Pyr.mea.IT

Abstract

Most of the existing IT applications are designed to cater to a small fraction of the human population. The precluded set consists of more than a billion people who either cannot afford a PC and Internet or are not skilled enough to be able to use them. However, the IT needs of this segment is similar in nature and perhaps more crucial than that of the current user segment. Designing systems for these underprivileged people poses several technological challenges: Due to low literacy levels the user interface has to be radically simplified, and the user devices have to be affordable. These and other requirements motivate a shift of complexity and computation from end-user devices to the network, tremendously increasing the expectations from the infrastructure. In this paper, we present an overview of technology developed and solutions built under Pyr.mea.IT project towards enabling IT for the masses.