Mobile devices connect the BOP to the "rest of the world"

Just saying. It seems obvious now, but a few years back, maybe not so much.

As I was reading "Dialing for Development," I kept nodding my head in agreement so much that the people in the coffee shop I was working from were probably wondering if I was sane. The article was published in fall 2008 and less than a year later, TechBridgeWorld's TechCaFE project was born. To give you some textbook definitions, TechCaFE (Technology for Customizable and Fun Education) provides educators with simple and customizable tools to make learning fun for students. Our suite of tools include an educational game that students can play on their mobile phones, a practice tutor that students can access on their OLPC XO laptops, and a content authoring tool for teachers to customize content, to name a few. We are currently focusing our tools for English literacy in underserved communities.

TechBridgeWorld's TechCaFE project in 2009

TechCaFE actually started in summer 2009 through TechBridgeWorld's iSTEP internship program. From pre-internship conversations with partners, we learned that they were interested in one of our projects that teaches English literacy using the computer. However, when we arrived at the primary school, our research interns quickly realized that the school did not have electricity, so a computer-based solution would not be relevant. But they did find that the teachers at the school had mobile phones. And the rest is history, well, sort of.

OK, I'm done with my shameless plug for TechBridgeWorld :). But that's one example of how our university is addressing BOP challenges through mobile phones. There are other researchers at CMU also addressing this challenge such as Professor Matt Kam in Human Computer Interaction Institute and his MILLEE project.

I believe that mobile devices (not just phones, as the article states) are the devices that will connect the BOP to the rest of the world. From the article, it's awesome to read all the different applications of the mobile phone, many of them conceptualized by innovators from the developing communities themselves. Now, factor in low-cost mobile devices such as the Ubislate tablet and the Raspberry Pi computer and a whole new set of opportunities open up. Couple these devices with the internet (which will be widely available in developing communities sooner than you think) and local innovators, and we can move from the pyramid to C.K. Prahalad's notion of the Diamond.