The Other 90%
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I saw a blog post that mentioned that we build software for the richest 10% of the world, ignoring the other 90%. There's actually a link to a site: Design For the Other 90%.
I'd agree with that and it's simple. The 10% are the richest and can therefore pay for the software. It's the same for infrastructure, housing, food, etc. In some cases, this is fundamentally bad. How can we price drugs, life saving, preventative drugs, for the world's richest 10% and leave out the 90% below them?
I know some companies try and sell things at different prices in different countries and then depend on trade restrictions to ensure that only those that truly need the discount get the discount. It's not a bad plan and it seems to get cheaper drugs into other countries. It also gets people complaining in the US that we pay too much, but to some extent we're subsidizing drugs for poorer people, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
There are some cool projects listed in the education section (solar home lighting, one laptop per child, etc), but I didn't see much in terms of software. I know there are lots of Open Source software projects out there that can be used and are free or low cost, but there are probably some great opportunities here for new designs and ideas in software that might help benefit the poorer 90% of the world. Practical projects, educational projects, etc. could all use help.
Maybe this is even a good place for some of the large software companies to use interns, or give sabbaticals, or some other type of help for the rest of the world. I completely understand the need to make a profit and run a business, but as you get successful, it's also an opportunity to give back to the world that gave you your opportunity.
Maybe in this one place we can learn something from lawyers and all the pro-bono work they do.
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There are projects to help with that. The K12LTSP (K - 12th Grade Linux Terminal Server Project) which is a software package for schools.
There are other packages as well, many of which are Open Source like some of the study tools for foreign languages that come with many linux distributions (I run Kubuntu and it comes with Latin Adviser, Spanish Verbforms quiz and drill software and a Japanese Reference / Study tool.)
There is also mathematical drill software. And Astronomy software to explore the Universe in three dimensions (Celestia), as well as star charts as visible from the earth (KStars - The Desktop Planetarium).
These are just a few examples that came with my Linux distribution and many of these, if they don't come with your Linux distribution, can be easily downloaded from the Internet.
But this is only the software. Development efforts in the Open Source community allow almost anyone world-wide to participate in one form or another. Some of it is funded by the 10% here (IBM and HP come to mind), but the government has funded a lot as well that has benefited the world. TCP/IP as a network protocol and the Internet in general.
Translations of many software packages are on-going to help spread the software, especially to third world countries.
If you want to look at software, Sourceforge (http://SourceForge.net) is one place to look.
Tim
Timothy J. Bruce
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Unless I read the wrong blog post, Steve, it advocated that we design for the other 90% not ignore them. There was a quote that currently designers, not strictly software designers, are focusing their efforts on developing for the richest 10% and that a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%. This is quite different from saying we should ignore 90% of the world and focus on the richest 10%.
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Perhaps your pro-bono suggestion could be combined with a site similar to Donors Choose. Donors Choose is designed for teachers to propose projects they need but which their schools can't afford, and then anyone who wants to give (called "Citizen Philanthropists") can help donate to the total needed. This way, no one person needs to pay for the whole thing.
Collecting money in this way has been very popular, since it gives people a feeling of commitment to the project they choose, and they feel that they have made a contribution to specific people's lives.
Such a site made for the international community could get donations in time, money, or hardware from IT professionals anywhere in the world (though likely drawn from the 10%) who would install the products or help provide instructions and training (if not the code or hardware itself).
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html -
I'm not sure where I said we should design for just the 10% that are the richest. I think I was making a point that we should design for the other 90% where we can, helping them to enjoy a better life.
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It might be a matter of cart-before-the-horse.
Where life issues are water, food, shelter, disease fighting and political stability, software is of little importance.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I might also add that even though software may be high priced in the richer parts of the world, this creates opportunity for developers in the developing world to create products locally, reflecting local pricing and needs. In the long run, this will actually help employment and tech development in these areas
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I remember a conversation that I had with a senior VP at a former employer. I was trying to make the point that since we only delt with customers that already had software from one of the big 5 ERP system vendors that we were limiting our marketing opportunities. There are so many smaller companies that need the expertise that we provided. Now I work for a company doing just that.
It's the same sort of thing. I do uinderstand the fear. Do you have one client at 700 grand a year or a thousand clients at 7 grand each? The thought of having to support a thousand clients can be daunting to some.
But then look at the one person shops that kick out useful tools at 50 bucks a crack, or 7 dollars, that have to have millions of users. If the tools are good you likely will never hear from most of them.
ATBCharles Kincaid
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There are definitely more important things than software, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't contribute in our area.
I tend to like the 1000 @ $700 model rather than the 1 @ $700,000. Too easy to compromise yourself and your ideals with the latter.
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I hope they did not do the following computation on one of those $100 laptops, else there will be big problems down the road:
" Of the worlds total population of 6.5 billion, close to 53.8 billion, or 90%, have little or..."
oops.
But I would say that software means little to those still trying to get basic survival and daily needs meet. That is where the real help is needed. Only after safe water, housing, food and a stable local economy (no matter how small) is established that you can then begin to expand and learn.
I somewhat disagree that large successful companies need to provide free support or "give back". That expense usually comes at the expense of their customers who pay for it in higher fees. Even if they an write it off tax wise, then it's the taxpayer that has to make it up. I don't have an answer, just an observation.
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The trouble is, it is the 10% that has the money to spend on the cutting-edge products that provide the funds for the continuing R&D that makes the products better and cheaper so the other 90% are finally able to afford them. I own four cars but every one I bought used. When I get them with 40k+ miles on them, they are still better than the new cars I bought back in the 1970s and, accounting for inflation, much cheaper. Plus the fact that computerized manufacturing, shipping, inventory, etc. brings the price of all products down. The 90% receive benefits from advanced software and hardware without having a computer in their homes or in their laps.
Beware of programs implemented just for the sake of posturing ("Look at me, I'm doing something to help the poor!") More often than not, such programs are actually counterproductive. If you want to really help the poor, keep working hard so you don't end up swelling their ranks.
Giving a poor person a computer is like giving a drowning person a towel. Thanks, but he has other concerns at the moment.
Tomm Carr
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Version Normal Form -- http://groups.google.com/group/vrdbms -
How about software loaded onto the $100 laptops that contain strategies for shelters, solar-ovens, fresh water practices etc.
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Before the laptop comes:
Need to be able to read first
Need to eat before reading
Need to have shelter and clothes before reading
Need some type of economy to support eating and shelter before reading
Need to read to use laptop after all other needs are meet
Laptop and technology not the first solution but part of the resolution.
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"Beware of programs implemented just for the sake of posturing ('Look at me, I'm doing something to help the poor!') More often than not, such programs are actually counterproductive. If you want to really help the poor, keep working hard so you don't end up swelling their ranks."
I don't think it matters whether a person thinks he is posturing (although I think most people are sincere in wanting to help others). I think it matters more whether the progam is well thought out.
Naturally, most of the poor people in the world want food, water, and shelter, and couldn't use computers directly even if they were handed one. The place for computer assistance, I think, is at a higher level of helping countries improve their infrastructures with computer technology.
But even if helping via software and computers is not the way to go, an initiative such as Donors Choose could collect money for projects to give towns drinking water, or basic housing and plumbing, or medicine, or ways to get more food from the land, etc. If even 1 million people gave $10 each, that would be $10 million to give those things to people. And the more permanent the donation (such as a house), the more their lives would be helped so they could move beyond subsistence level.
Also, I certainly understand that it helps to work so one doesn't become poor, but it would also help if people were not so greedy. If the rich wanted to help the poor, they could donate their 7th Audi to raise money for the poor nations of the world.
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html -
I agree with Jay, Bob and Tomm on the cart/horse dilemma. We'd be better off sending carts and horses than computers to the other 90%...
Why has nobody decried the lack of refrigerators and washers and dryers and dishwashers in the rest of the world? Most of my inlaws in Pakistan don't have air conditioning, either!! (A few have computers but no air conditioning which reflects different priorities than my own.) I have seen a number of pictures of satellite dishes on mud huts and Bedouin tents, so don't count the third world out completely... If a person wants something badly enough, he'll earn the requisite coin to afford it.
The funny thing about technology is that it isn't necessarily distributed to the markets that can pay the most first. Most of Asia has better mobile technology than the States; maybe they're test markets or maybe they have a bigger need with no heavily leveraged POTS network.
My brother had some amusing comments about his tour and half in Korea... He said that if you see a Korean without a cell phone that you're looking at a deaf person. I still meet people in the US who have no cell phone and no email. We had a woman over for dinner @ Fort Reed last night who doesn't own a personal computer of her own... and she's in technical sales of industrial cable and wire.
Developers Without Borders doesn't exist, but I might join it for giggles someday if it did... Sounds like a free vacation! Do they need "free" developer time in Barcelona or Rio? Are Uncle Bill and Uncle Warren footing the expenses' bill?
Since there is a plethora of geeks willing to donate "free" 1s and 0s just look at FreshMeat and SourceForge and somebody somewhere is wasting his time writing what you don't want to pay someone else for. But their UIs suxxor as a rule. Since we're talking about "design" not development then you need to convince the hairdressers and flower arrangers in the UX community (of which there are fewer than there are coders) to give away their time for free (or press them into service at gun point). But that doesn't address the cart/horse problem... not to mention electricity.
Seriously, I think it's been too long since somebody read his obligatory Adam Smith...
Where did all this unwarranted guilt come from anyway?! An affluenza epidemic! Run for the hills!! I guess it was overdue for the overpaid IT monkeys. Inevitable.
[Did I miss anybody or was I successful at offending everyone? Heh.]
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