Global Voices talks with Kenfield Griffith, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of mSurvey, which recently completed a nationwide mobile survey for the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), which assessed the scope of the country's digital divide. Kenfield Griffith, co-founder and CEO of mSurvey; photo used with permission. Kenfield obtained his PhD in Design and Computation at MIT’s Engineering Systems Division and was always interested in how information can improve access and resources with appropriate technologies in difficult-to-reach communities. While working on research in Kenya, looking at computer numerically controlled and computer aided design technologies for the automation of low-income housing in emerging markets, he could not find current data, often having to resort to traditional paper and pen to do surveys. Knowing that he needed a massive amount of data as part of his research, Kenfield developed a simple, ‘crude’ mobile phone-based technology that enabled feedback directly from community members at a fraction of the time and cost, which allowed him to complete his survey work and record the data collected for analysis in real time. This basic idea has become the engine behind mSurvey. Global Voices (GV): Tell us about the decision to establish mSurvey in the Caribbean. What sort of regional potential did you see for your business? Kenfield Griffith (KG): mSurvey's first foray in the Caribbean began in 2011 with a project called mFisheries, in which mSurvey collaborated with the University of the West Indies’ Department of Computing and Information Technology to develop a suite of mobile applications for people involved in the local fishing industry (from fishermen to consumers). Traditionally, the region is cited as being one of the lesser developed in the world, but since I have strong familial ties to the region (I'm originally from Montserrat, and my father is from Barbados) there was an innate draw for me to implement the technology as an agent for change and development. (GV): You had 4 main objectives to the Digital Divide survey – to figure out which communities were underserved, to determine where T&T stood with regard to ICT as compared with other countries, to determine the telecommunications needs of the differently able and to determine what portion of the population could afford assistive technologies. Let's address each one. First of all, which areas of the country were without internet access and what was the landscape like in those places? How does TATT plan to rectify the situation? KG: According to the aggregate calculated regional indices, Tobago [the smaller of the two islands that make up the twin island republic] lags behind Trinidad in terms of access. The regions of St. Mary, St. John and St. Paul lag in digital access due to poor infrastructure, which is attributed to a low number of fixed telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Three regions (Penal/Debe, St. John and St. Mary) [in central and south Trinidad] have a usage sub-index that is below 0.9, unlike all other regions. Usage has only one indicator, Internet users per 100 inhabitants. A low sub-index value for usage thus means that the number of Internet users in these regions is relatively low compared to the ideal value of 85%. South Korea, noted to be the leading country in bridging the digital divide, has put in place different measures to avail Internet accessibility and increase usage through Korea Agency For Digital Opportunity & Promotion (KADO). In an effort to reach people in remote areas, KADO partners with local governments and civic associations. Additionally, KADO holds classes on computer/Internet use in private homes. Along with Internet infrastructural improvements, an approach like this could be investigated to be implemented in Trinidad and Tobago thereby increasing usage and immensely bridging the divide. Regions such as St. Paul and St. John trail the rest of the country in Digital Opportunity due to poor infrastructure. The non-constant indicators of this sub-index are the number of Internet users per 100 inhabitants, proportion of households with a fixed line telephone and the proportion of households with a computer. Much as the regions of St. Paul and St. John have better infrastructure than the country average as of 2007 (0.39)17, the disparity between them and the best performing region in this sub-index is quite high. The [capital] city of Port of Spain has a DOI [Digital Opportunity Index] of 0.7748 and this is partly due to good infrastructure, whose index is 0.6816. Interventions should be put in place to implement infrastructure in all regions to a comparable standard of Port of Spain.