Immiserating the Poor: We Have An App For That (Social Media vs. the iPhone in Egypt and a Kenyan slum) � Gurstein's Community Informatics

(interesting critique of cell phone based approach to clean water delivery in the Kibera slum--worth reading the whole thing, small snippet below)

Immiserating the Poor: We Have An App For That (Social Media vs. the iPhone in Egypt and a Kenyan slum) � Gurstein's Community Informatics:

"Allowing for a privatized and individualized approach to water provision simply means that those with the resources—to own and use cell phones, to devote time to chasing water suppliers and standing in water queues, and to financially compete for scarce water supplies in the local water marketplace–will be well served and those who don’t have those resources will be left behind and forgotten.

As well, by advantaging those who are the most able – the most technologically sophisticated, the wealthiest, the youngest and the most agile in the community—the possibility of developing community and collaborative strategies for addressing these fundamental issues will be drained away since those most able to respond effectively will have their needs met (and not incidentally as the description boasts, more efficiently and at a better price). If the actions of those immensely brave people demonstrating for democracy in Egypt and Tunisia, teaches us anything it is that major social issues such as the provision of clean and low cost water must be addressed by collective action rather than responding simply to individual actions which by their very nature in this context would be competitive, divisive and collectively disempowering."