Village Phone, Photo Presentation
At the Nokia Technology Media Briefing last November I touched on the Village Phone initiative between Grameen Foundation, my employer and local micro-finance organisations in Uganda. A short photo essay about the Village Phone co-authored with my colleague Indri Tulusan is now ready for download as Powerpoint or PDF [2MB].
To recap - the Village Phone extends regular base station cellular coverage from around 15 kilometers to around 30 kilometers through the use of a village phone kit - an antenna and ten meter cable (shown above) and a coupler (shown below) connected to a regular Nokia 1100 mobile phone plus of course, a micro-finance loan. The net result? In a number of cases it provides the first convenient, reliable and affordable connectivity to the outside world for many rural communities as well as providing a stable income for the local entrepreneur that takes out the loan.
In the spirit of Future Perfect lets start with a simple question: To what extent do villagers need access to mobile phone? Who is in more need of personal, convenient synchronous and asynchronous communication - someone in London who works 9 to 5, 5 days a week or someone in rural Uganda working 5 to 9, 7 days a week? IMHO the impact on quality of life is far greater in the rural context and the some of the innovations this enables are touched on in this longish essay on Shared Phone Use. One example of the benefits of connectivity? Sente - the transfer of money via mobile phone that essentially also extends regular banking services such as the remittance of cash to these communities.
As always, related research here and you can be signed up to receive notification of new downloads by emailing to info at janchipchase dot com with the word subscribe in the subject line.
And the gent featured on the cover of the presentation? A kiosk operator for a rural village phone in Uganda. Cheers to the extended Nokia team for letting us piggyback your work - Johanna, Jens & Suzanne.
Writing from Tokyo | January 19, 2007 | Permalink
Communication, Literacy, Design
Remote communication requires a means of identifying whom to contact. How do people who can't read and write manage their contact information?
This is just one of the many questions I'll be asking at a presentation on Literacy, Communication, Design to the University of Art and Design Helsinki on the evening of the 14th September. It's hosted by Teemu Leinonen and Andrea Botero Cabrera and is open to the public. It will draw on three years of research by colleagues at the Nokia Mobile HCI Group into low literacy communication practices, a journey that took us from urban and rural India to Nepal, China, Uganda and beyond.
Related research can be found here and as usual when its all done and dusted links to the slides will be posted to here.
Writing from Tokyo | August 25, 2006 | Permalink
Inherent Properties
The inherent properties of the matoke support carrying by bicycle, as shown here being displayed for sale (in Kyotera, above). Assistance required (Kansensero, below).
Writing from Tokyo | August 18, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Electric Shaves (in the Land of Power Cuts)
The average life expectancy at birth in Uganda is around 47 years. This low figure is in part due to the prevalence of the HIV virus, which used to stand around 15% of all adults and at one point having infected almost 32% of pregnant women in cities. Following factors such as an extensive education campaign and the fact that HIV well, kills this figure is now closer to 6%. Those of you interested in background reading might head to here.
And what does this have to do with a barber shop shave in the village of Kyotera?
This barber offers an electric dry shave - somewhat surprising considering the frequency of power cuts in Uganda and the widespread availability of cheap tools that would offer a perfectly good wet shave. Except that a wet shave comes with a higher risk of cuts, and cuts have a higher perceived risk of transmitting the HIV virus.
So electric it is.
Writing from Tokyo | August 8, 2006 | Comments (3) | Permalink
Forms of Identity
Shacks on a Kyotera market street have the owners mobile phone number or name and phone number scrawled above the door. Here there are no signs for street names, no building numbers.
When a phone number and not say, a postal address is the primary means of remote idenification what does it mean to lose a SIM card? For your phone battery to run out? To have no phone credit? To lend your phone to someone else? Or as in the photo above, for the phone number to change? Why do the Kyotera dwellers not include instant messenger contact names, fax numbers or email addresses? Or for that matter ID card numbers or car licence plates? What is it that makes a phone number suitable for writing above the door?
Consider all this in the context of the other objects that are owned and used. How does mobile phone ownership affect status within the community? Are some phone numbers more or less desireable than others? And bearing all this in mind how important is it to have just the right phone model?
Writing from Tokyo | July 31, 2006 | Permalink
Digital Fireflies
The entrance fee for Ghana vs. Brazil is 500 Ugandan Shillings (0.3 Euro), a sum that buys us squeezing space in a village hall that's packed to the rafters. The game has already started when we enter, and contrary to what you might have read in the European press the hall includes a local contingent rooting for Brazil rather than their West African neighbours. The heat in the hall is stifling - the windows are boarded up and taped over and there are a lot of bodies generating heat. The video projector cuts off half way through the second half, not as you might expect due to a power cut (the proceedings are running on a back-up generator) but because of a lost satellite signal. For a couple of minutes the audience watches a man with a controller navigate menus and channels, his efforts projected for all to see before he eventually locates another channel showing the game. With all the talk of niche programming what is the potential of usability studies as spectator sports? Thoughts a stadium full of people watching a cognitive walkthrough on a JumboTron before giving their verdict to the designer sitting in the center circle. Public adoration or shaming.
It was dusk when we walked in and by the time the game is finished its dark outside save for the stars and a few candle lit market stalls. This part of town does not appear to be on the mains. At the final whistle the inside of the hall turns pitch black - the organisers simply cut the power. For a few truly wonderful moments we sit watching human fireflies navigating and feeling their way out of the hall using only their mobile phone displays to guide their way.
The photo above? An overlay of repeated 2 second exposures.
Writing from Kyotera | June 27, 2006 | Permalink
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