Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide
Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide
A Model of How Children Acquire Computing Skills from Hole-in-the-Wall Computers in Public Places
Information Technologies and International Development
Intermediated technology use in developing communities
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
After access: challenges facing mobile-only internet users in the developing world
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Comparing web interaction models in developing regions
Proceedings of the First ACM Symposium on Computing for Development
Evaluating and improving the usability of Mechanical Turk for low-income workers in India
Proceedings of the First ACM Symposium on Computing for Development
Technology as amplifier in international development
Proceedings of the 2011 iConference
Technology for emerging markets at MSR india
Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work
Analyzing and accelerating web access in a school in peri-urban India
Proceedings of the 20th international conference companion on World wide web
On turbocharged, heat-seeking, robotic fishing poles
Communications of the ACM
Interactive web caching for slow or intermittent networks
Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development
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Almost all formal organizations employ service staff for tasks such as housekeeping, security, maintenance, and transport at their office facility. Many of these workers earn wages in line with menial-labor salaries in their respective countries. They have few on-the-job opportunities to upgrade their skills or learn new ones. Kelsa+ is an initiative through which organizations in developing countries can increase digital literacy and skill development among such low-income workers, through the provision of an Intemet-connected PC for the service staff's free, unrestricted use when off duty. We study a Kelsa+ pilot implementation in Bangalore, India, involving an office facility with 35 service staff. In a preliminary exploration over 18 months, we find that at a cost that is negligible for the organization, workers' use of the Kelsa+ PC is high and can deliver benefits both to themselves and to the office. For workers, broad gains were seen in confidence, self-esteem, and basic digital literacy, while a few individuals experienced improvements in second-language (English) proficiency and career opportunities. These early results point in the direction of a cost-effective ICT4D initiative that could be run in the developing-country offices of the very organizations promoting development off-site.