Designing an Architecture for Delivering Mobile Information Services to the Rural Developing World

Paper plays a crucial role in many developing world information practices. However, paper-based records are inefficient, error-prone and difficult to aggregate. Therefore we need to link paper with the flexibility of online information systems. A mobile phone is the perfect bridging device. Long battery life, connectivity, solid-state memory, low price and immediate utility make it better suited to developing world conditions than a PC. However, mobile software platforms are difficult to use, difficult to develop for, and make the assumption of ubiquitous connectivity. To address these limitations we present CAM - a framework for developing mobile applications for the rural developing world. CAM applications are accessed by capturing barcodes using the phone camera, or by entering numeric strings with the keypad. Supporting minimal navigation, direct linkage to paper practices and offline multimedia interaction, CAM is uniquely adapted to rural user, application and infrastructure constraints