Daily updates on what I’m reading. Links with my notes. I also just tweet links and things that interest me @dina
- Safe water: extended user testing | interesting longitudinal ethnographic approach to design by @pathtweets – CLIPs: “PATH “road tests” household water treatment products in India … One of the primary challenges in developing a household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) product for households earning between $1 and $5 a day is a lack of understanding of how, when, why, and by whom such products might be used—or not used—in real life. Even in India, where HWTS products have achieved some market penetration among lower-income households, few developers have had an opportunity to watch households interact with the product, use it, clean it, repair it, and, in some cases, abandon it—and even fewer know how or why. ….. To develop successful household water treatment products for low-income settings, designers must understand how families use them. These six video clips (shown in a continuous loop) highlight some of what we learned from 20 households’ experiences.”
- Techtree.com India >Rural Internet Usage in India Soars | via @sunil_abraham – CLIP: According to recent research jointly conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB), the total number of rural Internet users in India has grown to 5.4 million in 2010 as compared to 3.3 million in 2008. While the number might not be impressive considering the population of the country, let us remind you that this number actually translates to a growth of 30 per cent in the number of rural Internet users over the previous years. Note that these numbers are for “active” Internet users who have been online or have logged in over the past 30 days. According to the data collected in 2009, as much as 67 percent of users in rural India access the Internet for music and video content. Rural users also use the Internet for educational purposes and for finding information using search engines. A lesser, but still significant number of users used the net for learning about new farming techniques…..”
- The Asian Innovation Century? – Scott Anthony – @HarvardBiz – CLIP: “When people asked me why I was moving to Asia, my response was simple: I’m in the innovation field, so I’m following the action. One Silicon Valley venture capitalist questioned my decision. “I’m willing to bet that 90 percent of the game-changing companies that emerge over the next decade will come from within a 10 mile radius of where I am sitting right now,” he said. .. Two-thirds of the 139 companies that made the most recent “Most Innovative” lists from Fast Company, BusinessWeek, Technology Review, and the World Economic Forum, hail from the United States. …But after being in Asia for six months, I’m more convinced than ever that the VC had it wrong. As the West faces the prospect of a double-dip recession, Asian companies like BYD, the Tata Group, Li & Fung, UNILAB, Bharti Airtel, Alibaba.com, Asus, and Tencent are pioneering transformational paths. I’ve met a number of bright-eyed entrepreneurs who are well on their way to creating tomorrow’s great growth companies…
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I agree, Asia has the largest population of humans in it, so that’s where the action is bound to come from.