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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday June 02 2015, @09:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-world dept.

The use of information technology to transform impoverished communities in developing countries has inspired philanthropic projects around the world, now collectively referred by the ungainly appellation ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development). A former Microsoft researcher who spent years trying to implement dozens of what he now calls "geek intervention" projects in Bangalore, India, as founder and head of a research lab there, cautions that making these projects work is a lot harder than its backers think. Kentaro Toyama has just published the book Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology recounting his experiences, and gave a remarkably pithy interview to MIT Technology Review discussing his findings. On developing world medical clinics:

If you go to a typical rural clinic, it's not the kind of place that anybody from the United States would think of as a decent place to get health care. Bringing along a laptop, connecting it to wireless, and providing Internet so you can do telemedicine is just an incredibly thin cover. It's a thin, superficial change.

The interviewer mentioned One Laptop Per Child, a former flagship of Internet-era IT philanthropy that appears to be winding down. Statistical studies showed no measurable differences in academic achievement between those given laptops relative to the control group, says Toyama. But what about the intangible side; the delight and fascination social workers see in the faces of kids in developing countries when technological gadgets are put into their hands?

Toyama:

The reality is, that joy is the same joy that you see when you peek over the shoulder of a kid who has a smartphone in their hands in the developed world, which is to say they're overjoyed because they're playing Angry Birds.

Did his lab have any successes? Yes, Toyama provides an example of a program that delivered video training to villagers on improved agricultural practices, presented by peers. But the success of that program depended on human facilitators who made sure the villagers discussed the program and asked questions; otherwise the exercise would have been "just like watching TV", which Toyama says is not effective in changing farmers' habits.

Another Toyama interview that appeared in the Seattle Times broaches the sensitive subject of Toyama's opinion of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the heavyweight in the ICT4D field. Of course, Gates was Toyama's big boss at Microsoft.

Toyama, now an associate professor at the University of Michigan's School of Information, maintains a blog on ICT4D.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by CortoMaltese on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:23PM

    by CortoMaltese (5244) on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:23PM (#191342) Journal

    Of course giving resources to a poor community doesn't just mean throwing laptops at them and saying "here this should fix your problems", most of the time you have to work with the community to exact change, for a example: a midwife is not a doctor (in "third world" countries), but you can train them to be more effective, to diagnose problems with births and supplement the diets of the mothers. If they want to help this communities they have to stop looking at them with pitiful little things to throw dollars at and more like people with potential with the right information/resources.

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  • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:00AM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:00AM (#191364) Journal

    I like the midwife example. This is perhaps part of a solution to the problem. Information wants to be free, no? Practical applications of knowledge will always win over the masses.

    I also find your comment:

    they have to stop looking at them with pitiful little things to throw dollars at and more like people with potential with the right information/resources

    to be incredibly empowering.

    • (Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:17PM

      by pnkwarhall (4558) on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:17PM (#191803)

      Information wants to be free, no? Practical applications of knowledge will always win over the masses.

      Mr. Toyama says that the only "technology" program he thought was successful at improving life was the one that was basically a directed information-sharing channel--'it makes and shows videos in which farmers in India share advice about planting techniques or how to handle animals." He goes on to say that it was not the information itself that made the difference (having already been made available through other communication channels [without significant effect]), but that the difference was that the communication channel was actually the "mediators" themselves (i.e. individuals) whose role and community-rapport made the technology solution effective. (The technology solution being, from what I can tell, glorified video-chat combined with the aforementioned informational videos.)

      The people are always the most significant factor.

      --
      Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven