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:

Issues, as of 25 June 2009

About the technologies issue

Resources

Content

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

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":
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

Technology Access/Use/Adoption

Use/Adoption requirements

Raphaël (2009/7/6)

roadmapv2-discussion (last edited 2009-08-03 16:32:08 by StephaneBoyera)