Joab's Jottings: Technology as a Tool

Since starting to work for a technology company (Cisco Systems) over two years ago my personal interest in how technology is actually used to improve our daily lives has grown.  Therefore, I trust our regular blog readers will indulge me in a few "jottings" on a topic that I see closely connected to my work and (hopefully) to our lives.

Two Examples of Using Technology in the Developing World

Over the past couple weeks I have ran across two very different examples about how technology is successfully applied in the developing world. The more I compared these two examples, the more I am convinced it is the people piece that makes the difference. 


#1 Lap Tops In Peru

The first case is about Peru’s One Child, One Laptop program, which according to this National Public Radio (NPR) story has largely been a failure. This is largely because while children in rural communities have laptops they lack basic infrastructure to support that lap tops (power, internet connectivity, etc).

#2 Cell Phones in India

The second case is automated call center run by OneWorld South Asia centre that allows farmers in rural India to use cell phones or telephone kiosks to access information that will benefit their crop production. As a result of this effort, which is supported by Cisco Systems technology and part of Cisco’s CSR program in India, the center has made information available to over 150K farmers in 1,000 villages and participating farmers are seeing a 20 to 30% increase in productivity.

What Does it Matter?

It strikes me that there are at least two major implications that we can draw from these very different cases:

1) Technology Solutions Must be in Context: Technology is not a solution in and of itself, but simply a tool. It is effective when used in a way that fits appropriately into the context of the economic and social limitations of the end users (IE: cell phones in rural India vs. lap tops in rural Peru).

2) The People Piece: Technology is most likely to be used if the people selling it understand the context of their customers and sell the value of their solution accordingly.  For example, offering audio services to farmers who are largely illiterate rather than asking non-tech savvy teachers to teach their students how to use laptops and not even providing a power source for those lap tops.

So, what is your take?  Where have you seen technology "over-sold" as a silver bullet and where have you experienced it appropriately applied?