Comments on: Making Technology Work — for People

By: Anu Ramaswami

Anu Ramaswami — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:53:25 +0000

Thank you all for your comments on a very lively discussion.
We seem to have come to consensus on the five skill sets needed for sustainable community development:
1) Strong participatory co-learning, particularly in cross-cultural settings, learned from ethnography.
2) Environmental life cycle assessment addressing health and ecosystem risks – both local and up the industrial supply chain – drawn from industrial ecology and environmental engineering.
3) Economic feasibility analysis and entrepreneurship training for financially viable projects, drawn from business.
4) Community institutions to manage common resources, drawn from public affairs.
5) Robust technology design!

This has been a great forum to share our work across domains, addressing the three E’s of sustainability!

best, Anu

By: Pat Utley

Pat Utley — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:41:26 +0000

Thanks everyone for the wide variety of perspectives – an important and necessary factor for producing a successful development project. To the engineering and ecosystem/environment perspectives, I would add a solid economic feasibility to round out a project’s chances for success. It’s important to remember, though, that they are only chances. The history of development in what is now the ‘developed’ world is replete with projects that reflected peer-reviewed academic guidance and flawless engineering (and proper business plans, of course) yet failed for lack of judgement, or the vagaries of development itself. So we might add the need to plan for constant reappraisal of the goals, strategies, and the means of the project, prioritizing the views of the principal stakeholders.

By: Martin Soler

Martin Soler — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:42:13 +0000

Another example is a corporation implementing technology that is supposed to solve ongoing problems within the company, but not going through the process of training the employees on the technology. In the end, instead of maximizing the use of the technology, the same problems that were supposed to be fixed still end up unresolved, or other problems arise from not having the proper training on the technology. If the situations I’ve illustrated exist in wealthy communities and large corporations, think about the impact technology can have on the poor who are not educated about the technology just introduced to their communities. I might be oversimplifying this a bit to a certain extent, but the point is technology is great only if it is implemented and utilized in a responsible way.

By: Martin Soler

Martin Soler — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:31:22 +0000

Part of the reason why technological fixes often fail to deliver on their promises, is the lack of an education and awareness about the technological fixes themselves as well as the underlying reason for implementing them. In order to realize the full potential of technological fixes, it is very important that the recipients have full awareness of the: Whys, Whats, and Hows. If people have that understanding, then the potential for the technology being used properly is greater. The simplest way to illustrate this is using the example of a teen wanting a car. If a parent simply gives the car without going through the process of explaining the responsibilities that go along with having that car, then several not so pleasant things can happen.

By: Anu Ramaswami

Anu Ramaswami — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:04:27 +0000

Dear bloggers,

My second note is on systems thinking tools and life cycle assessment. While ethnography promotes systems thinking – it taps into local ecosystem knowledge and wisdom, not large scale environment/ecosystem impacts from industries. We have specific tools in environmental engineering and industrial ecology to look at full system environmental impacts of technology products and processing, from local to global.

Integrating all these perspectives – design concepts from engineering/architecture, environmental assessment from industrial ecology, local ecosystem knowledge from ethnography, and cooperative management (policy)is what our program at UC Denver is developing, as we believe all these disciplines – together – are key. Check out http://www.cudenver.edu/IGERT

best, Anu

By: Anu Ramaswami

Anu Ramaswami — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:55:21 +0000

Dear bloggers,

I wanted to post a couple general comments.

First, one does not have to go to the developing world to experience differing cultures. Being open-minded and developing listening qualities can be done in community work right here in the US. There are numerous examples – many in public health – where a full understanding of health determinants in communities cannot be developed without fully participatory research with communities.

I’ll post my second comment next. Best, Anu

By: Anu Ramaswami

Anu Ramaswami — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:46:30 +0000

Hello Rob,
I would say the “soft” areas are equally as important as the “physics of engineering”, often called the hard-path approach. If we got the community ownership right and then put in a poorly designed product, that would not be effective either!

I think we should appreciate the analytical/technical/creativity training and skills taught to engineers, while exhorting connecting engineering practice more directly to people.

Humans have always being creating tools and machines – ultimately, I view engineering and architecture and any design oriented discipline expressions of human creativity. Effective development programs try to “co-create”/”co-learn”, perhaps directly with communities (as in the video clip), or teamed with ethnographers in cross-culture work.

best,
anu

By: elsa

elsa — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:33:44 +0000

One of my friends is traveling in Southeast Asia right now. I was just reading her blog today, and she had posted about how people were using masks which were distributed to protect against H1N1. Since motorcycles are a common mode of transit, and roads are dusty, it turned out that people were mainly using the masks while riding, so as to inhale less dust! Her story reminded me of this conversation, although in this case it sounds like an excellent alternative use!

By: Clark Boyd

Clark Boyd — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:30:10 +0000

Jill —

You might want to check out an interesting project in the slums of Brazil called Mobile Metrix. They’re doing interesting work using PDAs/Smartphones to “document the undocumented.” Their website is: http://www.mobilemetrix.org.

I interviewed the founder, Melanie Edwards, last year at the PopTech! Conference in Maine. It’s part of Tech Podcast 215:

http://bit.ly/2aVwQS

By: Clark Boyd

Clark Boyd — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:22:42 +0000

Tom —

There are also documented cases of treated mosquito nets in East Africa being re-purposed for drying fish, and of being incorporated into wedding dresses by local seamstresses!