I've blogged in the past about the Mycroft Project that I have been working on for several months now. Unfortunately, our website is down right now so the link won't do you any good, but still, mycroftnetwork.com.

Anyway, we are trying to learn a few things about how people contribute on the web and how they feel about advertising, so we've put together a short web survey. If you can spare about 10 minute, we'd really appreciate it if you'd take the survey, which is completely anonymous and confidential.

Thanks so much!

I want to insert a plug for an exciting project I'm working on called Mycroft. It's still in the very early stages, but we've got an extremely alpha prototype up, and some web content (quickly evolving). Check us out at mycroftnetwork.com. Very soon you'll also see the prototype appearing on these blog pages as well.

I'll be posting more about this project (probably a lot more) in the coming weeks and months. What I love about it is that it's a wonderful synthesis of the technical and the sociocultural. It's a research platform and a practical tool, and I get to do design and coding as well as anthropological fieldwork. You'll get the gist from the site, but I'll be interested in starting some discussion about the specific sociocultural issues later on. In the meantime feel free to post comments here, or email the team at mycroftnetwork@gmail.com.

My paper has been accepted to the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in Washington, DC. It has been a challenge for me to learn to bridge the gap between technology and anthropology in other forums, so it's good to know that the AAA pays a bit of attention.

I did this work in the spring in conjunction with a wonderful course I took with AnnaLee Saxenian and Joyojeet Pal called 'ICT for Development: Context, Strategies, and Impact.' What I really liked about the course is that it was a fantastic synthesis of many disciplines – economics, sociology, anthropology, computer science and engineering. We had participants from all these fields, and together I think we were able to expose the problems with much of the ICT-based development work that's going on today. I blogged recently about an abstract I wrote for EPIC (rejected) about how companies that explore markets in the developing world (the mythical 'other' 3 billion) are essentially doing development work without realizing it. This paper is a first step in trying to make that process more acceptable.

A Case for Culturally Appropriate Kiosks

Judd D. Antin
School of Information Management and Systems
University of California Berkeley

Though many anthropologists have long recognized the need to tailor interventions to specific cultural contexts, that revelation has come more recently to technologists and information scientists in other fields. Ethnography has been recognized by some in the information technology fields for its ability to inform the design of sustainable new programs and assess and modify existing ones, but for others it is still seen as unsuitable or impractical. Few attempts have been made to use ethnographic methods to create culturally appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs) and programs based upon them. Kiosk programs, which provide public access to computers and computer-related services for a variety of purposes including education, communication, and access to government services, have become one of the primary means for bringing the power of modern technology to underserved populations in the developing world. However, though many kiosk programs have been implemented, few have become sustainable or widely used. Beginning with the premise that successful and sustainable programs are those that adapt themselves to local cultures, this paper will explore the application of ethnographic methods to the assessment and design of culturally appropriate kiosk programs. Using several case studies, this paper will describe the unique challenges of designing culturally appropriate and sustainable kiosk programs, and illustrate how cultural factors can contribute to the success or failure of a kiosk project.