Technology, Innovation, and the Ever-important Grain of Salt

And as I continue to read about ‘One Laptop Per Child’ and other frugal innovations and tech infusions into underdeveloped systems, the cautious optimism from literature [1, 2] is best accompanied with a critical eye. Once you introduce a new technology, who is accountable for evaluating its success? In Spring 2012, I took a Human Computer Interaction class that examined how new technologies influence educational systems, especially in low-resource contexts. The class ultimately cautioned against relying on technical solutions and that technology simply magnifies the pedagogical capabilities of the region. Laptops can even worsen educational outcomes if infused to the wrong system.

For many innovative technologies, the implementation plan is as important, if not more so than the technology itself. So although this is cause for some concern with introducing devices into poorly-structured settings, structure is the very reason that mobile phone innovations and services have been so successful in developing markets. Mobile technologies are well-structured, robust, and pervasive. This is the ideal foundation for new services to build on and allows innovators room for creative thinking. Although mobile technologies are not without their own set of challenges, the growing penetration of mobile networks into the outer-most reaches of the world [3] provides tantalizing options for new services and opportunities. Although this trend, too, can benefit from some skepticism. Although somewhat thin on evidence, Padraig Carmody offers fascinating arguments for how mobile technologies may be able to hinder economic progress as much as it helps in a recent article in the most recent issue of Information Technologies & International Development [4]. Some arguments include the day to day price/performance of mobile phones for the poorest, infrastructure upkeep and expansion costs, among others. Although I remain optimistic for the potential of mobile markets to be influential in positive ways, I am glad to hear that the conversation has two sides and people continue to examine progress with a critical eye.

[1] Frugal Innovation: India Plans to Distribute Low-Cost Handheld Computers to Students (Scientific American, September 28, 2010)

[2] The Prophet of Cheap (Forbes Magazine, January 18, 2010)

[3] Africa’s mobile phone industry ‘booming’ (BBC News, November 9, 2011) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15659983

[4] The Informationalization of Poverty in Africa? Mobile Phones and Economic Structure (Information Technologies & International Development, Volume 8, Number 3, Fall 2012, 1–17) http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/view/911/382