Information and Communication Technologies for Development

This week Jonathan and I met with Professor Tavneet Suri regarding our market research survey. Professor Suri kindly offered to help us disseminate the survey in Kenya while Jonathan has contacted Nokia Nairobi for Institutional Review Board permission. As I formulated and revised the survey questions and options, I kept questioning: "Can we ask this? If yes, how?"

I had two concerns: 1. Trust 2. Patience

1. Trust
- How familiar are our survey respondents with surveys? Would they be willing to share personal information, such as their monthly incomes, business and social networks with us? This information is essential to estimate their willingness to pay and learn how they currently buy, sell, rent, hire or find jobs.
=> Respondents will be able to select from various ranges. The more personal questions will be left till the end of the questionnaire.
- What is the users preferred mode of communication: voice or text messaging in lieu of face-to-face communication, especially with strangers and business transactions?
- Respondents may entertain the idea of being able to search and post ads through cell phones but how do we gauge their confidence in the Mosoko database's authenticity that they embrace this seemingly "disruptive innovation"?
=> Hopefully the Nokia brand and partnerships with widely-circulated newspapers will help. We will assess this during the prototype testing.

2. Patience
- Our surveys are to be conducted over the phone. How long and how much in detail will respondents be willing to answer the questions, especially if their phones are running low in battery and it may be hard for them to charge their cell phones?
=> We decided we would aim for 5-10 questions and use M-Pesa to transfer airtime credit in appreciation for their participation.
- An ideal question we would like to know is the maximum duration of search/post ad process that users are willing to endure. How can we ask this?
=> This would probably have to examined during the prototype testing but something we need to keep in mind during the design process.

Here is an interesting research article that sheds light on the importance of trust in Tanzanian business culture and its implications for ICT through case studies of the perishable food, African blackwood carving and informal construction sectors. Thomas Molony concluded that how face-to-face communication is irreplaceable by mobile communication, except when cost and time savings exist.

On a different tangent, thanks to Guy and Brian, I learned two Swahili words -- jambo (hello) and asanti (thank you).

Have a wonderful break, everyone!