Abhigyan Singh

New Media
1982, India

Contact information
+358 45 279 4447
abhigyan.singh(at)gmail.com

Design opportunities and challenges in Indian urban slums - community communication and mobile phones

This thesis investigates the area of community communication for marginalized communities belonging to Indian urban slums. The aim is to identify design challenges and opportunities for mobile-based community communication services for residents of Indian urban slums. The thesis is based on two ethnographic field researches done in urban slums of India. The research is qualitative in nature and is best identified as participatory bottom-up exploration.

The thesis discusses the existing practices of using mobile phones, identifies the 'human nodes' in community communication, presents design opportunities and challenges, and proposes a design concept called 'Asynchronous Voice based Community Communication Service' for residents of Indian urban slums.