Paper Reading #3: Multi-Lifespan Information System Design in Post-Conflict Societies: An Evolving Project in Rwanda (19)

Comments

http://stuartjchi.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-3-multi-lifespan.html
http://aaronkirkes-chi.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-3-19-multi-lifespan.html

Reference Information

   Title: Multi-Lifespan Information System Design in Post-Conflict Societies: An Evolving Project in Rwanda

   Author: Batya Friedman

   Publisher: CHI 2010: Imagine all the People, April 10-15, 2010

Summary

In 1994, around 800,000 Rwandans were killed that belonged to an ethnic minority by a neighboring Rwandan majority group. This obviously created a great deal of stress on the country's ethnic, political and societal groups. Today, the country is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and is politically stable.


Following the genocide, the UN Security Council in cooperation with the Rwandan government established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). ICTR was in charge of prosecuting those that masterminded the genocide. After 15 years, they are finally coming to a close. The team of researchers wanted to preserve the experiences and insights of those that served the ICTR during this time (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, investigators, etc). They recorded 49 videos in all.


Those affected by armed conflicts rely heavily on information systems post-conflict in order to restore civility and access critical information. The researchers hoped to be able to use their HCI knowledge to help build this infrastructure. They had to provide a method for distributing the information in a way that was accessible to as many people as possible. Rwanda's technical infrastructure wasn't great. Radio was the most pervasive communication medium, with widespread cell phone use in both rural and urban areas. There was limited power and Internet access in many villages. The team was able to provide 4 prototypes: 1) video clips on DVD, 2) video clips served locally from a website, 3) audio clips delivered to cell phones, and 4) quote cards: cards printed with a quote from the video clip.

Discussion

I guess this relates to HCI in that they had to figure out a way to distribute the materials in a way that was accessible to as many people as possible. I didn't find anything truly ground-breaking or exciting about their work, however. There wasn't some big culture gap that prevented access or anything like that; it was simply that the infrastructure was so bad. I feel like they could have just uploaded them to a youtube-like site devoted to the ICTR and published a book with all of the interviews, perhaps distributed freely. I'm not sure how many people are going to request audio clips through SMS or read printed quote cards.

Image: http://www.roxilla.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rwanda.jpg