Frugal Digital is essentially a small research group at C.I.D. where we are looking to find alternate visions of how to create a digitally inclusive society. That's what we're after. And we do this because we actually believe that silicon technology today is mostly about a culture of excess. It's about the fastest and the most efficient and the most dazzling gadget you can have, while about two-thirds of the world can hardly reach the most basic of this technology to even address fundamental needs in life, including health care, education and all these kinds of very fundamental issues.
节俭/富国电子(Frugal Digital)本质上是一家挂靠在哥本哈根互动设计机构下的小型研究机构 哥本哈根互动设计机构的成员们一直在尝试研究 改变对于如何创造一个包罗万象的电子社会的一些看法 这是我们追求的目标 我们之所以这么做,是因为我们认为 目前的硅谷科技大多关于 一种过剩文化 它的主体大多关于最快的速度,最高的效率 最炫的工具 然而,世界上三分之二左右的人 几乎难以接触到这种最基本的科技 并用这种科技解决最基本的生活需求 例如,医疗,教育 以及其他所有最最基本的事项
So before I start, I want to talk about a little anecdote, a little story about a man I met once in Mumbai. So this man, his name is Sathi Shri. He is an outstanding person, because he's a small entrepreneur. He runs a little shop in one of the back streets of Mumbai. He has this little 10-square-meter store, where so much is being done. It's incredible, because I couldn't believe my eyes when I once just happened to bump into him. Basically, what he does is, he has all these services for micro-payments and booking tickets and all kinds of basic things that you would go online for, but he does it for people offline and connects to the digital world. More importantly, he makes his money by selling these mobile recharge coupons, you know, for the prepaid subscriptions. But then, in the backside, he's got this little nook with a few of his employees where they can fix almost anything. Any cell phone, any gadget you can bring them, they can fix it. And it's pretty incredible because I took my iPhone there, and he was like, "Yeah, do you want an upgrade?" "Yes." (Laughter) I was a bit skeptical, but then, I decided to give him a Nokia instead. (Laughter)
所以,在我开始今天的演讲前,我想跟大家分享一个小故事 是关于一位我曾在孟买碰到的先生 他名叫萨斯-佘理 他非常杰出 因为他是一位企业家 自己经营着一家小店 那家店位于孟买的一条穷街陋巷 店面只有10平米左右 但他却在这间简陋狭小的店铺里做了很多事情 令人难以置信,我简直不敢相信我自己的眼睛 当我有一次偶遇他的时候 他所提供的服务几乎包罗万象,无所不及 那些服务通常针对小额付款和在线订票 还有各种琐碎、基本的在线活动,你能想到的那些基本上都被涵盖在内 但是他是服务于线下的客户 把线下的客户连接到电子世界中来 更重要的是,他的盈利模式是 通过销售手机充值卡 给预付卡的用户 然后,在店面,他有个小房间 和一些员工 在里面他们就可以修理几乎所有东西 包括所有手机,小工具,他们都可以修理 覆盖的服务还很广泛,我曾经就拿过iPhone去修 他说:“你是否需要升级?” “当然要!”(笑声) 当时我其实对他抱有怀疑,但是之后我决定 还是先给他个诺基亚试试看吧(笑声)
But what I was amazed about is this reverse engineering and know-how that's built into this little two meters of space. They have figured out everything that's required to dismantle, take things apart, rewrite the circuitry, re-flash the firmware, do whatever you want to with the phone, and they can fix anything so quickly. You can hand over a phone this morning and you can go pick it up after lunch, and it was quite incredible.
不过之后我就吃惊了,他的逆向工程做得如此之好 他拿小小的两米空间内竟然蕴藏着如此深厚的知识功力 他们能够解决所有需要的东西 例如拆解 重排电路,更新固件 对手机无所不能 而且他们修理速度非常之快 你可以把手机早上拿过去 午饭后左右就可以取回了 相当惊人
But then we were wondering whether this is a local phenomenon, or is truly global? And, over time, we started understanding and systematically researching what this tinkering ecosystem is about, because that is something that's happening not just in one street corner in Mumbai. It's actually happening in all parts of the country. It's even happening in Africa, like, for example, in Cape Town we did extensive research on this. Even here in Doha I found this little nook where you can get alarm clocks and watches fixed, and it's a lot of tiny little parts. It's not easy. You've got to try it on your own to believe it.
于是我们差异这究竟是 当地的一个现象,还是在全球均属普遍现象 随着时间慢慢过去,我们开始逐渐理解 也开始系统地做一些研究 他们这种维修生态系统究竟是什么 因为这发生在 孟买的大街小巷,每个角落,并非只在这条街而已 甚至遍布全国 乃至非洲,比如 我们在开普敦对此做了大量研究 即便在这里——多哈,我也能找到这个小小的角落 你可以通过它修理闹钟和手表 闹钟、手表都有很多小零部件,修理起来着实不易 你自己试试就知道了
But what fuels this? It's this entire ecosystem of low-cost parts and supplies that are produced all over the world, literally, and then redistributed to basically service this industry, and you can even buy salvaged parts. Basically, you don't have to necessarily buy brand new things. You have condemned computers that are stripped apart, and you can buy salvaged components and things that you can reassemble in a new configuration.
但是是什么驱动了这些呢? 就是整套低成本零件的生态系统 产自世界各地 而后,他们重新分配到这个产业 你甚至可以通过他们买到二手零件 你甚至基本上不用买 任何新的东西。你有个坏电脑 那些电脑没有了外壳 但是你可以买一些处理零部件 然后重新组装一台电脑
But what does this new, sort of, approach give us? That's the real question, because this is something that's been there, part of every society that's deprived of enough resources. But there's an interesting paradigm. There's the traditional crafts, and then there's the technology crafts. We call it the technology crafts because these are emerging. They're not something that's been established. It's not something that's institutionalized. It's not taught in universities. It's taught [by] word of mouth, and it's an informal education system around this.
那么我们可以从这种新的方式中学到什么呢? 这是真正关键的问题,因为有些东西一直存在着 作为每个社会的一部分 需要耗费太多资源 但是,同时也有一个有趣的范式 通常现有传统手工艺 而后演变成科技含量高的工艺 我们称之为“科技含量高的工艺”是因为它们还刚刚兴起 它们并非成熟的产业 没有形成气候 大学里也没有关于这一领域的课程和研究 而是口口相传的 属于非正式教育体系
So we said, "What can we get out of this? You know, like, what are the key values that we can get out of this?" The main thing is a fix-it-locally culture, which is fantastic because it means that your product or your service doesn't have to go through a huge bureaucratic system to get it fixed. It also affords us cheap fabrication, which is fantastic, so it means that you can do a lot more with it. And then, the most important thing is, it gives us large math for low cost. So it means that you can actually embed pretty clever algorithms and lots of other kinds of extendable ideas into really simple devices.
因此,我们想说:“我们究竟可以从中学到什么呢?” 你认为我们应从中学习什么关键价值观呢? 我认为主要是一种文化,即力争在本地修复 这简直太棒了,因为这意味着你的产品 或服务无需经过 冗长的行政系统,才最终得以修复 同时,它也便于我们获得经济实惠的附件,这也非常好, 因为它意味着你可以花同样的钱做更多的事 然后,最重要的是 它为我们大大地节省了成本 也就意味着你可以运用 很多巧妙的算法 把它更广泛地应用于一些实际上非常简单的设备上
So, what we call this is a silicon cottage industry. It's basically what was the system or the paradigm before the industrial revolution is now re-happening in a whole new way in small digital shops across the planet in most developing countries.
因此,我们称之为硅谷“山寨”行业 基本上,它就是工业革命前的系统或范式 这种系统和范式现在再次上演 以一种全新的方式,开展在小规模电子商店里 遍布全球大多数的发展中国家
So, we kind of toyed around with this idea, and we said, "What can we do with this? Can we make a little product or a service out of it?" So one of the first things we did is this thing called a multimedia platform. We call it a lunch box. Basically one of the contexts that we studied was schools in very remote parts of India. So there is this amazing concept called the one-teacher school, which is basically a single teacher who is a multitasker who teaches this amazing little social setting. It's an informal school, but it's really about holistic education. The only thing that they don't have is access to resources. They don't even have a textbook sometimes, and they don't even have a proper curriculum.
因此,我们就考虑这个想法 我们想:“我们能利用这个想法做些什么呢? 能不能用它来发明一些小产品或设计什么服务呢?“ 因此我们做的第一件事就是 多媒体平台。我们称之为”午餐盒“ 我们研究的场景之一是 位于印度很偏远的学校 这个惊人的想法在当地被叫做”一个老师的学校“ 这唯一的老师在那里扮演着多重角色 在这让人惊讶的小型社会场合中教课 它是一所非正规教育的学校 但教育的领域很是全面 他们唯一没有的是 资源。他们甚至没有教科书 有时候,他们也没有合适的课程
So we said, "What can we do to empower this teacher to do more?" How to access the digital world? Instead of being the sole guardian of information, be a facilitator to all this information. So we said, "What are the steps required to empower the teacher?" How do you make this teacher into a digital gateway, and how do you design an inexpensive multimedia platform that can be constructed locally and serviced locally?" So we walked around. We went and scavenged the nearby markets, and we tried to understand, "What can we pick up that will make this happen?"
所以我们就像:”我们如何才能让这位老师有更多‘权力’呢 从而他可以施展更多?”如何让他接触到电子世界? 而非作为唯一的信息守护者 让他能够传递这些信息 所以我们想:“要做到这一点哪些步骤是必要的呢?” 如何让这位老师成为数字的大门 如何设计一个花费不太高昂的多媒体平台 而且这个平台需要在本地搭建,并服务本地“ 于是我们在当地考察了一番 去了一些就近的市场 试着去了解,”通过学习什么东西能促进实现这个想法?“
So the thing that we got was a little mobile phone with a little pico projector that comes for about 60 dollars. We went a bought a flashlight with a very big battery, and a bunch of small speakers. So essentially, the mobile phone gives us a connected multimedia platform. It allows us to get online and allows us to load up files of different formats and play them. The flashlight gives us this really intense, bright L.E.D., and six hours worth of rechargeable battery pack, and the lunch box is a nice little package in which you can put everything inside, and a bunch of mini speakers to sort of amplify the sound large enough. Believe me, those little classrooms are really noisy. They are kids who scream at the top of their voices, and you really have to get above that. And we took it back to this little tinkering setup of a mobile phone repair shop, and then the magic happens. We dismantle the whole thing, we reassemble it in a new configuration, and we do this hardware mashup, systematically training the guy how to do this. Out comes this, a little lunch box -- form factor.
我们从中学到了一点 那就是配备小投影仪的移动电话 一台这样的电话大约是60美元 我们买了一个带大电池的闪光灯 还有一些小的麦克风 于是,这部手机给了我们 一个连接外界的多媒体平台 我们可以通过它上网,上传文件 包括各种格式,还可以播放、观看这些文件 闪光灯则是一个发光很强,很明亮的LED 还带有可充电的电池,可支撑长达6小时 这个”午饭盒“可谓一个很不错的小装备 你可以往里面放任何东西 以及一些小型扬声器用来 扩大音量 请相信我,那些小教室确实非常嘈杂 小孩子们通常都大喊大叫 因此你的音量必须高过他们 我们拿回这件小东西 把它拿到那个维修铺 随后,奇妙的事情就发生了 我们拆解了它 把它重新组装 把硬件重整一番 系统性地培训了团队成员如何操作 于是,这个小”午饭盒”就诞生了!
(Applause)
(掌声)
And we systematically field tested, because in the field testing we learned some important lessons, and we went through many iterations. One of the key issues was battery consumption and charging. Luminosity was an issue, when you have too much bright sunlight outside. Often the roofs are broken, so you don't have enough darkness in the classroom to do these things.
之后,我们进行了系统性地实地测试 因为在这些实地测试中我们可以了解到 一些要点,我们经历一遍又一遍的重复 一个关键的问题是电池耗电量和充电 亮度也是个问题,有时候室外的阳光非常刺眼 因为很多情况下屋顶是破损的,因此你的教室 可能暗度不合适
We extended this idea. We tested it many times over, and the next version we came up with was a box that kind of could trickle charge on solar energy, but most importantly connect to a car battery, because a car battery is a ubiquitous source of power in places where there's not enough electricity or erratic electricity.
我们延伸了这一想法,再次反复调试了很多次 之后的升级版 可以利用太阳能来充电 更重要的是,它可以连接到汽车电池 因为汽车电池是比较普及的能源形式 特别是当地这种电力不完善的地方 或者说供电不稳定
And the other key thing that we did was make this box run off a USB key, because we realized that even though there was GPRS and all that on paper, at least, in theory, it was much more efficient to send the data on a little USB key by surface mail. It might take a few days to get there, but at least it gets there in high definition and in a reliable quality. So we made this box, and we tested it again and again and again, and we're going through multiple iterations to do these things.
我们做的另外一件很关键的事情是 给它设计了一个USB接口,因为我们意识到 纵使有GPRS信号,和论文里面都有的东西, 至少理论上更有效的方式是 用U盘传送数据 可能需要几天才能到 但至少清晰度很高 而且质量可靠 因此我们做了这个小盒子,然后重新测试了一下 并随着设计不断测试 不断改进
But it's not limited to just education. This kind of a technique or metrology can actually be applied to other kinds of areas, and I'm going to tell you one more little story. It's about this little device called a medi-meter. It's basically a little health care screening tool that we developed.
但是这个技术绝非仅限于用于教育 这种技术 几乎可以用于任何领域 让我再告诉你一个小故事 这个故事关于一个叫做“中介测量器”的小设备 这是我们研发的一个小型健康检测仪
In India, there is a context of these amazing people, the health care workers called ASHA workers. They are essentially foot soldiers for the health care system who live in the local community and are trained with basic tools and basic concepts of health care, and the main purpose is basically to inform people to basically, how to lead a better life, but also to divert or sort of make recommendations of what kind of health care should they approach? They are basically referral services, essentially.
在印度,有一群 惊人的医疗工作者——ASHA工作人员 他们堪称医疗卫生系统的排头兵 生活在当地社区,接受过 基本医疗概念和工具操作的培训 主要目的是告诉人们 如何过更好的生活,同时 提出一些建议 关于他们应该获取哪种医疗服务? 从本质上来讲,他们是为人们推荐服务
But the problem with that is that we realized after a bunch of research that they are amazing at referring people to the nearest clinic or the public health care system, but what happens at the public health care system is this: these incredibly long lines and too many people who overload the system simply because there's not enough doctors and facilities for the population that's being referred. So everything from a common cold to a serious case of malaria gets almost the same level of attention, and there's no priorities.
但是我们觉得这其中的问题是 经过一系列研究之后,他们会 告诉人们哪里是最近的诊室 或者公共医疗护理系统,但是 那些公共医疗护理系统的一个问题是:这些地方通常都需要排很长的队 人太多了,使得系统超负荷运转 简单说是因为医生和设备数量不够 对比需要使用这些资源的人数 因此,下至普通感冒 上至严重的疟疾,基本上都是同等对待 没有分优先级
So we said, "Come on, there's got to be a better way of doing this for sure." So we said, "What can we do with the ASHA worker that'll allow this ASHA worker to become an interesting filter, but not just a filter, a really well thought through referral system that allows load balancing of the network, and directs patients to different sources of health care based on the severity or the criticalness of those situations?"
于是我们就想:“不行!一定得有一种更好的方式! 需要有更好的办法来解决这个问题!” “那么我们该怎么跟ASHA工作人员一起合作呢 才能让他们成为一个好的筛选机制 而不仅仅是一个筛子而已,能够让他们发挥推荐的作用 进而还可以平衡系统内的工作量 把不同病人分配到不同的卫生资源 根据他们疾病的严重程度”
So the real key question was, how do we empower this woman? How do we empower her with simple tools that's not diagnostic but more screening in nature so she at least knows how to advise the patients better? And that'll make such a huge difference on the system, because the amount of waiting time and the amount of distances that people need to travel, often sometimes seven to 15 kilometers, sometimes by foot, to get a simple health check done, is very, very detrimental in the sense that it really dissuades people from getting access to health care. So if there was something that she could do, that would be amazing.
于是最关键的问题就是 我们如何助力这些女士们? 如何用比较简单的工具让她们有能力胜任? 本质上是更多的侧重于筛选,而非严格诊断 从而让她们如何给病人更好的建议? 这对系统会产生很大的影响 因为等候的时间太长,并且他们需要做跋涉的路程太远 有时候当地人需要经过 7-15公里,有时候甚至是步行的 才可以获得一次简单的健康检查,这是极其不利的 从某种程度上讲,甚至让人们放弃 去获取医疗服务 因此,如果她们可以做到 刚才提到的那些事情,那将令人震撼而惊奇
So what we did was that we converted this device into a medical device. I want to demo this actually, because it's a very simple process.
于是我们把这个想法转换成了这个设备 这个医疗仪器 让我来为你们展示一下 因为过程很简单
Bruno, do you want to join us? (Cheers) Come along. (Applause)
布鲁诺,想一起来吗?(鼓励) 来吧!(掌声)
So, what we're going to do is that we're going to measure a few basic parameters on you, including your pulse rate and the amount of oxygen that's there in your blood. So you're going to put your thumb on top of this.
我们要做的就是 来测量你的一些基本指标 包括,脉搏、心率、氧饱和率 就是那些在你血液里的氧气含量 你只要把手指放在上面就可以了
Bruno Giussani: Like this, works?
布鲁诺:就像这样?可以吗?
Vinay Venkatraman: Yeah. That's right. BG: Okay.
威内:对,没错。布鲁诺:好
VV: So I'm going to start it up. I hope it works. (Beeps) It even beeps, because it's an alarm clock, after all. So ... (Laughter)
威内:好,那我要开始啦!希望它能成功。 (嘀嘀声)它会发出嘀嘀声,因为它毕竟是个闹钟 呵呵(笑声)
So I take it into the start position, and then I press the read button. (Beeps) So it's taking a little reading from you. (Beeps) And then the pointer goes and points to three different options. Let's see what happens here. (Beeps) Oh Bruno, you can go home, actually.
好,现在我从头开始,然后 我按下阅读键(嘀嘀声) 于是,它就开始测量了你的那些指标了(嘀嘀声) 然后指针就指向三个不同的标准 让我们来看一看 (嘀嘀声)哦,布鲁诺,你可以回去了
BG: Great. Good news. (Applause)
BG:太棒了!好消息!(掌声)
VV: So ... (Applause)
威内:呵呵,那么……(掌声)
So the thing about this is that if the pointer, unfortunately, had pointed to the red spot, we would have to rush you to a hospital. Luckily, not today. And if it had pointed to the orange or the amber, it basically meant you had to have, sort of, more continuous care from the health care worker. So that was a very simple three-step screening process that could basically change the equation of how public health care works in so many different ways.
从中我们可以看到 如果指针不幸地指向红色区域 它警示我们要赶紧去医院 还好今天不是这样。如果它指向橙色区域 或者受琥珀色,那么说明你必须 从医疗工作者那里获取持续的护理服务 所以,这可以说是一个很简单的三部曲检验流程 但是却可以带来很多改变 对公共医疗卫生产生方方面面的影响
BG: Thank you for the good news. VV: Yeah.
布鲁诺:谢谢你的好消息!威内:没关系!
(Applause) So, very briefly, I'll just explain to you how this is done, because that's the more interesting part. So essentially, the three things that are required to make this conversion from this guy to this guy is a cheap remote control for a television that you can almost find in every home today, some parts from a computer mouse, basically, something that you can scavenge for very low cost, and a few parts that have to be pre-programmed. Basically this is a micro-controller with a few extra components that can be shipped for very little cost across the world, and that's what is all required with a little bit of local tinkering talent to convert the device into something else. So we are right now doing some systematic field tests to basically ascertain whether something like this actually makes sense to the ASHA worker.
(掌声) 所以,我已经向各位简要介绍了这个设备的基本工作方式 因为这部分比较有趣 从根本上来讲,需要具备三点 来确保这一转变 首先是价格低廉电视机的遥控器 这个你在哪里都买得到 其次是电脑鼠标的一些部件 这些你也可以以很低的价格淘到 还有就是一些编过程的部件 换句话说,它就是个小遥控器,外加一些 零部件,都是极其便宜的东西 在世界上任何地方一样。这就是所需要的全部了 可能还需要一点当地的维修人才 来转换这个设备 所以我们现在要做的就是一些系统的实地测试 从而确认这个设备是否 能够合理地应用于ASHA工作人员的工作场合
We are going through some reference tests to compare it against professional equipment to see if there's a degree of change in efficacy and if it actually makes an impact in people's lives. But most importantly, what we are trying to do right now is we are trying to scale this up, because there are over 250,000 ASHA workers on the ground who are these amazing foot soldiers, and if we can give at least a fraction of them the access to these things, it just changes the way the economics of public health care works, and it changes the way systems actually function, not just on a systematic planning level, but also in a very grassroots, bottom-up level.
我们开展了一些对比测试来进行比较 跟那些专业设备进行对比,看看 在效率方面的提高和对 人们生活产生的实际响。不过,最重要的当属 我们现在尝试做的 是扩大它的规模 因为总共有超过25万ASHA工作人员 作为医疗领域的排头兵,如果我们可以 至少给他们中的一部分这些设备 就可以大大改变公共医疗卫生的经济 运作方式了,它改变了系统的运作方式 而不仅是在系统性统筹计划层面上的 但是也非常草根,非常自下而上
So that's it, and we hope to do this in a big way. Thank you. (Applause)
就是这样,我们希望能更大规模地做这些事情 谢谢!(掌声)
(Applause)
(掌声)