Mobile Web-based Rural Information System for Tropical Fruits Diseases

The agricultural sector is an essential resource and important to any country,particularly, when it is the main source of income. Modern methods, treatments, the application of modern technology in agriculture and other information on how to care for and protect tropical fruits from diseases are useful to develop and generate wealth of rural areas, where most of the population works in agriculture. Majority of the population of countries are in the rural, and these people often do not have access and connectivity to computers and the Internet. However, more than 80% of the people in Malaysia have handphones. Thus this study will focus on the development of mobile web-based rural information system to help the farmers identify and seek solution to the problems like diseases faced in their agriculture produce

Measuring surface water quality using a low-cost sensor kit within the context of rural Africa

Monitoring water quality is done for a variety of reasons, including to determine whether water is suitable for drinking or agricultural purposes. In rural areas of Africa the traditional way of measuring water quality can be costly and time consuming. In this research, we have developed a low-cost water quality measuring device that designed to operate in the context of rural Africa. Firstly we select appropriate water quality sensors. Secondly we developed a water quality monitoring device that takes the contextual requirements and constraints of rural Africa into account. Lastly the device is evaluated and tested using water samples that were collected in rural Africa

Constructing Frugal Sales System for Small Enterprises

In the current study, the authors report on the application of the design science methodology to construct, utilize, and evaluate a frugal information system that uses mobile devices and cloud computing resources for documenting daily sales transactions of very small enterprises (VSEs). Small enterprises play significant roles in the socioeconomic landscape of a community by providing employment opportunities and contributing to the gross domestic product. However, VSEs have very little access to innovative information technologies that could help them manage their challenges that are restricting their effective growth, sustainability, and participation in a knowledge economy. The results of a field-evaluation experiment, involving 22 VSE entrepreneurs using a newly constructed system, MobiSales, disclosed that user behavior, which demonstrates confidence, excitement, enthusiasm, energy, and trust varied when employing a mobile electronic device for social interactions, as compared to using it for business transactions

Innovating Internet Connectivity in the Atlanta Westside Communities

There are thousands of people in the U.S. who do not have 24/7 internet access at their fingertips. To access broadband internet service, they must rely on the good will of neighbors, libraries, or other public venues that offer to access to affordable, stable internet connection. People facing this situation find themselves unable to submit homework assignments, apply for jobs, work from home, stay up to date with local and global news, or participate in social media. What has made modern life convenient for so many, remains an inconvenience for some. Furthermore, the limitations of the lock downs put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 has further exposed that many people would be unable to adapt significant portions of their lives to be maintained using internet accessible tools. As many areas of life have begun to incorporate the usage of resources only accessible online, having access to broadband internet is no longer just a convenience, but a necessity. Previous research has analyzed how people around the world handle the challenges of having limited access to internet and discussed the measures they take to circumvent these difficulties. However, the effectiveness of proposed solutions varies on the circumstance analyzed in the study. The Westside neighborhood of Atlanta Georgia is a prime example of an urban community in which many of the residents face the challenge of finding stable internet connection in their daily lives. By analyzing U.S. census data illustrating the correlation between internet accessibility and income, we determined that the Westside could be categorized as a low-median income area in which many residents do not have broadband internet access in their home and have few public venues where they can find alternative means of connecting to internet. Through investigating how community members use the internet, determining what are their usual means of finding internet access, and learning how they circumvent the challenges, we have been able to prototype a practical solution that could be used to improve internet connectivity in the Westside.Undergraduat

Designing Interactive Systems for the Developing World – Reflections on User- Centred Design

User-centred design (UCD) is a well-accepted and useful design methodology for designing interactive systems. In recent years, developing world researchers have attempted to utilise UCD but with mixed results. The results from two developing world, UCD projects, MuTI Mobile and CyberTracker, have shown that the analysis tools and techniques provided by UCD are useful but difficulties arise when interpreting the analysis findings to produce a requirements specification. In particular, traditional UCD methodologies fail to consider the broader and complex effects of the user’s physical and social environments. The field studies also highlighted the limitations of existing early-stage prototyping techniques, such as paper-prototyping. The authors address these issues by presenting several tools and techniques that they feel are more suited to the developing world and essential components of a candidate ‘UCD4Dev’ methodology. These tools and techniques include the use of ‘4Dev’ frameworks, such as the ‘Real Access/Real Impact’ criteria, to highlight pertinent developing world issues, the use of higher fidelity technology artefacts during early stage prototyping, the importance of developing a motivated user group and the need for a progressive participatory design approach

Supporting collaboration with non-literate forest communities in the congo-basin

Providing indigenous communities with ICT tools and methods for collecting and sharing their Traditional Ecological Knowledge is increasingly recognised as an avenue for improvements in environmental governance and socialenvironmental justice. In this paper we show how we carried out a usability engineering effort in the “wild” context of the Congolese rainforest – designing, evaluating and iteratively improving novel collaborative data collection interfaces for non-literate forest communities that can subsequently be used to facilitate communication and information sharing with logging companies. Working in this context necessitates adopting a thoroughly flexible approach to the design, development, introduction and evaluation of technology and the modes of interaction it offers. We show that we have improved participant accuracy from about 75% towards 95% and provide a set of guidelines for designing and evaluating ICT solutions in “extreme circumstances” – which hold lessons for CSCW, HCI and ICT4D practitioners dealing with similar challenges

Exploring mobile learning opportunities and challenges in Nepal: the potential of open-source platforms

With the increasing access to mobile devices in developing countries, the number of pilots and projects embracing mobile devices as learning tools is also growing. The important role it can play in improving education is also positively received within education communities. But, providing a successful mobile learning service is still significantly challenging. The considerable problems arise due to existing pedagogical, technological, political, social and cultural challenges and there has been a shortage of research concerning how to deploy and sustain this technology in a resource constrained educational environment. There are studies mainly conducted in sub-Saharan countries, India, and Latin America, which provide some guidelines for incorporating technology in the existing educational process. However, considering the contextual differences between these regions and other countries in Asia, such as Nepal, it requires a broader study in its own challenging socio-cultural context. In response to this difficulty, the aims of this exploratory research work are to study the distinct challenges of schools’ education in Nepal and evaluate the use of open-source devices to provide offline access to learning materials in order to recommend a sustainable mobile learning model. The developmental study was conducted in University of West London in order to assess the feasibility of these devices. The main study in Nepal explored i) the overall challenges to education in the challenging learning environment of schools with limited or no access to ICT, ii) how ICT might be helping teaching and learning in the rural public schools, and iii) how an offline mobile learning solution based on the open source platforms may facilitate English language teaching and learning. Data collection primarily involved interviews, questionnaires, observations and supplemented by other methods. This thesis presents the sustainable model for deploying and supporting mobile technology for education, which is based on the findings emerging from completed exploratory studies in Nepal. It highlights all the aspects that need to be addressed to ensure sustainability. However, to translate this understanding to a design is a complex challenge. For a mobile learning solution to be used in such challenging learning contexts, the need is to develop simple and innovative solutions that provide access to relevant digital learning resources and train teachers to embed technology in education. This thesis discusses these findings, limitations and presents implications for the design of future mobile learning in the context of Nepal