Intermediated technology use in developing communities
Abstract
We describe a prevalent mode of information access in low-income communities of the developing world--intermediated interactions. They enable persons for whom technology is inaccessible due to non-literacy, lack of technology-operation skills, or financial constraints, to benefit from technologies through digitally skilled users--thus, expanding the reach of technologies. Reporting the results of our ethnography in two urban slums of Bangalore, India, we present three distinct intermediated interactions: inputting intent into the device in proximate enabling, interpretation of device output in proximate translation, and both input of intent and interpretation of output in surrogate usage. We present some requirements and challenges in interface design of these interactions and explain how they are different from direct interactions. We then explain the broader effects of these interactions on low-income communities, and present some implications for design.
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Interviewees said the rare recourse available to Indians was frequently culturally insensitive or degrading.
“Respondents described that when recourse existed, it was often culturally-insensitive or dehumanising, e.g., a respondent was violently questioned about their clothing by staff of a ride-sharing application, during redressal for an assault faced in a taxi (also see [177] for poor recourse).”
From Re-imagining Algorithmic Fairness in India and Beyond (2021) · cites this paper as [177]
In the non-West, unequal standards, weak safeguards, and questionable AI uses can have catastrophic consequences.
“Similarly, unequal standards, inadequate safeguards, and dubious applications of AI in the non-West can lead to catastrophic effects (similar analogies have been made for content moderation [165,177]).”
From Re-imagining Algorithmic Fairness in India and Beyond (2021) · cites this paper as [177]
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- Authors
- Sambasivan, N., Cutrell, E., Toyama, K., & Nardi, B.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Microsoft Research (India) (IN)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2010-04-10
- Pages
- 2583-2592
- OpenAlex
- W2135852677
- Cited by
- 236
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 9.66
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Keywords
- low-income communities, urban slums, digital divide, access to information, interface design, technology access barriers
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