Literacy Bridge
Back in September 2007, when we formally began working on the Talking Book project, and even for the next 4-5 months, I had this idea in my head that we would create the first version of this device, build a few prototypes, and then do a quick pilot program with the first 1000 devices of a 100,000-unit manufacturing run. In retrospect, this seems incredibly naive; but, I guess I’ve had a lot to learn.
Although this original production plan would be the cheapest approach if everything worked perfectly, it does assume that a few prototypes would be enough to figure out how to design the right device for 100,000 units. I might have been thinking that the pilot program would help us learn about the content uses and software changes (the device software can be upgraded by users in the field), but that we’d already have gotten the feedback we need on the hardware/mechanical side.
I’ve since realized (and the other Literacy Bridgers have agreed) that we need to take a much more iterative approach. Among the reasons for this, we can now get to some sort of pilot field test much sooner without having to worry about having everything perfectly ready — enough to bet on 100,000 units. We’ve already gotten direct feedback from folks in rural Ghana about the look and feel of the device and about the ideas for its functionality and how it could be used; but we will learn so much more by starting a small program where people can take the device home and interact with it and with their neighbors’ devices over the course of several weeks. So, our top goal right now is to get to a small pilot field test as soon as possible — even if the pilot is very small and with a device that has limited functionality and forthcoming hardware and mechanical changes
Our first pilot (we’ve also decided to have multiple pilot field tests, to introduce incrementally more functionality and components to the system) will probably only involve 50-100 devices in one village. We would still like to have a kiosk audio library available during the first pilot, if possible; but we could even live without that if it means we would be able to begin the pilot substantially sooner.
The kiosk is an important part of the system. It can store hundreds or thousands of hours of audio messages, rather than the dozens of hours that will fit on a single device. It serves as a central point for both uploads and downloads. It also serves as a branch in a network of kiosks. However, there’s so much we can learn from how people use the device to learn from and create recordings that I think we could have a very successful pilot without the kiosk. If we are able to have a kiosk in our first pilot, we would not try to include multiple villages with connected kiosks right away. Nor would we test the rechargeable battery program and the business model behind it. Small steps.
Another reason for taking this approach is funding. We currently rely entirely on individual volunteer work and individual financial contributions, which mainly go towards paying the outsourced engineering work (which is performed at a nice discount to help us out). We are far from having the funding we need to seriously push this project to completion. The cost of the pilot is also going to be a bit of a challenge. Although we do expect these devices will cost $7-$8 early on, each device for a small pilot will cost a lot more. So, for this reason, we may decide to go ahead with a small pilot of only 50 devices. My hope is that a properly measured and evaluated pilot program, even a small one with a subset of the eventual features and components, will be plenty of proof to any organization caring about global poverty that we’re on to something big.
In the open source world, we would say, “release early and often”.