Defence of doctoral thesis in the field of Computer Science, M.Sc Pietari Keskinen

Digital services offer new opportunities for improving the livelihoods in the Global South. In this dissertation, a model of tech mediator has been developed to support the adoption of new digital services. The model has been codesigned with local communities in Namibia to ensure its fitness for the local context.

The barriers for adopting the digital services often include the lacks in the needed infrastructure, such as in the availability of digital devices and the accessibility of the Internet. Much of the digital services are also designed with the western users in mind, which might cause issues to the users coming from different environments. For example, lack of credit card might hinder the usage of certain services. A simple lack of knowledge about existing services might also cause issues. Tech mediators aim at solving these problems related to the usage of digital services by offering their peers information about available services, access to necessary infrastructures, and support in utilizing the services.

Tech mediator model expands the already known concept of technology champion by considering continuous proactive work besides the individual projects. Additionally, this research shows that the platform economy can be used as a tool to support the improving of the livelihoods in the Global South. In the future, the tech mediator model can be used to introduce new digital services to the markets of the Global South.

Opponent: Professor Markku Tukianen, University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Custos: Professor Marko Nieminen, Aalto University School of Science, Department of Computer Science

Contact details of the doctoral student: [email protected]

The public defence will be organised on campus.

The thesis is publicly displayed 10 days before the defence in the publication archive Aaltodoc of Aalto University. 

Electronic thesis