Pressing Questions of the Information Age:3 Feb 2005
Creating Technologies for the Next 10 Percent of the World and Beyond
John Sherry
Anthropologist, People and Practices Research Group, Intel Corporation
For the past few years, a handful of social scientists within Intel Corporation's Research and Development organization have been conducting research among a rather unlikely group of "end users." Our goal is to understand how Intel might profitably deliver value to people whose incomes and living conditions preclude ownership of a PC as we know it. Ultimately, we hope to provide Intel not only with the motivation to innovate based on evident market potential, but also with ideas about how we can adapt our products and business models to suit the needs of some larger portion of the world's population. John Sherry has been with the People and Practices Research group since 1996. The purpose of this group is to drive innovation at Intel from a decidedly human-centered perspective. We translate insights about people's daily lived experience into ideas for technology and strategy innovation. To that end, we have studied aging baby boomers, middle class families with young children, medical clinics, small businesses, affluent households all over Europe, the United States and Asia, avid collectors, Dot Com entrepreneurs, vineyard workers, long-haul truckers, large animal veterinarians and all other kinds of people.
Slides from the Presentation
Rapporteur's report
On February 3, John Sherry of the People and Practices Research Group at Intel spoke to 49 students and faculty of the UW on developing technologies for those whose income and living conditions preclude PC ownership. Attendees of the talk came from Sociology, Information Science, Computer Science, Law, Public Affairs, Business, Communication, Technical Communication, Electrical Engineering, Education and International Studies among other departments.
Sherry began his talk by asking "Where is Intel not looking?" which is a central research question of his small group of psychologists, anthropologists, interaction designers and engineers at Intel. According to Sherry, this research question is neither an academic research question nor a market research question but rather is designed to help Intel "drive innovation from a deep understanding of human practices, environments, and systems of meaning."
What does this mean? First, you have to see what Sherry and others call the invisible potential, the 85 percent of the world's population for whom PCs are not suitable. In this 85 percent are people who have more resources to spend on computing than we might think-the 4,000 million people at the "bottom of the pyramid" spend an estimated $13 trillion on commercial transactions a year-and who want access to computing but perhaps not in the form of the PC.
The PC does not match the needs, practices, and environments of people from all over the world, and it's not just because of cost: Even a free PC could be undesirable in many parts of the world. PCs may not fit because an environment might lack business processes that allow PCs to be created and maintained, or physical infrastructure to support a PC. They might not fit with the local culture and practice of the environment. Obstacles here include: A PC might not be seen as a socially acceptable form of communication; lack of literacy might hinder the usefulness of the PC; it might be perceived of as a threat to self or property; and it might not, quite simply, address the true needs of a particular community.
Sherry's group has focused on the needs of the communities that might be better served by technologies other than the PC. Particular needs that technology might serve include: microfinance, new work opportunities, shared computing, distance delivery of health care, education, social participation and family togetherness and religion. Shared computing especially has potential, Sherry noted, because it aggregates demand, offsetting the cost of ownership, and it provides economic opportunity to the owners of the computing resource while the users of the resource incur only small costs. Shared computing's most recognizable forms are cybercafés and village kiosks, and such approaches to computing do work, Sherry's research has suggested.
One particularly interesting application of shared computed is mediated computing, specifically, translation work. Translation here encompasses the translation of knowledge into services, the translation of cultural practices and the translation that occurs at the point of use of the technology via literacy and user interface knowledge. One example: Drishtee, an Indian company that provides e-government services to villagers through a kiosk that offers services software and a connection to the government. Locals save time and money and are guaranteed a response from the government by using the kiosk, which is run by a local entrepreneur.
From here, Sherry offered five recommendations his group has been making to Intel:
#1: There is buying power in this segment of the world's population. If a poor Ecuadorian can manage to scrape together $8000 to buy a coyote's services to smuggle him to the U.S. where he can find work, then if technology could offer similar earnings potential, people would find a way to buy it. The opportunities here are not one vast market opportunity but rather several smaller differentiated opportunities.
#2: The U.S. is not the only fount of technological innovation. Sherry noted there are exciting technologies being developed throughout the world-kiosks in India, Secure SMS in the Philippines-and we would be foolish to think that the rest of the world will be satisfied with what Sherry called "hand-me-down" technologies from the U.S.
#3: Invest locally. Intel should hire and staff in the local environments. It should support NGOs, local social entrepreneurs and other local partners.
#4: Intel needs to think about "communities" not just individual "end users."
#5: Intel should at the same time continue developing its core technologies that can serve these environments, focusing on connectivity, form factors, and power.
In the Q&A, one audience member asked about problems with political or religious obstacles to developing technologies for these users. Sherry replied that there is no question that these can present serious obstacles. A lot of regimes are uncomfortable with unfettered access to information: In China, you see crackdowns on Internet cafes. Other obstacles regimes can impose include high tariffs on technology parts.
Another attendee asked if Intel was sensitive to how community access models to technology can violate an individual's rights or boundaries. Sherry answered that this would depend on the services a particular access model was offering and that Intel wouldn't be pushing new business models on consumers that would make individuals uncomfortable.
One questioner asked about Intel's role in training and educating those who would make local ownership and development of technologies possible. Sherry said that it would be the responsibility of a layer of people between Intel and the trainees, perhaps non-governmental organizations or other similar players, to develop this sort of local capacity.
A challenge from the audience. To paraphrase: "Intel is in this to make money, not to improve lives, right? How do you feel about that?" Sherry noted that the way for getting Intel to come to care about changing lives is for people like his group to go into these communities and for individual employees of Intel to begin to care about these people as they spend time with them. These on-the-ground Intel employees would be the ones to lead any shift, and any change in thinking certainly couldn't happen without this presence, Sherry said.
John Sherry's Recommended Readings
Beyond the digital divide: thinking through networks by John Sherry, Tony Salvador, Intel Corporation and Hsain Ilahiane, Department of Anthropology, Iowa State University. Presented at the Wireless World Research Forum: New York, October 22, 2003
Mediated access: a comparative approach by John Sherry, Tony Salvador, Intel Corporation. Presented at ICPPIT'03, Cambridge, MA, Nov. 2003
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad. Wharton School Publishing, 2004.
Connected for Development, Information Kiosks and Sustainability Co-edited by Akhtar Badshah and Maria Garrido. UN Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Task Force , 2003.
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