CAREER: Information and Communication Technology Use in Communities with Limited Technical Infrastructures

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This project investigates the relationship between how communities with limited technical infrastructures interact with computing and the discovery of technological solutions to globally connected problems in human-computer interaction (HCI). Technological advances in computing are traditionally understood as coming from industrialized nations, or those that invest heavily in technology research and development. For the U.S. to remain a global innovation leader, it must significantly enhance the capacity and ability of individuals and organizations to innovate. Based on an integration of human-centered design and postcolonial theory, this research will lead to improved models of innovation and advance our understanding of where and how transformative ideas emerge. Through ethnographic investigation this work will also fill a gap in knowledge regarding how constraints that exist in the U.S., but are more visible in sub-Saharan Africa, can motivate innovations in computing. Centers of information and communication technology (ICT) innovation are shifting in the world. Emerging economies, such as Kenya, are no longer simply the recipients of innovative design from industrialized nations, but may develop ingenious strategies to navigate economic and technical constraints when using ICT. These workarounds are less obvious to those living in technology-rich environments, but they have motivated innovative computing applications used worldwide, such as mobile banking. Recognizing Kenya's rural residents and slum dwellers as ICT innovators rather than passive adopters of Western technologies has broader theoretical implications, including completely reimagining approaches to design in HCI. The research plan includes a series of theory-driven, ethnographic, and design-based studies that will result in three outcomes: (1) Discovery of empirical evidence that provides a fundamental understanding of how economic and infrastructural constraints visible among sub-Saharan Africa's rural residents and urban slum dwellers affect computing use and can influence innovative design for the rest of the world. (2) Improving upon two models of innovation using the empirical evidence as an intervention in a series of design-based studies to assess and compare the effectiveness of these models to yield design recommendations in these areas: sustainable HCI, collapse informatics in situations such as power outages, Internet data management, and crowd work and entrepreneurship. (3) Advancing the design workbook method by developing and evaluating a portfolio of conceptual designs that explore new practical possibilities raised by results from the ethnographic and design-based studies. Researchers based in the U.S. and Kenya will assess the potential to translate these ideas into marketable realities. An integrated education plan will provide students with international research experience and opportunities to develop new technologies that target global problems.