1. The Needs of Others Al Razi Masri @jumplogic www.jumplogic.co.uk [email_address]

2. Talk Outline

A bit on terminology 3. Delivering Technology 4. Appropriate Instructions 5. Open Documentation

6. Terminology

Open Source Appropriate Technology What does this mean?

7. Terminology

Technology Noun:

The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, esp. in industry: "computer technology"; "recycling technologies" 8. Machinery and equipment developed from such scientific knowledge

9. Terminology Appropriate Technology

Noun:

A flexible and participatory approach to developing economically viable, regionally applicable and sustainable technology

10. For our purposes

Define by goals:

• Targeted at those in poverty 11. Free to use and modify 12. Environmentally, economically, locally sustainable 13. Sensitive to the needs of the users and local conditions 14. Leads to increased income orsubstantiallybetter quality of life 15. DoesNOTharm

16. Translating to Physical Objects

Features of code:

• Embodied knowledge 17. Copy and pasting

Features of electronics:

• Abstracted diagrams 18. Build sequence and physical form largely irrelevant

19. Delivering Technology

The technology is a means to an end. Not the end 20. It takes a lot to get a good invention/idea adopted 21. For illiterate populations unreached by mass media, flyers, brochures, or radio campaigns do not work 22. Even then people often like what they are used to 23. Goal is achieving success as opposed to nominal functionality

http://blog.paulpolak.com/?p=1111 24. 25. Scalable Documentation

Conveying an invention to a single small group is very different from a large number of large groups 26. Needs of each group very different 27. All important parts of the delivery chain 28. Documents need to meet the needs of each part of the delivery chain, or at the very least a large chunk of it so that only small segments require extra effort

29. Priorities

Can we make a set of instructions suitable for all? 30. If not how much can we cover in one step? 31. ...and in how few steps can we cover all of the important stuff? 32. ............................I'm still figuring this out

33. Who uses Instructions?

Different from users of the invention, such as:

• Teachers 34. Developers 35. Implementers (builders & maintainers)

NGO & governmental involvement spans across these three roles

36. What are their needs? RESOURCES HIGH MEDIUM LOW NONE TEACH Expert Presenter Trained Presenter Novice presenter A VERY FREQUENT OCCURENCE Video Slideshow Posters/OHP Info Pack Take away booklet Single Reference Booklet Example Build Protoype/model build Premade model BUIILD Website Infopack Booklet/printout Borrowed photocopy Expert help (private) Course Second-hand advice Video Slideshow CAD model & Schematics Simple Diagrams Sketches DEVELOP Source material Compiled material CAD Model & Schematics Experience of product Second hand experience Viewed Multiple builds Few builds One Build Tech Data Estimations Guesses Many examples/variants Few Examples/variants One Example 37. Who makes these instructions?

Right now it's whoever 38. BUT.. 39. Many inventors

• Lack Graphic Design skills 40. Lack CAD skills 41. Are too busy inventing or engaged with other projects 42. Gave up

43. Example 1: Warwick University

CalledTechnical Release 44. Issues:

• All in PDFs 45. Hidden in the depth of their website 46. No source material 47. No declaration of license 48. Internal network

....BUT

Will mail instruction to people in developing countries on request

49. Example 2: Made in Kenya

Ikea Style documents 50. Made by industrial design students 51. Issues:

• No words 52. Are the diagrams comprehensible?

http://www.notechmagazine.com/2011/11/when-low-tech-goes-ikea.html 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. Example 3: Appropedia.org

Wiki hosting a range of technologies 61. Issues:

• Many articles incomplete 62. Crowd sourced content, but are the crowds on their way? 63. Photos and Hyperlinks 64. Reliant on other formats

65. 66. 67. 68. 69. What do the Documentors Need?

EVERYTHING!

• All of the source material 70. Pre-compiled file formats 71. Compiled files for comparison 72. Fonts and similar (best avoided but not always possible) 73. A way to track revisions

TRANSLATORS- Text kept separate from everything

74. Video

Multiple resolution and aspect Ratio 75. No overlays 76. No Presenter (Value of the presenter? Complicates modification) 77. Narrators (how to make multiple voices feel normal) 78. Source Material 79. Padding and filler (different languages take different times to say the same thing)

80. Video Source Materials

Editing Suite files 81. Animations (has own source material) 82. Unedited Footage 83. Audio 84. Music 85. Transcripts & Subtitle Footage 86. Time Data (unedited video cuts and activities, edited video cut and activities, and transcript) 87. Still images

88. Other Issues

All comes down to remembering who are the most important people in the whole picture

89. The Needs of Others Al Razi Masri @jumplogic www.jumplogic.co.uk [email_address]