IS Projects for Sustainable Development and Social Change

James K. Ho, Isha Shah

Abstract


Student projects in Information Systems courses are typically focused on advancing technical skills or practical experience in application to business, industry, and perhaps conventional service organizations. This paper considers an alternative focus on the potential of leveraging commonplace information technology for sustainable development and social change. It can be instrumental in motivating students who are already interested, as well as raising awareness among the uninitiated. A specific example of designing information services for the underserved using SMS over mobile phone networks (without the Internet) is demonstrated with a particular case of helping smallholder farmers prosper in modern supply chains.


Keywords


short message service, supply chain governance, sustainable development, social change, information system course projects

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References


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