Towards a Scalable Architecture for Smart Villages: The Discovery Phase

Alleviating poverty, reducing inequality, and achieving economic prosperity and well-being
is a global challenge. The spread and quantum of this daunting challenge calls for a scalable solution.
The aim of the ‘Scalable Architecture for Smart Villages’ project is to contribute to an eective solution
which addresses scale as well as customization. In order to achieve both in our new framework for
smart villages, we take an endogenous approach. This approach emphasizes learning which will create
a catalytic eect for scale. Learning is an essential component in the process, both for the researchers
as well as members of the community. With these principles in mind, our approach proceeds in four
phases, namely discovery, planning, resourcing and executing. In this paper we outline the discovery
phase, which will lay the foundation for developing our framework of scalable smart villages.
The Discovery Phase is a research process where the community learns about itself and the researchers
learn about the underlying factors that can help uplift and develop a smart village. Using conventional
qualitative and quantitative research methodology, the researchers and the community will generate
baseline data which will help calibrate villages for future development into smart villages.