1. “Silicon Cottage Industry”
Melda M. Washington
Information Culture, November19, 2012

2. Overview
 Introduction
 The Manifesto
 Examples
 Conclusion

3. Introduction
 Frugal Digital is a
research group at
Copenhagen
Institute of
Interaction Design
(CIID) that focuses
on researching
methods and
practices that center
around creating
digital solutions in
low resource,
economically
developing
locations.

4. The Frugal Digital Manifesto
 Cost is the starting point, social impact is the goal,
technology is the medium.
 Make it economically worthwhile for all stakeholders –
create direct economic benefits
 Source locally – Use what is readily available
 Re-purpose available technology
 Upcycle if possible – recycle if not
 Make it serviceable, dismantable and reusable
 Its not enough to make it open source – try to embed
know-how in the design.

5. The Frugal Digital Manifesto
cont.
 How do we create tools for an emerging
digital cottage industry?
 How do we create methods to spark
creativity within constrains?
 How do we create appropriate tech with
high impact?
 How do we create an unsubsidized,
demand-driven approach towards social
innovation?

6. Snapture Labs LLC
 Snapture's co-
founders work
on their
iPhone
business in
their free time
from one of
their
apartments
 New cottage
industry is
thriving even
as other
businesses in
the area cut
back in the
recession.

7. LoVoCo Mobile
 LoVoCo Mobile is a low cost mobile
radio station running from a
cellphone.
 It is possible to call it from anywhere
in the world and be broadcasting live
– wherever it goes.
 You can broadcast by playing audio
files from the phone or by speaking
into the microphone of it.
 Standard earphones can be
connected to the cellphone, enabling
the broadcaster to verify what goes
on-air.

8. BodaPhone
 Cellular payphones.
 This one is in Uganda.
 200 Shillings equals roughly 11
cents US.
 The phone doesn’t charge from
a bike generator, but that grey
slab is a spare battery

9. Conclusion
 We can change the way the economics of
public health care, technology, local
businesses works
 Thus, it changes the way systems actually
function, not just on a systematic planning
level, but in a grassroots, bottom-up level.

10. References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market
http://blog.tmcnet.com/digital-swarm/
http://www.kk.org/newrules/blog/