Hey Judy, It seems like this approach to ICTD projects would have a high failure rate. Of the projects that started when you were involved, did any of them go to some kind of pilot? If not, could you talk a bit about what obstacles were?
Yaw On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 17:45, judy wawira <judywawira at gmail.com> wrote: > Hello all > > I had the opportunity of working on the designing liberation course as a > supervisor/teaching assistant the very first year when Josh and Terry came > to Nairobi to launch the project. > > I had little perspective of what ICT4D meant(probably still do) but i learnt > a lot from working with the team. > > Like any academic process, most of the things you do for school work are > never completely used, and i still have the original needs finding documents > that we used for the course. > > As we know the focus in Africa by mobile manufacturers like Nokia has been > to improve content available to their subscribers, and hopefully build a > business around these, this was a good example of a north to south, private > public partnership. > > The students from Kenya were purely limited to computer science, while > Stanford were mixed from all disciplines. > > I identified the key staekholders, at that point the broad challenge was " > Mobile tools to improve access to health care in slum areas" > > Through a collaboration, both teams of students engaged each other in > understanding the problem,? and feedback on where the solution was > appropriate. > > After the summer, the Stanford students came to Kenya to test the mobile > prototypes, and a few Kenyan students had a chance to visit silicon valley > > Back in Kenya during the summer, i am working to focus on young > enterrenuership mobile for people intrested in mhealth and ehealth. I think > the university of washington is able to do this effectively , producing > researchers and innovators in business as seen in the ICT space worldwide > > It will be interesting to watch how the ICTD space evolves > > Judy > > Ps: here is a link that holds some of the class activities: > http://liberationtechnologydcourse.pbworks.com/w/page/24948376/Welcome! > > > On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 4:27 PM, Batya Friedman <batya at uw.edu> wrote: >> >> I think this is a really neat idea. ?I've talked with Terry about the >> course a couple of times over the last year or so. ?I also think there's a >> possibility to do some interesting capacity building with faculty as part >> of the process. If others are interested, this is a model I would like to >> explore further. ?I have some contacts in Rwanda that might be interested. >> >> Cheers, >> Bat >> >> >> On 3/23/12 11:14 AM, "Gaetano Borriello" <gaetano at cs.washington.edu> >> wrote: >> >> >What do you think about this approach to ICTD courses? >> > >> >Harnessing Mobile Tech and Students to Promote Development in Kenya >> >Stanford University (03/19/12) >> > >> >Stanford University professors Joshua Cohen and Terry Winograd teach a >> >course that brings interdisciplinary teams of Stanford students >> >together with students from the University of Nairobi and local >> >nongovernmental organizations to design new uses for mobile platforms >> >that promote human development in Nairobi's informal settlements. >> >Cohen says the course, called Designing Liberation Technologies, is >> >premised on the idea that mobile tech is a promising means for >> >providing jumpstarts in human welfare. He says the reason the class >> >focuses on using mobile applications in areas of health, education, >> >and economic development is because mobile is the most rapidly growing >> >technology, especially in the developing world. The students use a >> >problem-solving process that involves starting with the potential >> >users themselves, and then developing insights about how their needs >> >can be solved with mobile applications, Cohen notes. The projects have >> >involved locating malaria drugs and checking them for counterfeiting, >> >helping health workers collect patient information and control patient >> >workflow, and helping pregnant women save money for prenatal care. The >> >group is readying the launch of a six-month pilot for the M-Maji >> >project in five villages in Kibera, which is designed to help people >> >find clean water, especially during water shortages. >> > >> >http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/cohen-mobile-kenya.html >> >_______________________________________________ >> >change mailing list >> >change at change.washington.edu >> >http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> change mailing list >> change at change.washington.edu >> http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change > > > > > -- > Judy > > > _______________________________________________ > change mailing list > change at change.washington.edu > http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change >
