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An Anonymous Coward writes:

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) [wikipedia.org]. A former Microsoft researcher who spent years [kentarotoyama.org] 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 [amazon.com] recounting his experiences, and gave a remarkably pithy interview to MIT Technology Review [technologyreview.com] 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 [cbsnews.com], a former flagship of Internet-era IT philanthropy that appears to be winding down [olpcnews.com]. 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 [seattletimes.com] broaches the sensitive subject of Toyama's opinion of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [gatesfoundation.org], the heavyweight in the ICT4D field. Of course, Gates was Toyama's big boss at Microsoft.

Toyama, now an associate professor at the Univerity of Michigan's School of Information, maintains a blog on ICT4D [ict4djester.org].

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