Information and Communication Technologies for Development

First of all, I'm super-excited about this project because it seems very applicable and possible. Our supervisors have been readily available and responsive so far, and I think we have a wonderfully cohesive team. Almost the perfect recipe for a successful project.

In my opinion, what we have to work on at this stage is the communication aspect of the project, and figure out what we actually need to do and/or what we can do. After speaking with Dr.Khan and meeting with Rich this past week, I think we understand the general, overall plan of how the RFID system is supposed to fit into the medical visits. We even have a decent idea of what population we're working with and what challenges and limitations we should foresee. However, it's still unclear how much of the project has already been done, how much has been tested, and how much still needs to be figured out. Basically, how much freedom do we have in molding the project and designing the system? For instance, for the past week, we had been coming up with the set up for the system and its course of action, but apparently that has already been done.

We also haven't gotten to the point where we can define roles for each of the team members, and none of us have the expertise in the field of RFIDs to propose different set-ups for the system, and what RFIDs we can use, how to program the cell phone, etc. If much of the project has already been planned and thought out, I wonder if we just pick up the project at this point, and follow through to produce something at the end of the semester, will it actually work? Has the practicality of the system been considered in whatever has been previously accomplished? Will people be willing to change their work flow if we do get the system working? One of the most valuable lessons of my summer PSC experience had been that even if we come up with a brilliant, simple workable solution, and even if the community initially sounds enthusiastic about applying the project, at the end it's still really difficult to get them to change even the smallest aspect of their living/working patterns. Especially if there's a smallest chance of having technical difficulties--which is bound to happen, as we know, but people who get introduced to new technology are usually turned off and think that any manual method is better when they witness a technical glitch. Are they going to be reasonable and allow us a few test trials? I sure hope so.

I'm really looking forward to office hours tomorrow, where we're supposed to get enough information to solidify a plan of action. Once we know what's possible, then we can start working on the project, and once we start doing something, then we'll be on a roll.