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here are the first drafts for objectives and hypothesis of the master thesis that were assembled after some thinking

objectives draft

• develop an indicator systems for mobile devices taking the constraints of text messages(sms) into account. the indicator system shall be
  • developed with the local people
  • adjustable over the course of the project if necessary 
  • easy to understand easy to use and minimize exclusion of parts of society due to
    • illiteracy
    • lack of (technical) knowledge
    • gender
    • age
    • (social) status
• create a valid set of information and a corresponding map visualisation
  • whose quality and accuracy is sufficient 
    • to holistically understand the local situation
    • to carry out further (post master thesis) steps in terms of development of a strategy on community level
  • which shall be published online/in other formats in order to create pressure on a public level

• the experience and knowledge gained during the fieldwork by its participants must be spread in order to guarantee the sustainability of the project and its continuation without additional/foreign "experts"

hypothesis draft

• mobile phone text messaging can be used to allow large parts of a community to develop and conduct surveys about a very specific situation they live in due to the spread of mobile phones worldwide and the ease of use of text messaging.
• surveys or indicator systems that are based on text messaging 
  • can be developed and used by the community due to the plain and straightforward possibilities they offer in terms of size and data that can be submitted
  • generate valid, sound and sufficient data to understand the local situation and to carry out further development strategies on community level

These are some first drafts which will be developed further as some points are not yet consistent, ie. the hypothesis says that only the spread and ease of use of mobile phones eliminates many factors that lead to exclusion of parts of societies. I think that this is too optimistic and technology focused coz many would be excluded due to several reasons (interesting for me in this context is for example The Critical Theory of Technology by Andrew Feenberg). The issue of exclusion is covered in the objectives but there is currently no interconnection of hypothesis and objective at this point.

Before continuing with the theoretical part, the next post will cover the technical aspect of the thesis, how does the hard and software implementation work, what would be possible with that setup and some experiences made during the first installation.