Nithya Sambasivan, UC , IrvineEd Cutrell, Microsoft Research IndiaKentaro Toyama, UC, Berkeley

ViralVCDTracing Information-Diffusion Paths with Low Cost Media in Developing Communities

• ICT4D projects assess need, relevance, and scope for development

– Often community-centered

• Study technology penetration /use in a community

• Understand key players and dynamics of diffusion

• Surveys and interviews limited by lack of in-situmonitoring

• Experience sampling and probes fail to scale in communities

The problem

• A low-cost, rapid data elicitation technique for low-income contexts

• Employs physical media and mobile phone questionnaires

• Gathers data that is:

– Social: networks underpinning diffusion

– Technological: ownership, access, and usage

– Developmental: assessment of baseline

• Combines probes and snowball sampling

– Contextualized in technology use

– Caters to local practices

Enter ViralVCD

• Preliminary ethnographic study in 2 slums in Bangalore, India (female domestic workers)

• Total: 7 slums in deployment

• In collaboration with NGOs

• Topics for conversation: healthcare and education

• 30 / 64 households owned a DVD player

The site

The process

Participatory videos + VCDs

Screenings Mobile call-in contest

Diffusion

• Useful and interesting content

– 13 minutes at most

– Showcase local practices to other communities

– But a lens into its own diffusion

• Observation of a subset of social networks

– Interested in “development”

Participatory videos

Conducted a cooking contest•Openly competitive

Nutritive cooking

•Local knowledge

Nutritive cooking

•Taste and nutrition as criteria

Childhood education•Role play between two non-literate women

Dissemination•Screenings, 2-3 VCDs per person

98411 21111

ப ோன்

ண்ணுங்க!

ಫೋನ್ ಮಾಡಿ!

Call-in contest•Missed calls, researcher calls back

Call-in contest•Entertainment idiom

Call-in contest•Entertainment idiom

• We determined

– Unique identifier / photo

– Socio-economic profile and baseline

– Source of VCD (person received from)

– Unique content-related question

• Correct answers

– Utilitarian incentive (bed sheets or utensils)

– Varied experimental conditions to test effects

• They then pass the VCD to someone else

– Contest ended in a week

Call-in contest

Results• Gave 131 VCDs to 64 attendees

• Call response: 31.25% (50 unique callers)

Social insightsMicro-level

• Two forms of diffusion

– Peer-to-peer (A→B→C)

– Actor-driven (A→ (B and C)).

Macro-level

• Diffusion reflected social solidarity

• Helped understand relationships in an ecology

Technological insights• Understand in-situ usage

• 50% of callers had proximate access (neighborhood access)

• All mobile, except for 4 pay phones

• Strong correlation between owing mobiles and DVD players

Developmental insights• Development extensions

• Contest at the end necessitated viewing of videos

• No difference in diffusion across income levels

Opportunities• Provided a direct interview opportunity

• Identify key players in communities

• Assess the socio-technical makeup of the setting.

• Across income levels, with appropriate incentive

• Medium technological penetration may be sufficient

• Identify and recruit peers of the same stratum, possibly across communities.

Conclusion• Avoided additional infrastructure

• Helped us understand

– Social networks

– Technological access and ownership

– Developmental baseline

• Could use other pervasive technologies

– Cassettes or notebooks

• More broadly applicable to CHI

OK ta-ta bye-bye!Please refer to the paper for a lengthier discussion of method and results.