What would it take to work from your phone?

Starting the discussion on helping poor communities through mobile technology

Mar 10, 2023

As I have traveled around poor communities, one thing I find striking is the number of people who have nothing else. I have seen many people who live in a tent or hut without running water, but still have a smart phone. It is actually a very important tool for people who are homeless. It gives them access to support services, helps keep connected to friends and family, and it does so much more.

Lets be clear, I am not suggesting people in developed countries who have access to all kinds of technology should find a way to use only their smart phones. When I first mentioned this to a couple of interns that were working with me at RootLo, they thought the ides sounded cool. After reading through some research papers, they said, “I am not so sure trying to run a business from a smart phone would really work.” Sadly, they were looking at it from the point of view of someone that has access to all kinds of technology. So again, what I am talking about is enabling people who only have access to a smart phone.

Remote work using a 2-way pager

In one of my early jobs, I supported the production systems which required me to be on-call. We had SLA’s in place that required me to have the system back up within 15 minutes of being called out. I lived 20 minutes from the office. So if I had to run into the office just to restart a failed process, I already overran my SLA.

On top of that, I was caring for my wife, who had a rare form of Mitochondrial Myopathy. We chose to not let the illness keep us from living our life together. We spent much time in doctors offices, but also, much time in living life together. The last thing I wanted was to have to rush into the office.

I had a laptop with dial-in capabilities, so that I could do things remotely. But, very few places would allow you to connect into their phone lines. Some envisioned getting stuck with a massive phone bill. Others were afraid I was going to go all “War Games” and bring the FBI down on some unsuspecting office manager. So I would still have to rush to the office our home to dial with the laptop.

When my pager was upgraded to a two-way pager, I found a new opportunity to be able to do things from anyway. The two-way pager could send emails, so I set up an email box for our monitoring system. I could send commands through this email to run specific scripts. It would respond back the the results of the script. I didn’t only script the repair procedures. I also scripted some of the reports that management with often ask me to run. During a meeting my manager asked me to get some numbers for him after the meeting. Imagine his surprise when I had those numbers right there in the meeting.

The point I am trying to make is that we are like frog in boiling water when it comes to technology. With the luxury of fancy gadgets, it is easy to miss the simple things that can be done to automate our jobs. The developed world that has become accustomed to technology has trouble seeing the possibilities from the point of view of the developing world. That is part of the reason I am living in developing countries, to help remind me of the days before all of the technology that we have today.

The problem with starting with computer training

My first project here in Brazil was to help a mission create a computer classroom. Their goal was to provide job skills training in a poor community. That project taught me a few things:

There was a lot of overhead in building the classroom.
The community doesn’t have the jobs to support the skilled workers.
The poor people are not going to be able to invest in technology once they are trained.
Many businesses were relying on their smart phones.

When starting the first project, we were concerned about finding a location. The mission had a spare room at the children’s center. So we didn’t have to purchase a building. So we didn’t have the overhead of finding a location to start. But even with that room available, we still had to raise funds to build and stock the classroom with computers. I wanted to find a way to bootstrap in the poor communities.

As I lived in the community to build the classroom, I visited the business in the community. There are a few stores that sell electronics. Very few of the businesses used computers. Even the stores used calculators. A few had computerized cash registers. People who had the money to buy the technology figured out how to use it. Honestly, training is not the real issue, access is. Which leads to the third issue.

Many businesses in these poor communities are businesses of necessity. They are providing a service or product to provide for they families. These are not life-style businesses like we see in the United States. Many of these business are just getting by. Not to mention the number of people for whom a take-out pizza is a luxury. Even a computer as cheap as the Raspberry Pi would still be a major investment. My great concern was that simple computer training would lead to brain-drain where once trained many people would move to the city to find work.

The smart phone

It was very interesting to also see how much the smart phone has already impacted the lives of these communities. In November 2020, Brazil rolled out PIX, a national electronic money transfer/payment system. Six months later when I arrived, it was as if this system had been in place for years. Even in the remote communities, people would regularly request payment via PIX. There are many apps that have become a major part of the business culture:

WhatsApp - In the United States, very few businesses except orders via text message. They will tell you to order through their website. In Brazil, most business is transacted over WhatsApp.
Instagram - I am amazed at the number of places even in the middle of the jungle that have their Instagram handle posted.
Maps/Local Search - This on is catching on. When I first moved to Autazes in August 2021 I was surprised by how many businesses had a presence in Google Maps. In the year since I was last there, the number has grown exponentially.

How do we utilize mobile technology in economic development?

Observing the communities in Brazil has shown me that we need to focus on mobile technology. I have also been to conferences and talked to people working with poor, marginalized, and displaced communities. Much discussion has been going on around the use of technology and remote work. This is great! However, when I bring up the fact that everyone seems to have a mobile device and ask “How do we utilize that?” They answer is, “Yes! That’s a good question.” When I was at a conference on the future of work, I asked that question during our break-out sessions. Everyone in the room seemed to agree that this needs to be explored, but no one had an answer as to how. I was amazed at the number of people who come up to me and said they were glad I had asked that question.

Here is what I am doing personally

Continuing to live in and learn from the people of these communities.
I am personally trying to use my smart phone for more of my own work processes. More to come about that in a future post.
I am adjusting my consulting practice to be specifically around mobile technology. Announcement coming soon!
Starting the discussion among others who are interested in this topic. See below for instructions.

Join the discussion

I am just starting to create some discussions around the topics of mobile technology in economic development. Some of the best ways to keep up with what I am doing:

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