Bill Tucker The Message We don’t have the luxury of carrying out Computer Science research without considering the Digital Divides in which we live It is possible to perform research that Applies to and engages communities Adheres to academic rigour It’s all happening right here in the First Mile!

Bill Tucker Who is this guy, anyway? University of the Western Cape Computer Science Senior Lecturer BANG: 6 Masters students Currently on sabbatical University of Cape Town PhD student Socially Aware Computing: 2 Masters + me

Bill Tucker Dealing with Digital Divide Delay Bandwidth differential System and service overhead Power outages Typing speed

Bill Tucker Instant Messaging Inspiration Low bandwidth Resilient to delay Applicable to store and forward Extendable to other modalities, e.g. voice, video and Virtual Reality Engenders social dynamics with a very simple interface, e.g. chat rooms

Bill Tucker Digitally Divided User Interfaces Disadvantaged, IT-illiterate users Adantaged, IT-literate users Human Computer Interface (HCI) issues are different for these two broad classes of users E.g. sister in Tsilitwa communicating with an international expert E.g. Deaf Telephony: Hearing and Deaf users

Bill Tucker Disparate Devices PC Handset: phone and cell PDA Laptops Tablet TVs and radios

Bill Tucker Oh so many Network technologies Internet Protocol (IP) VoIP, IPv6, ADSL, ISDN, abg, WiFi, Bluetooth, ATM, H.323, SIP, MGCP, VSAT, HF, VHF, GSM, GPRS, CDMA, CDMA2000, etc.

Bill Tucker Methodologies Action Research Positivism Fundamentally philosophically opposite Common ground: field trials Example field trials Tsilitwa rural telehealth Automated Deaf telephony

Bill Tucker The Message Rammed Home We don’t have the luxury of conducting Computer Science research without direct consideration and inclusion of Digital Divide issues A combination of research methodologies enables this to happen Particularly applicable to network and HCI research Within the First Mile of Digital Divide environments

Bill Tucker Partners University of the Western Cape University of Cape Town Telkom Cisco NRF, THRIP SANPAD Bridges.org Siemens Rhodes University University of Fort Hare