Establishing relationships for designing rural information systems

Abstract

Designing for the developing world presents unique challenges. Establishing rapport with local partners is important to overcome contextual unfamiliarity and ensure the relevance of proposed solutions. In this paper, we discuss our experiences designing a CAM-based mobile data capture system for Asobagri, a rural coffee cooperative in Barillas, Guatemala. CAM is a camera-based mobile application framework designed based on fieldwork with rural microfinance groups in India. Our local partners in India are now using the CAM framework in a real application. We list some practices that have helped us establish and sustain both these design relationships.