students using Raspberry Pi-based computers in a village school in cameroon.

a slick GUI by default, with the entire operating system and user files stored on a swappable SD card.

Users can “see into” the underlying mechanics of the technology—quite literally since the basic Pi comes as just a case-less board. Users must build their own computer by connecting monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals to the motherboard; and load their own operating system and applications if they want to word process, web browse, and so forth. Open design and an open innovation approach have encouraged a whole set of further developments, such as a hardware interface ( Pi-Face) that can connect the computer to a variety of sensors and peripherals.

But can Pi break out of its computer science teaching and design project ghetto to address the needs of developing countries?

Photogra Ph by geert maertenS

ULCC’s promise is that it will
match the explosion in digital com-
munications with an explosion in data
processing capacity—bringing the
“I” of information and communica-
tion technologies to the mass of the
world’s population just as cellphones
are bringing the “C.”
As we noted in a recent blog, 1 three
application opportunities come to mind:

˲ Micro-enterprise and household
computing: providing access to stan-
dard computing applications for the
individual enterprise and household.
Add a mobile Internet connection,
and we might finally move beyond
the “telecenter” model of community
computing, to something much more
integral to the lives of those on lowest
incomes.

the spread
of computing
applications for
the poor has
been limited by
design-reality gaps.

˲ Data collection and automation applications: there’s a trickle of new electronic applications for development—smart motor controllers that save power and extend motor life, low-cost health monitors, water quality and climate change measurement devices, field-based agricultural sensors. Raspberry Pi might turn that trickle into a steady stream.

At root, though, the transformational promise of ULCC may not be about a specific application, but about a new approach to innovation and design. The spread of computing applications for the poor has been limited by design-reality gaps. Applications are developed by those external to poor communities, with designs that mismatch local realities, and thus often fail.

If ULCCs can become widespread, they can enable a new computing design paradigm: grassroots innovation in which local users are also designers; creating designs that match local needs, resources, and context. ULCC will also allow a new model of collaborative IT innovation: working alongside base-of-the-pyramid users. Large firms, university departments, and social enterprises could now afford rapid, mass prototyping—trying out and iterating quickly through many different models until they find one that works.