1,2,3

Friday was a big one. We hustled down to Palo Alto to meet up with Meg Lee at the D school at Stanford for a chat. It looks like a model that I expect to see more of. Bring multidisciplinary groups together from different departments on campus introduce them to design methods and take on interesting problems that have some interest for all. For Jon and I this struck a chord with us considering that after a few days, of presentations and reporting on project developments, the Microsoft conference concluded with a call for a more human centered approach to technology in ICT for development projects. I wasn't there but I feel like the comment identifies the dichotomy between those projects that go with an answer and those that go with a question.

We presented our question to IDEO over lunch for a crowd of 20+. So happy Aaron could reschedule our presentation after a minor communications mishap on Wednesday. It was good to a see that there were plenty of folks interested in the topic. It feels like the design committed are always interested to see how design performs in new contexts.

Christina from Life in Africa was already at home in the Kiva office by the time we arrived. We discussed our plans for testing when we get back in August. She will be out of town until the 10th which will give us a good chance to work directly with her staff. Before leaving Premal let us all know that the phones we were hoping to secure were confirmed. So Christina found out that we will pilot our project with her and she stood up and waved her arms. She is a great ally and continues to support our work with her. I cant wait to run this thing with the LiA folks they respond quite freely, and Christina would have it no other way. We should be able to get plenty of results from our time with them.