UbiComp4D: Infrastructure and Interaction for International
Development—the Case of Urban Indian Slums
Nithya Sambasivan*, Nimmi Rangaswamy+, Ed Cutrell#, and Bonnie Nardi*
Department of Informatics*
University of California
Irvine CA 92617
{nsambasi, nardi}@uci.edu
Microsoft Research India+
Sadashivanagar
Bangalore, India 560080
nimmir@microsoft.com
Microsoft Research#
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
cutrell@microsoft.com
ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to re-imagine ubiquitous computing
for populations in low-income and information-
challenged environments. We examine information
infrastructures in mid-sized urban slums of Mumbai and
Bangalore in three ways—1) highlighting technologies
supporting social networks, 2) examining underlying
notions of trust and privacy in building information
networks, and 3) discussing protocols and practices
around shared access. We then discuss our thoughts on
designing for low-income, low-literacy, and resource-
challenged communities, presenting new ways to think
about the design of ubiquitous technologies for
international development. We argue for collaborative
exchange between the established strengths of the
Information and Communication Technologies for
Development (ICT4D) and UbiComp communities to
generate new ways of shaping technologies towards
poverty alleviation in previously neglected socio-
economic contexts—UbiComp4D.
Author Keywords
ICT4D, India, mobile technologies, urban slums, low-
income communities, trust, privacy, UbiComp4D
General Terms
Human Factors
ACM Classification Keywords
H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g.,
HCI)—Miscellaneous.
INTRODUCTION
An estimated 3 billion people, making up almost half of
the world, live on less than $2.50 a day [1]. A billion are
illiterate, and 900 million face food insecurity [2]. Urban
migration is one of the root causes of accelerated poverty.
Burgeoning megacities (populations of 8 million and
above) and hyper-cities (populations of 20 million and
above) attract thousands of migrants by the day, owing to
the promise of socio-economic mobility [8]. In cities like
Mumbai and Bangalore, urban planning and land pricing
have led to acute stress in low-income populations,
forcing them into slum dwellings in specific geographical
locations. These slum settlements, also known as shanty-
towns, favellas, or townships, provide housing to a billion
people across the world [3]. We believe that information
and communication technologies (ICTs) can be adopted
to fight poverty and its consequences in these locations.
Specifically, given the population density and urban
context, ubiquitous computing tools may prove
particularly effective for international development in
these environments.
The field of UbiComp has traditionally explored solutions
for (wealthy) western audiences and contexts. However,
the use of computational devices has steadily penetrated
into the developing world and largely ignored by
UbiComp research. Understanding the use and
appropriation of technologies in such places is critical to
understanding how billions of people may use and benefit
from ICTs in the future. We introduce and explore the
fusion of international development and ubiquitous
computing in resource-crunched and unstable technology
environments—UbiComp4D. We define this as “the
application of ubiquitous computing in addressing
poverty-related issues.” This intersection can enable low-
cost, robust technological solutions in resource-
constrained environments. It can have radical implications
for ubiquitous technologies moving away from seamlessly
wired environments to digitally unstable ecologies.
Weiser’s original vision of UbiComp called for an
invisible, seamless, and ubiquitous set of computational
components that allow for information processing in
everyday objects and activities [32]. Fourteen years later,
Bell and Dourish argued for a messy “UbiComp of the
present,” examining high-tech, high-income ubiquitous
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environments in Korea and Singapore [5]. This messiness
is evidenced in the hybrid nature of information networks
in urban slums in metropolitan India.
Traditionally, social networks evolve through informal
communication and social exchanges. Information
infrastructures are created around everyday requirements
for work, education, health, mobility, and entertainment,
and the mobile phone has emerged as the forerunner in
binding and expanding existing networks. In addition,
other domestic technologies, such as DVD players and
television sets, are enthusiastically embraced throughout
these settings. We report findings from investigations in
three low-income slum communities—Behram Baug in
Mumbai, and Nakalbandi and Ragigudda in Bangalore—
to present glimpses of existing practices with
technologies, and to highlight the role of UbiComp in
development.
This paper is organized as follows. After a brief
discussion of related literature, we describe the
information ecologies in slum habitats. We present three
vignettes to highlight the interplay of information
ecologies, social networks, and technology usage. We
then unpack privacy and trust, diffusion agents who
catalyze information diffusion and technology adoption,
and negotiations in shared usage in these environments.
Finally, we discuss some design implications for
UbiComp4D, such as designing for human mediators, low
costs, disruptions, and community, and the need for
including development in the agenda of UbiComp.
RELATED WORK
ICT4D
ICT4D (ICTs for Development) is an emerging research
area concerned with twin challenges of addressing
Millennium Development Goals, and designing
technologies for resource-constrained environments.
Innovations in this area address healthcare [28],
agriculture [13], and education [20], to name a few. ICTs
such as television, in combination with human info-
mediation, are optimized for use in projects such as
Digital Green [13]. Networking technologies, such as
wireless protocols, have undergone major overhaul, in
projects like DakNet [31]. Finally, there has been
interesting work in user-centered design for development,
e.g., user interfaces for non-literate users [25].
Mobile Phones and Development
Mobile phones are often touted as the most promising
platforms for ICT4D, owing to their tremendous uptake in
low-income communities in the “global South.”
Explorations such as MILLEE [20] and Healthline [28]
have targeted development problems by innovating
applications for the mobile phones. Jensen has tracked
economic benefits to the poor through the mobile phone,
notably in a study on fishermen of Kerala [18].
Sociological studies addressing the fit of mobile phones to
development point to a range of techno-social
innovations—“missed calls” or “flashing” [27], and
circulation and sharing of mobile phones [6]. Previous
research has also studied the changes to social and
business networks through mobile phones, including in
India [12] and Jamaica [15].
Information Ecologies and Infrastructures
The field of UbiComp has had a long-standing interest in
infrastructures. Mainwaring et al. document the role of
existing infrastructures in enabling, enforcing, or
frustrating individuals and groups [24]. They contend that
Ubiquitous computing is a vision of infrastructure that can
be physical or social / interpersonal installations. We find
a relevant and useful construct in “information
ecologies”—systems of people, practices, values, and
technologies in a particular local environment [25].
Ecologies denote continuous evolution and influences that
shape and direct technologies and settings of use. These
ecologies incorporate policies, social values, politics,
legislature, and economic formations. We also extend the
notion of infrastructure to “communication ecology,”
borrowing from communication research, referring to “the
processes that describe people communicating with others
through extended social networks comprising a mix of
face-to-face, media and communication technologies”
[30]. While maintaining a technology focus, this allows us
to include multiple communication devices and extend
inquiry into multiple social contexts that govern the act of
communication itself. Thus, communication ecologies are
not simply technologies or communication acts but a
range of human activities and clusters that facilitate them.
METHODOLOGY
A Tale of Two Cities
We report from ethnographic studies of Mumbai and
Bangalore slums. In Mumbai, we focus on the
organization of social resources and information critical
to maintain employment for persons managing enterprises
requiring low capital (e.g., small shops or services). In
Bangalore, we focus on domestic labor, as a profession
and chore, and organization of space and resources. In
order to focus solely on technological use and provide
inspiration for design, we exclude gender differences
factoring into technology ownership and use. The
overlapping domains of domesticity and livelihood in
low-income communities offer an overarching framework
to study adoption and use of technology. We gauge
tensions in the nature of information sources and
exchange, and explore notions of trust and privacy in the
communities. Finally, we map appropriations of
traditional and new media and communication
technologies.
We used a repertoire of ethnographic methods for
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