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.
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday June 02 2015, @09:54PM
Telemedicine is great but so is also a water proof roof and clean syringes etc. And it pretty much boils down to economics and work culture (I assume). And in that aspect other interests takes priority and there needs to be another solution as well.
And kids being happy to play games instead of getting a payable skill set.. well that problem is universal and needs a non-technical approach.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pnkwarhall on Tuesday June 02 2015, @10:59PM
If you think that "kids being happy to play games" is a problem, then **you** have a problem--a very distorted and backwards value system. Games are one of the most significant ways that children learn! More importantly, the last thing I want, as a parent, is my children worrying about "getting a payable skill set". In the interview from TFA, Mr. Toyama mentions that, in his opinion, the most important foundation of successful education was **motivation**. I can't imagine a more horrible world than one where children's primary motivation is a paycheck. Instead, I want to help my children follow their own individual, natural, and genuine motivations.
Following a paycheck, w/r/t gaining knowledge and skills, has never led me in any direction I wanted to go.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:32PM
It still didn't translate to any improved learning. Or are you against learning as well?
Statistical studies showed no measurable differences in academic achievement between those given laptops relative to the control group, says Toyama.
One of the most influential gifts I got as a kid (50s and 60s) was a monthly subscription to a hard cover science book. Each issue on a different topic, dinosaurs, then microorganisms, how to build a water drop microscope, rockets, ants, trains, mines. They were dog eared within a week, I'd wait under the mailbox for the mailman, I'd sit right down and read it cover to cover, go in the house and read it again, then I'd read it to my dad. Best Present Ever.
That set of books were the internet of my youth. I took them fishing FCS.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:45PM
I think the concern is that playing Flappy/Angry Bird(s) isn't really contributing even to motivation. At least, I'm having trouble imagining what Angry Birds would help the kids with beyond what they can already observe in the real world. I'm sure they already understand that objects in freefall follow a parabolic path… or do they? At any rate, it's not going to help them probe the depths of conical sections.
To be honest, I'm not certain what the answer is, but I think we have ample evidence over here in the 1st world that throwing electronics at kids doesn't improve outcomes. Initiatives like Engineers without Borders seem more promising.
One of the things that comes up often is government corruption and corruption in general, which we've also heard a lot about as far as India is concerned. Now don't get me wrong; I'm thinking India has a bright future ahead.
I do see your points about following a paycheck. It seems there has to be some kind of prevailing cultural value or virtue yearning towards education as an end unto itself to defeat corruption and ensure liberty. Following a paycheck leads to corruption (and to anger, fear, the dark side, yada yada). Whatever the nature of that value is ephemeral. I suppose I could engage in armchair pontification about how protestant “bootcamps” (as Sagan called them) in the 16th century and the reformation in general lead to valuing education by the 19th century, but then I'd need to stare down the possible ulterior motives of Horace Mann.
Really the only group I know to have remained ideologically pure over 3,000 years of history are the Chinese Amazons, given that philosophy, ethics, and maths are some of the first subjects they teach to their children, even before combat techniques. I suppose what it boils down to is that the parents have to value education as an end and not a means and take steps to make that end, or rather life-long journey, happen.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:41PM
It seems there has to be some kind of prevailing cultural value or virtue yearning towards education as an end unto itself.
FTFY. Education is the growth of consciousness, which can be used towards many value systems. (I also just wanted to repeat your insightful statement for emphasis in the thread :)
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:38PM
That's currently adults' primary motivation. If wages and employment keep decreasing expect children, in addition to both parents needing to work today, to have to work just to keep their family fed and sheltered.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:43PM
I can't imagine a more horrible world than one where children's primary motivation is a paycheck.
That's currently adults' primary motivation.
Speak for yourself.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday June 03 2015, @06:08AM
Reminds me of the saying: If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail ... More technology is not the only solution to third world problems.
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 03 2015, @07:39AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:20PM
as long as cultures exist where corruption goes unchecked, you can't fix it. you can try to give people resources but if it threatens the power of the ruling party, it will be taken from them. the problem in corrupted cultures is that when you get rid of one corrupt official you get another corrupt official because terrible selfishness ingrained in the culture itself. so as long as resources are scarce, there will be a corruption in culture. if you take away scarcity, there is no reason for people to take from others. there will be some people wanting to deny others the ability to have something (non-weapon) but this deliberate denial is fiercely opposed by the general populace. a post-scarcity economy relies on the automated construction and collection of goods. it's not perfect but it would end world hunger.
(Score: 3, Funny) by snick on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:16AM
wait ... when did the topic switch to soccer?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:42PM
Many, many people in the the US constantly prove this hypothesis wrong.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by CortoMaltese on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:23PM
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.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday June 03 2015, @01:00AM
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
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.
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(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 03 2015, @02:45AM
Consider that Apple specifically requested developers stop submitting "Fart Apps" to the App Store.
I expect that predominant among the many reasons I can't find paying work, is that I quite commonly and publicly make plainly apparent that I have come to regard software as largely useless if not downright immoral.
There _is_ quite a lot that high-tech can do to ease suffering, but it's quite common that people in the industrialized world do not understand the real needs of those in the developing world.
A while back I had a long facebook message chat with a west african who was hanging out in a cybercafe. It's easy and affordable for him to get online. He was interested in learning to code however what he did not have was any place to store his files. What a guy like him could really use, that would actually make a substantial difference, would be one single USB stick and a couple O'Reilly books.
Tainted water is quite a seriously life-threatening problem throughout much of the world. Now look at how water treatment is commonly done in the US as well as most industrialized countries - a tertiary wastewater treatment plant costs tens of millions of dollars. Even if they had the money, people out in the middle of the jungle would not have the materials or tools.
Many years ago my father pointed out a simple solution to water treatment: three large ponds connected by narrow channels. Sewage is dumped into one side of the first pond, which is surrounded by a tall fence. One can drink out of the third pond. I don't clearly remember what the second pond is like. Such a simple water treatment pond system is just south of Templeton, California. That's the only one I know about in the US.
I expect this system is not commonly used in the US because of the expense of the land. However much of the world is quite sparsely populated; the cost of land if miniscule if not actually zero.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:11AM
I don't clearly remember what the second pond is like
Constructed wetland [wikipedia.org]
Links there to "stabilization ponds" and "treatment ponds".
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:28PM
I quite commonly and publicly make plainly apparent that I have come to regard software as largely useless if not downright immoral.
I have a CS degree, and have worked in several Internet-related roles (hosting and marketing). I, by choice, no longer work in a so-called "technology"-related field, for reasons that are well summed-up in your statement. The **only** true value I have found in computer- and Internet-related technology is the ease of communication--and even that has been widely corrupted to the detriment of the common man.
I am not a Luddite, but the direction that technological "progress" has taken over the last few hundred years, IMO, has not been of benefit to most of humanity. The fact that this article/man's conclusion is even newsworthy is a sad testament to our current attitude towards computer technology.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:32PM
Also, thank you MichaelDavidCrawford for your reference of the water treatment solution. It's a great example of **technology** that doesn't require computers, expensive natural resources, or destruction of the environment.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @11:58AM
it can certainly help people. After all, computers are the closest thing to magic we have: we can copy things; instantly (or at least pretty darn fast), at zero cost (or very close) and perfectly (digital copy is exact replica). As others have pointed out, ending hunger requires a political decision, no gadgets needed.
And while we cannot copy physical objects (I feel like adding yet) we can copy the blueprints of such objects. Information is power. I find e.g. this project quite sexy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Village_Construction_Set [wikipedia.org] Of course, the rich of this world are quick to point out that if the poor get a better standard of living, the world will be destroyed...
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:50PM
Like the peanut sheller that's also on instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Universal-Nut-Sheller/ [instructables.com]