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[Seminar - ICT4D: Technology for Good]

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>> [Joy Ming - Alisa Nguyen - Harvard University]

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>> [This is CS50. - CS50.TV]

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>> Hi. My name is Joy Ming. 

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I am a sophomore from Quincy House concentrating in Computer Science

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with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy.

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And my name is Alisa Nguyen. 

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I'm also a sophomore in Quincy House concentrating in Computer Science.

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>> Okay. So today we just wanted to start off by asking you guys a question.

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What does technology mean to you?

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Can anyone answer?

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[female speaker] Cool computers and mobile phones.

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Cool computers and mobile phones.

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So basically, the idea is that a lot of technology today,

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what we think about technology comes in the term of Facebook, Google, Microsoft,

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large tech companies that have flashy consumer products.

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But our seminar today is trying to show you alternative ways

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you can use your new CS50 skills to make an impact on the world.

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>> So the title of our seminar is ICT4D: Technology for Good.

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Have you guys ever heard of ICT4D, and do you know what it means?

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[chuckling] Okay.

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It stands for Information and Communication Technologies for Development,

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and it just refers to the applications of technology to help people around the world.

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So they are interdisciplinary initiatives 

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to connect people with the resources that they need to improve their own quality of life.

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And so ICT4D comes from harnessing the revolutionary power of technology

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through all these different trends,

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so starting from the idea of computing and data processing in the late 1950s

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and then incorporating Millennium Development Goals later on

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and now currently incorporating the new technology of mobile phones

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to be able to find ways to help people in developing countries.

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>> And so we're just going to showcase a couple different ways ICT4D can be used

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in different aspects of society.

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The first one we're going to talk about is healthcare.

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Some current ICT4D being used for healthcare can be used for,

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for example, telemedicine, which is doing operations and processes from a distance

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or even providing information for people with disabilities

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to be able to communicate with other people.

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>> So another huge area of application is education.

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For this field we have this company called Inveneo,

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which provides low-cost computing hardware and servers

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to build up network infrastructures in developing countries.

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>> Another application is in agriculture

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in which different things such as price inequalities,

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the information about the markets,

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the policies and different new production techniques

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can be broadcast to the farmers as well as the consumers.

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>> Oh.

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And open source technologies often overlap with ICT4D.

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Open source refers to, like, open source software,

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which means that source code is publicly available so that anybody can edit it.

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You probably use Wikipedia all the time, and you can edit that.

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So there's a lot of projects such as Open Data Kit,

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which is a mobile suite of software tools 

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designed to allow for easy data collection and manipulation,

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so people such as community health workers in rural India

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can go out to villages and collect information about their patients

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and send that easily to the hospitals.

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>> Another application is through finance.

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For example, Vodafone has a money transfer application

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that allows people who don't have access to a bank account

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to be able to transfer money, pay their bills, or even add credit to their airtime.

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>> And the next one is environment.

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Different applications for that include an application

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that will alert about weather forecasting, so any natural disasters.

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An example is Red Lotus, which is created by a Harvard graduate,

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that helps demine various areas.

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>> ICT4D can also help with government.

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There is this program here in America called Code for America,

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which connects recent graduates with cities to build software tools

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that the cities can use to—

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For example, here in Boston there is this project called Adopt-a-Hydrant

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that tried to crowdsource the problem of snowed-in fire hydrants

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so that even people in your own neighborhood

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can help unblock those fire hydrants in case of emergencies.

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>> So now that we told you about a lot of different applications of ICT4D,

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we're going to focus on one case study

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looking at health in rural India and trying to brainstorm different ways

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that you would try to look at this problem.

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And so here, if you could just take some time to read the problem,

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what we want to do is identify some specific problems

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that are listed in this case study

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and try to find ways that you could possibly think about solving them

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or ways you've heard of solving them.

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So if you could take a couple of minutes to read it.

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[There are 17 doctors, nurses, or midwives to every 10,000 people.]

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[Each patient then is responsible for her or his own healthcare after they leave the hospital.]

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[Much of the care provided is decentralized to community health workers]

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[who, though trained by a hospital, are often limited in their abilities]

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[to provide complete care or interface with hospital records.]

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[Most hospitals use paper systems that often get lost or damaged.]

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[Paper systems also make it hard to communicate between hospitals,]

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[especially in a time of crisis, or keep records for the future.]

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All right. So no need to raise your hand.

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Just shout out whatever you see are some potential problems

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that are listed in the case study.

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[female speaker] It's hard that the hospitals use paper systems

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because if the community workers are traveling far away from the hospital,

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then they can't update information about people in the community or villages real time.

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So one of our lovely participants just was talking about

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how the fact the hospitals have to use paper systems,

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which is difficult for community health workers to be able to communicate real time.

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So what are some other problems that are listed here?

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[male speaker] The fact that there's only 17 doctors to every 10,000 people.

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So how do we get those people connected to those doctors and midwives?

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So another problem is that there's only 17 doctors per 10,000 people,

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so finding a way to connect the doctors with the people that they're serving.

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And so what are some solutions that you could come up with

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for any of those 2 problems that you found?

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Any ideas?

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[male speaker] Cloud-based computing seems like a pretty palpable idea,

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especially with the sharing of records between different hospitals

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and things like that.

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If you have everything recorded digitally

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and then you have it maybe in a secure cloud server,

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then it can be easily accessed by anyone, the [inaudible] and whatever

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to get into the system. >>Uh-hunh (affirmative).

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So one option that was just mentioned was cloud-based computing,

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which would definitely be a good way to store all of the records in a secure manner

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and allow access to a lot of different people.

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Any other suggestions of different ways?

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[female speaker] Maybe health workers can also use mobile phones.

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It would have to be a really user-friendly interface.

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But that could be really helpful for them to keep track of these records

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and interact with the cloud-based system. >>Uh-hunh (affirmative).

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And so another idea was that community health workers will use mobile phones

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to be able to interact with this cloud-based system.

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>> Those are all great ideas, and so we're just going to showcase a couple ideas

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that are being put into practice by various organizations.

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And so I guess I'll use my mouse because you can't point.

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Raxa is a system that is creating an electronic medical record system for hospitals

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that will help consolidate all of the information.

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CommCare is a part of Dimagi, which is creating mobile applications

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for community health workers to be able to communicate the information

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to their subcenters or to the hospital.

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Jana Care tackles the problem of giving the patients more information

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about their diseases by allowing them to be put in touch with a coach one-on-one

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for diabetes prevention.

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ClickMedix gives the community health workers the tools

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to be able to provide care for the villagers.

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Partners In Health is using technology to track cholera in Haiti after the earthquake.

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And even larger companies like Google and Microsoft

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are also looking at ICT4D as a means of helping the world's problems.

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>> Now we would like to address the problem of access to education in rural areas.

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And we just wanted to showcase a project

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that people are working on right now called OLPC.

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So if we could just watch this video.

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[video playing] One Laptop Per Child. That's our name and our vision.

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We want to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children

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by providing each and every one with a rugged, low-cost,

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low-power, connected laptop.

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And this is that laptop.

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Say hello to the XO, a computer unlike any other,

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designed specifically to work in tough conditions and remote areas.

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It comes packed with software and activities to help kids learn,

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explore, create, and share.

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No matter what language they speak or where they live,

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the XO connects them to each other, to the world, and to a brighter future.

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We're a non-profit organization, which makes these kids our mission, not our market.

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That's why wherever the XO goes, there are 5 core principles everyone agrees to.

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First, kids get to keep the laptops.

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They have to be free to take them home and use them whenever they want.

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That's kind of the point.

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Second, we're focused on early education, which means kids about 6 to 12 years old.

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Third, we have to deal in large numbers of laptops

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so whole classrooms and schools get them at the same time so no one gets left out.

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Fourth, kids should have a connection to the Internet

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because there's neat stuff to learn on the Internet.

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Fifth and finally, the XO must include free and open source software.

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Then the laptop itself can easily grow and adapt with the needs of the child.

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So in a nutshell, that's us,

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an organization that makes a small computer to serve a big cause—

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bringing education to children all over the world with One Laptop Per Child.

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[♪ music playing on video ♪] [amazon.com/XO]

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We just wanted to ask you guys to assess One Laptop Per Child

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in terms of what are they doing, how are they doing it, 

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and positives and negatives that may arise.

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What are they doing?

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[male speaker] They're providing a service to a much-needed group. >>Yeah.

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So basically, they collaborate with governments of countries

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such as India and Brazil to provide the public school children with free laptops.

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Based on that video, do you want to talk about the situation?

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[chuckling]

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They mentioned network coverage. What are they doing about that?

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[female speaker] I don't think it particularly talked about it,

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but it seems like there would need to be a lot of existing infrastructure,

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especially if they want Internet connection.

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Yeah, there needs to be an existing network infrastructure in place for this to really work

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because the laptops do need Internet access.

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What about affordability?

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If you guys have heard about this before, OLPC has actually advertised their laptops

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to be only $100 for each laptop,

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and there have been a couple of criticisms with that

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because they ended up costing about $250 each.

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So the governments sometimes may not have enough money to pay for these.

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So they have done a give one, get one campaign

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where you donate money so that somebody else can have a laptop

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and then you get an XO laptop for yourself.

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What about the issues around training?

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[female speaker] This definitely could be really useful for education,

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but if the kids don't know how to use the laptops, then it's not consistent.

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Yeah. So what if the kids don't know how to use laptops in the first place?

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How are they going to learn?

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There isn't really any training provided with the XO laptops.

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Okay. So now let's move on to the need.

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Do you guys think that this is a pressing issue that we should address?

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[female speaker] Yes. >>Yeah. But there is more than one way to address this problem.

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So the idea is not questionable whether there is a need for technology for the children

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but whether it's actually addressing it properly. >>Yeah.

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So can you think of any other ways that you can address

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the access to education problem?

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[female speaker] Maybe it doesn't have to be individualized like laptops

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but still using other technology that would help.

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So maybe like a projector in a classroom. >>Yeah.

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[female speaker] Not jumping directly into the [inaudible] >>Yeah.

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So how effective is the personal laptop in terms of education?

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What if there is a better solution such as a classroom projector

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or a whiteboard or something that the whole class can use?

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And some other nontechnical solutions that we were brainstorming

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was possibly the issue of having more teachers to begin with

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if they didn't have enough teachers in their schools;

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having enough books and school supplies in their classrooms as well.

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And when we're talking about ICT4D, we also want to address future concerns

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that might arise from this solution.

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Scalability. 

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By scalability we mean is it possible to distribute all these laptops 

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on a wide scale to whole schools? How easy is that to do?

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Maintenance. What if the laptop dies?

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What are you going to do if you didn't know how to use it to begin with?

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Sustainability.

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Are you using eco-friendly products after the laptop's life cycle has ended?

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Yeah.

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So that was just a brief overview of a possible solution in ICT4D

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that may or may not be actually the best solution in the long term.

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So I guess the idea is that technology can be used for good,

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but sometimes it's necessary to critically assess whether or not it is the best solution

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and how this solution can be altered to best fit the situation,

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both in the present and in the long term.

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So OLPC sometimes is criticized a lot on these 3 aspects,

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but their mission is a good one.

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And it's hard to say that you don't want to give laptops

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to poor children in developing countries

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but just to be aware that there are some aspects that you should be critical to.

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>> And so we talked a lot about different solutions that are existing

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and different ways, like brainstorm solutions for the problems.

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And so right now we're just going to talk a little bit, I guess,

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about how you would be able to be a part of the ICT4D community.

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One way definitely is to learn more.

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Whether it's through classes at Harvard,

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Harvard has a lot of good classes that look at the situation.

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There's a lot of classes in terms of maybe the anthropology

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or the sociology of the background of the developing region,

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and there are a lot of classes also that help you with skills

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that would eventually be able to be applied to our technology.

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Like CS50. >>Like CS50, of course—

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to be able to use the skills that you have now

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to one day create the solutions for the problems in other classes that you're learning.

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Other options are through cross-registering.

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There is the development lab at MIT, which does good engineering projects

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for developing countries.

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There is actually a class for ICT4D at MIT looking at this topic.

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And always just being aware of the learning.

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So there are a lot of resources available even though it's a fairly new field.

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There are a lot of papers and definitely a lot of ways to learn more about the situation

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and ways that you can help. >>Yeah.

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So just an extension of that is keeping up to date with all the news

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in the ICT4D community and all the opportunities available.

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So there's a couple of national US email lists that you guys can join.

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There's a large group at the University of Washington that looks at these issues,

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and it's called Change. So if you want to look that up, that's change.washington.edu.

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And there's also a couple more local email lists.

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One started at MIT, another at Carnegie Mellon,

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and it's just a nice way to keep up to date with what everybody else is doing.

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And definitely one of the best ways to contribute is to actually contribute to a project.

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And so even with the skills that you have learned in CS50,

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it is possible to get involved in free and open source software like we were talking about

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where all of the code is online and they're just looking for people to contribute,

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to mess with their APIs, and to just be a part of their community.

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So there's that, and you can do it through a more structured opportunity

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like Google Summer of Code, which basically funds you to work on open source software.

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Other opportunities would be to contact various local organizations.

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If you talk to us, we'll probably be able to help you brainstorm

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a couple of organizations and areas that you're interested in

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if you want to be able to contribute through that.

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And eventually we're going to create a more comprehensive list

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of the various organizations that are looking for awesome Harvard students to be involved,

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whether it is on the technical side or on the business end.

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So for example, last summer I was able to use my CS50 skills in India

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to work with a healthcare technology non-profit.

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I hadn't coded before, but CS50 put me in the mood to be able to contribute a lot

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to a project that was existing and make an impact. >>Yeah.

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And also if you have your own idea as to how to adjust these problems,

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definitely start your own project.

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There's a lot of things that you can do here, like the President's Challenge,

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at MIT they have the $100K Challenge, there's Hack Harvard.

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There are so many resources around you if you want to get your idea up and running.

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And there's a lot of good stories of Harvard students who have done things like this.

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One of my friends was working in India working with price inequalities

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and SMS technology to be able to alert farmers about the demands for their products.

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Another friend is working on alerting maternal-child health in India as well

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and SMS reminders about compliance in medicine.

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But ideas like that are definitely possible, and there are so many resources

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to be able to let you do that. >>Yeah.

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>> And so, yeah, thanks for coming to our seminar.

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And if you have any questions, definitely—

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Any questions now? 

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Or we'll be free to talk in a less formal setting.

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But yeah. Any questions you want answered on the camera? [laughter]

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Yeah. Thank you. >>Thank you. [applause]

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>> [CS50.TV]