Fritz Meissner
email: fmeissne@cs.uct.ac.za

Edwin Blake

Availability4D: Refining the Link between Availability and Adoption in Marginalised Communities

Keywords: availability, adoption, marginalised communities, feature phones, mobile Internet, M4D, NGOs

des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

In late 2010 we were presented with an opportunity to collaborate with a programme called Link at the Cape Town NGO, The Warehouse [START_REF]The Warehouse[END_REF]. The programme aimed to bolster the support available to high school students in marginalised communities of Cape Town as they made decisions that would affect their later success in the job market. They did this by organising career guidance workshops through church youth groups in the targeted communities.

The Link team (The Warehouse staff who ran the Link programme) wanted us to build a website which would support these workshops by providing students with access to information that would otherwise become stale if only presented in a workshop which ran once every few months. For instance, job openings discussed in a mid-year workshop would likely be filled by the time students were able to act on them at the end of the school year.

Recent research in M4D (Mobile technology for Development) involving fieldwork also performed in Cape Town [START_REF] Kreutzer | Internet and Online Media Usage on Mobile Phones among Low-Income Urban Youth in Cape Town[END_REF][START_REF] Vosloo | M4Lit: a teen m-novel project in South Africa[END_REF][START_REF] Donner | New Paths: Exploring Mobile-Only and Mobile-Primary Internet Use in South Africa[END_REF] lead us to believe that it would be beneficial to disseminate this information by some means accessible via feature phones, which had achieved popularity amongst low income youth in Cape Town for accessing entertainment over the mobile Internet, especially mobile instant messaging (IM) services like MXit (a South African service with more than 50 million registered users [START_REF]Mxit -Home[END_REF]).

When we first mentioned mobile phones, the Link team shared their awareness of the popularity of the technology amongst youth, and added that its introduction could positively affect negative perceptions of mobile phones (Bosch records perceptions of MXit as time-wasting and harbouring sexual predators [START_REF] Bosch | Wots ur ASLR? Adolescent girls' use of MXit in Cape Town[END_REF]):

"It [mobile technology] can penetrate further because you are sending it out to individual locations, and not one central Internet location, so for reach it's better." -Link coordinator "...it puts a positive spin on why kids should be using cellphones more effectively. Because at the moment there's such a lot of negative press about cellphones... so, if we can get it to be a more positive thing, that's certainly a good selling point." -Link staff member However their idea of how it could be applied was limited to reminders which would inform students of when to seek out a computer from which to access new content on the website: "...this is ... the limitation of mobile phones, is how much information can you access, and ultimately ... [you] will need to find an Internet cafe, but at least you'll know whether to actually bother to go and look for one or not, and that was the attraction of adding the mobile aspect." -Link Coordinator Later in the conversation the Link team mentioned personal experience of problems viewing content on mobile phones, and some misgivings about the cost of airtime to the students. On the other hand, they were familiar with the capacities of the conventional web, and they already had a plan for reaching their audience: church groups who wanted to support teenagers in their communities could invest in the computer and Internet connection necessary for the website, which would also provide opportunity for interaction and mentorship.

Answers to their concerns about mobile technology did exist: text content need not be accompanied by more data hungry (and therefore costly) pictures or video; expertise learned from using popular mobile social networking platforms like MXit could apply for other purposes [START_REF] Donner | Blurring livelihoods and lives: The social uses of mobile phones and socioeconomic development[END_REF]; the platform had been used for the M4Lit study in which thousands of teenagers read a 21-chapter short story [START_REF] Vosloo | M4Lit: a teen m-novel project in South Africa[END_REF] and for the Dr Maths programme [START_REF] Butgereit | Math on MXit: using MXit as a medium for mathematics education[END_REF], which teaches students mathematics; people who learned to surf on mobile phones prefer the "familiar numeric keypad" to a traditional keyboard [START_REF] Donner | New Paths: Exploring Mobile-Only and Mobile-Primary Internet Use in South Africa[END_REF]. From our perspective, then, the technology had already been demonstrated suitable.

However, it would have been unwise for us to take an uncompromising stance on technology. Botes and van Rensburg highlight a "hard-issue bias" amongst researchers as a major cause of developmental project failure, as the debate can become a distraction from other important issues that must be addressed [START_REF] Botes | Community participation in development: nine plagues and twelve commandments[END_REF]. Proceeding alone was also unwise: we would not be able to make contact with a suitable group of users on our own, and according to Donner et al, M4D projects are more likely to succeed when the mobile technology element is an addition to a pre-existing developmental project [START_REF] Donner | Reflections on MobileActive08 and the M4D Landscape[END_REF].

Further, an honest assessment of existing M4D work would require us to raise some caveats: mobile phone use amongst these users is normally associated with entertainment [START_REF] Kreutzer | Internet and Online Media Usage on Mobile Phones among Low-Income Urban Youth in Cape Town[END_REF]; for the "serious" purposes of school work and research on health topics, computers were more frequently used than mobile phones [START_REF] Kreutzer | Internet and Online Media Usage on Mobile Phones among Low-Income Urban Youth in Cape Town[END_REF][START_REF] Vosloo | M4Lit: a teen m-novel project in South Africa[END_REF]; in the M4Lit study the number who chose to finish reading the "m-novel" was only a fraction of the number to whom it was advertised (and similar advertising would normally cost a high fee) [START_REF] Vosloo | M4Lit: a teen m-novel project in South Africa[END_REF]; and although people are capable of using relatively complex technology to access the content that matters most to them, their priorities might not match ours [START_REF] Smyth | Where there's a will there's a way: mobile media sharing in urban india[END_REF]. Further, a discussion of sustainability concerns would reveal that both M4Lit and Dr Maths had the backing of large research organisations like the Shuttleworth Foundation [START_REF]The Shuttleworth Foundation is an innovative non-profit organisation[END_REF] and the Meraka Institute [START_REF]The Meraka Institute: CSIR research and development in information and communications technology (ICT)[END_REF], organisations with far greater resources to dedicate to ICT concerns than The Warehouse could bring to bear on Link. The Warehouse already maintained one website and the Link requirements did not necessitate any change in technology for the new site.

The point was moot: although the Link team were insistent on developing a website for access from conventional computers, they were happy that we follow that up with a mobile effort, and were willing to let us evaluate the two systems with the same users. Having two systems on platforms of differing availability would allow us to investigate the impact of availability on adoption.

Research Methodology

Action Research

The dual goals of development (providing students with a new channel for accessing information from Link) and research (investigating adoption) matched well with the Action Research framework [START_REF] Hayes | Taking action in your research[END_REF]. Our intention to pursue two different solutions, one after the other fit easily into the cyclical approach of the framework, wherein action precedes evaluation and then more action, based on the outcome of the previous evaluation.

Early results in action research projects shape later methodology, but can also prove interesting in the scope of the project as a whole, and so we report separately on formative (earlier work, relating to design, development and refinement of our systems) and summative (later, comparative) cycles.

2.2

Venues

We operated in four different venues, shown in Fig. 1. Lavender Hill (yellow) and Manenberg (green), both designated "coloured" residential areas under racially discriminatory South African apartheid-era legislation [START_REF] Besteman | Transforming Cape Town[END_REF] were home to church groups with whom Link had been working since before we joined the programme in 2010. The location of The Warehouse NGO, home of the Link programme, is marked by a red pin.

In 2011 the Link programme began a "homework club" at a church in Mowbray (blue). Mowbray, being formerly designated a "white" area was not disadvantaged by apartheid legislation, but the students who attended were isiXhosa speaking residents of informal settlements (shanty towns) not shown on the map which were formerly designated "black" [START_REF] Besteman | Transforming Cape Town[END_REF]. These students attended a school in the area, and were attracted to the church by flyers advertising weekly help with homework that were given out at a nearby transport hub which they used daily.

Participants

The beneficiaries whom we interviewed and with whom we tested were either introductions from Lavender Hill and Manenberg church groups, or students whom we tutored (assisting with school work in mathematics and physical science) at the Mowbray homework club. Our interaction with students in Lavender Hill and Manenberg was restricted to two visits each, for user testing of the Link website. At Mowbray, we were able to engage directly for two to three hours weekly for almost two full school years in 2011 and 2012.

At each venue we worked with a subset of all students, either selected by the church groups or by Link, usually based on whether there were other plans for those participants' time on the day that we visited. We therefore did not have control over our samples. Only in the latter stages of the project at the homework club did we have a direct relationship with students that gave us insight about their technology use habits which could help us to select interviewees according to the data we hoped to gather. Even in that case, we were still constrained by which students would arrive for tutoring on a given week, and by a need to balance time as researcher with availability as tutor.

When describing evidence relating to an individual student, we use initials to protect their identity.

Artefact Descriptions

We describe here the two systems the reader follow discussions of user reactions known throughout the paper as the "Link website", while the mobile system is called "LinkChat". Information a discrete piece of information such as a job advert or a description of course. A single content management system, maintained by the Link team, serves search results and content the southern suburbs of Cape Town, showing the locations in which we worked.

Artefact Descriptions

two systems that we designed and implemented in order to help the reader follow discussions of user reactions in later sections. The web system is known throughout the paper as the "Link website", while the mobile system is called "LinkChat". Information is exposed in the same format in each, as "entries" which are a discrete piece of information such as a job advert or a description of a course. A single content management system, maintained by the Link team, serves search results and content to both systems.

Cape Town, showing the locations in which we worked. in order to help in later sections. The web system is known throughout the paper as the "Link website", while the mobile system is called is exposed in the same format in each, as "entries" which are university course. A single content management system, maintained by the Link team, serves

Link Website

The website we created site, or restrict themselves to inform courses and bursaries) (short courses and internships). A fourth section, start a business, was inoperable for the duration of our study. title and the first few lines of description ance to Google.

Mobile System

The mobile system we developed cates with users via mobile which interoperates with Google Talk sages are relayed using Initially developed as proof of concept only, the system serves content in only one of we created allows users to perform full text searches either of site, or restrict themselves to information in one of three categories: study (tertiary es and bursaries), jobs (job adverts and internships), and skills development (short courses and internships). A fourth section, start a business, was inoperable for the duration of our study. Entry detail pages (see Fig. 2) can be chosen based on first few lines of description on a search results page similar in appea

Fig. 2. Website entry detail page

Mobile System -LinkChat we developed was named LinkChat for the fact that it commun mobile IM. Although it could be reached from any IM which interoperates with Google Talk, all of our users used the MXit platform layed using the XMPP IM protocol [START_REF]Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core[END_REF] to and from our server-side code Initially developed as proof of concept only, the system serves content in only one of of the whole study (tertiary and skills development (short courses and internships). A fourth section, start a business, was inoperable for based on their in appearit communi-Although it could be reached from any IM platform platform. Messide code. Initially developed as proof of concept only, the system serves content in only one of the three categories that the website does: study. Considerably more captured in the study category than in the others.

Fig. 3 shows the process of a search using LinkChat as shots -the system prompts the user to search search query. The system then responds with a numbered list of r the number corresponding with an interesting item, the system sends the entry detail to the user. Note that for legibility's sake, screenshots droid smartphone which is more advanced than the used by beneficiaries. Nokia 2700.

Formative Work

In the timeline of our engagement with Link, we pause in early 2012 at the conclusion of the first round of user testing of the mobile system, which was also the last work of the formative cycles. Before that point, we had spen and the Link programme, as well as collaborating with Link on the design, develo ment and evaluation of the website. We report the findings that have relevance to the final project results from each of these activities in ro the three categories that the website does: study. Considerably more data has been captured in the study category than in the others.

shows the process of a search using LinkChat as three consecutive scree the system prompts the user to search, in response to which the user sends a search query. The system then responds with a numbered list of results. After sending the number corresponding with an interesting item, the system sends the entry detail (read in columns top to bottom, left to right) showing the LinkChat search process, choosing an entry from search results and viewing academic course information Note that for legibility's sake, screenshots in Fig. 3 have been taken with an A droid smartphone which is more advanced than the smaller feature phones normally used by beneficiaries. Fig. 4 shows an example of a more typical user device

Formative Work

In the timeline of our engagement with Link, we pause in early 2012 at the conclusion of the first round of user testing of the mobile system, which was also the last work of the formative cycles. Before that point, we had spent time learning about our users and the Link programme, as well as collaborating with Link on the design, develo ment and evaluation of the website. We report the findings that have relevance to the final project results from each of these activities in roughly chronological order. data has been consecutive screenin response to which the user sends a sults. After sending the number corresponding with an interesting item, the system sends the entry detail showing the LinkChat search process, choosing an entry from search results and viewing academic course information have been taken with an Anfeature phones normally user device, the

In the timeline of our engagement with Link, we pause in early 2012 at the conclusion of the first round of user testing of the mobile system, which was also the last work of t time learning about our users and the Link programme, as well as collaborating with Link on the design, development and evaluation of the website. We report the findings that have relevance to the ughly chronological order.

Learning about Beneficiaries -Technology Use Survey

In order to learn about the work of Link and its beneficiaries, we attended workshops at The Warehouse and at partner churches (see Section 2.2). While at these locations we asked participants about their technology use habits (in fact we also asked participants at later evaluations of the website, but for convenience we report all responses together). The results (see ) confirmed our expectations that far more of the students would have very regular access to mobile phones than computers, and that most would be familiar with MXit. Somewhat surprising was that all had used a computer at least once, and most students had used the Internet on a computer in the form of Google -a positive sign for our website.

Website Evaluation

In preliminary evaluation of the website in August 2011 at Lavender Hill and Manenberg (see Section 2.2), users had significant difficulty using the site, but after changes to the user interface a larger second evaluation (twenty students in twelve groups at all three church venues, employing constructive interaction [START_REF] Jones | Mobile interaction design[END_REF]) showed that if relevant data had been captured by the Link team, our site could help users to find it:

• Only two users expressed doubt about their ability to use the site on their own • When given general instruction to use the site, in all but one case participants acted by searching, without needing to be told how • A lack of computing skill and awareness of web search norms slowed task completion, but only in one extreme case did it prevent task completion • Despite this being their first time using it, students began to develop skill at adapting their input to forms that the site could better work with.

We were aware that the constructive interaction method allowed the students whose computer skills were weaker to hide this from us, but in the context of use envisioned by the Link team, students with poor computer skills should be able to receive assistance at computers from church staff or fellow youth group members. At this stage, it appeared as though the Link team's original plan of information dissemination through the website might be adequate.

Changing Relationship Between Link and Churches

In late 2011 contact between Link and the Manenberg and Lavender Hill churches became less frequent. As a result, we did not visit either group again, and the focus of our engagement was solely on the Mowbray group. Significantly, we (researcher and Link team) interacted with this group directly, rather than having a layer of church leadership between us and beneficiaries. Because students were not directly affiliated with this church, it did not assume responsibility for providing access to infrastructure in the way that the Link team had hoped.

LinkChat Evaluation

LinkChat formative evaluations were intended to follow the same process as development of the website, but only a small first evaluation and the first part of the second evaluation could be run before spontaneous unsolicited usage lead us to abandon controlled evaluation. The following notable reactions from our users occurred in that first evaluation:

• SN was very enthusiastic about MXit and skilful in general mobile operation, but not enthusiastic about LinkChat: she lost interest in the evaluation after a brief attempt at use, choosing to message friends instead while we worked with other participants. She did ask for the LinkChat contact name for later use for the whole group.

• LA told us that she did not use MXit, and was reluctant to discuss her reasons. She was willing to try using LinkChat, and was capable of entering text for a search. However, she decided to stop using the system before she viewed an entry. She specifically refused a piece of paper with the LinkChat contact name on it when we wrote it down for others at the table with her.

• NK used LinkChat from her own MXit account on our phone. She demonstrated the ability to operate it, but said that she would prefer to use the website. She asked us to write down the website address, expressing confidence in her ability to access and use computers at the library.

• OM performed several searches, stopping only when the venue was closed for the day. He had indicated at the start of the session that he hoped to leave almost 15 minutes before he eventually did, from which we deduced his enthusiasm.

These results demonstrated users' ability to operate LinkChat, but their responses demonstrated almost every outcome imagined in our initial dialogue with The Warehouse: MXit and mobile phones preferred for entertainment (SN), outright rejection of MXit (LA), computers preferred for content consumption (NK), and unchecked enthusiasm (OM). The outcome of our planned comparative evaluation apparently rested on which of these users' attitudes the majority of our eventual audience reflected.

Comparative Work

The move from formative to comparative work occurred swiftly; instead of waiting for us to complete changes to LinkChat and launch it at a specific event like we had the website, students from our first LinkChat evaluation began to use the service whenever it was online. With the website already online, usage data for both systems began to accumulate before we had planned it.

Methodology

System Logging. Log files for the website were gathered between 22 November (official launch) and 31 October 2011. Log files for LinkChat were gathered from the day of first unsolicited use on 24 February 2012 until 31 October 2012. As far as pos-sible, users identifiable as non-beneficiaries have been excluded from the logs. This was easiest with LinkChat, because all communication on MXit is tied to a user account which made it possible to identify users who were not students when calculating usage. It is likely that some visits from non-beneficiaries remain in our website logs.

Audience. The Link team had advertised the website's launch to 18 students (all but one from Lavender Hill), and in our formative evaluations of LinkChat in early 2012 we discussed or evaluated the site with a further four beneficiaries, for a total of 22. The Link team also advertised to colleagues at The Warehouse, but we do not have an accurate record of to whom or how many.

Students did not appear to need specific instruction to use LinkChat in their own time after learning about the service, making demonstration or evaluation equivalent to advertising. We advertised in this way to eight students, including the five discussed in section 4.4 above. LinkChat was also shown to non-students, including Link staff and colleagues in our research group.

Apart from these numbers, both systems were demonstrated to students who attended the Mowbray homework club on April 17, and the following week flyers advertising both systems were handed out. Unfortunately we do not have attendance records for those weeks, but over a four week period the next term the average number of students who signed the attendance register each week was 31.

Interviews and Demonstrations. Between late March and Mid June 2012 we conducted semi-structured interviews with six students who had were regular attendees at the Mowbray homework club, and demonstrated the two systems to five newcomers who only attended the homework club for the first time after our April advertising. In the interviews we asked students about their search behaviour before and after the Link intervention; in the demonstrations we attempted to understand students' operation skill while guiding them through the use of LinkChat and the website.

Reported Usage Questionnaire. After our April demonstrations, we handed weekly questionnaires to students at the homework club for eight weeks. The questionnaire asked students to inform us what searches they had performed on each system in the previous week, with the aim of supplementing our system logs by providing a way to identify users as beneficiaries or not. We report this primarily to acknowledge that the form may have had some effect as a reminder about the systems; as a source of data it was poor. Students often left without completing it, or filled it out incorrectly. The most useful information recorded was obtained after we included a section for suggestions they could give us about how to improve the systems. These suggestions were mostly requests for content on new topics, and not relevant to our question of availability and adoption.

Quantitative Results

Comparative numerical results from system logs are shown in Table 2. Despite being deployed for longer, the only measure which is higher for the website than for Link-Chat is the number of unique users recorded. This number is subject to quirks of web analytic tools -if a visitor used more than one browser, or cleared locally stored we site tracking data after their last visit, they would be recorded a user. By contrast, users communicating with LinkChat were ident ID, which provided a more reliable number. visited on one day only while days.

Other numbers are significantly higher for LinkChat, almost three months less than the web more frequently.

Table 2. Numerical results from LinkChat and website system logs

System

Days Live LinkChat 251 Website 345

The higher usage of LinkChat is consistent over the entire duration of its deplo ment. Fig. 5 shows a chart of the number of searches performed per month on each system, while Fig. 6 shows the total number of daily visitors in each month. The only month in which the lines rep which LinkChat was only online for graphs) is due to diffusion in March 2012, while the increase of usage on the website in October 2012 (Fig.

ered the site through Google, i.e. not people to whom Fig. 5. Total number of sea if a visitor used more than one browser, or cleared locally stored we site tracking data after their last visit, they would be recorded as a new and different user. By contrast, users communicating with LinkChat were identified by their MXit ID, which provided a more reliable number. We note that 102 of the web users visited on one day only while 34 chat users (56%) visited on five or more different Other numbers are significantly higher for LinkChat, despite it being available for almost three months less than the website, as LinkChat visitors engaged more and Numerical results from LinkChat and website system logs The higher usage of LinkChat is consistent over the entire duration of its deplo shows a chart of the number of searches performed per month on each shows the total number of daily visitors in each month. The only month in which the lines representing the two systems touch is February 2012, in which LinkChat was only online for six days. The maximum in LinkChat usage (both graphs) is due to diffusion in March 2012, while the increase of usage on the website Fig. 6 only) can be explained by a number of visitors who disco ered the site through Google, i.e. not people to whom we had advertised the site.

Measure

Total number of searches performed on LinkChat and Link website per month if a visitor used more than one browser, or cleared locally stored webnew and different ied by their MXit users (92%) visited on five or more different eing available for site, as LinkChat visitors engaged more and Entries / Day 3.17 0.15

The higher usage of LinkChat is consistent over the entire duration of its deployshows a chart of the number of searches performed per month on each shows the total number of daily visitors in each month. The only ruary 2012, in days. The maximum in LinkChat usage (both graphs) is due to diffusion in March 2012, while the increase of usage on the website only) can be explained by a number of visitors who discovhad advertised the site.

rches performed on LinkChat and Link website per month Fig. 6. Total daily visitors

Discussion

The clear quantitative advantage for LinkChat was already visible by March 2012.

Although other studies had demonstrated the phenomenon of mobile adoption, t result was still interesting because it was in opposition to both the expectations of the NGO and some of our formative results. results we saw, we began to gather strations, and observations in the formative cycles to understand of LinkChat. In so doing we hoped to discover design implic marginalised communities.

Unhelpful Existing Computer Infrastructure

Evidence we gathered about computer access was related to home, school or public library. What we learned tional computing resources. Home. AM explained to us that it was not normal for his peers to have access to computers at home, estimating that might have a computer in the home. Even then, he suggested that there would be fa ily members with other priorities for the computers, such as a brother who wanted to play games (his hypothetical example). Others who spoke about computers at "home" confirmed that access was only possible for them because of their relationship with the owner: MG used his older sister's work laptop Total daily visitors per month to Link website and LinkChat quantitative advantage for LinkChat was already visible by March 2012. Although other studies had demonstrated the phenomenon of mobile adoption, t interesting because it was in opposition to both the expectations of the f our formative results. In order to refine our understanding of the results we saw, we began to gather evidence from interviews, observations of observations in the formative cycles to understand the greater populari In so doing we hoped to discover design implications for future work in marginalised communities.

Existing Computer Infrastructure

Evidence we gathered about computer access was related to home, school or public learned underlined the lack of access which students had to conve sources. explained to us that it was not normal for his peers to have access to computers at home, estimating that perhaps twenty percent of his classmates at sch might have a computer in the home. Even then, he suggested that there would be fa ily members with other priorities for the computers, such as a brother who wanted to play games (his hypothetical example). Others who spoke about computers at "home" firmed that access was only possible for them because of their relationship with used his older sister's work laptop "once or twice a month" quantitative advantage for LinkChat was already visible by March 2012. Although other studies had demonstrated the phenomenon of mobile adoption, this interesting because it was in opposition to both the expectations of the In order to refine our understanding of the observations of demongreater popularity tions for future work in Evidence we gathered about computer access was related to home, school or public underlined the lack of access which students had to convenexplained to us that it was not normal for his peers to have access to twenty percent of his classmates at school might have a computer in the home. Even then, he suggested that there would be family members with other priorities for the computers, such as a brother who wanted to play games (his hypothetical example). Others who spoke about computers at "home" firmed that access was only possible for them because of their relationship with " when he visited her, NM mentioned her father having a computer for work and AS had access to a computer once a week when he visited his mother's former employer. School. NK estimated that less than a quarter of her school was in the science "stream" that was given priority use of the school computers. When access did happen for the science students, it was shared with others at the same computer. MG was in the science stream, but when we asked how often he could use a computer he referred to visits to his older sister rather than to time at school. This may mean that his access at school was less frequent than visits to his sister, or that he did not see the school computers as relevant for the purposes we spoke about (they may have been reserved for school work only).

Library. A public library was near to the students' school and the tutoring venue. Library cards are free and we heard of the students taking shelter there on rainy days after school. The library had working computers, but the queue for use was long, and the allowed period of use was less time than NK and YM wanted. "Not good... I didn't finish my things", said YM, who felt that the worst part of the experience was the slow Internet connection. NK's priority at the library was using Google to search for information about university courses. Despite her expressed preference for the Link website when she saw LinkChat (see section 4.4 above), the site had "slipped her mind" when she was actually at a computer. Having used LinkChat, she felt that while in front of a computer she preferred the breadth of Google results to the specific content furnished by Link. YM searched for similar content, but also mentioned social networking as a higher priority: "I have to Facebook first... have to check".

Lack of Skill and Confidence with Computers. In AM's opinion, the lack of computer access lowered his and his peers' ability to operate computers: "I'm not used [to computers]", making access when it did occur less fruitful. YM and NK also found information search on computers slow work: "It's a process", said YM.

Confidence, Expertise and Convenience with Mobile Phones

Students had greater access to mobile phones than to computers. Some students had their phone with them at the homework club, which other students did not seem to find unusual. NK and YM did not have phones with them, but spoke of using a friend or family member's device. Mobile phones were therefore not restricted by venue. Cost too, was not problematic, at least on MXit; some students had SIM cards from an operator which gave them free data for MXit. OM estimated that an evening on MXit chatting to friends would cost him R0.30 (0.03 USD), while MG told us that he preferred LinkChat to the Link website because it cost less.

For CM, greater access to mobile phones had created comfort with feature phone interfaces. She preferred Linkchat on the smaller screen of a feature phone to the website on a 15" laptop because a full sized computer screen took more time to scan for the information she wanted. AM contrasted his experience with mobile phones with his reservations about computers, saying "I know the phone". When we used a feature phone as conversation aid during an interview, MG told us that we were operating the phone too slowly.

A theme of convenience regarding LinkChat emerged as a result. AM preferred LinkChat, because "It doesn't waste time," and YM felt it was useful "... when in a hurry". NK preferred to use Google to the Link website (despite her earlier expressed preference for the website over LinkChat -see Section 4.4), but that expressed preference did not seem to be an issue in practice -she was the most frequent user of LinkChat, performing 118 searches on 37 different days.

6.3

Unsolicited Use of LinkChat Some of the students who saw LinkChat in our evaluations continued to use it before we had intended them to do so. SN, whom we reported on in Section 4.4 had asked us to write the name of the LinkChat contact down but had not messaged it any further then, communicated with LinkChat a few days after. OM's visit the next day took us by surprise, because we had not written the contact down for him. We later realised that MXit stores users' contacts on its own servers rather than the device on which the chat client is installed, and so students who used their own accounts on our demonstration phone had the contact ready when they next signed in on their own phones.

LinkChat Diffusion amongst Peers

More LinkChat users had been recorded in system logs than we had advertised the system to directly, and we met students who were attending the homework club for the first time, but who already knew of LinkChat. We learned of three ways in which peers had passed on knowledge of the system. Face to Face. NK and YM told us that they had shown LinkChat to school friends on the friends' phones.

Online, through MXit. Although we had seen MXit purely as a platform for disseminating text, its social features also proved important. OM told friends in another city about LinkChat while messaging with them on MXit. CM gave a friend at a different school her MXit password so that the friend could use her own phone to log in and message the LinkChat contact from CM's account.

Classroom Demonstration. An unusual, but noteworthy incident demonstrated the difference between the two systems in terms of opportunities for diffusion. Two students whom we had tutored took it upon themselves to advertise our systems. On March 11 2012 we received the following message on Facebook from MG: "Me and (AS) have came up with a briliant idea on how we can spread the word about your wabsite and we gona d it at school starting from tomorrow yeah. And wa our names there if theres space on the 'thank you list' bt if ther isnt no sweat w doin this 4 ya"

We were pleased with MG's initiative but uncertain about how we could acknowledge his contribution and how the Link team would respond to the idea of singling out students. We suggested that we talk at the tutoring programme the next day about the idea, but the conversation did not take place because we did not see MG there. Both had been part of our second formative evaluation of the Link website, and because of the wording of the message we assumed that they proposed to publicise only the Link website (we had not personally introduced them to LinkChat).

On the 15th, MG sent a free "please call me" message to us, and when we responded he informed us that he wanted to demonstrate LinkChat at school but that it was offline. We were making code changes at the time, but started the server so they could proceed. By the end of the day twelve new MXit IDs had used LinkChat to perform 89 searches -the most of any day before or since.

MG later informed us that he and AS had told their Life Orientation teacher at school of the two systems. The teacher had asked them to demonstrate LinkChat to their class, but told them that it would not be possible to demonstrate the website until the school computer room was available for students to visit. When the demonstration of LinkChat took place, the website was not mentioned.

Reaction to LinkChat from non-MXit Users

The question raised in Section 4.4 of which observed reactions to LinkChat would be most typical of students was avoided by the spread of LinkChat beyond the Mowbray group. Regardless of how many of the students at the homework club were using LinkChat, it had proven better at attracting users than the website. Nonetheless, the question of why some users were negative and unresponsive about MXit remained. One student in this position was willing to discuss: NM struggled with reading, and this made her uninterested in computers or mobile phones, especially text-centric IM.

In order to understand other reasons, we asked MG -himself an enthusiastic mobile phone and MXit user, but similarly to Bosch's interviewees, aware of negative perceptions [START_REF] Bosch | Wots ur ASLR? Adolescent girls' use of MXit in Cape Town[END_REF] -what reasons he thought people might have for not wanting to discuss the topic. His opinion was that these students were a minority. A few might be embarrassed about only having "tilili", a slang word with which his peers described a phone with no features beyond voice calls and SMS. MXit also had "a bad side and a good side", and some students might be constrained by society's expectations of them because of their parents' position: "...because I'm a pastor's son, I'm gonna ruin his reputation [if I use MXit]". The same might go for teachers' children, although MG also noted that some of his teachers at school used MXit.

Implication for Design -Complications of Context

At the start of our engagement, we understood our dialogue with the Link team in terms of three variables: cost, availability and fit for purpose. We agreed that availability would be better for mobile phones, but disagreed about cost and fit for purpose. A greater awareness of technical information at the start of the project allowed us to correctly predict the broad outcome, but subsequent qualitative enquiry revealed more nuance. The qualitative data demonstrates a greater range of contextual factors:

• Setting, affecting the availability of technology through institutional rules: mobile phones were not tied to a single setting and so even though it is unlikely that no institutional rules apply at all, students did not raise difficulties of the sort faced when using computers, such as library time limits. • Software, affecting the range of operations that technology can perform: the MXit software provided an interface with which students were familiar, and social features through which knowledge of LinkChat could spread.

• The user, who has capacity to operate a technology in different ways: students were familiar with mobile phones, and as a result skilled, confident and willing to read for long enough periods to consume information.

• Personal resources, which can be sufficient or insufficient for a given purpose, or offer workarounds making a particular use redundant: personal resources included devices on which to consume data, time, and money for airtime if necessary.

• Surrounding persons, with the ability to supplement resources, but also bringing social norms which may restrict access: other students could lend a phone when one personally owned was not available, or knowledge of how to operate LinkChat to aid a novice. On the other hand, some parents might consider their children's use of MXit a negative effect on their own reputation.

Most of these factors worked in favour of the mobile system we built, but will affect adoption in different ways in other contexts. They may, like the negative social implications of mobile IM we encountered, drive people away from a technology even while other factors are positive. This list of contextual factors is not necessarily exhaustive; other data may reveal more. We note also the inter-related nature of factors; for instance personal resources could include a SIM card from the operator Cell C, making the cost zero when the software in use was MXit because of an agreement between the two.

Conclusion

Our work has shown how using mobile phones to access the internet suffered from misconceptions from the NGO supplier of online content (e.g., that mobile phones are not suitable for consuming large amounts of content) as well as negative associations amongst some members of the target user group (e.g., chat systems have negative moral implications). In the context of an NGO-led intervention in marginalised communities of Cape Town, we developed two systems, one a website for use on conventional computers, and the other a text interface for consumption on the mobile instant messaging platform MXit that works on feature phones. We show that amongst marginalised youth in urban South Africa, mobile instant messaging as platform for content provision has a substantial advantage over the conventional web. It lends itself to word of mouth adoption, conveys information adequately in spite of the limited display capacity and access is cheap enough not to be an obstacle to adoption. We show that the platform is popular and well-suited to developmental purposes. A qualitative investigation into the reasons for its popularity revealed that a range of contextual factors caused this advantage: the technologies were affected by setting, software in operation, users' capacity for operation, their personal resources and surrounding persons' resources and attitudes.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Map of the southern suburbs of

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Screenshots (read in columns top to bottom, left to right) process, choosing an entry from search results and viewing academic course information

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Nokia 2700 feature phone typical of devices owned by users

Table 1 .

 1 Formative Link beneficiary technology use survey

	Location


Maletsabisa Molapo
email: mmolapo@cs.uct.ac.za

Gary Marsden

Content Prototyping -An Approach for Engaging Non-Technical Users in Participatory Design

Keywords: HCI4D, Prototyping, Low-Literacy

Many in the developing world have little to no experience with computers -they have never used software as part of their daily lives and jobs, so there is always a challenge for how this class of users can be engaged in Participatory Design in a manner that the value of their participation is not limited by their computing experience. This paper looks at previous work that addressed this challenge, and introduces an approach called content prototyping, which is an adaptation of existing practices to fit the needs of non-technical users. We also discuss the lessons learned from using this approach, and give recommendations for related projects in the developing world.

Introduction

One of the goals in designing new technology for use in developing countries is to design such that the technology integrates into existing cultural structures and community ecosystems, and this can be achieved by seeking guidance from people belonging to the particular cultural groups [START_REF] Maguire | Methods to support human-centred design[END_REF], and involving them in the design process through participatory design [START_REF] Winschiers | The Challenges of Participatory Design in a Intercultural Context: Designing for Usability in Namibia[END_REF]. However, for people to be in a position to make such a contribution, they need to fully understand what the new technology is capable of, and be able to visualize how it may integrate into their daily lives.

These questions arise, therefore: how can we co-design new technologies with users who have little to no technology experience? What methods can be used to conduct participatory design in such a manner that users' limited technology exposure does not become a hindrance to their ability to contribute to the design process?

This paper explores answers to these questions through lessons drawn from previous work in the field of HCI for Development (HCI4D), and introduces an approach termed 'Content Prototyping', wherein we recommend that designers seek to develop prototypes that fit their users' current realm of understanding and experience, instead of typical software-based prototypes which inexperienced users may have difficulty conceptualizing. The core of our proposed method of increasing user participation is asking the question: what representation of the design concept can inexperienced users relate to the best? In our case, the best representation of the design concept was the output (content) that software would produce, so we prototyped the output for our users, not the software, and designed back from output to output-producing software.

User Centered Design

User Centred Design (UCD) is a broad methodology based on focusing on the user from the beginning to the end of the design process, ensuring that the needs, wants, and limitations of users are given extensive attention throughout the design process [START_REF] Abras | User-Centered Design[END_REF]. One form of UCD that has gained acceptance over the years is Participatory Design (PD) [START_REF] Abras | User-Centered Design[END_REF][START_REF] Nielsen | Collaborating with users[END_REF], which permits joint design between the designer and the user.

The success of PD is based upon the assumption that users have experience with digital technology [START_REF] Marsden | People are people, but technology is not technology[END_REF], and can appreciate what the technology can do for them. This is hardly the case for most developing world users [START_REF] Blake | Socially Aware Software Engineering for the Developing World[END_REF][START_REF] Gitau | Beyond being a Proxy User : A look at NGOs ' Potential Role in ICT4D Deployment[END_REF]. Because of their limited exposure to technology, such users would not be able to contribute to the design process as they would have limited understanding of how the technology can integrate into their daily lives and jobs, much as they would not have enough computing experience against which to judge what is good or bad technology [START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF].

In classical PD, prototyping is used to elicit user input on design ideas, where users are presented with prototypes of differing fidelity, and their feedback is used to inform design and motivate refinement of design ideas [START_REF] Jones | Mobile interaction design[END_REF]. Normally, users would be started off with low-fidelity prototypes such as paper prototypes (typically paperbased simulation of user interface elements [START_REF] Maguire | Methods to support human-centred design[END_REF]). However, previous research in the developing world has revealed that users with low computer proficiency levels have difficulty interacting with low-fidelity prototypes because: it's difficult for them to conceptualize prototypes and abstract design concepts, e.g., associating paper sketches with software [START_REF] Marsden | People are people, but technology is not technology[END_REF], so they mostly misinterpret and misunderstand design abstractions [START_REF] Medhi | Text-Free User Interfaces for Illiterate and Semiliterate Users[END_REF]. This means that PD techniques must be refined to be appropriate to the (computer) literacy and experience of prospective users, so as to encourage their interest in the process and increase the value of their participation.

Related Work

Different approaches that have been used to encourage participation of nonexperienced users in design are discussed below, which are the works based on whose guidance we developed the idea of content prototyping.

Simple Technology Artifacts with Instant Utility

According to Ramachandran et al. [START_REF] Ramachandran | Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions[END_REF], one way of getting users with little exposure to technology involved in the design process is by introducing simple technology artifacts whose capability is immediately obvious, and presenting these to the users at an early stage in the design process. This approach helps stimulate dialog between the users and the designers within the users' context, and gives a platform for users to easily contribute their local knowledge and expertise to the design process in a manner that they wouldn't if a typical low or high fidelity prototype were used [START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF] . So the introduction of simple technology artifacts with immediately obvious capability in early stages of design works better than the introduction of low fidelity prototypes at the same stage.

Scenarios of Use

When users are presented with usage scenarios of the future system within the context of their current work or daily life, it becomes possible for them to envisage the use of the technology in their existing structures, and hence they are able to participate in the design process [START_REF] Nielsen | Paper versus computer implementations as mock up scenarios for heuristic evaluation[END_REF].

Progressive Design: Increasing Participation Through Experience

Maunder et al. [START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF] and Kam et al. [START_REF] Kam | Practical considerations for participatory design with rural school children in underdeveloped regions[END_REF] recommend progressively improving the user's technology experience to get them ready to participate in the design process. The designers would engage with the users in their natural work environment, developing the users to a point where they are comfortable with basic technology, while also building supportive structures within their environment. The authors indicate that this approach (termed Progressive Design [START_REF] Chin | Progressive design[END_REF]) "would ensure the progression and development of the users' knowledge base and skill set, thereby enabling the user to better understand the technology, the benefits it offers and how to utilize it effectively….the result is an empowered, confident, motivated user that is able to actively participate in every phase of the design process," [START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF].

Context and Stakeholders

In developing countries, the shortage of health facilities and qualified health professionals is supplemented by employing Community Health Workers (CHWs). CHWs (who are textually illiterate) are trained by public health professionals who are based in rural health centers. Our goal was to assist this training process by designing a content creation model wherein the trainers would create non-textual digital content for the CHWs. We worked together with health centers in Lesotho and Sierra Leone.

To understand the CHWs' training context we conducted interviews, user observation, and contextual inquiry. These were followed by persona definition (of trainers and CHWs), task analysis and the design of the local content creation model. In the content creation model, there would be a computer application developed, which would be used by trainers to create non-textual content for CHWs (using images and recorded voice), and the content would be shared to CHWs via Bluetooth when they visited the health center for their monthly training sessions. Our study of the user space revealed that most trainers have low computer proficiency skills, mostly acquainted with basic office applications and web browsers, and all the CHWs had never used a computer before, but all of them owned mobile phones.

Methodology

The understanding of our users' skill set led us to rethink the classical prototyping approach we had initially planned to use, which would involve designing a technology (software) that implements the content creation model, starting with low fidelity prototypes, and then going back to the trainers and CHWs with the low fidelity prototypes for them to give us feedback on the design. However, at this stage, we were unsure whether the trainers understood what the introduction of a new technology would mean for them, and how they could integrate it into their daily work. We needed to communicate the possibility of integrating a technology into the training process in a manner that they would understand and relate to [START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF]. Additionally, we had already established that CHWs are major role players in the flow of health information from the health trainers, via themselves, and on to the communities they serve. Therefore, we also decided that it would be important to involve them in the design process, to give them a say on the content that they would not only consume, but also distribute. Input from the CHWs would be especially valuable from a local cultural perspective. A low fidelity prototype of a computer application (even a fully developed software prototype) would not make sense to a village woman (a CHW) who had never used a computer before, and was never going to interact with the software, only the content produced.

5.1

The 'Content Prototype' Approach

We decided to postpone designing an application and introduced what we term a "content prototype" to mimic the concept of "a simple technology artifact with instant utility" [START_REF] Ramachandran | Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions[END_REF], to develop the trainers' and CHWs' mentality to the possibility of using technology in training [START_REF] Chin | Progressive design[END_REF][START_REF] Kam | Practical considerations for participatory design with rural school children in underdeveloped regions[END_REF][START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF], as well as to present them with usage scenarios for digital content in their existing training process [START_REF] Nielsen | Paper versus computer implementations as mock up scenarios for heuristic evaluation[END_REF].

To achieve this, we would present sample content to the users, the kind that would be produced in the content creation model we had designed, and use this content as a platform to start the conversation around the idea of digital training content and the process of creating it. We envisaged that both health trainers and CHWs would relate better to digital version of the content they already knew, than a paper prototype of an application whose use they may not clearly understand.

With sample content presented first, we believed that introducing software later on would make sense to them (the trainers especially) as "a tool that creates the useful content we saw earlier". Moreover, based on the work of Ramachandran et al. [START_REF] Ramachandran | Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions[END_REF], the expectation from this early stage prototyping using the "simple technology artifact with instant utility," the content prototype in our case, is that we would be able to attract the users' interests in the technology (in this case being the digital content produced for consumption on mobile phones), expose local attitudes towards the technology, elicit design ideas for subsequent stages in the design process, stimulate dialog between the users and the designers within the users' context, and to give a platform for users to easily contribute their local knowledge and expertise to the design process.

How Does Content Prototyping Compare to Other PD Approaches?

Content Prototyping is based on recommendations from other designers who have used PD in developing world projects, but centers on the question: what representation of the design concept can users relate to the best? In this case digital samples of existing content would be the best representation of the idea of digitizing available content into multimedia formats.

Creating The Content Prototype

We revisited the content used in training (image books, flash cards, posters) and translated some of it into sample digital content (mock-up multimedia content), resembling the kind that the trainers would produce according to the content creation model we were proposing. We extracted some of the images on the posters and image books and used them to create sample content in the form of "mobile videos". Most posters and image books are made of images accompanied by a line of text that describes the concept represented, as in Figure 1(left). Per concept, we placed an image on a separate PowerPoint slide, then recorded the descriptive line in voice-over in the local language; then saved the overall presentation as a PowerPoint show. This meant that when the trainer opened the PowerPoint show, they would see, in full screen per slide, an image showing with voice-over playing. On the slides, we framed the images with a mobile phone in a person's hand to demonstrate that the videos (series of images with voice over) would play on mobile phones.

Introducing The Content Prototype

When the content prototypes had been created, we introduced them to the trainers and CHWs. We first held a meeting with the health trainers, where we made an introduction and then started playing the samples that were created. The day after meeting the trainers, we held a focus group meeting with 20 CHWs. We did not make the introduction of the content in this meeting, but the chief nurse at the health center did, explaining to them what the content meant (which showed that she had understood it clearly from the meeting we held the previous day). She explained the concept in the simplest terms, and got the CHWs excited even before seeing the content. After the briefing and the playback of the content, we got into a discussion facilitated by one of the junior nurses at the health centre.

Feedback from The Content Prototype

The results of our 'early-stage prototyping' by the use of our content prototypes are compliant with those reported by Ramachandran et al. [START_REF] Ramachandran | Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions[END_REF]. The sample content helped to ground our interactions with the users (both trainers and CHWs), and started a conversation about the possible use of mobile digital content, how it would be used, CHWs' familiarity with mobile technology, etc. Seeing the mock-up multimedia version of their already existing content gave the health trainers an idea of what digital content could do for them. The mock-up content enabled them to ask more questions and express their concerns. Beyond this, we, the researchers, gained more clarity and insight from their comments for the next stages in the design process.

Feedback from The Trainers:

The first opportunity spotted by the chief trainer from Lesotho was that through mobile digital content, CHWs would be able to retain information more. She recalled that on several occasions, they would give instructions to the CHWs on what to do for patients in the villages, and the CHWs would get the procedures wrong due to forgetfulness. Beyond training, she also saw the potential of the mobile digital content helping them give elaborate instructions to CHWs. While on the subject of getting procedures right, she suggested that it would be useful if the content produced would include moving pictures, i.e. videos clips. She indicated that sometimes they would wish to demonstrate a procedure to the CHWs, e.g., how to inject a patient. Apart from seeing the potential borne in the use of multimedia content, she also expressed an interest in being able to create or modify the digital content. She emphasized that for their CHWs, it would be best if the voice recordings were in the local language spoken by the CHWs. We informed her that we would provide software that allows them (the trainers) to create such digital content on their own, at which her primary concern was how easy the software would be to use.

Feedback from Community Health Workers: When asked for their opinions on the introduction of digital content, the CHWs' main comment was that the content would be useful only when the voice is recorded in the local language (Sesotho in Lesotho). They indicated that if the content is in Sesotho, they could use it to counsel their patients. CHWs also saw the opportunity to have medical information with them at all times, seeing that the content "in their pocket"(meaning their phones), could make it easy to refer to the content in cases of emergency.

Evidence of A Two Layered User Base: The trainers saw the potential to disseminate information and instructions to the CHWs more effectively, while the CHWs saw the potential to do their jobs in the community more effectively, and the platform to share content in their communities. This revealed to us that our two sets of users have, to a certain extent, different goals and perceptions, and that our design should embrace these differences. The content prototype enabled this revelation.

Discussion

The centre of content prototyping as a method is identifying an understandable artifact, which users can relate to, and use it to guide participatory design exercises. In our case this was sample digital content. The trainers of CHWs do understand the content communicated to their trainees more than they do software, so we chose to use samples of digital content to elicit their needs, interests and concerns. Seeing the content prototypes, the trainers were able to visualize how digital content could assist their existing processes, and even expressed interest in creating such content themselves, also expressing needs that we had not initially designed into the content creation model (e.g., the need to include moving video clips in the content.

This manner of content prototyping also helped engage the CHWs in the early stages of the design process; an opportunity they would not have had if our first prototype were a software prototype, or a low-or high-fidelity prototype of a computer application. The CHWs were able to contribute to early discussions and played a role in influencing the decisions made in the design. Later on in the project, the CHWs' feeling of involvement in the project also encouraged their adoption, appropriation, and ownership of the digital content, as also observed by other researchers, e.g., [START_REF] Anokwa | Stories from the Field: Reflections on HCI4D Experience[END_REF] .

Conclusion

Maunder et al. [START_REF] Maunder | Designing interactive systems for the developing world -reflections on user-centred design[END_REF] discussed the challenges of using techniques like paper prototyping with people who have limited technology experience, and along with Ramachandran et al. [START_REF] Ramachandran | Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions[END_REF], recommend the use of simple technology artifacts with instant utility, introduced early in the design process to expose users to the technology and to elicit requirements and contextual issues from the users' interaction with the technology artifact. Other researchers recommend depicting technology usage scenarios to develop ideas around the use of the technology in everyday life, while other recommendations involve progressively preparing the user for participation in the design process by exposing them to technology bit by bit. We adopted all these recommendations in our design, but instead of introducing a technology, we introduced "content prototypes," which were a representation of the output that a computer application would produce. This was identified as a representation of the design idea that our users would relate to the best. We learned from this that our two layers of users (content creators -the trainers, and CHWs -content consumers/distributors) were able to participate in the design process as they could relate to the content prototype.

We make a further recommendation therefore, alongside those made by other researchers whose work guided this approach, that where a technology being designed will produce a certain product, it is beneficial to deploy content (or output) prototypes and design the way back from output to output-producing software.

Figure 1 -

 1 Figure 1 -Left: A page from an image book. Right: Three PowerPoint slides, showing a mock-up video made from the image book. Descriptive voice was recorded over each slide


Leonardo Giusti
email: lgiusti@mit.edu

Amelia Schladow
email: schladow@mit.edu

Amar Boghani
email: amarkb@mit.edu

Steve Pomeroy
email: spomeroy@mit.edu

Nicholas Wallen
email: nwallen@mit.edu

Federico Casalegno
email: casalegno@mit.edu

Designing a platform for participatory urbanism: transforming dialogue into action in underserved communities

Keywords: Participatory urbanism, civic media, location-based platforms

Participatory urbanism platforms must balance stakeholder needs to both empower citizens and exact change from the local authority. While many platforms can trigger discussion, changes will only be achieved through successful collaborative efforts. This paper outlines the challenges and opportunities of designing for participatory urbanism, drawing on a case study completed with UNICEF and underserved communities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our design approach helped to generate physical changes in the community infrastructure, and the beginnings of behavioral changes for community residents.

Introduction

In this paper we investigate how participatory platforms, mediated by mobile and web-based technologies, provoke new methods and possibilities for individual citizens to become actively involved in their neighborhood, city, and urban landscape. In particular, we address how these platforms can support participatory urbanism in underserved and low-income communities, discussing challenges and opportunities.

The discussion presents a case study: UNICEF -Youth Mapping in Rio de Janeiro [1]. The project aimed to empower youth in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro with digital mapping technology for reporting environmental and structural hazards. A specialized version of the Open Locast [START_REF] Arslan | Locast H2flow: creative learning tool for participatory urbanism[END_REF][START_REF] Giusti | En Plein Air: A Mobile Learning Approach for Sustainability Education in the Wild[END_REF][START_REF] Chernyakova | Civic Media Platforms and Participatory Urbanism: A Critical Reflection[END_REF] web and mobile platform (UNICEF GIS) was designed to fit the specific constraints of the local context. With the help of UNICEF and the involvement of local authorities, we organized a series of workshops to train 111 youths to use the technology. More than 300 reports were collected and the local government has planned and implemented several interventions to solve the problems reported by these local residents.

The presentation of the case study and its results helps to articulate a discussion about the design of participatory platforms and the challenges related to their adoption, sustainability, and impact in developing communities. Specifically, we discuss our contribution to one of the challenges identified by Ho in "Human-Computer Interaction for Development: The Past, Present, and Future" [START_REF] Ho | Human-computer interaction for development: The past, present, and future[END_REF]: supporting an ecosystem around affordable computing. In this paper, we advocate a design approach that integrates the development of resilient and affordable technological systems with a social and cultural strategy, which includes the early involvement of the local authorities and community in activities. In particular, we discuss the importance of thoughtfully balancing the different voices involved in the discussion to both empower local residents, and activate the local municipality in taking a course of action.

This approach helped to successfully implement a media platform for participatory urbanism. In addition to concrete results documented by improvements to the local environment, user interviews showed how the project sparked a cultural shift, encouraging self-reflection and a sense of commitment toward the quality of the urban environment.

Related works

A number of recent projects [START_REF] Dearden | A deeply embedded sociotechnical strategy for designing ICT for development[END_REF][START_REF] Parikh | Designing an architecture for delivering mobile information services to the rural developing world[END_REF][START_REF] Gitau | After access: challenges facing mobileonly internet users in the developing world[END_REF] show the ways in which mobile media is valuable for enhancing information and knowledge exchange in developing communities. According to Ho et al. [START_REF] Ho | Human-computer interaction for development: The past, present, and future[END_REF], a key challenge of HCI for developing countries is creating an ecosystem around affordable computing. He stressed the importance of replicable, low-cost approaches and hardware that can be appropriated and adopted by community-based organizations with minimal requirements for external support.

However, designing for underserved communities requires significantly more than just technological considerations. As outlined by Dearden et al [START_REF] Dearden | A deeply embedded sociotechnical strategy for designing ICT for development[END_REF], the form of new technologies represents physical capital for the designer to work with, but attention must be paid to human capital, social capital, financial capital, and the transforming structures and processes (i.e. organizational situations in the locality where the technology is intended to be used). Furthermore, they mention the importance of planning the way external agents will interact with local people and communities, since the goal of intervention is to work with locals to envision, create, and adopt sustainable systems that ultimately empower the locality.

This overarching framework provides a starting point for socio-technological considerations in the design of civic platforms for developing communities. Civic media platforms can enable community engagement and introduce multiple points of view into urban discussion. However, a number of challenges emerge when they are applied to participatory urbanism in addition to the challenges implicit in participatory practices in general.

Historically, participatory practices in urbanism can be traced to user-centric visions for architecture in the 1960s. Of particular interest is the work of Yona Friedman, an architect who advocated for architecture to remain a framework for further development by the inhabitant [START_REF] Friedman | L'architecture mobile: vers une cité conçue par ses habitants[END_REF]. The notion of the open framework is also visible in the work of Cedric Price et al. [START_REF] Banham | Non-plan: an experiment in freedom[END_REF], an architect who argued for engaging inhabitants as co-designers through temporary architecture and the integration of technology. However, in engaging ideas of user-participation in urbanism, we should also consider potential drawbacks. In Nightmare of Participation [START_REF] Miessen | The nightmare of participation[END_REF], Markus Miessen introduced his series of essays by challenging the current state of such practices. "Both historically and in terms of political agency, participation is often read through romantic notions of negotiation, inclusion, and democratic decision making. However, it is precisely this often questioned mode of inclusion that does not produce significant results," as the voices of the needy are frequently drowned out by the concept of the majority. The risk, as Miessen points out is that the idea of participation can be used as a strategy for consensus and political control: "too often it becomes an expedient method of placation rather than a real process of transformation" [START_REF] Miessen | The nightmare of participation[END_REF].

The debate about participatory urbanism in architecture highlights fundamental aspects that are often underestimated in the design of media platforms for civic engagement. The effectiveness of a particular platform correlates with its ability to inform and support the transformation of dialogues into actions: as a consequence, any conversation is inherently somewhat political. In order to make effective decisions and direct interventions a mechanism for selecting, filtering, and prioritizing content needs to be instated; furthermore, a local municipality or governing body has to be involved as a stakeholder from the beginning of the process. A civic media platform is a complex socio-technical system where the power relationship between the involved actors needs to be carefully articulated and specific strategies of engagement, negotiation, and conflict resolution should be designed.

3

Youth Mapping Project

Context

Rio de Janeiro is vulnerable to floods and landslides, natural disasters that are expected to increase with climate change. The city's favelas are largely situated along mountainsides, and are already prone to both disasters and socio-environmental risks. In response, UNICEF, with the support of the Municipality of Rio, the Municipal Secretariat of Health and Civil Defense, and Centro de Promoção da Saúde (CEDAPS), decided to start a project in which local adolescents are mobilized to monitor, identify and prioritize social and environmental risks in their community.

In particular, the project had two main design objectives: (1) strengthen participatory governance, and empower local residents to directly improve their local communities; [START_REF] Arslan | Locast H2flow: creative learning tool for participatory urbanism[END_REF]

Design Approach

The UNICEF GIS platform is a youth-led civic media platform composed of a mobile and a web application, designed to engage residents in photo-documenting social and environmental risks in their communities (see section 3.3).

However, the design of the platform was not limited to the technological features; it also encompassed a social and cultural strategy. To foster the adoption of the system and the active participation of the local population, we designed a mediation framework that is both technological (to drive specific actions) and political. A series of workshops (see section 3.4) were organized to instruct youths on the use of the technology, to mobilize them toward environmental and social risks, and to involve local authorities and decision makers in the process. UNICEF played a central role in this process; its local connections were critical to identifying the human, social, and financial capital specific to the territory and to organize the participation process.

Technology

We worked with UNICEF to build upon the Open Locast [START_REF] Arslan | Locast H2flow: creative learning tool for participatory urbanism[END_REF][START_REF] Giusti | En Plein Air: A Mobile Learning Approach for Sustainability Education in the Wild[END_REF][START_REF] Chernyakova | Civic Media Platforms and Participatory Urbanism: A Critical Reflection[END_REF] platform and customize it for digital mapping in Rio de Janeiro (see fig. 1). UNICEF's knowledge of the community and their experience working with youth helped to contextualize the implementation of Open Locast. The Open Locast platform for this project consisted of a mobile application to capture photos and text, and a website to illustrate and discuss the geo-located collection of media. Visualization for both the mobile and web components were simplified and made more approachable for youth. Finally, maps were organized around themes (e.g. erosion, sanitation, power line problems, social spaces, etc.) to improve organization and comprehensibility for the participants. Particular attention was paid to the creation of a resilient technological infrastructure to cope with connectivity limitations. The Open Locast platform saves all generated content so that it can be automatically uploaded when the connection improves. Furthermore, media content could also be created with other devices (e.g. cameras), and then uploaded using the web application. This provided a series of different opportunities in a context where the penetration of devices is low and presents serious limitations. Open Locast. Open Locast is a location-based media platform created by the Mobile Experience Lab. It is an integrated platform that combines mobile and web tools to help users create individual and collective narratives, share content, and build local conversations. Open Locast serves as a tool for horizontal reporting, that is, entirely user-generated content, populated as a centralized space for photographs and videos generated by users, citizens, or specific workshop participants. As it leverages a usergenerated tagging system to classify content and add semantic relations between casts, it allows for both user-generated and user-organized content -creating and building an archive solely based on the content present in real-time with location [START_REF] Chernyakova | Civic Media Platforms and Participatory Urbanism: A Critical Reflection[END_REF]. The Open Locast platform is made up of three components: the Web Interface, the Core (backend and API), and the Mobile application (Android). The Open Locast Core is in Django, which includes GeoDjango to incorporate a geographic web framework enabling powerful storage, querying, and geographic information manipulation. The core features an extensive network-centric API, RESTful and JSON, which allows data stored in Open Locast to be easily accessed and manipulated, allowing a wide-range of visualizations, statistical analyses, and user interfaces. Open Locast Web, which runs through Django, serves as the program's web presence and interface. All map-based interactions and visualizations are handled by OpenLayersa JavaScript library for displaying map data. It currently functions on Android platforms, and communicates with the Core using its API. The data is stored in an SQLite database based on the Android Content Provider framework.

Workshops and activities

The Youth Mapping project involved a group of 111 adolescent (from 11 to 18), community thought-leaders, and local authorities in mapping environmental risks in target communities. The project implementation was carried out in a two-step approach: an initial session to train key stakeholders (see fig. 2 After this initial session, workshops were collaboratively planned. Five 5-day workshops were organized in 5 underserved communities of Rio de Janeiro (Morro dos Prazeres, Morro dos Macacos, Morro do Borel, Morro do Urubu and Rocinha). Each workshop hosted approximately 25 adolescents as well as the aforementioned community leaders, NGOs, and other local authorities. Local experts instructed youth on how to recognize specific potential hazards. For example, mudslides are a major concern in these communities and thus, the youth were instructed to take pictures of certain erosion patterns and dangerous overhangs. The youth were provided phones and guided in using the customized Open Locast platform, and then worked with community organizers and UNICEF to create real-time portraits of their community.

Assessment

Altogether, the youth generated about 300 casts, which are currently mapped and used as a reference [12]. The following picture (see fig. 3) documents the results of the project, showing specific intervention informed by the mapping activities and conducted by the local authorities.

To assess the workshops, youth and instructors were interviewed according to prepared questionnaires. We interviewed 6 youths (3 males and 3 females) and 2 instructors. Technically, the platform functioned well. At times, a slow 3G connection prevented casts from uploading properly, but the information architecture of the Open Locast platform was designed to cope with this issue. In addition to creating this resource, the workshops seemed to impact participants' perspective and behaviors; many of the youth were inured to the state of their locale, but capturing specific risks and unpleasant elements helped them learn to expect more from their community. Emboldened, the youth began to see how they could have a voice in local policy. Involvement in the mapping activity helped youths to look at their community in a different way, as exemplified by the following interview responses: "I could see things I had not seen before. Thanks to this activity I realized there is a lot of garbage all around our place", "I got to know places that I didn't know before, and I saw problems that I hadn't noticed before". The youths began to identify a social geography "We realized that the reality of those of us who live in the bottom part of the Morro is much better than that of those who live in the upper parts of it".

More importantly, youths stated an intention to change their habits: "before I was always throwing garbage anywhere, now I've realized that's something bad for the community and I'll try to change it". Yet, as one of the teacher pointed out: "a few students told me they now felt bad about throwing trash on the ground and would try to do it less. At the same time, I still observed them throwing a water bottle on the ground after our conversation." However, the intention to change habits shows an opportunity to build upon and the potential for behavioral shifts.

Lessons Learned

Following the Rio de Janeiro experience, the Youth Mapping project was successfully deployed in Haiti in July 2012 [13]. UNICEF adopted the same technological platform (Open Locast) and a similar cultural strategy. In partnership with two local organizations, GHESKIO and the National Office against Violence (ONAVC), UNICEF took on the challenge of identifying places where adolescents and young people are at increased risk of contracting HIV. We are now considering extending the project to 10 cities in Brazil. The interest in continuing the project testifies its effectiveness and impact. In particular, the project was a success in building: Participation. The Youth Mapping project helped community members to document needed improvements, allowing residents to directly contribute to the amelioration of their neighborhoods;

Governance. This tool for empowerment can provide local governments with constant feedback on problems in underserved areas. The initiative is responsible for real change; as a result of photos and comments from the workshops, repairs have already been made;

Education. Through a hands-on investigation, the youths were encouraged to think critically about how maps and new digital tools can inform community discourse on economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

We strongly believe that the success of this project relies on the design approach we adopted. As previously discussed, we decided to integrate the design of the technological platform with a social and cultural strategy. The role played by UNICEF as a mediator was crucial for the success of the project. UNICEF's long-term presence in the territory, ability to build trust in the communities, and power in activating local resources were fundamental to the adoption of the technology, and to promote a behavioral and cultural change.

The underlying challenge of designing platforms for participatory urbanism is the transformation of dialogue into action, which requires harmony between stakeholder perspectives. Local authorities need to be included in the design and implementation of platforms from the earliest stages. They help to engage the local community and cause real change. And yet, since local authorities are in a position of strong power, their voice in decision-making processes can be louder than the public and they have greater potential to set the final agenda. It is important to mediate the role of local authorities and strategically balance their involvement with that of local residents. This is particularly true in developing communities, where power dynamics and access to resources can be especially skewed. Our approach in assuaging this challenge was an intermediary group of thought-leaders, community activists, and young mentors who mobilize locals and empower them from the ground up. In this way, the public holds local authorities accountable and sets its own goals for the community.

Our contribution to the challenge identified by Ho -supporting an ecosystem around affordable computing -shows how considerations should go beyond technology to encompass social and cultural capital. Specifically, in the context of designing a participatory urbanism platform for underserved communities, we have illustrated the need to include local authorities without compromising the voices of local residents. Our approach of using local leaders as mediators, helped to manage diverse stakeholder needs. As a result of a successful collaboration, we observed the beginnings of a behavioral shift and the potential for sustainable impact in the community.

  help the local government to be better informed about social and structural conditions, and plan future interventions. The local context posed several technological and social challenges: (1) limited technological infrastructure, in particular slow or absent 3G connection; (2) low penetration of smartphones; (3) social resistance to the adoption of services and products developed outside the local community; (4) lack of faith in real change.

Fig. 1

 1 Fig.1 A screenshot of the mobile application (left) and the website (right).

  on the left) and secondary workshops with local youths for content generation (see fig. 2 on the right).

Fig. 2

 2 Fig.2 Workshop participant training session (left), youths at workshop in Rio de Janeiro (right).

Fig. 3

 3 Fig.3 Improvements made to communities, as informed by the Youth Mapping project.

Please note that the LNCS Editorial assumes that all authors have used the western naming