Comments: Aaron Kirkes, Chris Kam.
Reference Information:
Multi-lifespan Information System Design in Post-Conflict Societies: An Evolving Project in Rwanda
Batya Friedman, Lisa P. Nathan, Milli Lake, Nell Carden Grey, Trond T. Nilsen, Robert F. Utter, Elizabeth J. Utter, Mark Ring, Zoe Kahn.
CHI 2010, April 10–15, 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Summary: In 1994, 800,000 Rwandans, belonging to an ethnic minority group known as the "Tutsi" were murdered by their neighboring Rwandans belonging to the majority ethnic group, the "Hutus". This troubled period in the country's history has naturally caused a great deal of cultural trauma. Now that the region is politically stable, all of Rwanda has to live side by side, knowing that their friends and family are potential murderers, and deal with the war criminals.
At the end of the conflict, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was created to deal with the war criminals. 15 years later, the ICTR is finally coming to a close, bringing an end to this bloody chapter in Rwanda's past. Before the tribunal is brought to a close however, a team of scientists went into the tribunal and created a series of 49 videos. These videos record the first hand experiences of judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, investigators, interpreters, and staff. The contents of these videos represent a highly important piece of Rwanda's history. It is the authors' belief that these testimonials should not be allowed to fade from Rwanda's cultural memory. In order for a tragedy like this to be avoided in the future, Rwandans need to actively acknowledge their past.The CHI angle of this project comes from the authors of this paper's plans to distribute these videos. The Rwandan infrastructure is highly mixed. Personal internet is almost unheard of, but internet cafes are fairly common in cities. In rural areas, internet is much harder to come by, but cell phones are fairly common. Taking these different means of access into consideration, the researchers came up with the following distribution methods: Video DVDs, Web-based Videos, Audio Clips Delivered Through SMS Requests, Printed Quote Cards. Recognizing this issue could not be solved with a "one size fits all" solution, the researchers worked with various different Rwandan organizations to figure out which distribution method fit each group's unique needs. Their findings can be found in the included graphic.
Discussion: This was a very interesting article, but it's relation to CHI seemed a bit strained. I've come to understand CHI to be something very design-oriented. This group didn't do anything particularly innovative with it's distribution of the material, only its decisions on how to distribute.
However, just because I think that this project is not nessisarily remarkable in the field of CHI does not mean that I think it is unimportant overall. What these researcher's did for the people of Rwanda should be commended. As stated by one of Rwanda's citizens, "This [project] is very different. Usually researchers come, ask questions, do their work, leave, and the first we see of it is a book sitting on someone else’s bookshelf!".
I too thought that the HCI aspect of this article was strained. As I mentioned in my discussion, I didn't see anything truly revolutionary in what they did. There weren't any big barriers (culturally) that needed to be crossed. It was basically them dealing with trying to distribute information over a crappy infrastructure. Note cards? Why not just publish a book.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this was a very "nice" thing of these people to do, but do I do not see how this relates to CHI in any way. There is a sense of human to human interaction, but nothing really involving computers.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting and important study. But the HCI connection seems somewhat vague to me as well. The different regions of Rwanda are less developed and thus have different forms of media, so I can understand that people across Rwanda will have different ways of interacting with computer media, but this only has more to do with how to distribute rather than improving interaction.
ReplyDeleteIn the sense that we aren't observing direct contact between a human and computer, the HCI connection is tenuous. However, I think that this does have bearing on HCI, because we're observing how access to this computer system affects these people as individuals and the society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI guess the main thing about this article was how they used technology to increase the chance of expose to the people by acting through the various Rwandan organizations. But you are right, it's more like HTE(Human-Technology Exposure) rather than HCI. BTW, i totally made up HTE.
ReplyDelete