A wonderful New York Times essay on Digital Green – information and communications technology to aid development in rural India – quotes UW CSE professor Richard Anderson, a pioneer in the field:
“What’s intriguing about Digital Green is how it uses videos to start public conversations and elicit leadership within communities. What’s unexpected is that it has been able to produce locally made videos in India’s regional languages at scale, something Gandhi notes is cheaper and faster than using professional filmmakers. ‘Digital Green’s approach is kind of the MOOC model turned upside down,’ observes Richard Anderson, a professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, who is working with PATH to adapt its model to public health. ‘With a MOOC you have one centralized video reaching hundreds of thousands. With Digital Green, it’s very localized videos reaching locals within the region.'”
Read the article here. Learn about Anderson’s research here.