Pre-Assessment Assignment
Due: Tuesday, September 5, 2006 before class (electronic submission at https://handin.intro.cs.cmu.edu)

Read the summary of the case study about GrameenPhone from the World Resources Institute Digital Dividend Project, available at http://www.digitaldividend.org/case/case_grameen.htm, and answer the following questions in approximately 1-2 pages:

• Has this technology-based development program been successful? Why or why not?
• Can this model be applied to other technologies or in other developing regions?
• What difficulties could one anticipate in similar roll-outs?

1. United Nations Development Program, "Human Development Trends 2005" flash animation. To access, go to http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/, and then click on "HD in Animation" in the column on the right side of the page. The link is marked with the "flash" icon (a cursive f in a circle) if you are having trouble finding it. If you are a PC-person, you must use Firefox to view the animation. It doesn't always work well in Explorer.



2. Jens Martens, "A Compendium of Inequality: The Human Development Report 2005," (Global Policy Forum and Friedrich Ebert Foundation: October 2005), available online at: http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/2005/10compendium.pdf

When you are going through these sources, you should imagine that you are going to give a presentation to a group of influential people about the state of the world. You should note the most surprising trends, as well as general human development patterns that can be seen over the past few decades.

Read: The War Against the Poor, by Herbert Gans: Chapter 1

Skim: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/povdef.html

Skim Chapter 2: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/PGLP/Resources/PovertyManual.pdf

1. MOVIE
   

   Watch the movie "Children of Heaven". It is available on reserve in the library. The film was made by Iranian director Majid Majidi in Tehran, and is in Persian or French, with English subtitles. It is 89 minutes long, so be sure to plan for the time.

   Our intention in having you watch the film is to portray a story of living in poverty. Each story of living in poverty, as in each story of living in general, is unique. Nevertheless, it does give a glimpse into a life that is likely different than your own, and we would like to discuss it in that vein.

   So *BEFORE* you go watch the movie, think about your images of poverty. What words would you use to describe life; what images would you anticipate seeing in a story of poverty in modern Tehran, Iran?

   Then *WHILE* you are watching it, consider:
   

   • Does this match your view of living in poverty?
   • How are the relationships depicted in the film. Are they believable?
   • Are the relationships similar or different than you would expect?
   • What are the challenges the family has in the film?
   • Are these challenges unique to living in poverty? Unique to living in Tehran?
   • Is the film far from reality? A romanticization of a poor community?

   Then come to class prepared to discuss these questions.



2. READINGS
   

   Read: Banker to the Poor, by Muhammad Yunus: Introduction, Chapter 3&4

$100 laptop debate
(in-class on October 24th)

You are at a town hall style meeting, where the government is debating whether they should partake in the OLPC $100 Laptop program. This is a meeting in Lima, Peru.

You have 5-7 minutes to present your viewpoints from the perspective of different stakeholders in this process. You don't know whether you will be asked to speak PRO or CON the idea, so must prepare both. There will also be a rebuttal after the initial presentations

Stakeholders:

1. Teacher in a typical school
      Debate Team Assignments:
   • Kristina Rohlin
   • Vinithra Varadharajan


2. Local IT entrepreneur
      Debate Team Assignments:
   • Rama Munukur
   • Jeremy Stolarz


3. Parent
      Debate Team Assignments:
   • Joshua Kunin-Goldsmith
   • Madhu Prabaker


4. National government representative
      Debate Team Assignments:
   • Stacey T. Hoang
   • James Wilson

1. Inaugural Address of Harry Truman, 20 January 1949, available online at: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/truman.htm



2. W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), Chapter 2, "The Five Stages of Growth--A Summary," pp. 4-16, available online at: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ipe/rostow.htm

We don't expect you to read the chapter by Rostow on the stages of growth in detail. Rather, you should give it a good skim (i.e., be able to state clearly and succinctly what his five stages of growth are). This chapter presents a view of growth that was central much of development economics and theory until recently. As you are skimming, you should think about why Rostow's model might not be ideally suited to this task. One way to tackle this question is to identify what sources of empirical evidence he used to construct his model. One other thing to think about is why the subtitle of his book is "A Non-Communist Manifesto."

3. "The Tennessee Valley Authority: Electricity for All," available online at: http://newdeal.feri.org/tva/ Look through as much as much of the material as you can in order to get an interesting picture of one aspect of "development" in the United States.

Development Homework
(due September 21st)

1. Richard Sclove, Democracy and Technology (New York: The Guilford Press, 1995), Chapter 1: "Spanish Waters, Amish Farmers: Two Parables of Modernity," pp. 3-10.



2. Sheila Jasanoff, "New Modernities: Reimagining Science, Technology and Development," Environmental Values, 2002, 11: 253-276.



3. (Skim this before class if possible) Achieving Sustainable Development: http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/
   sust_dev1/sust_dev1.html

1. Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - Prahalad & Hammond http://pdf.wri.org/whatworks_serving_profitably.pdf [focus only on the main paper, before the appendices]



2. Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - A Mirage http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID923366_code561150.pdf
   ?abstractid=914518&mirid=1



3. Prahalad's response to "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - A Mirage" http://www.nextbillion.net/files/Prahalad%20-%20Response%20to%20
   Mirage%20at%20the%20BOP.pdf

1. WATCH the video, Waters of Ayole. This documentary is just under 30 minutes long. Some things to think about per the documentary:
   • Early on, from the government extension worker's perspective, why were the pumps failing?
   • From the citizens of Ayole's perspective, why were the pumps failing?
   • How did the government extension workers change their approach with the village of Ayole?
   • Name and describe all the roles instituted in Ayole to manage their water source.
   • How the the roles and means of sustaining the pump follow traditional lines, how did they differ?
   • How did the village's organization for sustaining its water source have impacts beyond clean, safe water?



2. Loka Institute: History of CBPR: http://www.loka.org/cbpr.htm This short piece provides some history to community-based participatory research.



3. What is Participatory Research http://sitemaker.umich.edu/hpsa/files/cornwall_and_jewkes.pdf

   This is a classic article that describes participatory research. But little literature exists about using participatory research in technology for development. It is used in HCI research, but it tends to be in industrialized countries, and with technically sophisticated users. How might this apply to technology research in underserved communities?

1. Rapid ethnography: time deepening strategies for HCI field research, by David Millen http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/347642.347763



2. The Missing Piece: Human-Driven Design and Research in ICT and Development by Brand & Schwittay

Capacity Building Homework
(due October 5th)

(Read pp. 22-24 and pp. 30-32 and skim the rest) COMMON-Sense Net: Improved Water Management for Resource-Poor Farmers via Sensor Networks by Panchard et al.

ICT for Sustainable Development, Ch 2 (read upto the "ICT Challenges", pg 29)

Second student debate (due on November 21st)
[Unlike the first debate, which is quite specific in terms of a technology, this one is purposely chosen broadly, relying on students to seek generalizations as well as specifics as appropriate.] Instead of a regular “debate”, with opposing sides, you are now consultants/advisors for specific stakeholders in the process, and should examine the issues from all perspectives (for and against), using your own findings to guide you to a specific viewpoint, if appropriate. Details on how you present will be forthcoming.

Scenario:
The Health Minister of a small/medium developing country has started using the Internet, and finds wikis to be very powerful tools for bringing stakeholders together and sharing information. He proposes to set up an official (i.e., govt. supported) healthcare wiki/discussion board for the community. Given global websites and efforts aren’t in the local language, it isn’t enough to piggy-back off alternative efforts.

Prepare a brief summarization of issues for the following stakeholders:

1. Local content provider/portal (they might feel competition and/or synergy) (assigned to Adrienne)
2. Web MD, the US-centric consumer healthcare information solution (assigned to Manpreet)
3. Patients, as well as their families (assigned to Udhay)
4. Medical providers, who span doctors, nurses, paramedical professionals, etc. (assigned to Raka)
5. The government – this is NOT from the health ministry perspective but overall government, which then has ministries of finance, ICT, etc. (assigned to Daniel)

ICT for Sustainable Development, read the rest of Ch 2

Submit a Title/1-2 sentences on what you want to do. Form your own groups (upto 3 people) to work on a project. Try and collaborate with your classmates who might have different backgrounds, so your project includes technical, non-technical, etc. aspects. You can use blackboard where a discussion forum has been set up for this. We strongly encourage collaboration, but if you have a topic you really want to do, and can't find collaborators, individual projects are also allowed. Submit by Tuesday Oct 10, 2006, by 5 PM, via blackboard. We will give prompt feedback [just to ensure the project is appropriate/doable in the timeframe], and subsequently, want you to start preparing an preliminary abstract/outline, which is due the following week.

Simulation Homework
(report #1 due on October 19th, report #2 due on November 9th)

• Skim through: Paper by R. Heeks, on metrics and "successes" in ICTD
• Read: Introduction to Cost Benefit Analysis

References to have and skim through [not direct readings]

• USAID Technical Note 10, "Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Title II Development-oriented Projects," available online at: http://www.fantaproject.org/downloads/pdfs/TN10_MEFramework.pdf
• USAID Technical Note 11, "Evaluating Title II Development oriented Multi-Year Assistance Projects," available online at: http://www.fantaproject.org/downloads/pdfs/TN11_MYAP.pdf

Both are nutrition related, but deal with monitoring and evaluation in a very concise (4 pages) and clear manner.

• Links on monitoring and evaluation (from multiple organizations): http://www.crinfo.org/action/recommended.jsp?list_id=897

Techno-economic analysis is a book chapter dealing with project finance and evaluation. While the overall book is geared towards engineering/construction projects, the concepts apply nicely overall. The chapter is somewhat long (and technical), but you should be familiar with the basics of techno-economic evaluation, such as Net Present Value (NPV) calculations, discount rates, etc.

You can skim some portions as desired, but spend some time on: 6.1-6.7, as well as 6.9 and 6.12. Don't worry if this appears too technical; we'll go through this in class as well.

1. Submit a 1-page abstract outlining what you hope to accomplish in your final project. If you are working in a team, each member of the team should submit a page describing his/her contribution to the team project.
2. Simulation HW Report #1

1. Berkman Center for Internet and Society, "Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems," available online at: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/epolicy/roadmap.pdf. Please note that even though this document is technically 53 pages long, the actual text amounts to around 20 pages. You should read as much as you can and then skim the rest.


2. GNU, "GNU's Not Unix! - Free Software, Free Society," available online at: http://www.gnu.org/home.html
   
   Also, as a side note, here are former FCC Chairman Michael Powell's "Four Internet Freedoms" (analogs of the free software freedoms), as stated in an October 2004 speech:
   1. Freedom to Access Content: Consumers should have access to their choice of legal content;
   2. Freedom to Use Applications: Consumers should be able to run applications of their choice;
   3. Freedom to Attach Personal Devices: Consumers should be permitted to attach any devices they choose to the connection in their homes; and
   4. Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information: Consumers should receive meaningful information regarding their service plans.
   
   source: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-253325A1.pdf

Case Study Homework
(due November 16th)

Read section of chapter 3 (section 3A) on Agriculture from Tongia, et. al ICT-SD book: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rtongia/ict4sd_book.htm

FAO’s State of Agriculture reports are useful. In 2003, they focused on biotechnology: http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5160e/y5160e00.HTM
Read the introduction and summary for information on biotechnology, and any other chapters of interest ( http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5160e/y5160e06.htm#p1) FYI, FAO’s database on agriculture statistics are exceptionally good (FAOSTAT).

Case study on e-Choupal’s financial viability: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/1544752043971161
[don’t worry about complicated financial/statistical details!]