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>'Commute to work? Apply for benefits? Schedule appointments with doctors? Successfully keep those appointments? Keep tabs on kids while working/errands? A smar

>'Commute to work? Apply for benefits? Schedule appointments with doctors? Successfully keep those appointments? Keep tabs on kids while working/errands? A smart phone makes you better.' Spot on. Years ago, I maintained a couple of desktops in a sort of 'job center' where people could submit electronic applications for various low-end, entry-level positions. The most common issue - no email address. Second most common - has email, but has to take the bus to the library to check it. Cheap smartphones have been a boon at that level. There's a whole segment of the population that was missing out on all the benefits of being connected until very recently.

jl6 12y ago
Here's a seemingly rare example of something that has unambiguously and significantly improved the lives of millions of poor people across the world. What lessons can we learn to try to repeat that success?
julian_t 12y ago
> The most common issue - no email address. Second most common - has email, but has to take the bus to the library to check it. Absolutely. We have come to know a couple of guys, one ex-homeless, who have real troubles here. We lent one an old iPad and that, together will free wifi in coffee shops and malls, has enabled him to talk to government agencies and job centers.
- narrator 12y ago
  These days you can buy no-name android tablets from Walmart for $44. For example: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-7-Tablet-with-4GB-Memory-and-Google-Mobile-Services/23350692 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-7-Tablet-with-4GB-Memory-an... That's cheap enough that there's no reason for a poor person NOT to have one.
  - rmc 12y ago
    For some $44 is a lot. Jack Monroe was poor and a blogger. She wrote a powerful piece about it once: ( http://agirlcalledjack.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/ http://agirlcalledjack.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/ ): > This morning, small boy had one of the last Weetabix, mashed with water, with a glass of tap water to wash it down with. ‘Where’s Mummys breakfast?’ he asks, big blue eyes and two year old concern. I tell him I’m not hungry, but the rumblings of my stomach call me a liar. But these are the things that we do. > ... > Then you start to take lightbulbs out. If they aren’t there, you can’t turn them on. > ... > Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one weetabix and says ‘more mummy, bread and jam please mummy’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam. These are the people who can't afford $44.
    - julienwaterh 12y ago
      Jack Monroe has a political agenda behind her claims. Note that she voluntarily gave up a full time public-sector job (emergency services dispatcher) with a decent salary to go on benefits. Why does she have a child if she doesn't have the income to support them? Where is the father?
      - rmc 12y ago
        "agenda": The word you use when you want to dismiss someone's issues without actually addressing them. Most of your questions are answered here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/richard-littlejohn-wrong-about-jack-monroe-daily-mail http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/richard... "Why does she have a child?" News for you: Sometimes people's circumstances can change. It's impossible to be sure you're income will be stable for 20 years.
        jerf 12y ago
        I was actually surprised when I read the summary, because that would be a surprising level of poverty in the US. If anything, we are unnecessarily generous with the food stamps here. (Which I am not necessarily complaining about, just observing that they are relatively easy to get.) And lo, it turns out this was in Britain, so saying they can't afford $44 is sort of deceptive. I well believe she couldn't afford £44. There's a certain segment in American politics who really doesn't like to talk about this, but for all the drama, the poor in America are still better off than they are in almost any other country, which, yes, includes all (AFAIK) the European countries, and while that doesn't prove anything about what we do or do not need to do in that area, it does suggest that rhetoric about poverty in the US can occasionally get overblown. (It's a political thing where, let's be honest, there's a lot of incentives to keep promising more. I started listing them all out and the list of people interested in increasing poverty payouts got too long for a parenthetical. Again, not necessarily a complaint, but let's not pretend here that these interests don't exist. If you'd like, celebrate that often comes from something so crass as base political pandering ends up benefiting so many people, instead of a narrow interest group.) I live in the Midwest and I don't know anyone living in abject poverty, but I know a lot of struggling families (as in, friends of the family that we socialize with frequently, not just "people I've heard of"). There's plenty of them that could afford $44, if you were somehow bringing something to them that was worth it. Which is, after all, the entire point here, to bring them something that will somehow improve their lives more than the cost of buying it, not to just pointlessly drain their wallets. This may very well only work right now in the US, where, yes, even the poor and struggling can afford $44, if it's worth it somehow. And on the flip side, while it's perhaps harder than you might initially think to bring $44 of value to somebody, it is also a very feasible goal. You don't have to work out how to bring them $5000 of value. (Although if you can somehow, awesome. That said the only thing that leaps to mind where you can pay back thousands for a small investment is budgeting apps, and that space is covered. The problem there wouldn't so much be writing the app as getting people to use it.)
  - julian_t 12y ago
    Cheap is one reason, but also... When you're functionally illiterate and have spent a few years living on the streets, are not good with money, and have a generally chaotic lifestyle, then you may well not think about going to your local supermarket to buy a cheap tablet (even if you know what a tablet is) For some folks, their lack of ability to cope with (and fit into) modern life is truly incapacitating.
    - hnal943 12y ago
      Right, but that brings us back to the main point: how is an app going to solve that? It's not.
  - ljf 12y ago
    I take it you've never been on the breadline then? There have been times in my life when £5 has been a lot of money, when taking a 2hr walk (each way) to work for the first week, was the only option. It might not seem much, but then if they do buy it, what next? There is no starbucks in their neighbourhood, the library is two buses away, and none of your neighbours have wifi, or are happy to share it with you. Plus if you are living a chaotic life, keeping hold of something like this, keeping it secure, dry and charged can be a mission in itself. And when times are hard what is going to be the easiest way to get some money (for bus fare to that job)... So yes, if you are in the right location, with the time and means to get to an open wifi connection, and have the spare money to buy a tool like this, then awesome. But a lot of people aren't.
  - lotsofcows 12y ago
    Well, as long as you ignore all the cultural and social elements that got him into that position in the first place. Oh, and the $44.
  - markbnj 12y ago
    I take it you've never been actually poor? $44 can be a hell of a lot to invest in technology when you don't have enough money to cover the bills every month.
- 616c 12y ago
  I left the United States to work abroad too soon to get into the project, but Washington DC (if you are in that area) Public Libraries had a very impressive computer literacy program where people were taught all kinds of the skills. I taught for a while. http://dclibrary.org/services/computer http://dclibrary.org/services/computer Things like this will make a big difference. The email thing, as an IT guy full-time, blew my mimd. Many of my students were not stereotyped homeless people, but frustrated people with low incomes and dead end jobs. Some of them really lit up as you showed them how to spend all free time that could be invested in free education and researching better job opportunties. I only wish I had stayed longer volunteering there to make a real difference. I hope other places start digital literacy courses.
EGreg 12y ago
It seems today's fast track to helping communities is: 1) Equip them with internet-enabled smartphones 2) Give them software to get things done more efficiently I just wish there was one more thing: 3) Decentralize the networks so there's no need to pay for an expensive mobile internet plan in order to communicate in your own neighborhood.

jl6 12y ago

Here's a seemingly rare example of something that has unambiguously and significantly improved the lives of millions of poor people across the world. What lessons can we learn to try to repeat that success?

julian_t 12y ago

> The most common issue - no email address. Second most common - has email, but has to take the bus to the library to check it. Absolutely. We have come to know a couple of guys, one ex-homeless, who have real troubles here. We lent one an old iPad and that, together will free wifi in coffee shops and malls, has enabled him to talk to government agencies and job centers.

narrator 12y ago
These days you can buy no-name android tablets from Walmart for $44. For example: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-7-Tablet-with-4GB-Memory-and-Google-Mobile-Services/23350692 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-7-Tablet-with-4GB-Memory-an... That's cheap enough that there's no reason for a poor person NOT to have one.
- rmc 12y ago
  For some $44 is a lot. Jack Monroe was poor and a blogger. She wrote a powerful piece about it once: ( http://agirlcalledjack.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/ http://agirlcalledjack.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/ ): > This morning, small boy had one of the last Weetabix, mashed with water, with a glass of tap water to wash it down with. ‘Where’s Mummys breakfast?’ he asks, big blue eyes and two year old concern. I tell him I’m not hungry, but the rumblings of my stomach call me a liar. But these are the things that we do. > ... > Then you start to take lightbulbs out. If they aren’t there, you can’t turn them on. > ... > Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one weetabix and says ‘more mummy, bread and jam please mummy’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam. These are the people who can't afford $44.
  - julienwaterh 12y ago
    Jack Monroe has a political agenda behind her claims. Note that she voluntarily gave up a full time public-sector job (emergency services dispatcher) with a decent salary to go on benefits. Why does she have a child if she doesn't have the income to support them? Where is the father?
    - rmc 12y ago
      "agenda": The word you use when you want to dismiss someone's issues without actually addressing them. Most of your questions are answered here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/richard-littlejohn-wrong-about-jack-monroe-daily-mail http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/01/richard... "Why does she have a child?" News for you: Sometimes people's circumstances can change. It's impossible to be sure you're income will be stable for 20 years.
      - jerf 12y ago
        I was actually surprised when I read the summary, because that would be a surprising level of poverty in the US. If anything, we are unnecessarily generous with the food stamps here. (Which I am not necessarily complaining about, just observing that they are relatively easy to get.) And lo, it turns out this was in Britain, so saying they can't afford $44 is sort of deceptive. I well believe she couldn't afford £44. There's a certain segment in American politics who really doesn't like to talk about this, but for all the drama, the poor in America are still better off than they are in almost any other country, which, yes, includes all (AFAIK) the European countries, and while that doesn't prove anything about what we do or do not need to do in that area, it does suggest that rhetoric about poverty in the US can occasionally get overblown. (It's a political thing where, let's be honest, there's a lot of incentives to keep promising more. I started listing them all out and the list of people interested in increasing poverty payouts got too long for a parenthetical. Again, not necessarily a complaint, but let's not pretend here that these interests don't exist. If you'd like, celebrate that often comes from something so crass as base political pandering ends up benefiting so many people, instead of a narrow interest group.) I live in the Midwest and I don't know anyone living in abject poverty, but I know a lot of struggling families (as in, friends of the family that we socialize with frequently, not just "people I've heard of"). There's plenty of them that could afford $44, if you were somehow bringing something to them that was worth it. Which is, after all, the entire point here, to bring them something that will somehow improve their lives more than the cost of buying it, not to just pointlessly drain their wallets. This may very well only work right now in the US, where, yes, even the poor and struggling can afford $44, if it's worth it somehow. And on the flip side, while it's perhaps harder than you might initially think to bring $44 of value to somebody, it is also a very feasible goal. You don't have to work out how to bring them $5000 of value. (Although if you can somehow, awesome. That said the only thing that leaps to mind where you can pay back thousands for a small investment is budgeting apps, and that space is covered. The problem there wouldn't so much be writing the app as getting people to use it.)
- julian_t 12y ago
  Cheap is one reason, but also... When you're functionally illiterate and have spent a few years living on the streets, are not good with money, and have a generally chaotic lifestyle, then you may well not think about going to your local supermarket to buy a cheap tablet (even if you know what a tablet is) For some folks, their lack of ability to cope with (and fit into) modern life is truly incapacitating.
  - hnal943 12y ago
    Right, but that brings us back to the main point: how is an app going to solve that? It's not.
- ljf 12y ago
  I take it you've never been on the breadline then? There have been times in my life when £5 has been a lot of money, when taking a 2hr walk (each way) to work for the first week, was the only option. It might not seem much, but then if they do buy it, what next? There is no starbucks in their neighbourhood, the library is two buses away, and none of your neighbours have wifi, or are happy to share it with you. Plus if you are living a chaotic life, keeping hold of something like this, keeping it secure, dry and charged can be a mission in itself. And when times are hard what is going to be the easiest way to get some money (for bus fare to that job)... So yes, if you are in the right location, with the time and means to get to an open wifi connection, and have the spare money to buy a tool like this, then awesome. But a lot of people aren't.
- lotsofcows 12y ago
  Well, as long as you ignore all the cultural and social elements that got him into that position in the first place. Oh, and the $44.
- markbnj 12y ago
  I take it you've never been actually poor? $44 can be a hell of a lot to invest in technology when you don't have enough money to cover the bills every month.
616c 12y ago
I left the United States to work abroad too soon to get into the project, but Washington DC (if you are in that area) Public Libraries had a very impressive computer literacy program where people were taught all kinds of the skills. I taught for a while. http://dclibrary.org/services/computer http://dclibrary.org/services/computer Things like this will make a big difference. The email thing, as an IT guy full-time, blew my mimd. Many of my students were not stereotyped homeless people, but frustrated people with low incomes and dead end jobs. Some of them really lit up as you showed them how to spend all free time that could be invested in free education and researching better job opportunties. I only wish I had stayed longer volunteering there to make a real difference. I hope other places start digital literacy courses.

EGreg 12y ago

It seems today's fast track to helping communities is: 1) Equip them with internet-enabled smartphones 2) Give them software to get things done more efficiently I just wish there was one more thing: 3) Decentralize the networks so there's no need to pay for an expensive mobile internet plan in order to communicate in your own neighborhood.