News:

Erik P. sent me a great post on examples of technology diffusion that have been horrible for the recipient in unintended ways. It is a nice start along the lines of "what not to do." The scary thing is that all of these examples are technologies that worked--too well.
http://snowedin.net/blog/index.php/2006/04/18/bad-diffusion

Updates:

Thanks for your interest in "Developing Technologies for Developing Economies," the Social Design Practicum being taught this Winter Quarter. This will be an exciting, experimental class that will provide students with a critical understanding of many issues facing the developing world. This seminar style class will generate a sophisticated design methodology for technologies that generate social change. All students will have the opportunity to begin the collaborative design of a technology of their choosing--ambitious students may even be able to test their designs "in the wild." This class is open to both graduate students and undergraduate students.

The course website/wiki is ready at http://design4dev.wetpaint.com. This includes all of the essential information about the class.

I've also included a FAQ which should answer all of the great questions you sent me. http://design4dev.wetpaint.com/page/FAQ

If you are interested in taking this class, please answer the following questions:

1. Full Name
2. Year and Major (or Dept)
3. Academic Background--what specifically have you been studying? What are your interests?
4. Explain why you are interested in taking this class. What do you think your academic background could contribute to the class?

Thank you! Feel free to ask me any additional questions.

Cheers,
Derek

PS. Do forward this email to any students or faculty you think would be interested in these issues. I'm in India, which makes it a bit more difficult for me to publicize this class to the right people ;)