Rural e-services: Participatory co-design of sustainable software and business systems in rural co-operatives

This project is working with rural co-operatives in India to develop new sustainable ways for them to deliver services and to develop their capacity to innovate in the way they use existing information and communications technologies that are available to them.We shall be examining 'best practice' participatory methods from the world of ICT design and from international development to identify creative ways in which these methods can be combined effectively. We shall also be examining how technology design can be combined with the design of sustainable business models in parallel design activities, and developing new sustainable business models for rural co-operatives.The software and business systems will be designed as a collaboration between UK researchers and local software and business development organisations.