Accidental appropriate technologies

by kiwanja

#1: The Amazon Kindle

While growing numbers of people in the development sector get increasingly excited at the potential of tablet computing for health, agriculture, education and other development activities, it’s the Amazon Kindle that’s been exciting me recently. The irony is, without really trying, Amazon have built something which more closely resembles an appropriate technology than other organisations who have specifically gone out to try and build one.

So, what makes the Kindle so special?

It’s light, relatively rugged, and mobile
Ten days reading time on one charge
One month ‘standby’ time between charges
Solar panel cover option removes the need for mains charging
Built-in dictionary and thesaurus
Display can be read in bright sunlight
Internal storage for up to 200 books
No need for the Internet once books are loaded
Text-to-speech for illiterate/semi-literate users
Costs continue to come down
Remote delivery of books and materials (local wi-fi permitting)

Of course, I’m not the first person to notice this. A year or two ago the highlight of an ICT4D conference I attended was a short video showing children in West Africa using Amazon Kindles. I’ll never forget how they interacted with the devices, and what having access to one meant to them and their hopes of an education. Not many technologies give us these little glimpses of magic.

Imagine, all the books a child would ever need to see them through their basic education, all packed into a ~$100 device.

The people behind that video were from Worldreader.org, an organisation whose mission is to “make digital books available to all in the developing world, enabling millions of people to improve their lives”.

We often say in mobiles-for-development that today most people in the developing world will make their first phone call on a mobile, and have their first experience of the Internet on one, too. Perhaps children, in the not-too-distant future, will have their first experience of reading on an e-reader?

88 comments

1 Ken Banks { 01.30.12 at 5:28 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
2 Christopher Neu { 01.30.12 at 5:30 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
3 Samantha Burton { 01.30.12 at 5:34 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
4 Samantha Burton { 01.30.12 at 5:34 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
5 Bernard Njenga { 01.30.12 at 5:37 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
6 Bernard Njenga { 01.30.12 at 5:37 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
7 changefeed { 01.30.12 at 5:44 pm }: ->@kiwanja: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/HntMPyTK
8 Tanvi Goila { 01.30.12 at 5:48 pm }: RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/v7ybhKFg
9 IREX Media { 01.30.12 at 5:49 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
10 Fr@nthro { 01.30.12 at 6:02 pm }: #anthro blog post: Accidental appropriate technologies: #1: The Amazon Kindle While growing numbers of people in… http://t.co/oECPJFeZ
11 D.P.Spender { 01.30.12 at 6:13 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
12 Sam Hall { 01.30.12 at 6:31 pm }: #anthro blog post: Accidental appropriate technologies: #1: The Amazon Kindle While growing numbers of people in… http://t.co/oECPJFeZ
13 Mugendi M'Rithaa { 01.30.12 at 7:00 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
14 Dan Elitzer { 01.30.12 at 7:44 pm }: The Amazon Kindle: an accidental appropriate technology http://t.co/6WkYPj06 #it4d #intldev
15 Mehri { 01.30.12 at 7:45 pm }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
16 Audette Bruce { 01.30.12 at 9:29 pm }: RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/ekBW8XR4
17 NoelDickover { 01.30.12 at 10:07 pm }: Amazon Kindle is great for ICT4D RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/pv697joo
18 Marissa K.E. Rollens { 01.30.12 at 10:17 pm }: Future of embassy outreach, already in a few African countries. Amazon Kindle is great for ICT4D http://t.co/WZoxkCPi (via @noeldickover)
19 Liberationtech { 01.31.12 at 3:30 am }: RT @kiwanja: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/CqBcex3t #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
20 Kent Peterson { 01.31.12 at 3:40 am }: RT @kiwanja: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/CqBcex3t #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
21 Ari Katz { 01.31.12 at 5:52 am }: Hmm, wonder abt copyright issues – easy to download books in Africa? RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/me0UF1zO
22 Guillaume du Toit { 01.31.12 at 7:01 am }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
23 Guillaume du Toit { 01.31.12 at 7:01 am }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
24 Agnes Lesage-Possolo { 01.31.12 at 8:26 am }: "Accidental Appropriate Technologies – #1: The Amazon Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #appropriate #technology #elearning #ICT4D
25 Simon Colmer { 01.31.12 at 9:09 am }: Good to hear, as the IDS Knowledge Services has also been thinking along the same lines too.

Having developed an API (http://api.ids.ac.uk) to our datasets (which include tens of thousands of thematically organised resources, primarily academic research, on development issues that are freely available online), we are now looking at ways of packaging “resource guides” on topical, relevant development themes for viewing on Kindles and other handheld devices.

Simon Colmer
Information Projects Officer
Institute of Development Studies
@simon_ids
26 kiwanja { 01.31.12 at 10:07 am }: @Simon – Thanks for that! Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to seeing the resources when they come out.
27 Ken Banks { 01.31.12 at 10:11 am }: How Amazon succeeded where many others failed. "Accidental Appropriate Technologies: The Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #ICT4D
28 Sunil Garg { 01.31.12 at 10:17 am }: How Amazon succeeded where many others failed. "Accidental Appropriate Technologies: The Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #ICT4D
29 Eric Couper { 01.31.12 at 10:31 am }: Re: “Remote delivery of books and materials (***local wi-fi permitting***)”

It even goes beyond local wifi. Amazon’s partnership with telecoms world-wide means that students in at least a few developing countries (notably Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, and India) can access content without wifi (assuming they have 3G versions). Let’s hope the coverage map continues to expand. Here’s Amazon’s most recent map:

http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab
30 kiwanja { 01.31.12 at 10:40 am }: @Eric – Great point, Eric. I was assuming the cheaper “wi-fi only” version in my post but forgot the 3G option. It certainly makes an even more interesting proposition.
31 Matt Berg { 01.31.12 at 11:17 am }: Ken,

Agree the kindle is amazing engineering. I think you could also just say the ereaders in general will be great for development. The kobo readers is equally well designed and robust in my opinion.

My only knock on the kindle its a bit more proprietary and can’t how into a backend that’s not amazon. It does support mobi files so maybe that will be the chosen platform for education.

End of the day I think we will see a supervision cheap $20-30 ereader hopefully with the ability to plug into an open backend for disseminating information.

Thanks for the post!

Matt
32 Schuyler Erle { 01.31.12 at 11:22 am }: How Amazon succeeded where many others failed. "Accidental Appropriate Technologies: The Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #ICT4D
33 kiwanja { 01.31.12 at 11:25 am }: @Matt – Thanks for that, Matt. Totally agree that other e-readers likely fall into the same category (it’s just that I own a Kindle so was speaking from experience – I’d love to get a Kobo and any others out there to play with). A $20-$30 open hardware/software e-reader with similar specs would be really interesting. Here’s hoping we see one in the not-too-distant future. We already have the $35 Aakash tablet from India, after all.
34 Rudy De Waele { 01.31.12 at 1:06 pm }: How Amazon succeeded where many others failed. "Accidental Appropriate Technologies: The Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #ICT4D
35 siid.org { 01.31.12 at 4:47 pm }: Let us know what you think http://t.co/qt00dGgq
36 TechChange { 01.31.12 at 5:41 pm }: Great thoughts on why the #Kindle is good for #development- Accidental appropriate technologies | http://t.co/By5LEmtO #ict4d @kiwanja
37 Development P&P { 01.31.12 at 5:43 pm }: How Amazon succeeded where many others failed. "Accidental Appropriate Technologies: The Kindle". http://t.co/6oAPZPCf #ICT4D
38 Elleni { 01.31.12 at 6:20 pm }: Great thoughts on why the #Kindle is good for #development- Accidental appropriate technologies | http://t.co/By5LEmtO #ict4d @kiwanja
39 Ruha { 01.31.12 at 7:56 pm }: Great thoughts on why the #Kindle is good for #development- Accidental appropriate technologies | http://t.co/By5LEmtO #ict4d @kiwanja
40 Development Gateway { 01.31.12 at 9:17 pm }: Amazon Kindle is an “accidental appropriate technology” for development. | @kiwanja http://t.co/Of2dcXQl #ICT4D
41 Jack Townsend { 01.31.12 at 9:26 pm }: Amazon Kindle is an “accidental appropriate technology” for development. | @kiwanja http://t.co/Of2dcXQl #ICT4D
42 Madeleine Lawrence { 01.31.12 at 9:38 pm }: Amazon Kindle is an “accidental appropriate technology” for development. | @kiwanja http://t.co/Of2dcXQl #ICT4D
43 Isidre Sala { 01.31.12 at 9:43 pm }: Amazon Kindle is an “accidental appropriate technology” for development. | @kiwanja http://t.co/Of2dcXQl #ICT4D
44 Roberto Borlini { 01.31.12 at 11:38 pm }: Kiwanja, I have a kindle and I am loving it. But I am not sure how appropriate it is for kids in developing countries. My perplexities have to do with the price and versatility of the machine. Kindles are still very expensive (80$) for what they deliver. As far as e-readers kindles are great, but they don’t do anything else and the price barrier is such than only with a huge donor intervention it would be impossible to distribute them in large enough numbers. Surfing the web, social networking and emailing are painful experiences on a kindle. So basically what you get is a 1400-books library (I think that’s the estimated storage space on the device): probably more than you would need in a lifetime. What is missing though is the ability to access the Internet, find the information you need in any specific moment, interact with other people, receive and send information. In one word, as a development tool the kindle seems to belong to a different era, when books were the only source of knowledge and learning was a rigidly defined process. Nowadays you can learn more in 1 hour in an internet cafè than in weeks in school. My worry is that a device like the kindle would increase the knowledge gap instead of helping to reduce it.
45 Christopher R. Albon { 02.01.12 at 2:12 am }: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/rHWnhX0y via @prismatic
46 George Darroch { 02.01.12 at 2:29 am }: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/rHWnhX0y via @prismatic
47 Catherine Klapperich { 02.01.12 at 2:31 am }: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/rHWnhX0y via @prismatic
48 Catherine Klapperich { 02.01.12 at 2:32 am }: Seriously RT @georgedarroch: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/fuiQlO0B via @prismatic
49 Innovation Network { 02.01.12 at 6:12 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies for international development. http://t.co/VVISM4C0 #IntDev
50 Dave Algoso { 02.01.12 at 10:11 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies — The Amazon Kindle http://t.co/iajnFKw2
51 AfricaTechmeme { 02.02.12 at 7:49 am }: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/W2e5aGTB via @kiwanja #trending
52 kiwanja { 02.02.12 at 8:41 am }: @Roberto – Thanks for your thoughts. I agree and disagree. I’m not sure if $80 is really that expensive given the typical expensive equipment development projects try to spread around the world. Assuming the books can be loaded at low cost this is probably cheaper overall than physical books over the course of a student’s lifetime. Versatility-wise, the Kindle is great because it just focusses on doing one thing, and one thing well. I think the tendency in development to think that convergence and multi-access devices are best isn’t always the right one. The Kindle sucks at web stuff because it’s not designed to do that. If it were to focus more on being a communications device then it would end up with a high resolutions (less power-efficient) screen, would then not have the long battery life it does now, would probably end up being more complex to use, would have use/cost/data access implications, and so on. I think it’s a reasonable compromise to focus on just being an e-reader and let phones, laptops and tablets battle it out for everything else.
53 appfrica { 02.03.12 at 8:56 am }: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/CPBeKHiP
54 Gretchen Wallace { 02.03.12 at 9:15 am }: Kindles in Africa: RT @appfrica: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/stkxNOCb
55 Erik Hersman { 02.03.12 at 9:36 am }: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/BOc1SdU1 (by @kiwanja)
56 Cedric Weber { 02.03.12 at 9:38 am }: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/BOc1SdU1 (by @kiwanja)
57 Wheels Media { 02.03.12 at 9:41 am }: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/BOc1SdU1 (by @kiwanja)
58 Di Tipping-Woods { 02.03.12 at 9:42 am }: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/BOc1SdU1 (by @kiwanja)
59 Jahazi Festival { 02.03.12 at 9:42 am }: RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/0aqVJUmi
60 Di Tipping-Woods { 02.03.12 at 9:43 am }: And if Amazon explored solar…RT @whiteafrican: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/i0neNdm8… (by…
61 Charlotta Liukas { 02.03.12 at 9:44 am }: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/BOc1SdU1 (by @kiwanja)
62 Steven Hall { 02.03.12 at 10:17 am }: Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/BOc1SdU1 (by @kiwanja)
63 pamthenomad { 02.03.12 at 10:49 am }: RT @whiteafrican Accidental appropriate technology – the Kindle: http://t.co/5ln9MKua (by @kiwanja)
64 paige cuffe { 02.03.12 at 3:16 pm }: RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/uFmmszhq
65 Ingrid Kopp { 02.03.12 at 4:32 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies (love this): http://t.co/JpTkTZOI
66 Valerie { 02.03.12 at 8:11 pm }: Kindles in Africa: RT @appfrica: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/stkxNOCb
67 Roberto Borlini { 02.04.12 at 9:41 pm }: @kiwanja: don’t take me wrong, the kindle is a great device, I agree 100% wih you. My concern is that in the developing contexts where I have worked, children use 1-2 books over the course of their studies. Providing them with a kindle would not make much of a difference. Good teachers receiving a decent salary seems to be a much more effective and sustainable “technology”.
68 kiwanja { 02.05.12 at 9:09 am }: @Roberto – Thanks for commenting. I’d have to agree that no technology can or should replace the teacher, but in the absence of enough of those, and an absence of physical books (for a variety of reasons) the Kindle may be a solution. Do children only use two books because that’s all they need, or because that’s all they can get hold of? I’d imagine the learning experience being considerably richer if they had access to more books, and books for pleasure (rather than just traditional education).
69 New media and development: changing discourse, thinking and action « The DiA Blog { 02.17.12 at 2:08 pm }: [...] However, this rapid and freely available spread of information is only one facet of new media that can benefit the subjects of development just as much as its practitioners. Amazon have developed a rugged, energy-efficient and increasingly cheap device which not only has the obvious feature of being able to download literature from anywhere (internet permitting) but also an inbuilt dictionary and text-to-speech functionality; accidently, the Kindle presents itself as an appropriate technology for the developing world. [...]
70 Ken Banks { 03.24.12 at 9:37 pm }: Updated my Amazon Kindle "appropriate technology" post to include solar covers. Now even more appropriate. http://t.co/6oAPZPCf
71 Jan Chipchase { 03.24.12 at 10:57 pm }: Accidental appropriate technology – The Kindle: http://t.co/mvQcquRH by @kiwanja {counter to the the tablets-everywhere-now argument
72 Nahum Gershon { 03.24.12 at 11:23 pm }: RT @janchip Accidental appropriate technology-The Kindle http://t.co/J3M8YiNx by @kiwanja counter 2the tablets-everywhere-now argument
73 paige cuffe { 03.25.12 at 5:32 pm }: We're getting closer! @kiwanja posted today on "appropriate technology" blog update: add solar cover to Amazon Kindle http://t.co/uFmmszhq
74 GlobalGiving { 03.26.12 at 3:39 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies: a solar-powered kindle cover?! http://t.co/fCNAfcSp @kiwanja @worldreaders #ICT4D
75 Audacious Innovators { 03.26.12 at 3:42 pm }: RT @TopsyRT: Accidental appropriate technologies http://t.co/o7N2JL4M
76 Worldreader { 03.26.12 at 3:47 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies: a solar-powered kindle cover?! http://t.co/fCNAfcSp @kiwanja @worldreaders #ICT4D
77 Amanda Mecke { 03.26.12 at 3:48 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies: a solar-powered kindle cover?! http://t.co/fCNAfcSp @kiwanja @worldreaders #ICT4D
78 Marlita H { 03.26.12 at 4:31 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies: a #solar-powered kindle cover?! http://t.co/shwICqlm via @GlobalGiving
79 Alexander Sulzberger { 03.27.12 at 4:17 pm }: Accidental appropriate technologies: a solar-powered kindle cover?! http://t.co/fCNAfcSp @kiwanja @worldreaders #ICT4D
80 Simon Davies { 03.28.12 at 7:15 am }: Updated my Amazon Kindle "appropriate technology" post to include solar covers. Now even more appropriate. http://t.co/6oAPZPCf
81 Video Clip of the Month: Free Mobile Books for Africa | eVentures in Cyberland { 05.03.12 at 3:07 am }: [...] Video Clip of the Month: Free Mobile Books for Africa May 2, 2012 By Monica Leave a Comment I first heard about nonprofit Worldreader—which gives Kindles to students with little access to printed books in rural sub-Saharan Africa—last January on the Build It Kenny They Will Come Blog…. The following line in the post really wowed me: [...]
82 Steve Vosloo { 09.26.12 at 1:50 pm }: @kiwanja article on Accidental Appropriate Technologies http://t.co/VYX3R3PP mentioned at #mlib12
83 Ken Banks { 09.26.12 at 2:00 pm }: @stevevosloo Thanks, Steve. Hopefully mentioned in a positive light. =) http://t.co/6oALsft5 #mlib12
84 Ken Banks { 12.13.12 at 2:46 pm }: @worldreaders Thanks. =) You may have missed it but I wrote about eReaders (and mentioned you) in an earlier post here. http://t.co/6oALsft5
85 Stephanie Zubcic PhD { 12.13.12 at 4:12 pm }: @worldreaders Thanks. =) You may have missed it but I wrote about eReaders (and mentioned you) in an earlier post here. http://t.co/6oALsft5
86 Holly Boardman { 12.13.12 at 10:09 pm }: RT @TopsyRT: Amazon Kindles- Accidental appropriate technologies for Africa http://t.co/oOjLLVJW @nneelley
87 Neelley Hicks { 12.13.12 at 10:30 pm }: Sometimes the best #ideas or #inventions come by #accident. http://t.co/aiDOJdSU #ICT4D #cellphones
88 Holly Boardman { 12.13.12 at 10:33 pm }: Sometimes the best #ideas or #inventions come by #accident. http://t.co/aiDOJdSU #ICT4D #cellphones