Technology and New Media in Development

by Melanie Gorka and Claire Buré, Commons11Inspiring Development: Ideas UnleashedUniversity of Toronto at ScarboroughFebruary 9-10, 2013

Commons11 Who we are

Appropriate Technology

Implementation and Access

Problem Identification

Opportunities and Challenges

Discovery and Refining Random Hacks of Kindness

Case Study: WaterAid America and Ram Rati’s Story

Agile and Open Processes Designing Development

Agile Development

1. Iteration 2. Incremental3. Customer

Involvement4. Feedback5. Communication6. Collaboration

Workshop Challenge

Small scale farmers are increasingly impacted by weather conditions and challenges due to climate change. How do they maintain a stable income with extreme and unpredictable weather fluctuations?

A funder has given your organization (your choice of org. type) funds to build a mobile phone-related project to help rural farmers become more resilient (and therefore more productive). It has been suggested so far that a micro-insurance scheme where seed prices include insurance that is paid out to farmers in event of a natural disaster are possible solutions to making the farmers more resilient. Your task is to create a solution using mobile phones that supports this program. Work with your group to plan out what your mobile-farming project would look like. The region (choose your own country!) has a high rate of mobile proliferation of basic SIM mobile phones.

Your Task

Create a solution to the provided challenge. You have ten minutes to brainstorm as a team. We will ask that your present your idea to the group with the following criteria.

1.Type of Solution: Is it an application, or a program and what it would look like. Describe the solution and who would implement it

2. If you have time, create a list of necessary “assets” needed to solve that problem (such as: resources, technology, training, implementation plan)

Constraints

We have provided each group with a particular constraint. Please adapt your solution or create a new solution. When you present the final solution we will ask that you consider the following questions. You have ten more minutes to incorporate this constraint into the solution.

1. How did the constraint affect the budget, list of assets and who would implement?

2. Were you able to adapt your project, or did you have to implement an entirely new solution?

3. Which solution better answered the original challenge?

Melanie Gorka & Claire BuréCommons11

twitter: @melgorkatwitter: @clairebure

email: info@commons11.com