Cool case studies of transformative technologies.
August 25, 2006 9:09 AM 
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If you could spend a few months studying a place where people are using a particular technology in a particularly interesting way, where would you go?
I'm thinking of applying for a grant that would pay for me to do on-site research on this topic of transformative, often unorthodox use of technology.
This wireless mesh network for Tibetan refugees is a good example. I'm brainstorming places in the world (could be a small village, could be an entire country) where some technology has a uniquely profound impact on life, one it doesn't have in most other parts of the world. What cool situations have you experienced or read about where a group has leveraged a specific technology in a big way, whether with its intended use or an unintended one?
Bonus points if it's in Western Europe, rather than the developing world - only because I think the notion of the developing world finding ways to jury-rig tech for their purposes has been covered more, so it would make for a more intriguing proposal. It's less obvious that there could be a place in the fully developed world where a certain technology has a gigantic impact it doesn't have in many other places.
posted by TunnelArmr to technology (2 comments total)
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That being said, there are many easy examples, and there are a bunch of researchers in Western Europe (mostly Vienna, Munich, and Copenhagen) studying this. You can find a massive directory of papers on this topic (and open source, which shares many similarities) here.
posted by blahblahblah at 11:44 AM on August 25, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]