When participatory technological design initiatives are focused on a very specific local context it becomes difficult to scale up their deployment to wider or different contexts. We have therefore extended the notion of empowered design and consequent technology appropriations and show that scaffolding, assistance that fades away, is a viable method to facilitate inter-community engagements with technology. This leads to technology appropriation by communities who did not participate in the original design, and they do this independently of the original academic design team. In this paper we report on our project process over an extended period of time. A collaborator and co-author on this paper is an elder from the original community who is acting to extend and adapt the technology with other, distant, communities from the same ethnic group, the ovaHimba. We particularly focus on the evolving role our collaborator took on over a number of field trips, and how our support, the scaffolding, became less and less important. His perspective is shared through translated statements and integrated into the text after our joint paper discussions.

When participatory technological design initiatives are focused on a very specific local context it becomes difficult to scale up their deployment to wider or different contexts. We have therefore extended the notion of empowered design and consequent technology appropriations and show that scaffolding, assistance that fades away, is a viable method to facilitate inter-community engagements with technology. This leads to technology appropriation by communities who did not participate in the original design, and they do this independently of the original academic design team. In this paper we report on our project process over an extended period of time. A collaborator and co-author on this paper is an elder from the original community who is acting to extend and adapt the technology with other, distant, communities from the same ethnic group, the ovaHimba. We particularly focus on the evolving role our collaborator took on over a number of field trips, and how our support, the scaffolding, became less and less important. His perspective is shared through translated statements and integrated into the text after our joint paper discussions.

Indigenous communities' narratives have all too often been created, documented, curated and digitalized by aliens. This digital othering has created widely disseminated images and perceptions of indigenous communities which are neither authentic, nor in line with what the communities consider a valid or worthwhile representation of themselves or their cultural heritage. This has led to misconstrued and stereotypical perspectives by outsiders about indigenous communities. Technological interventions with indigenous communities to promote their sovereignty, while sometimes challenging, have opened critical debates around communities' self-determination of digital representations of their own cultural identities and heritage. We have entered into a dialogue with two Namibian indigenous communities, who have been our design partners on technology projects aimed at safeguarding their own cultural heritage on their own terms. We are reporting from our long-term ovaHimba collaborator who has engaged in a reflection about the preservation of his traditions triggered by our joint digitalization efforts. Moreover, in response to the widespread stereotyping of members of San communities in contemporary Namibia, that directly influences their cultural identity; we have co-constructed a video conversation between Namibians and a rural San community. In this way, the remote community could consider outsiders' perceptions, reflect upon and actively re-construct their digital self-representation. We discuss community reflections, self-representation and digital empowerment in the context of digitalization efforts.

We set out to support three rural communities in Uganda to manage their water supplies using a locally relevant and fit-for-use technological intervention developed with the Community-Based Co-design (CBCD) method. This participatory and inclusive approach allowed us to introduce Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to communities that are untrained and inexperienced in technology design. We describe the intervention and identify research learnings for CBCD. Our design experience with the communities highlights the barriers and enablers of using the CBCD method with rural users. We conclude with reflections on the use of intermediaries and the issue of reciprocity in community-based ICT for development research.

Most learners in resource-constrained environments own mobile phones that they could use to learn programming while outside the classroom. However, limitations of mobile phones, such as small screens and small keypads, impede their use as typical programming environments. This study proposed that programming environments on mobile phones could include scaffolding techniques specifically designed for mobile phones, and designed based on learners' needs. Scaffolding should be designed with some essential techniques that are mandatory for learners to use. Hence, one type of scaffolding technique that was designed to support programming on the mobile phone is static scaffolding that does not fade. Experiments were conducted with 64 learners of programming from three universities in Kenya and South Africa in order to investigate how they used the designed static scaffolding techniques to construct Java programs on a mobile phone. The results show that programming on mobile phones can be supported by providing scaffolding techniques that never fade, in order to address the limitations of mobile phones and to meet learners' needs.

The exhibition will demonstrate the technologies that were co-designed with Namibian rural communities with the main objective of preserving Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Cultural Heritage (CH). Set up as a simulation we showcase how rural communities collect information (images, text, audio, video) about their traditional items or events to be crowdsourced to graphic designers. The graphic designers then model the items in 3D format and send back the rural communities for evaluation and acceptance to be integrated into the existing technologies. Conference participants will be engaged in exploring the technologies as well as discussions around the specific usage and design challenges.

HCI is a field of study that is no longer confined to European or North American usability labs. HCI is practiced all over the world, and within Euro-American contexts, HCI research is also increasingly turning its attention to real world settings, outside of the controlled environments of the usability lab. One increasingly popular approach to designing and evaluating new technologies in real-world settings is called 'in the wild' research. We find this terminology uncomfortable from an African perspective as it evokes negative connotations of the contexts in which we study and the people we study with. Our intention is not to discredit this approach but rather to start a conversation around the terminologies we use to describe our research approaches and contexts. We consider it an ethical imperative to be conscious of the words we use to describe people and places, not only as HCI research expands its empirical focus to real world settings, but equally importantly to support HCI research beyond its traditional centres in Europe or America.

Rural Africans have poor access to clean and safe water compared to other developing areas. Many Information and Communication Technology (ICT) interventions have been implemented to address the information gaps that hinder improved service delivery but have subsequently failed. The inability to provide suitable content, failure to address priority needs of communities and foster local buy-in are seen as the main causes. The transition from developing technologies for users to developing with users has created the need to harness collective ideation. Developing community-based ICT interventions collaboratively with the user communities provides a better understanding of the cultural nuances that can easily affect the use and adoption of an intervention. In this paper, we present a landscape analysis of rural water supply management in Uganda and an ICT intervention implemented to support the community management model. We present findings and a justification for a more user-centred approach to developing sustainable ICT interventions through co-design.

Designing, developing and deploying technologies with local African communities involves a rapport and trust beyond predefined and agreed upon project goals. Pur-suing an agenda for community-driven development involves prioritizing and recognizing the role of commu-nity members as co-designers and co-researchers. Constraints on time, resources and differing protocols often hinder effective and sustainable collaboration with local African communities. This paper presents discus-sions started at an international workshop and panel about the key factors in building local community col-laboration in Africa, as part of an accruing repository of empirically-grounded advice from local researchers, community members and designers with extensive community collaboration experience.

In this paper, we show how results of data collected on the survival tactics of day-labour workers with regard to the cost of using mobile phone services played a role in software systems design. The paper uses findings from Nairobi Kenya. The results showed that workers, depending on the choice of available network tariffs adopt different survival tactics which range from being personal to involving others. In conclusion, workers as mobile phone users adopt the different survival tactics depending on what the market provides. The competitiveness of the market dictates the options available. Lessons from this research were used in making software design decisions for the day-labour market. They can also be used, among other things, by Information and Communication Technology researchers who wish to intervene for the poor in society. Other uses include for policy formulation, especially those that touch on reducing the digital divide gap.

Support for novice learners of computer programming can be provided by scaffolding the construction of programs. The ubiquity of mobile phones allows us to support learners whenever they wish to work on a program outside the classroom. This paper describes the development of an application that scaffolds the construction of programs on a mobile phone. The application was designed based on a five-level scaffolding framework and implemented on the Android platform. The application scaffolds the construction of programs on a mobile device by: (i) representing a program in parts; (ii) restricting a learner to complete the program in a certain order; (iii) enabling construction of a program one part at a time; (iv) providing instructions, steps, default code to be edited, hints, and error prompts where appropriate; and (v) fading the scaffolds as the learner progresses from one successfully completed and compiled program, to the next. Experiments are currently ongoing to test and evaluate the mobile application.

July 01 2012 Community Consensus: Design Beyond Participation Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, Heike Winschiers-Theophilus Heike Winschiers-Theophilus is director and professor in the Schol of Information Technology at the Polytechnic of Namibia. She has lived and lectured in Namibia since 1994. Her research focuses on cross-cultural issues in HCI, cultural appropriation of design and evaluation concepts and methods, representation and retrieval of indigenous knowledge and community-centered design of information systems. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Nicola J. Bidwell, Nicola J. Bidwell Nicola J. Bidwell is a Principal Researcher at CSIR-Meraka and Associate Professor affiliated with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. Since 2003, she has focused her research, in human-computer-interaction, on designing for rural settings and indigenous knowledge systems in Africa and Australia. To co-generate approaches that are locally accountable and grounded, she has lived rurally for the past few years in an African village. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Edwin Blake Edwin Blake Edwin Blake is a professor in Computer Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His research focus has been on information and Communications Technology for Development, User Experience as applied to Games, Virtual Environments and 3D Graphics as well as social aspects and networking. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Heike Winschiers-Theophilus Heike Winschiers-Theophilus is director and professor in the Schol of Information Technology at the Polytechnic of Namibia. She has lived and lectured in Namibia since 1994. Her research focuses on cross-cultural issues in HCI, cultural appropriation of design and evaluation concepts and methods, representation and retrieval of indigenous knowledge and community-centered design of information systems. Nicola J. Bidwell Nicola J. Bidwell is a Principal Researcher at CSIR-Meraka and Associate Professor affiliated with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. Since 2003, she has focused her research, in human-computer-interaction, on designing for rural settings and indigenous knowledge systems in Africa and Australia. To co-generate approaches that are locally accountable and grounded, she has lived rurally for the past few years in an African village. Edwin Blake Edwin Blake is a professor in Computer Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His research focus has been on information and Communications Technology for Development, User Experience as applied to Games, Virtual Environments and 3D Graphics as well as social aspects and networking. Online Issn: 1531-4790 Print Issn: 0747-9360 © 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2012 Design Issues (2012) 28 (3): 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00164 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, Nicola J. Bidwell, Edwin Blake; Community Consensus: Design Beyond Participation. Design Issues 2012; 28 (3): 89–100. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00164 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsDesign Issues Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

In this study, we examine Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) technology interventions that have been developed over the last decade. The purpose is to provide a snapshot of the trends that have characterized ICT4D technology interventions from the period starting 1995 to 2010. This paper presents three general dimensions i.e. ICTs, development and research which are further broken down into seven variables used to categorize projects over this period. The seven variables include: telecommunication, terminal device, target group, domain area, region, research methods and discipline. Results suggest that applied research stood out as the methodology of choice; health and education as the most researched areas; hand-held interventions as the most popular choice of solutions; and Computer Science, Informatics and Information Systems as the disciplines that offer ICT4D technology interventions. Consequently, we argue that these trends will facilitate understanding the past performance of ICT4D, both as an academic field and as an area of development practice, and identify defining ideas on the potential directions for the future.

Traditionally data cannot be delivered between isolated networks. However by using a data mule which is a combination between an electronic device and a mobile entity we can connect isolated networks. However, the main problem is that a long delay is experience and most of the time a large amount of undeliverable. In this paper we propose an algorithm that increases message delivery by clustering data mules in order to find a more reliable path between the sender and the receiver. Instead of data remaining on the same mule when travelling from one network to another, our algorithm allows mules to transfer data to nearby mules arriving to the destination network sooner. Using movement traces for the data mules for rural-like areas we compared two algorithms for a different number of nodes in the network and different communication ranges for each node. The preliminary results show that our proposed algorithm increases the network performance.

In this paper, we describe the performance of the B.A.T.M.A.N advanced (Batman-adv) protocol on an indoor Mesh Potato (MP) test bed. The MPs are small devices used for voice communications over the wireless medium but also supports data. The Batman-adv protocol is designed for ad hocwireless networks. We measure delay, packet loss in order to understand the MPs network performance. The experiments used packets of varying sizes over multiple hops. We analyze the data to see if the network latency for up to four hops is within the recommended boundaries set by ITU Recommendation G. 114. We also observe the how thenetwork's performance is affected by the varying packet sizes. Finally the experiments also reveal the common issues found on the wireless medium and also indoor testbeds.

We present a way of preparing users for a foreign cultural experience in Virtual Reality storytelling environment by means of a preliminary experience that subconsciously primes them for culturally unfamiliar content. This preparation takes the form of a culturally familiar introductory Virtual Environment. We evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure in two empirical studies, first an exploratory study with school children (n=22) and then a revised investigation with university students (n=58). We show that the invention is effective only with users who have a specific set of cultural determinants that can be tested beforehand. Thus our study verifies two related aspects of cultural translation: (1) it is indeed possible to facilitate unconscious cultural translation and (2) it depends on the cultural predispositions of the users before the experience.

In this paper we present the use of a persona creation process for gathering information from intermediaries for information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) projects. Our approach represents a departure from traditional persona use in that it does not organise pre-existing data about potential users, but is itself a data gathering process. We present a case study of our use of the process on an ICT4D project, during which time we observed the combined benefits of using personas and of working with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) intermediary materialise. We attribute these outcomes to our persona creation workshops. Information which the NGO furnished regarding sensitive personal circumstances typical of our end users greatly improved our understanding of our users. This information would likely not have come to light had we interviewed the users ourselves, which we believe demonstrates the validity of relying on intermediary information for persona creation rather than first-hand information.