UDUBSit. A location based mobile application for the University of the Western Cape a living lab approach in support of participatory ICT4D

Abstract

ZoneIT — at the University of the Western Cape renamed in UDUBSit — was first developed by the University of Ghent in Belgium as a sharing application for and by the student community. This app is adapted and contextualised to the UWC context by way of a living lab approach. This paper describes and analyses the results from the needs analysis, which formed the first step in the living lab approach of adapting and implementing the app. The premise of the whole project is, that a living labs approach to ICT4D — much more than a technology transfer approach — leads to better adaptation and adoption of technology in different contexts. The main reason is that a living lab approach is inherently participative in nature.