Information and Communication Technologies for Development

The first few weeks of class felt chaotic and unorganized, but I think our teams has managed to create a base from which we can now spring and produce something valuable.

Our first challenge was the broadness of the project. Though it seemed like most of the team put Beehive as our first choice, we were given three community partners, each from a different part of the world. This immediately struck me as a misguided decision; everything I had ever learned about development work suggested that one should start from the bottom and work up: that is, gain an intimate understanding of a specific community, develop a solution that meets their needs, and then look for opportunities to generalize. Starting with three different communities with vaguely similar goals seems doomed to failure.

There was also a concern with the size of the team. About half of us felt that the team was too large and would benefit from a split. After discussing the issue as a group, we decided to stick it out. Since Chris ended up dropping the class, we are now much more comfortable with our 5-person size.

Gari made a good point the other day: we were all attracted to the Beehive project in the first place due to its perceived openness and freedom. However, this attraction had forced us into a tough position in which we were more pressed to provide a rigorous definition to the task before us. After meeting with my team several times over the last two weeks and talking with our community contact in Malawi, most of my worries have subsided and I am now confident that we have conjured a project sufficiently relevant, practical, and valuable. I look forward to working on it in the days ahead.