Mobile social software for the developing world

Abstract

This paper discusses how the importance of social networks for performing everyday tasks in the developing world leads to new considerations of the utility of social networking software (SNS). The paper presents some results from a multi-year, multi-method study in Central Asia that tracks patterns of technology adoption and adaptation, as well as shifts in media consumption and information seeking. Our results suggest SNS is a particularly compelling approach in resource-constrained environments (broadly defined) as a way to leverage and systematize the ad hoc processes people develop to navigate their everyday lives and information ecology. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.