Drew Cogbill | Thesis Blog

Originally, Pigeon was imagined with international use in mind.  When speaking with people though, local use seemed to be something that kept coming up.  An old prototype of four sisters spreading gossip works locally or internationally.

Pigeon could also be used by groups of local friends to organize outings as shown in the following role prototype:

It would be an option to build a similar system based on beeping, which I proposed in my summer paper.  “Beeping” is calling in and hanging up before the other person answers, generally to indicate that you want them to call you back.  A system could recognize missed calls and then set a caller’s profile as active for a certain amount of time.  During the active time, text messages could be sent to the user informing them about their friends who become active in the system.  Below is a visual exploration of how such a system might work in people’s lives.

NYTimes “What Your Global Neighbors Are Buying” Map has interesting information and great design.  What makes this map particularly effective for me is the way the rectangles shrink and grow between tabs.

I wonder if mobile phones fall under electronics, household goods, or recreation, or, really, maybe I wonder where they should fall.

My thesis question is the basis for or the umbrella under which all of my prototyping does and will exist.  The question itself, nonetheless, will continue to develop throughout my process.  The following are my recent stages of thesis question development.

I started articulating my question in the summer paper:

• “This thesis process I began this summer, and will continue through the year, investigates the overlap of poverty, personal storytelling, and accessible communication technology, to see how design solutions can improve the lives of people living in poverty by giving them ways to communicate more often and intimately.”
• This isn’t really a question, but it was my thoughts about the thesis concept.  “improving the lives of people living in poverty” is a bit ambiguous.

From the paper came the summer presentation:

• “Improving the lives of people living in poverty in technologically limited areas through innovative communication solutions”
• I think I was trying to be less verbose, but this actually seems less substantial than the first.

Brought to thesis class last week:

• “What technologies or systems can most effectively enable people living in poverty to ‘transcend space and time?’”
• And “What does it mean to deliver the internet (in developing regions/emerging markets)?”
• In class discussion, people had big problems with the word “poverty.”  Most assumed this was living under $2 a day poverty, while I was being poverty in a larger sense, even to include exclusion from normal communication technologies.  I need to be more explicit about what I mean by poverty and probably use a different word or phrase.
• “Transcend space and time” is a Jan Chipchase phrase which refers to the basic human need to communicate over long distances to people we care about.  First, I should really use my own words.  Furthermore, my classmates wondered about the basic need idea.  I need this to be more clear in my mind before using it in my thesis quesiton.

Currently:

• “How can accessible communication technology provide a richer experience and be more affordable for people with limited technological access in developing nations?”
• “What does it mean to deliver the internet to people with limited technological access in developing nations?”

“You can never tell how you sound over the phone, that evil piece of machinery, and I would stop using one, we all would, if only there weren’t these great distances we need to put between us and the people we need to talk to.”

from An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

Top Five Critiques of Development and Humanitarianism

via Do Good Well

My summer paper argues why I belive investigating how innovative commuication technology can improve the lives of people living in poverty will create a worthwhile thesis for me this year by summarizing and analyzing the prototypes and other research found on this blog: summer thesis research paper (and presentation as an interactive mov).

At the end of my summer explorations, here are my goals and motivations going into the thesis academic year:

• Create a way for people living poverty to communicate with greater ease and affordability
• Deliver ‘the internet’ in some way via voice and/or SMS
• Prototype work in Belize as this is the context I’m most familiar with
• Make a sustainable system - the best way to facilitate this seems to be by creating a for-profit or non-loss business

These are things I need to cull through before class starts (beyond my paper and presentation that are due):

• Interviews that need to be transcribed
• Finishing maps which I’ve already made notes and observations for
• A bit of prototyping
• Reading through my increasing pile of academic papers

Downloaded a bunch of papers and a book from DIRSI (Regional Dialogue on the Information Society) to read and comment on soon.  This is an important academic source for me as it focuses on information and communication technology use in Latin America and the Caribbean, the context in which I will be carrying out my work.

Twitter has stopped their SMS service in all but the US, India, and Canada (via White African).  The service was stopped due to the cost to the company.

I’ve been a bit off of my blog these last weeks which were Belize beaches > Arkansas (lake, home singing at a wedding) > and now back to New York.  I’m working on my summer paper now.  Cheers.