Erica Johnson

Communication as information-seeking: the case for mobile social software for developing regions

In this paper, we describe several findings from a multi-year, multi-method study of how information and communication technologies have been adopted and adapted in Central Asia. We have found that mobile phone usage is outpacing the rate of Internet adoption, that access to the Internet is primarily through public access sites carrying with it issues regarding privacy and surveillance, that people rely on their social networks as information sources, that public institutions tend to be fairly weak as citizen resources, and that information seeking and communication are conflated in peoples usage patterns with different technologies. In addition, in the developed world social networking software has grown rapidly and shown itself to have significant potential for mobilizing a population. Based on the collection of findings from Central Asia and observing patterns of technology usage in other parts of the world, our research leads to the conclusion that exploring mobile social software holds significant potential as an ICT that meshes well with preexisting patterns of communication and information seeking and also leverages the most predominant pattern of technology adoption. Many of the findings from this research echo results from studies in other geographic areas, and so we anticipate that much of this research will be relevant to developing regions generally.

Aiding the Internet in Central Asia

This article asks why Central Asian governments, although equally repressive of their traditional media, pursue diverging policies toward the Internet. Ultimately we find Internet regulatory policy in the Central Asian states varies according to who provides financial capital for information communication technologies (ICTs). Where international aid organizations and non-governmental organizations provide capital and assistance for ICT infrastructure, such as in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and, to a lesser extent, in Uzbekistan, the formal regulatory environment is more open, clearly articulated, and permissive of electronic media. In contrast, where domestic actors fund the development of ICT infrastructure, as in Kazakhstan, regulation is vague and government control and interference more extensive. While a more liberal ICT regulatory regime does not ensure more momentum for democratization, the freedom to use and actively participate in the ICT sector has important implications for societys ability to enact political change in ICT regulation and social mobilization on a wider scale as demonstrated in Kyrgyzstans political events of March 2005.

Experiences with a transportation information system that uses only GPS and SMS

We present our experiences with an SMS-based system for providing transit information based solely on existing cellular and GPS networks. The aim is to permit the development of information services that do not rely on a central authority or complex web hosting. We developed and applied our system to the network of privately-run marshrutka buses in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. However, our goal is to more broadly address issues of ad-hoc shared transportation systems in the developing world. A custom designed GPS-GSM unit is placed on a vehicle, and users can query our server over SMS with their own non-GPS-enabled cell phones. We report on the accuracy of our location naming approach and estimates of bus arrival times. In addition, we summarize interviews with bus drivers and bus riders relating their views of the system and outline directions for future work. Our system is a grassroots solution to the persistent lack of transport information in developing countries.

Mobile social software for the developing world

This paper discusses how the importance of social networks for performing everyday tasks in the developing world leads to new considerations of the utility of social networking software (SNS). The paper presents some results from a multi-year, multi-method study in Central Asia that tracks patterns of technology adoption and adaptation, as well as shifts in media consumption and information seeking. Our results suggest SNS is a particularly compelling approach in resource-constrained environments (broadly defined) as a way to leverage and systematize the ad hoc processes people develop to navigate their everyday lives and information ecology.

Media independence and trust in NGOs: The case of postcommunist countries

Why do levels of public trust in NGOs vary across postcommunist countries? How does media independence influence these trust levels? The authors begin from the premise that citizens develop trust in NGOs when they believe that NGOs function according to their normative expectations and they receive regular information about NGOs’ activities. Media has a crucial role in both these regards, especially in the context of countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where the NGO sector is in a nascent stage and citizens lack prior experiences with NGOs as activist organizations and providers of public goods and services. First, media can provide information about NGO activities that enables citizens to develop opinions about individual NGOs and NGOs as a category of social actors. Second, media can serve as a vehicle to monitor the activities of NGOs and make them accountable. However, media may have its own biases and provide misleading information about NGOs. Thus the authors expect that media independence is associated with trust in NGOs. They analyze the relationship between NGO trust and media independence using a time-series and cross-section panel of 28 postcommunist countries from 1997 to 2006, controlling for a range of domestic and international factors that might influence trust in the NGO sector. Our analysis suggests that independent media is positively associated with trust in NGOs.

Predictors of vocational stability in multiple sclerosis

This study examined salient disability, demographic, psychosocial, and neuropsychological variables as predictors of employment stability for vocational rehabilitation clients with MS served at the University of Washington (1998-2003). Although a number of variables were initially significantly related to vocational stability (e.g., Personal Capacities Questionnaire score, number of months employed in the last 2 years, and the Activities of Daily Living-MS Scale score), only the FAS Controlled Oral Word Association Test-3, a measure of verbalfluency and executive functioning, remained significant ( p< 0.01) when controlling for multiple comparisons. Implications are discussed in relation to vocational rehabilitation assessment and intervention planning.

Reflection on research methodologies for ubicomp in developing contexts

As the user base for ubiquitous technology expands to developing regions, the likelihood of disparity between the lived experience of design team members (developers, designers, researchers, etc.) and end users has increased. Human-centered design (HCD) provides a toolkit of research methods aimed at helping bridge the distance between technology design teams and end users. However, we have found that traditional approaches to HCD research methods are difficult to deploy in developing regions. In this paper, we share our experiences of adapting HCD research methodologies to the Central Asia context and some lessons we have learned. While our lessons are many, reconsidering the unit of analysis from the individual to larger social units was an early discovery that provided a frame for later research activities that focused on ubicomp development. We argue that lessons and challenges derived from our experience will generalize to other research investigations in which researchers are trying to adapt common HCD data collection methods to create ubiquitous technologies for and/or with distant audiences in developing regions.

Non-State Health Care Provision in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Is Politicisation a Model?

Drawing on comparisons with cooperative and competitive non-state health care provision around the world, this article analyses non-state provision of health services in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It explores the conditions in which non-state provisions remain cooperative or become politicised and contrasts the relations between NGOs and the state in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and the way they became politicised in the Middle East. In contrast to Western conceptions of NGOs, Central Asias health NGOs cooperate with state agencies to serve their constituencies. In contrast to the perceptions of Central Asian governments, health-oriented NGOs do not aim to politicise health care. Donor support to Central Asias health NGOs has created civically oriented actors that fill gaps in the states capacity and enable governments to better serve their populations.

Russia - the quest for democratic media

This article illustrates some of the transitions in the Russian media from authoritarianism to democracy within a new information order. The goal is to outline the general trends in mass media transitions across the media industry in Russia. The outcomes of perestroika and glasnost policies and the changes in media policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union are examined. As it is much easier to discuss the elements of Soviet control that have been removed, but much harder to define that which has replaced the old ways, a projection of the future role of the mass media in securing democracy and in the forming a new national order is also discussed.