The case for technology for developing regions
WWW '05 Proceedings of the 14th international conference on World Wide Web
Optimal audio-visual representations for illiterate users of computers
Proceedings of the 16th international conference on World Wide Web
Text-free user interfaces for illiterate and semiliterate users
Information Technologies and International Development
Where there's a will there's a way: mobile media sharing in urban india
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Intermediated technology use in developing communities
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Human–Computer Interaction and Global Development
Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction
Evaluating and improving the usability of Mechanical Turk for low-income workers in India
Proceedings of the First ACM Symposium on Computing for Development
ICTD interventions: trends over the last decade
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
Designing a voice-based employment exchange for rural India
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
Teaching with storytelling: an investigation of narrative videos for skills training
Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
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We examine the broad challenges facing a computer-based system to help match low-income domestic workers from an urban slum with potential middle-class employers in Bangalore, India. Due to the near impossibility of implementing such a system in one shot, we first implemented a paper-based system that provides the intended functionality but without a computer. This system proved a significant challenge in itself, and among the lessons learned are the crucial role of human intermediaries (necessary even in the final computer-based system), the importance of building skills among the domestic workers, the need for a strong value proposition for both employers and employees well above existing systems, and the requirement of technological literacy. We then show that these lessons are applicable to other scenarios where computing technology is applied to developing-world challenges, by analyzing corresponding issues in related work. \ \ Our broad conclusion is that computer-based systems to solve developing-world problems often require significant work above and beyond an implementation of the technology, with trustworthy human intermediaries playing a critical role. \