Tuesday 9th November, 2010
Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself drawn into an increasing number of conversations around how we apply models of growth and sustainability to m4d projects. A few early thoughts were posted last week in “Wrong model. Wrong place“. One symptom of “wrong model wrong place” is the number of pilots which fail to mature into full-blown projects. Another is an obsession with re-inventing wheels and rampant innovation. This post, originally written last June, tackles this issue specifically – and in light of current discussions seemed worth re-posting.
“At what point in the social mobile world do we stop building new things and take stock of what we already have? Is it time to do as we say – “find what works and get it into more hands”, or are we just saying what conference attendees and donors want to hear?
There are more parallels between the approach of “mobiles for development” practitioners and our “traditional development” counterparts than we care to admit. It seems that in a blind rush to innovate we’re borrowing a few too many bad habits from our developmental colleagues when we ought to be identifying and applying best practices. Some time ago, I raised a number of these issues in a challenging blog post entitled “Time to eat our own dog food?“.
Little has changed since then, and many people are already well into their second bowl.
As with the confusion caused by multiple interpretations of “sustainable development“, the social mobile space is struggling with its own definitions of concepts such as collaboration, empowerment, scale, “enabling environment” and “finding what works”. We hear these terms on a daily basis, yet we never stop to ask what they really mean. What does an “enabling environment” really look like, and do we really need one like people say we do? Who decides what scale really means, and how important scaling really is? We all nod in agreement when people use these terms at conferences, but refrain from questioning them through fear of appearing ignorant.
The “folly of finding what works” strikes particular resonance. Although mobiles for development has only been around for a few short years, surely by now we’ve identified at least a few things that work? Isn’t that the purpose of all these reports, blog posts, tweets, projects, conferences, workshops, barcamps and academic studies?
Without a shadow of a doubt we have fairly strong evidence that certain approaches and tools create real social change. The problem is that, once we identify them, rather than collaborate and “get what works out into more places” like we say we need to, we see a flurry of activity to build copy-cat tools and services. Very soon we’re going to have more crowd-sourcing tools, or SMS hubs, or community sites, or data collection tools, or toolkits, or fancy reports, or in-depth studies than we can throw a mobile at. Calls for ‘competition’ and a rich ecosystem are all very well, but not if it comes at the expense of the communities where these kinds of tools are desperately needed today.
After six years-or-so of social mobile, we’re surely at the point where we can throw some real resources around at least a few tools? Surely we can pool our collective skills, knowledge and resources into helping at least a few reach their full social change potential? Instead of sitting around talking about our commitment to social mobile, we need to show our true colours and act, regardless of who gets credit for those actions.
At the end of the day it comes down to this. If mobiles truly are as revolutionary and empowering as they appear to be – particularly in the lives of some of the poorest members of society – then it’s hard to argue against us having a moral duty – competition, ego and status aside – to see that they fulfill that potential.
Quite rightly we will ultimately be judged on what we do, not what we say. I, for one, spent the best part of my university years critiquing the efforts of those who went before me. Countless others have done the same. Looking to the future, how favourably will the students and academics of tomorrow reflect on our efforts? A wasted, or unnecessarily delayed opportunity?
Let’s hope not. The clock is ticking, though.”
->@kiwanja: The folly of “finding what works” http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
Things we should NOT say if we don’t mean them, aka the folly of “finding what works” at http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
Amen.
RT @kiwanja Blog: Social mobile media for development: using best, sustainable practices vs going “innovative” http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
Unintended consequences seem to abound today, @kiwanja: The folly of “finding what works” http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
RT @DGateway @kiwanja: The folly of “finding what works” http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4, or see building vs. buying http://snurl.com/kbdqm
I wish more people blogged about things like this, rather than banging on about how great everything is, i.e. all talk and no substance. Like you, I don’t think much is going to change any time soon, but we can try. I’m not a fan of dog food. 🙂
@Alanna – Thanks! Short and sweet, just like my last blog post. 😉
@Debbie_D – I think you’re right. At least talking about it and raising concerns might get some kind of conversation going. The stakes are high, and it starts to get tedious hearing the same language over and over again, but then seeing actions which actually impede the advance of tools that can help disadvantaged communities…
excellent post RT @kiwanja Things we should NOT say if we don’t mean them, aka the folly of “finding what works” http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
RT @paconmiller @kiwanja Things we should NOT say if we don’t mean them, aka the folly of “finding what works” http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
Thanks for all the retweets. Glad this struck a chord among some of you! Maybe others are in denial (or don’t agree)?!
YESYESYESYES RT @kiwanja: Things we should NOT say if we don’t mean them, aka the folly of “finding what works” at http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
RT @theresac RT @kiwanja: Things we should NOT say if we don’t mean them, aka the folly of “finding what works” at http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
@edjez We also need to make sure the community practices what they preach. Sound-bites are easy. http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
great blog post by @kiwanja http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4 – “The folly of “finding what works”
Innovat’n vs implementat’n RT @kiwanja Things we shld NOT say if we don’t mean them, the folly of finding wht wrks http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4
Great blog post. I’m still learning a lot about this area so sorry if these are obvious questions. How is the best way to find what works best for each community? Stats? Community leaders? Once there is a “best for…” list what is generally needed to maintain and advance those tools? Dev resource / money / more access to APIs / all of those and more? Thanks!
@clarehat – There’s no one-size-fits-all manual for this kind of stuff, unfortunately. You can read up on things that are going on out there (I write a lot about my own experiences in this blog), but often it’s all about working from the ground up, which is difficult if you’re not on the ground, on not working directly with people who are. Rather than trying to collect this kind of information as a starting point, I’d read as widely as you can and form your own opinions. Check out the mobile development category on my blog here for specific mobile-related thoughts
RT @kiwanja Using best, sustainable practices vs going innovative http://tinyurl.com/mpk8r4 #web2.0 ^jct
The post got me thinking a lot and brought back instances where what you’re saying here applies. I have documented my response to your post here (http://rishabhiscool.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-i-picked-up-from-folly-of-finding.html)
I’m interested to know, what triggered this post for you?
A little off tangent,
Because I have experienced the same thing. The few conferences that I have been to all seem to be saying the same thing. Strangely at times in some conferences about development, it also appears as if no one is really listening, but just waiting for the other person to finish talking so that they can speak (yes, the line is lifted from Fight Club 🙂 )
@Rishabh – Nice post in response to this. What triggered this for me? Seeing new projects after new building things that have already been largely done, with little or no sign of collaboration, despite what we read. At some point this has to stop, surely?
Good post. Although I don’t have any experience with mobile technology in aid, it really spoke to the experience I have had in aid in general. In looking for clear aid guidelines on aid I’m shocked with how little there is out there. The world has been doing formal international aid since 1863 and non-formal aid a lot longer, surely we should have developed and disseminated a wealth of guidelines by now.
it doesn’t matter (anymore) what you create, but how you create it and with whom. Time to investigate innovation processes for m4d?