Digital Inclusion

Clearing the obstacles

?’s

Too difficult

• Windows dominated • Apple and Android

• (intuitive???) • 17% apps malicious

• Linux (free and highly secure)

1. Simplify Access• Build a system that works at two levels –

beginners and advanced• Focus on what people use most of the time• Get rid of complex desktops• Use words rather than icons• Large design

The ENVELOPE

2. Simplify Learning• Quick hits then develop at own pace• Put users in charge of their own learning

– Training on tap– Jargon free– Video tutorials on key applications– Written support– Telephone support

3. Simplify Delivery

• Loaded onto new computers

• Download onto: • Windows computer• Android Tablets• mini TV-PC

Reduce Cost

• 2 million + computers discarded every year

• Large numbers in good working order• Contribution to reducing computer

waste mountains now largely dumped at sea or in developing countries.

Does it work?

The unspoken challenge

• The last obstacle to overcome is:

»US

US We tend to look at obstacles from the perspective of the included

looking in on the excluded. We measure their obstacles and then devise policies that are designed to overcome their resistance. But we haven’t looked closely enough at the obstacles that we impose on non users and beginners. I would argue that for all the effort that has gone into dealing with exclusion in the last 5 or 6 years that we have not done a very good job. We rarely look at the obstacles that we impose.

– Limited by our own experience• The techie – lack empathy • Our own forgetfulness

– The library service – inflexible– A belief that complexity is good– Limit the perspective on solutions to what we know– We are part of an establishment – the digital inclusion industry – that is in

danger of designing policies that unknowingly continue to exclude because of the baggage we carry.