One Laptop Per Child (an update)

Both Seth Godin and Bruce Nussbaum have expressed their opinions over the latest move by the One Laptop Per Child group to sell one laptop while giving one away for free in the developing world.

Nussbaum think it’s time to call it a failure. Expressing design flaws such as “top down” design and lack of research:

“Cell phones are far more popular as the means to connect to the net in much of the Third World and cell-phone type devices rather than cute little laptops might have made much more sense. Tons of research show this to be true.”

Nussbaum does have a point, spoken word, may be better ways to communicate some information in parts of the “developing world”. At the same time the laptops provide the capability of more comprehensive (larger with clearer information) video and animations which are also recognized as powerful communication tools in areas where literacy may be low.

Seth Godin takes a longer-range approach towards evaluating the project:

“The marketing: Everything, even laptops for kids, works its way through the innovation diffusion curve. That means that most countries, most organizations and most communities aren’t going to adopt this tool for a few years. It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect… these things take time. Smart marketing embraces the curve and doesn’t insist that it must change for this project, right now.”

I lean towards Godin’s evaluation. Some types of change take more time than others. The OLPC group is adapting to the current dynamics of the philanthropic marketplace. And I’m glad that they’re being innovative in their approach.

We also have to remember that the goal should not be to sell lots of laptops, (or phones) but rather the goal is to make a positive change in a community. This will require some contextual user research to determine the needs and requirements (as Nussbaum hinted). This will also require looking at the challenges from a systems-wide perspective. At all times the goals and feedback from the individuals in the target communities should be the guiding light in front of these projects.

Eventually we may find ourselves with solution systems aligned to make a difference. A phone is not the solution to all challenges. Neither is a laptop. But they both have potential to being valuable elements for positive change. This change will depend (heavily) on the contextual needs of the populations.

Sources:
Seth’s Blog: This changes everything >>

Bruce Nussbaum on BusinessWeek Online.
It’s Time To Call One Laptop Per Child A Failure,>>

Related:
TED Video: Nicholas Negroponte: The Vision Behind One Laptop Per Child >>

ONLPCNews: Americans Want to Help One Laptop Per Child >>

Browser for One Laptop Per Child >
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Bratton Admits Skid Row Displacement

Pushing people around from one problem area to another does not solve any problems – it shifts them. Comprehensive solution systems are needed to solve problems like these:

“Los Angeles city leaders launched a campaign a year ago to reduce crime in downtown’s skid row by deploying 50 additional police officers and declaring they would step up prosecutions.On Wednesday, even as officials declared success, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton acknowledged that the Safer City Initiative essentially has shifted some of downtown’s homeless and mentally ill residents to other parts of Los Angeles.”Is there some displacement? Certainly,” Bratton said at a news conference where he, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials touted the drop in skid row crime.”

Source:  Bratton Admits Skid Row Displacement
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

The Virgin Earth Challenge

“The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges’ satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate.”

Source
Go to the official Virgin Earth Challenge website >>

On Wikipedia
Wikipedia lists some of the contenders: “Virgin Earth Challenge” >>

Related
Global Research Technologies Announces Successful Carbon Dioxide Air-Capture System.

“Tucson company officially introduces itself on Earth Day. Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT) has announced its success in ongoing research and development of a proprietary air-capture system to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.”

Read the press release >>

Official GRT Site >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

User experience design and social systems

Sometimes it seems that we place more value and investment in the design of our consumer products than the design of our social systems.

Non-profit organizations, our educational system, and government departments in general would benefit from rethinking their systems through the user experience design lens.

Points to keep in mind:
- ask people what they need and want
- have the users of the systems participate in the design input of the system
- test the designs (get user feedback) and re-design the system until something works well for people
- use empathy (listening) to interview and understand the users
- usability is important (ease of use)
- accessibility is important (physical accessibility, economic accessibility, understandability)
- the system should be designed for the purpose of serving the users

Moving towards Sustainable Societies
User experience design helps us design systems that are sustainable for use by people. It may helps us move towards sustainable social-ecologies.

To make your system sustainable on a wider scale we may need to combine user experience design with sustainable design.

We have been short-changing ourselves too long. We need to end the disconnect. We need to recognize both our natural environmental needs and our social-ecological needs for the emergence of sustainable societies.

Related in this blog
“Sociocybernetics how social systems mature”>>

“Beyond Maslow’s Pyramid of (individual) needs”>>

Related in Wikipedia
“User Experience Design”>>
“human factors” and “ergonomics”>>

You can find my feed here.

…or at Technorati…

Cultural dissonance

Cultural dissonance is a phenomenon that may present itself when an individual that participates in multiple cultures (most of us) is faced with situations where s/he perceives conflicts between a set of rules from one culture and the rules of another. This phenomenon may even appear in the “same” culture (across time and across “sub-cultures”.)

We may be moving towards greater cultural complexity
Cultural complexity may be related to greater cultural interaction (a good thing) to encourage its continuous positive development we may need to address the complexity through better understanding of the emerging issues – cultural dissonance is one of these issues.

Studying cultural dissonance and cognitive dissonance together may help us ease dissonance on multiple levels.

While it’s not a panacea, it may certainly be an improvement in our current world consciousness.

Related in this blog
“Beyond Maslows Pyramid of (individual) needs”>>

Related on Wikipedia
Cultural Dissonance >>

Related on the web
Cultural harmony vs. cultural dissonance. Philosophical approaches to conflict resolution. Robert N. St. Clair (University of Louisville, USA)
YuXin Jia (Harbin Institute of Technology, PR of China)

CULTURAL DISSONANCE AMONG GENERATIONS: A SOLUTION-FOCUSED APPROACH WITH EAST ASIAN ELDERS AND THEIR FAMILIESJournal of Marital and Family Therapy, Oct 2004 by Lee, Mo Yee, Mjelde-Mossey, LeeAnn.

Cultural Dissonance.Multiverse. Exploring divesity and achievement.

(a thesis on cultural dissonance)

Mapping the Future Rich (nations) get richer … gaps widen, cultural dissonance looms, environmental threats grow Virginia Tech University. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies

Gordon, E., & Yowell, C. (1999). Cultural dissonance as a risk factor in the development of students. In E. Gordon (Ed.), Education and justice: A view from the back of the bus (pp. 34-51). New York: Teachers College Press.

Tierney, W. (1993). Building communities of difference: Higher education in the twenty first century. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey

Systems thinking. A simple introduction.

“The principal goal of education is to create individuals who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done.”– Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist.

Part of our challenge today is to simplify knowlege and make it usable, accessible, understandable, digestable for audiences that use different modalities to learn and process.

The center for Ecoliteracy understands this and you can witness this yourself in their website as they explain Systems thinking.

Here are the highlights (their webpage explains more):

“In Science for All Americans, the American Association for the Advancement of Science defines a “system” simply as “any collection of things that have some influence on each other….The things can be almost anything, including objects, organisms, machines, processes, ideas, numbers, or organizations. Thinking of a collection of things as a system draws our attention to what needs to be included among the parts to make sense of it, to how its parts interact with one another, and to how the system as a whole relates to other systems.”

“Individual “things” (plants, people, schools, watersheds) are themselves systems, and are not sustainable separate from the larger systems in which they exist. The Center for Ecoliteracy recognizes that learning to think systemically is critical to education for sustainability. One of the ways that teachers and schools teach systemic thinking is to model it themselves.”

• Shifts in Perception
• From parts to the whole
• From objects to relationships
• From objective knowledge to contextual knowledge
• From quantity to quality
• From structure to process
• From contents to patterns

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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

William A. McDonough’s “Cradle-to-Cradle” Design Philosophy

“William McDonough is a world-renowned architect and designer and winner of three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004); and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999, stating that “his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that—in demonstrable and practical ways—is changing the design of the world.”Mr. McDonough is the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design, an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially, and economically intelligent architecture and planning in the U.S. and abroad.” (quoted from McDonough’s website).
“I believe we can accomplish great and profitable things within a new conceptual framework—one that values our legacy, honors diversity, and feeds ecosystems and societies . . . It is time for designs that are creative, abundant, prosperous, and intelligent from the start.”– William A. McDonough.

Read more at McDonough’s Website >>

Related:

McDonough on National Public Radio>>

Recommended (relevant links):

Wikipedia: Sustainable Design >>

Wikipedia: Sustainability >>

Wikipedia: Cradle to Cradle Design philosophy >>

Related postings on this blog:

Tag: Sustainability >>

McDonough’s Cradle to Cradle philosophy >>

Cool ads – Crappy products >> (a bit long and needs editing)

Beyond Maslow’s Pyramid of Self Actualization >>

Alternative fuels industry?

Today in California Barack Obama proposed the introduction of an “alternative fuels industry”. He proposed that this would lead to the creation of new jobs.

“2006 – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) introduced legislation that would require oil companies making in excess of $1 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2006 to invest no less than 1% of those profits into installing E85 or other alternative fuel pumps at gas stations across the U.S. It is estimated that Obama’s bill would create more than 7,000 new E85 pumps in the country.” http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=45046>>

Related: 

Alternative Fuels institute. A non-profit organization educating the public about E85.

Related, alternative fuels press release from Obama’s website >>

CK Prahalad and the Bottom of the pyramid

Wikipedia entry on CK Prahalad, a business innovator promoting :

“The phrase “bottom of the pyramid” was used by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in his April 7, 1932 radio address, The Forgotten Man, in which he said “These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power…that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

The more current usage refers to the 4 billion people living on less than $2 per day, as first defined in 1998 by Professors C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart. It was subsequently expanded upon by Prahalad in 2004 in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”

Related:

BusinessWeek article on Prahald >>

“Business Prophet” (BusinessWeek) >>

Wharton Business School book: The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: Eradicating poverty through profits 

Creating mutual value at the base of the pyramid >>

Organizations:

Changing the world through business >>

Sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship >>

Changemakers.net >>

The paradoxical innovator and the socio-ecological economy

Find a paradox and you will find an opportunity to innovate.

Most paradoxes are based on closed-minded conclusions, assumptions, outdated information, dogmatic limitations, single-value concepts, narrow scope — mostly due to the use of a limited number of perspective(s) or static ways of thinking.

For example, today there are many humane interests that are still posed in dialectical oppositions (e.g.

• humane social change vs. business
• business vs. environment
• total population education vs. business
• total population health vs. business
• total population wealth vs. business
• etc.

Some companies have been widening their business scope to solve social-ecological problems while making a profit. They are creating new markets, and they are providing people tools, while solving social problems.

Those companies that use ethnographic research, and take into consideration human factors, along with cultural factors, (belief system factors, religion factors, tradition systems, identity systems) will have an advantage.

It’s no longer a race towards selling the same product to everyone but a race towards contextualized products for contextualized needs.

The key to innovation today is detecting the contextual diversity of needs across the world.

One caveat: Diverse and contextualized needs also need to be aligned with the high-level goals of human+planet health and survival.

Related on the Web:

“The Strategy Paradox” – http://turbulentissues.com/?p=17 (3/18/2007)

Related Philosophy:

Nietzche