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Roadmapv2-discussion

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MW4D Roadmap Discussion Document

June 2009

Synopsis

This document contains the lists of issues and discussions points around the MW4D Roadmap Document. Each entry is discussed during the teleconference. The "status" of the entry is related to consideration within a teleconference, e.g. "not discussed" means that this issue was raised on the mailing-list but not discussed during a teleconference.

Meaning of colors:

  • Green: the issue can be discussed in the teleconference
  • Orange: the issue is blocked on a specific action
  • Red: the issue is closed or postponed

Issues, as of 25 June 2009

  1. adding a piece about General issues/challenges the mobile solutions can/should address (in the development context)
    • Discussed June 8 meeting
      Stephane to add a background session and lists of points that will be developed in this section
    • Discussed June 15 meeting
      Background section should be renamed Motivation.
    • status: Stephane to write the Motivation section
  2. respective place of challenges and technologies sections
    • Discussed June 8 meeting
      Stephane to draft the illiteracy section to discuss on a concrete proposal
    • Discussed June 29 meeting
    • status: to be revisited later, after each section is more developed
  3. should we identify contexts ?
  4. where to put prospective/R&D directions and what's possible today
    • Discussed during June 29 meeting
    • status: to be revisited later, after the doc is more developed
  5. traditionnal accessibility issues
    • status:
    • Resolution: a specific section should be added in section 6 to mentionne the work done by WAI, and WAI-MWI. the evolution of assistive technologies.
  6. which technologies to put in the map
  7. adding government and public sector/decision makers in the Audience section
    • Discussed June 15 meeting
      Resolution: government should be added as part of the audience
      Resolution: a paragraph around policy guidelines should be added
      The roadmap may contains a specific section on messages sorted by type of of stakeholder
    • status: Renjish to summarize policy guidelines discussion on the discussion page
  8. adding a section/entry around using mobile phones as an authoring and delivery platform
    • status: Discussed during July 6 meeting
    • resolution: these issues are important and should be mentionned, but due to resource in the group should not be explored in this version of the roadmap. will be added to the scope section

About the technologies issue

Resources

Content

should following technologies/option appears or not in the roadmap, in this version or in a next one ?

  • SN and Development
  • IM and Development
  • one-way message
    • rss reader
    • USSD
  • proprietary format reader
  • native applications
    • Platform Specific apps
      • Android
      • apple store
      • MS windows
      • Limo
      • symbian
      • ...
  • J2ME

About the context issue

Raphaël (15 June 2009, 16:02 CET)

Today, during our teleconference, I mentioned a generic way to refer to contexts, in our roadmap, since we obviously can not mention the thousands of different ones. I have summarized my idea in a "context characteristic scorecard sample": Media:roadmapv2-discussion$Context_characteristic_scorecard_sample.GIF
Please don't consider the items in the cells, but only the general concept.
This tool would be a way to cover the key issues our target audience need to consider when thinking about developing a mobile solution, and could be a practical tool in the form of a scorecard (in fact an improved and guiding check list). The alphanumeric references could then lead to explanations and technical directions/recommendations. Does this sound feasible or is it too ambitious?

Mira (15/06/2009 19:33)

The suggestion sounds very much like creating an index, not unlike the e-readiness indeces available from ITU, EIU, etc. The recent ICT development index (http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf) immediately comes to mind.

I think it might be worthwhile considering if it is appropriate to use a combination of existing index(es) or metrics for our purposes. It might be appropriate to refer readers to an Internet use/availability index (or one of its components) and a measure of mobile use/access. Metrics of dispersion in terms of geographic coverage, social inclusion/exclusion might also be appropriate. It might also be appropriate to recommend a way of combining these indeces/measures.

If we do not think that existing measurement scales can address the needs of our audience, then I think the scorecard is a great idea. It would take considerable effort to specify it and start addressing the issue of data availability. I think it would not be very helpful if we were to recommend to practitioners to consult a piece of data which might not be readily available e.g. average SMS sent per capita.

Raphaël (2009/6/16)

The suggestion is not to create an index, but rather to lead potential mobile application development leads to ask themselves key questions, before embarking on one technology or another.

While the ICT development index is very useful and a reference we should take into account to develop the "scorecard" key indicators, I think this tool should be rather light and easy to use (20 indicators max?), and avoid having users say "this is too complex", which would de facto make it useless.

In fact, a scorecard user who would not have all exact figures for the indicators (we know stats are often scarce in developing economies) should still be in a position to find it useful and get some guidance from it.

Mira (2009/6/16 11:59)

Before we could start drafting a list of indicators/indeces to include on the scorecard, we'd need some agreement of what areas of the country "context" we are interested in depicting.

I would suggest the following context component which we might want to be reflected in the scorecard and for which we might want to find measures:

Technology Availability

  • Availailable electronic network (connectivity, coverage, speed, etc)
  • Availailable mobile network (connectivity, coverage, speed, etc)
  • Geographic dispersion of network availability

Technology Access/Use/Adoption

  • Internet access/ use/ adoption
  • Mobile access/ use/ adoption
  • Social dispersion of technology use

Use/Adoption requirements

  • Human development (literacy, education, etc)
  • Income generation (sectors of employment, levels of entrepreneurship, etc)
  • Social and geographic income distribution.

Raphaël (2009/7/6)

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