1
“…and Access for All.”
I didn’t think much
of the iPad the first time
I laid eyes on it.
Aside from its form (the shape and size
suggest a mini cocktail tray) and its func-
tionality (no camera yet?), I also couldn’t
envision how it would be relevant in the
realms of social innovation or to create
positive impact for less advantaged com-
munities. Technologies that aim at con-
sumption rather than creation or social
amelioration tend not to excite me.
But as I started to look more closely,
I started wondering whether tablets
actually do have the power to be effective
tools to power social movements for those
who have limited access to opportunity,
information or influence. The sheer abil-
ity to carry media, text, social good apps
and web- or cloud-based communications
tools in one highly readable, searchable
handheld device sets the stage for creative
media interventions to build avenues for
voice, agency, and visual citizenship. It
appears that what a tablet can do better
than other devices is to enhance media
access and facilitate local context.
A few things happened to shift my thinking.
A few weeks before Steve Jobs
announced the release of the iPad, I found
myself in a television studio in Patna,
Bihar, giving an interview about media,
design strategy and activism against
poverty and marginalization. Patna is
the capital city of Bihar, a formerly deeply
troubled state now on the upswing, with
the second fastest growing GDP in India.
Out of rapid economic growth often comes
increasing marginalization of the poor
and disenfranchised. The interviewer
asked me what should be done for Dalit
women to ensure their rights against the
increasing gap. These kinds of questions
always stump me, since I believe one can
only really interpret the needs of a com-
munity when they’ve voiced it themselves.
So I suggested: “Well, you need to put in
place drivers and systems that bring Dalits
directly into a cross-sector conversation
that explores their needs and opportuni-
ties.” What I didn’t explain was how to do
that, since I really didn’t know.
Returning to the States, I started explor-
ing the question of voice and its role in
building communities of activism and
practice through transmedia activism, a
construct that creates immersion in a story
world and opens up avenues for participa-
tory content creation around workable
solutions to real-world issues. In one
comment I wrote, “If we seek to truly col-
laborate with people within communities
that are disadvantaged… It’s much more
helpful to think of each other as equal
partners who bring to the table various
assets, resources, abilities, and time com-
mitments. For example, one partner might
bring access and resources, while the
other one brings local learning, stories and
knowledge.” Again, I didn’t explore how
those stories might be captured effectively,
thinking it a question of implementation
someone else might work on.
With a tablet, image and visual
literacy becomes more pertinent,
though text literacy is less of
an obstacle.
Then I read the Wired magazine cover
story dedicated to all things “tablet,”
and the wheels started turning. Bob Stein
wrote: “The arrival of tablets ups the
ante… To succeed, publishers will have
to embrace multimedia and community-
building.” At the other end of the spec-
trum, Nicholas Negroponte wrote: “The
undeniable beneficiaries of tablets will be
those who have no alternative… I mean
the nearly 2 billion kids in the develop-
ing world… If you ship 100 if these to a
remote African village, each loaded with
100 different books, that’s 10,000 books in
this village — more than you and I had in
primary school.”
There’s a sweet spot right in the middle
of Stein and Negroponte: There is an
 “… A N D A C C E S S F O R A L L .” 2

opportunity for all of us in the social is captured, stored and disseminated. Lina Srivastava is the Principal of
impact field and the communities we serve Or finally, think about a new kind of Lina Srivastava Consulting, LLC, which
to turn to this technology — in its next iter- partnership, where a tablet creates reve- focuses on employing strategy, innova-
ations, with the right apps and the right nue and attribution streams for beneficia- tion, engagement and the use of cultural
media creation tools — into a facilitation ries’ stories, which increasingly might be assets to create and demonstrate social
device, to build community and capacity able to distribute their own work and not change.  She is the former Executive Direc-
through media. rely on an international aid system that tor of Kids with Cameras, and the past
So imagine a partnership with those doesn’t always play fair with their content. Interim Executive Director of the Associa-
very Dalit women, visiting their commu- In reality, access to digital communica- tion of Video and Filmmakers.  Lina created
nity and using a tablet to create, edit and tions tools alone is not the silver bullet the Transmedia Activism framework, co-
rapidly disseminate self-generated, image- that will take down barriers to voice and directed the Transmedia Activism Design
based needs assessments and “day-in-the- agency. No matter what technology you Group, and co-created of the Modeling
life” stories. (With a tablet, image and use, we still have to address the human Global Change framework. She provided
visual literacy becomes more pertinent, challenges that hinder equal exchange, support to films such as Born into Broth-
though text literacy is less of an obstacle.) avenues for listening and user-centered els and The Devil Came on Horseback, and
initiatives. But access to media and the a wide-ranging group of organizations
use of one’s own stories is a powerful stra- dedicated to social change.
No matter what technology tegic tool. As sociologist Sidney Tarrow
you use, we still have to address says, ‘collective action is built on fitting
the human challenges that issues into frames, emotions, and symbols
hinder equal exchange, avenues that will mobilize people’.
for listening and user-centered The question that tablet computing
initiatives. can make inroads on is: How can we, as a
practical matter, create communities of
practice that use creation and distribu-
Think next about Wired commentator tion of cultural assets to engender positive
Jack Dangermond’s statement that “plan- social action? Tablet computing has the
ning a city shouldn’t be done in an office,” ability to let us all — BOP or not — have
leading us to envision an architect, plan- deeper access to participation and voice.
ner and artist co-creating livable spaces
onsite, listening to real needs and con-
cerns, co-designing with beneficiaries on a
tablet interface in real time, transmitting
captured ideas back to the design studio
(which is hopefully in-country, but maybe
not: one battle at a time). As hundreds
of millions of BOP people migrate into
ever-collapsing urban systems, this is espe-
cially exciting in the realm of community
livability. Think then of the possibilities,
for example, of walking around Kibera
slums with local women, iPad in hand,
sketching out infrastructure needed to
insure safe access to clean water and send-
ing. Or think about the applicability for
post-conflict or post-disaster zones, like
Cambodia or New Orleans, where disap-
peared tangible cultural heritage might be
reconstituted through digitized data that