2: Redesigning an experience

For our second class of Doing Good is Good Business we did a exercise around prototyping and design theory to come up with a product that could possibly help a user with a problem.  One of the main concepts of ITP is to fail quickly, learn from your mistakes and move on to this next idea. This quick experiment reminded me of that process.  It also didn't give us a lot of time to dwell on what the best ideas could be for this project. With that said, sometimes not overthinking an idea can be an effective way to get out of your head and come up with something that you may have never thought of before.

The problem proposed

Redesign the experience of communication with a loved one far away with a partner.

Here are the steps in the way we approached the problem proposed

Step 1: Interview the partner -- find out what the issues were with the last time she communicated with a loved on

Step 2: Dig deeper --- find a story that is important for your partner.  This was to be more of a human-based narrative. I focused on the relationships of her and her loved one

Step 3: Capture findings: We wrote out the needs and insights from the interview.

Step 4: Define the problem statement: My partner, Ariana, needs an easy and affordable way to chat with her Grandparents, but maybe nit in video form because she's not always in an appropriate place to chat with Grandma (and Grandma gets annoyed when Ariana doesn't want to pick up the video call)

What I concluded is that Ariana wants to have a way to chat with Grandma that is as easy as FaceTime (which can only use a camera) but without video.

Step 5: We then sketched out 5 radical ways that you could meet the user's needs

Step 6: Share the solutions with the partner

Step 7: Take the feedback from the 5 options and generate a new solution

Step 8: Use anything from the junk shelf to create a prototype -- this gives the partner the opportunity to interact with your proposed prototype.

Step 9; Take noes on What worked, what could be improved, and questions and ideas that came up.

Protoype

Here is a photo of the quick prototype that I created based on Ariana's problems talking to her Grandmothers.

This is supposed to be an analog house phone that has a touch screen on the handle.  The three buttons are the people most frequently called (Ariana, Son, Daughter-in-law). If Grandma were to call Ariana by pushing her button, it would call over the internet (affordable) to Ariana and Ariana would have the option to receive the call as either a video chat or as simply a phone call (in case it wasn't appropriate to be seen on video). This phone can also be used as a regular landline (the base with traditional buttons is not shown here).

I think this was a great experiment.  At times I found myself getting stuck because I was trying to come up with the best answer, but then I noticed I was doing this and tried to just let whatever come to me, come.

This experiment also really hit home on the first principle of the 9 Principles for Digital Development that were highlighted in the reading--- Design WITH the user.  I can see now how important this piece is to have the proper implementation.

In regards to the other readings

I want to post these two articles here because they were really interesting and I want to be able to reference them again

Data that Turned the World Upside Down

Fake News is not the only problem

Below is a quote that really stuck out at me from Gilad Lotan when he talked about how bias, propaganda, and deliberately misleading information are much more prevalent and do more damage than fake news.

"In the cases that I was investigating, neither side of the graph’s frame was false per se. Rather, each carefully crafted story on either side omitted important detail and context. When this happens constantly, on a daily basis, it systematically and deeply affects people’s perception of what is real."

Here he is referencing the information given about an Palestinian-Israeli boy that stabbed an Jewish-Israeli boy and how the proper editing of the videos to make it appear that the Jewish people were the one to blame in this incident. Two different videos were shared in the Palestinian community and the Jewish community. The former showed the Jewish people at fault and the later showed the Palestinian boy at fault.  The graph he talks about is the data that shows the community's online views of these two videos. "Two very different versions of this story spread within disparate echo chambers" of the communities.

This is a very important point that we all need to be aware of when we are seeking information, especially hot topics of the moment--- like political information.

In the second article, it talks about how a company used our digital imprint of our social media exchanges to pump targeted ads to either persuade individuals to vote for Trump or deter them from voting at all.

This was definitely a troubling article but in a world of Big Data, I'm not surprised that there are initiatives that are taking full advantage of online, social media findings.

On the other hand, and how it pertains to this class, Big Data can also be used for good.  I'm really interested in using data science to further the impact of our ideas, both in this class and for future projects.

Question for class panel

A question that I have for Gilan would be for him to explain in a little bit more detail the concept of algorithm gaming on Twitter.  This is a concept that a group of individuals push trends intentionally in the media by using the same hashtags all at once on Twitter. How do these groups form?

Another question I have is that in a time when there are a lot of not-fake-but-not-completely-true information, how to Data Scientists work with this type of data in their analysis?

Failure Story: Microsoft's Digital Villages

For this week's assignment we were asked to research and define a failure story in the realm of tcch initiatives in Africa. I found a project that Microsoft attempted back in 1997 when Bill Gates visited the township of Soweto in South Africa.  This township was ridden with Apartheid and extreme poverty.  He promised to provide the first free-access "digital village" to the community that would be housed in the Chiawelo Community Center providing all individuals in the town access to "the information age". The initiative was orchestrated by Microsoft and sponsored by local computer companies and a US development organization.

Here is a press release about the project.

Unfortunately, as outlined in the article South Africa: Why Have All the Rural Tech Projects Failed? from 2013, the project failed for a couple of reasons:

  1. No arrangement for maintenance and operation of the project: the sponsors stopped funding the activities and the digital village did not function after this point
  2. Lack of resources: no reliable electricity and network
  3. failure to include the local community in planning: lack sufficiently skilled teachers

Even though this project was a failure, Microsoft did have some success stories in other areas in South Africa as outlined in this journal article.  Perhaps they learned from the above experience and had a better implementation than the one deployed in Soweto.

Here was Microsoft's initial proposal for the project:

Microsoft in the community
Digital Villages aims and objectives

The objectives of the programme are as follows:

·          To make technology accessible to communities of SA.

·          To build a future resource pool of technologically trained students for future recruitment.

·          To assist in demystifying technology in communities, especially among the learners and teachers.

·          To provide personal computer skills.

·          To enable traditionally disadvantaged communities to generate formal sector employment.

·          To connect disadvantaged communities to the global communication network.

·          To enable people to market skills and products.

·          To support local businesses actively as service providers.

·          To develop measurable and attainable goals for the company and benefiting communities.

·          To liaise and corporate with other sections of Microsoft to ensure participation and to support business goals.

Strategy

·          To use our existing digital villages in terms of the development stage and imperative needs of many communities in South Africa, and in line with the present and future needs of the various business units within Microsoft and our partners.

·          These replicable models are a vital aspect of the project as any new innovations can be tried and tested in them.

·          To exploit the opportunities that are present in terms of the developmental stage and imperative needs of many communities in South Africa, and in line with the present and future needs of the various business units within Microsoft and the business partners.

 

Community involvement and the establishment of committees

Once a suitable centre has been identified, the community will be approached and will be engaged in the necessary negotiations and briefings regarding the project.

A committee comprising the partners and the community will be established.  The community members will be trained and prepared for the take-over once they are ready and the business partners have completed their term as per agreement.

An agreement will be drafted to spell out the roles and responsibilities of the business partners and the community members.  This should be done to safeguard the relationship in case problems and misunderstandings may develop.

Future funding of the Digital Village will be discussed and properly planned.

 

Hardware

Microsoft will approach its business partners to donate hardware.  Joint venture programmes will be encouraged to ensure that there is hardware available for the project.

Joint venture initiatives are also encouraged for other contributions that will see to the success of the project, eg. administrative costs, training and the future planning for the centre.

 

Requirements

The proposed centre has to have:

·          An automated telephone line (preferably an ISDN line for the Internet).

·          Electricity.

·          Secured premises.

·          An Internet Service Provider.

 

Project sustainability

The established committee will be trained and assisted to prepare for the self sufficiency of the centre.  The students will be encouraged to form Computer Clubs and make a contribution towards the usage of the centre.  Adults will be expected to contribute a minimal amount of money to be registered as members of the centre.

The committee will be assisted to open a banking account where these contributions will be deposited.

A Trust Fund will be established to allow the committee to raise funds on behalf of the centre.

The viability of a particular centre will be evaluated on an agreed and regular basis, and will be subject to the continued interest of all parties.

 

Benefits to companies

·          To prepare and train a future workforce by offering technology education facilities to learners.

·          Through publicity, for the companies to be perceived as responsible citizens.

·          To establish relationship with National and Provincial governments regarding projects and their implementation.

·          To establish relationship with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and communities.

 

Press and publicity

·          To ensure sufficient publicity is arranged for project launches and ensure that partners are fully involved and acknowledged.

·          Arrange publicity during project milestones.

·          Announce any special activities and achievements on projects.

·          Inform communities and stakeholders of the closing down of projects at the end of project.

·          Compile annual reports and list all partners and names of the digital villages they supported including success stories.

 

Evaluation and measurement of success

Annual evaluation will be conducted and recommendations made for further improvement of the centers.

Relevant stakeholders will be identified and participation invited where applicable.

The project will be considered successful in communities where evidence of commitment, achievement, organisation and structure are present.

The support of the community will be assessed through the number of paid up memberships, number of regular attendants and the trainees per courses offered at the centre.