Archive for June 22nd, 2010

Update II – Some Brief Reflections on Crowdsourcing Research (9/27/10)

After hosting this crowdsourcing site for a little more than three months, Jonathan and I have decided to shut down the experiment. The paper has been accepted at M4D 2010 in Uganda, so we want to stabilize the data and take this chance to provide some brief reflections on the experience.

We began this small research project curious about what we feel is the next stage in connectivity for the developing world: prepaid mobile Internet. Business models, amongst other subtle factors, will have influential roles in how this next stage unfolds. In exploring the availability of prepaid mobile Internet, we discovered that the African landscape is mottled, with different operators in different countries at various stages of offering the mobile Internet. But given the nature of the desk survey we conducted, we were unable to conclusively determine the offerings in every country, so we decided to open up the data collection to outsiders. The experience was a mixed one, but here are some thoughts:

Make Sure the Technology Fits the Project

Although we initially planned to use a publicly editable Google Map, we quickly switched to an Ushahidi instance because it was designed for mapping crowdsourced data. We found, though, that the initial purpose of a project may make it less flexible than two researchers with limited coding capability may hope. Ushahidi is great for mapping crises information, but that means its categorization and language used may make collecting information on mobile phone plans a bit confusing. For example, as is appropriate and understandable for crisis mapping, but confusing for our needs, is the hard-coded language of “Report an Incident” on Ushahidi. This slight barrier may make people less likely to participate.

The Importance of Personal Networks

During this experiment, we uncovered some great insights from individuals – far more nuanced than the simple “yes mobile Internet is prepay here” that we initially sought. In particular, the complicated nature of Africa mobile Internet was explained by Linda Raftree from her personal experience. Katrin Verclas, of Mobile Active, provided the initial introduction, but via email, not the platform we expected. These types of personal, pre-existing contacts are likely to be very helpful for efforts like this.

Unclear Nature of Selection Bias

Researchers take great pains to make sure they study replicable and fairly sampled groups. Because we were using personal networks and open crowdsourcing, we had to consider what, if any, bias this exploratory study had. Using the convenience of these tools, are there data being systematically excluded? Given that we had a well-defined population (African mobile network operators), this was less of a problem, but for researchers navigating new methodologies, it is worth considering. More specifically, Jonathan and I operated within the English-language blog and Twitter networks; did we miss Francophone Africa through crowdsourcing?

Summary

Putting the experience together, we might propose that crowdsourcing success is a function of (a) the ease of the task, (b) distribution of knowledge, (c) accessibility of the population with knowledge, (d) the willingness and capacity of researchers to drive the message and effort. If any of these fall short, the critical mass may never be reached.

Update – We are crowdsourcing the data on a website here.

Mobile Internet is going global and the newest chapter is taking place in developing countries. In order to better understand the paths towards widespread adoption of mobile Internet, Jonathan Donner and I have written a brief note on the availability of prepaid mobile Internet in Africa. Because prepaid models are more appropriate for poorer consumers, we argue that the availability of prepaid mobile data will be a key driver of inclusive mobile Internet usage.

Starting in late 2009, we collected data on the availability of prepaid mobile data in all 53 African countries. Unfortunately, without the budget to travel the continent, we have been unable to conclusively determine the presence of this form of connectivity in every country. So, we’re asking you to help build the database of prepaid mobile data in Africa.

Available here (in PDF) is a draft version of our paper where you can get a sense of our project.

For the crowdsourcing, we’ve created an editable Google Map with entries for each country. Green indicates existing knowledge that prepaid data is offered by at least one provider. Yellow means we have been unable to determine the presence of prepaid mobile data. And Red suggests confidence that it is not available in that country (though if you know otherwise, please do correct us!).

If you know for certain that prepaid data is available for mobile phones from at least one network provider in one of the countries marked Yellow, you can either get in touch directly or login with a Google account to the African Prepaid Mobile Data map and, in the upper right of the left-hand sidebar, click “Edit” to create your citation (the more supporting evidence, including links or your name/affiliation, the better).

This is a small-scale experiment in crowdsourcing data for use in an academic paper, so we’re not sure how much detail we will be able to gather, or what end-state the map will be, but we’re grateful for your help. Thanks!