MobileActive.org

This work consists of two main components:
(a) a longitudinal ethnographic study in Kyrgyzstan that
demonstrates the importance of transportation resources in the
developing world and how to plan for an appropriate ICT
solution, and (b) the results of a proof-of-concept system
engineered to create a bottom-up, transportation information
infrastructure using only GPS and SMS. Transportation is a
very important shared resource; enabling efficient and effective
use of such resources aids overall development goals.
The system, *bus, involved the development of a hardware
device (a *box) containing a GSM modem and a GPS unit, that
can be installed on a vehicle and used to track its location. The
*box communicates via SMS with a server connected to a basic
GSM phone. The server runs route a prediction algorithm and
users can send SMS messages to the server to find when a bus
will arrive at their location.
The paper discusses the system and early testing, as well as the
development implications for a range of urban and rural
environments where transportation is scarce or inefficient, and
where a central authority or institution is not in a position to
provide robust information resources for users. We describe how
the solution is also situated within technology usage patterns
common to the developing world.