Categories
Background

Why is it so hard to implement social good tech?

Why is implementing good tech so hard - open law lab -Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 4.36.44 PM Why is implementing good tech so hard - open law lab -Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 4.36.36 PM

I came across this video essay by Laura Walker Hudson, the CEO of Social Impact Lab, which houses the open source messaging system Frontline SMS. She speaks of her experience trying to implement scalable implementations of tech-for-good. She profiles why it’s so hard to get projects off the ground — from the complicated tech questions, to getting the human-centered design right, to finding sustainable project partnerships.

Her focus is on implementing tech-based interventions in the developing world, in the context of ICT4D (info/communications tech for development). But the lessons & struggles she’s talking about apply to improving legal services in the US, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.

This is essential watching for anyone working on a project to get good tech pilots off the ground — to help them prepare for working with partners in a healthy way, thinking about long-term sustainability, and navigating decisions about privacy, data, payment models, and engagement of users.

Why is implementing good tech so hard - open law lab -Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 4.36.31 PM

It’s easy to hope that implementing a well-designed, excellent technical solution will go smoothly — but it’s necessary to prepare for the human factors of how to get organizations to change their workflows & mindsets — as well as how to get users onto the platform you’re building.

Why is implementing good tech so hard - open law lab -Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 4.36.11 PM

Watch it to hear some of the common problems, as well as some takeaways to better plan for implementations.

Some of the takeaways:

  • Prep for the many tech choices you’ll have to make — do your research, lay out options, and don’t commit to one before you know that the people who are offering this tech have a sustainable business model & will be maintaining this tech
  • Have an organizational change plan, figure out how your tech will fit in the org’s  & stakeholders’ ecosystem.
  • Know your end users’ context — their literacy, tech access, power access, familiarity with tech — and choose a solution that fits these constraints
  • Have a varied toolkit, and select the right approach for your end users and local context
  • Take care about training. Do not invest in a tech system that will involve lots of heavy training unless you can sustain this. Try to get local ownership so they are bought into it, and trained in the system, so they can do local trainings without you having to do this
  • Provide incentives for local ownership, training, and implementations. Hand off to your project partners as much as you can.

Why is implementing good tech so hard - open law lab -Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 4.35.09 PM

Categories
Dispute Resolution Ideabook

Mobile Dispute Resolution for Access to Justice in Afghanistan

The Internet Bar Organization has fielded a proposed design, the Internet Silk Road Initiative, that would use online and mobile tech to provide access to justice & dispute resolution capabilities to Afghanistan.

The project’s website is down now, indicating that perhaps the proposal has been shelved right now. But its ambit is of interest:

“The proposed Internet Silk Road project aims to provide a vitally important service to Afghan communities at a time when the need for clearly defined land tenure is a growing concern for both foreign and domestic interests in the country.

Our goal is to resolve Afghan land disputes by

1. investigating the effective and ineffective aspects of the dispute resolution systems currently in use,

2. collecting evidence related to potential disputes helping to create a harmonized e-registry of land and attendant disputes, and

3. creating an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for land disputes that integrates traditional and formal dispute resolution practices to provide disputants a remedy that is accessible, fair and just.

To be judged a success, the project must gain acceptance both by the populace and the central government, in accordance with IBO’s broader mission of promoting effective rule of law through ADR.”

It would use basic technology to let citizens document their sides of dispute and present it for ADR process. The tech could provide a structure and design to the ADR, guiding the citizens through it. It could also supply a way to collect, store, and share evidence that will be useful in deciding the outcome of ADR.

There are more slides for the proposed project from a USIP November 2011 presentation.

Of course, there is no online information about how this system could be implemented with citizens and with the approval-stamp of the government. The inklings of the project provide one prototype (or perhaps, concept design) that could move the ODR for ATJ (Online Dispute Resolution for Access to Justice) idea space forward.

Sheldon Himelfarb wrote a summary of different mobile-based design interventions for improving quality of life and rule of law in Afghanistan, including a short summary of the ‘aspirational program’ of the Online Dispute Resolution system.

He wrote, “Currently, the promise of this program seems to be mainly in capturing land data in digital form through the use of smart phones in order to convert handwritten and woefully inadequate land records into reliable digital repositories. The actual arbitration via mobile phone of the project is decidedly more problematic. Although a great deal of preparatory work has been done, considerable cultural challenges remain, given Afghanistan’s traditional justice system. Most of the Afghanistan rule-of-law experts who were consulted expressed great skepticism about the willingness of local communities to abide by decisions rendered by officials, however impartial, who are remote and unfamiliar to them”

This commentary indicates the cultural and political barriers that may arise to prevent an ODR for ATJ system.

Categories
Ideabook

Brainstorm of Improving Refugees’ Communication

http://popplet.com/app/#/535625

This is my law/design class’ brainstorm on problems refugees & the UNHCR face in communication.  There are many challenges, especially in opening more reliable, trustworthy, & resonant channels between the UN bureaucracy and the refugees in an unsettled & knowledge-deprived space.