Technology and Design for SocioEconomic Development

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Technology and Design for Socio-Economic
Development
Kentaro Toyama Assistant Managing
Director Microsoft Research India TCS Excellence
in Computer Science January 9, 2008 Pune,
India
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India

• People
• 1.1 billion people
• Over half under 25 years old
• 22 languages
• Annual incomes 100-100M
• 28 states
• Area
• 1/3 the area of United States
• Technology
• 25M PCs, installed base
• 200M mobile subscriptions
• 7M each month

Roads in India
Sources CIA Factbook, TRAI, CNN
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India, a Personal View

• People
• 1.1 billion people
• Over half under 25 years old
• 22 official languages
• Annual incomes 100-100M
• 28 states
• Area
• 1/3 the area of United States
• Technology
• 25M PCs, installed base
• 200M mobile subscriptions
• 7M each month

• but, power held by few
• tremendous energy and optimism
• incredible diversity, EM microcosm
• reminiscent of European Union
• impact of weather (ubiquity of agriculture)
• huge interest in PCs, by everyone
• mobiles, mobiles, everywhere

Huge potential opportunity for computing. But,
there are new challenges that neither India nor
industry has ever faced before.
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Infosys campus, Bangalore
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A small Internet café on a market street in a
town near Bombay
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Rural village with a VSAT Internet connection
near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
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Rural school in Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh
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MSR India

• Established January, 2005
• Goals
• World-class academic research
• Contributions to Microsoft products and
  businesses
• Support growth of research programs in India and
  elsewhere
• Six research areas
• Cryptography
• Digital Geographics
• Hardware, Communications, and Systems
• Multilingual Systems
• Rigorous Software Engineering
• Technology for Emerging Markets
• Currently 50 full-time staff, growing
• Collaborations with government, academia,
  industry, and NGOs

Microsoft Research India Sadashivnagar, Bangalore
http//research.microsoft.com/india
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Technology for Emerging Markets
Research Goals

• Understand potential technology users in
  economically poor communities
• Adapt, invent, or design applications that
  contribute to socio-economic development of poor
  communities worldwide

Computer-skills camp in Nakalabande,
Bangalore (MSR India, Stree Jagruti Samiti, St.
Josephs College)
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Rural Microfinance and IT
Rural Kiosk Entrepreneurs
Sample Projects
Can computers help existing structures for rural
microfinance?
Study on the challenges and uniqueness of rural
kiosk entrepreneurs
MSR India TEM
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan Associate Researcher
Nimmi Rangaswamy Associate Researcher
Warana Unwired
Digital Green
Text-Free UI
UIs without text for users who are illliterate
and may never have seen a computer before
Experiments with SMS text-messaging in a
sugarcane cooperative
Video and mediated instruction for
agriculture extension
Rikin Gandhi Assistant Researcher
Rajesh Veeraraghavan Associate Researcher
Indrani Medhi Assistant Researcher
Government and Kiosks
IT and Microentrepreneurs
Simultaneous Shared Access
The states role in rural kiosk projects, with a
focus on Kerala and Andhra
Information ecology of small businesses in
developing markets
Multiplying the value of PCs by allowing many
users to access.
Jonathan Donner Researcher
Udai Singh Pawar Associate Researcher
Renee Kuriyan Research Intern
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Human Computer Interfaces
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Human Computer Interfaces
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Human Computer Interfaces
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Human Computer Interfaces
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Human Computer Interfaces
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Human Computer Interfaces
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Interdisciplinary Research
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan

International Development
Public Administration and
Society
Society
Jonathan Donner

Communications
Nimmi Rangaswamy
Group
Group

Social Anthropology
Impact
Impact
Understanding
Understanding
Indrani Medhi

Design
Kentaro Toyama
Individual
Individual

Computer Science
Randy Wang
Computer Science

Technology
Technology
Paul Javid
Innovation
Innovation

Computer Science
Rikin Gandhi

Astrophysics
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Rural Microfinance and IT
Rural Kiosk Entrepreneurs
Sample Projects
Can computers help existing structures for rural
microfinance?
Study on the challenges and uniqueness of rural
kiosk entrepreneurs
MSR India TEM
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan Associate Researcher
Nimmi Rangaswamy Associate Researcher
Warana Unwired
Digital Green
Text-Free UI
UIs without text for users who are illliterate
and may never have seen a computer before
Experiments with SMS text-messaging in a
sugarcane cooperative
Video and mediated instruction for
agriculture extension
Rikin Gandhi Assistant Researcher
Rajesh Veeraraghavan Associate Researcher
Indrani Medhi Assistant Researcher
Government and Kiosks
IT and Microentrepreneurs
Simultaneous Shared Access
The states role in rural kiosk projects, with a
focus on Kerala and Andhra
Information ecology of small businesses in
developing markets
Multiplying the value of PCs by allowing many
users to access.
Jonathan Donner Researcher
Udai Singh Pawar Associate Researcher
Renee Kuriyan Research Intern
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Thank you!

• http//research.microsoft.com/research/tem