Perception of self-efficacy, and technology for developing countries

Kentaro Toyama, assistant director of Microsoft Research India, has spent a lot of time thinking about how to use technology to change social systems. He's focused on using technology to further development in rural India (ICT4D, or Information & Communications Technology for Developing Countries). He published a very cool set of essays in The Atlantic in 2011 about the topic. I've been thinking about them ever since. Check 'em out.

Kentaro talks about technology as basically an amplifier for people's will. Don't let the "virtue" language deter you; fully unpacked, it's a pretty loaded concept.

• Technology is not the answer
• The enduring power of virtue
• The white lie of the self-made person
• Entrenched cynicism
• Fostering virtue