Fear and the city: role of mobile services in harnessing safety and security in urban use contexts
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Fear and danger in nocturnal urban environments
Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia on Computer-Human Interaction
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The spread of mobile phone usage to slum areas raises the possibility of using mobile technology to address problems facing the poorest of the world's poor. We present a case study of Safe Mathare, a design project aimed at improving women's safety in Nairobi, Kenya. Safe Mathare provides community patrols with basic smartphone technology to help women commute safely through a slum neighborhood during dusk and dawn hours. The project started as a prototype developed in a university course and has found willing partners with local NGOs and government. During its pilot phase, it has run into many challenges in particular around the issue of vigilantism. This paper explores the development and implementation of Safe Mathare, raising the questions of whether and how design can leverage technology to build a social network for security.