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Just before 2017 came to an end, a Google Internet connectivity balloon crashed in Kenyaand landed on a farm. As the article states, it caused a little panic. Fortunately, there was no damage to life or property. Most of us are familiar with what Google has been doing with balloons, but this prompted digging a little deeper.
As you may know, Google has been on a mission to provide Internet connectivity to rural and remote areas of our world, through an impressive initiative called Project Loon. It’s not an easy problem to solve, which makes it perfect as one of Google’s moonshots.
But Google is not alone. Facebook has a similar and equally impressive initiative in Project Aquila, a fleet of solar-powered drones that will beam Internet access to remote areas.
“The most common source of management
mistakes is not the failure to find the right
answers. It is the failure to ask the right
questions… Nothing is more dangerous in
business than the right answer to the wrong
question.” - Peter Drucker
Google and Facebook seem to have framed the problem in the form of the question — How do we provide Internet connectivity to the remotest corners of the world?
So, are Google and Facebook asking the right question? Is there a better question to ask? And if there is, could it lead us to a better understanding of the problem and, thereby, a better solution?
Could mere mortals like us, without the dazzling array of resources and technology at our disposal, even dare ask such a question? And if we could even muster the courage to do so, could we approach this problem with any confidence to solve it?
That’s too many questions! So, let’s pause.
First, let’s ask — What do we know about the “remote areas of the world”?
That’s not very helpful. So let’s reframe:
What do we know about people in rural and remote areas of the world, their life, their environment, their challenges, and their aspirations?
The very people to whom we want to give this gift of the Internet.
For all of us who have embraced the Design Thinking approach to solving problems, we know that we need to be human-centered and developing deep empathy for people. So, this seems like a good first question to ask.
Turns out:
About 1.5 billion people in the world are illiterate, many living in rural and remote areas. Many of them can only talk in their local language. Many don’t have access to computers or mobile phones.
A woman is still 21% less likely to own a
mobile phone than a man. This figure
increases to 23% if she lives in Africa, 24% if
she lives in the Middle East, and 37% if she
lives in South Asia” - GSMA: Women &
Mobile: A Global Opportunity
Electricity is not 24×7. Daily wage is about $1.
We feel naked and panic when we leave home without our phones, but this is the reality of people in the remote areas of the world. Any solution needs to acknowledge and accommodate these constraints and the realities.
Nothing to take away from Google and Facebook, but there has to be a lot more on the ground than any number of balloons or drones in the stratosphere.
Children may not have books in their school, or even classrooms or benches, but need to acquire knowledge and learn about the world they live in.
A family with a sick child needs medical services in a timely manner.
Enter Question Box. The question they seemed to have asked is:
How can we enable easy access to information to people in areas with high illiteracy, social and technical barriers?
These people are not necessarily all in rural or remote areas. As Question Box puts it, they are people who are marginalized, who are the most in need of information and services. They are also hardest to reach, and least likely to access the knowledge and resources in a timely manner.
Take a look at this video
Very impressive!
I recently read this book, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger.
Berger provides insights into the importance of curiosity and the power of inquiry. A question is a simple tool to spark innovation.
Berger provides fascinating examples of interesting questions asked by different people and the impact they created. We can recognize many of these innovations.
To be fair, Google and Facebook have asked an interesting question too — How can we deploy network infrastructure in remote parts of the world where putting cell towers may be problematic?
However, the question asked by Question Box comes across as a more beautiful question to me. Now, granted that this solution is not even remotely as high-tech as balloons and drones that could have an enormous impact at some point in the future. However, Question Box is a very innovative solution that is creating value today.
Do people in rural, remote areas of the world
need the Internet or do they need access to
information?
We define the problem and the solution based on the question we ask.
What do you think?
Image credits: NewsFirst, NewsLocker, WorldBank, FinancialExpress IndianExpress
Cofounder, Head of Programs & Faculty Institute of Product Leadership
