Research Themes

The research agenda for Digital Nations will be developed in collaboration with consortium members. Here are a few of the themes that will guide the agenda:

• Transforming learning and education. Today’s approaches to learning and education are woefully outmoded. Digital technologies provide a historic opportunity to transform how and what people learn — in schools, in workplaces, and in their everyday lives. We will develop new technologies and new strategies to support a "constructionist" approach to learning, helping people take charge of their own learning throughout the day and throughout their lives.

• Development e-commerce. We will examine how new technologies can empower local communities to create new, sustainable economic organizations. For example, we plan to develop technologies that allow rural workers to better participate in regional marketplaces, new e-commerce strategies that enable remote communities to reach global markets, and new forms of economic collaboration.

• Multicultural computing. Most technologies today were designed for a very narrow set of users. With global connectedness comes a need for pluralism. We will work on multilingual approaches to computing, enabling people to communicate across linguistic boundaries. We will also develop multimodal approaches, extending computers to understand and produce speech and gestures (not just text and graphics). These new technologies will open up computing to a broader range of ages, cultural traditions, and literacy levels.

• Learning communities. We will develop tools and practices that enable people of all ages to take more active roles in the development of their communities — and to develop new ideas about learning and communities in the process. As community members work together on projects, the community as a whole can develop new knowledge beyond what any individual could on their own.

• Ubiquitous access. Our aim is to develop ultra-low-cost technologies so that computing and communications become accessible to everyone on the planet. We expect to develop computers that cost just a fraction of the price of today’s machines and that open up new opportunities of interaction away from the traditional desktop. New wireless technologies will enable communities to leapfrog to the digital world, avoiding the high expense of traditional telecommunications infrastructures.

• New economies and new strategies. In order for technologies to enable positive change, nations, companies, and communities must adopt new strategies. Through rigorous monitoring and assessment, we will devise policies and practices that better ensure successful introduction of digital technologies into diverse economic, political, and social contexts.

• Rethinking health care. Just as new technologies will enable people to take more control of their own learning, so too with health care. We will develop low-cost diagnostic technologies and online medical resources that will help people monitor and plan for their own health, rather than relying solely on treatment from medical experts.