<html>
<body>
Professor Kenneth Keniston just received word of tomorrow's talk by Tapan
Parikh and asked that I circulate this information to you.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=5 color="#0000FF"><b>
Designing Appropriate Computing Technologies for the Rural Developing
World</b></font><br><br>
<font size=4><b>Speaker: Mr. Tapan S. Parikh , The University of
Washington<br>
Date: Thursday, April 5 2007<br>
Time: 4:00PM to 5:00PM<br>
Refreshments: 3:45PM<br>
Location: 32-G449 Kiva/Patel Conference Room<br>
</b></font><br>
Recent history has seen an increase in disparity between the rich
and<br>
poor regions of the world. Disproportionate access to information
is<br>
both a symptom and a factor contributing to this disparity.
People<br>
living in the rural developing world have many information needs
that<br>
could, but are not, being met by information technology.
Technology<br>
for this context must be low-cost, accessible and appropriate
given<br>
the local infrastructure, including conditions of intermittent
power<br>
and connectivity. In this talk, I describe my experiences
developing<br>
CAM - a toolkit for mobile phone data collection for the rural<br>
developing world. Designing technologies for an unfamiliar
context<br>
requires understanding the needs and capabilities of potential
users.<br>
Drawing from the results of an extended design study conducted
with<br>
microfinance group members in rural India (many of whom are<br>
semi-literate or illiterate), I outline a set of user interface
design<br>
guidelines for accessibility to such users. The results of this
study<br>
are used to inform the design of CAM, a mobile phone
application<br>
toolkit including support for paper-based interaction;
multimedia<br>
input and output; and disconnected operation. I provide evidence
of<br>
CAM's usability, breadth, and real-world applicability.
Regarding<br>
real-world applicability, a CAM application for microfinance
data<br>
collection is now being used by 17 NGO (non-governmental
organization)<br>
staff to serve over 10000 group members in two states of
India.<br>
Regarding breadth, I list some important rural data collection<br>
applications - including for retail supply chain tracking,<br>
agricultural monitoring and health care - that we have implemented,
or<br>
can be implemented, using the CAM toolkit. I conclude by
discussing<br>
possible topics for future work and my long-term research
vision.<br><br>
Bio: Tapan S. Parikh is an Intel Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate in
the<br>
Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University
of<br>
Washington. Earlier, he received a M.S. degree in Computer
Science<br>
from UW and a Sc.B. degree in Molecular Modeling (with Honors)
from<br>
Brown University. Tapan's research interests include
human-computer<br>
interaction (HCI), systems engineering and information and<br>
communication technologies for development (ICTD).<br><br>
<br>
Kenneth Keniston<br>
Andrew Mellon Professor of Human Development Emeritus<br>
Founder MIT India Program<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
E51-296, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA<br>
Phone: 1-617-253-4055 Fax: 1-617-258-8118<br>
Email: kken@mit.edu Web:
<a href="http://www.kken.net" eudora="autourl">www.kken.net</a>
</blockquote></blockquote></body>
</html>