Mobile Social Software in resource constrained environments
The DDI group is investigating the similarities between groups and populations experiencing resource constraints -- and how technology can be used to offset challenges of daily life.

In Summer 2006, the team conducted a design ethnography to explore design possibilities and content areas for mobile social software. MySpace, Jobster, and Prosper are examples of social software applications. Also, mobile phone applications that use text messaging, and Web 2.0 services like Flickr and blogs inform the framing of this project.

From this project, an expanded team has been working with the results of the design ethnography to develop MoSoSo.

MoSoSo: Major group effort in early 2007-2009 is focused on developing mobile social software MoSoSo that addresses activities of everyday life. Our current implementation focuses on Kyrgyzstan using mobile phone technology. Mobile phones are widely recognized as a potentially transformative technology platform for developing nations. However, for designers and programmers in the developed world to create viable applications for mobile phones involves first identifying and communicating user requirements for diverse users. We define diverse users as those from a substantively different cultural context than that in which the technology design occurs, including developing regions.

Findings from our data analysis and software prototyping should be relevant for diverse users in resource constrained computing environments generally.

Central Asia and Information and Communication Technology (CAICT)
The Central Asia + Information and Communication Technologies project is a multi-year investigation of Internet and related technology developments in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation (award # 0326101).

The goal of this work is to make information and communication technology broadly usable by more diverse populations -- both in the US and in emerging markets. Research activities include a broad social survey in each country; interviews with professionals in education, medical, and business fields; overviews of mobile phone usage; studies of youth culture and technology use including gaming; and tracking of public Internet access facilities and Internet related policies.

Link to project website
 

Games and developing regions
Games are a rapidly growing segment of ICT, and the convergence of media and platforms has expanded games’ reach into everyday engagement with technology. Most games research makes assumptions about what populations are able to or interested in integrating gaming into technology consumption patterns. Our research includes fieldwork, surveys, and interviews examining gaming patterns in developing regions, in part because games are often a technological entry point.

This particular research question is also of interest because of the intersection of youth and gaming, and many developing regions are experiencing a youth bubble.

Our research addresses questions such as: how do games get a foothold in resource-constrained environments? What platforms are most popular? Do people really play MMOs in emerging markets? How do infrastructure limitations affect gaming habits?