Mobile Applications for the Next Billions: A Social Computing Perspective

INTRODUCTION We are interested in designing mobile social computing systems for the next billion users. Our aim is to create systems that are appropriate (and appropriable) within their social, cultural, infrastructural, economic, and political settings. In this paper, we discuss our emerging work on mobile applications and the social computing approach that underlies it. We note the growing interest in applying ICT to transform the “digital divide” into the “digital provide.” Addressing perceived gaps between people who lack access to digital information – heavily concentrated among poor people in developing nations – and those who do have access [14,15,222], however, involves more than solving technical challenges surrounding infrastructure or electrical power. A social computing perspective emphasizes the crucial nature of social, cultural, and other nontechnological factors. It draws attention to people and their social practices as critical resources in designing successful information and communication systems [2]. We take heart and inspiration from the many emerging examples of mobile applications in the next billions space, and show how the framework of social computing can provide insight for the design of viable next billion applications.