This project is one of the six projects sponsored by Intel as part of their WoNo (Wireless Or Nothing) activity. Intel is hosting a multidisciplinary research group related to Next Generation Scalable Wireless Infrastructure and Services for Successful Broadband Penetration in India. Comprising of perspectives from technology, social sciences, design, and telecommunications policy. IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Chennai, IIT-Delhi, IIIT-Bangalore and Srishti Labs are participating in this group. Intel’s belief is that WoNo workshop participants can accelerate progress in the above research area while collaborating in a loosely coupled fashion to identify new synergies and strategic research opportunities.

In emerging countries such as India, where 4G wireless may likely become the main access mechanism for the Internet, the growth and ubiquitous availability of broadband Internet access is expected to be large. This development will fuel innovations in technology, infrastructure, devices as well as services. To fully address and comprehend the social aspects of 4G wireless, it is crucial to understand the role that emerging technology could and should play given unique societal considerations.

The goal of this project is to develop and qualitatively validate concepts related to entertainment based on existing ethnographic knowledge about Indian rural populace, and knowledge of 4G & wireless technological capabilities. Apart from education and health, the two most well-articulated needs that come out of the lower middle class and rural population is entertainment and entrepreneurship. Keeping this in mind, the project objective was to implement a design driven exploration of entertainment space for rural India. Our prior projects in user, business; design (UBD) driven technology innovation has suggested that using ideas in a feed-forward technique allows end-users to understand the potential of the new technology in ways that were hard for them to understand otherwise. In this method we seed the end users creative and participatory thinking through ideas generated from our current knowledge of their needs, other stakeholders and the ecosystems needs.

Related : Innovation with S.Labs