The Impact of Offline First on the Developing World
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending and participating in an important moment in the technology world and in the Offline First community: the first ever Offline First event, Offline Camp, sponsored by folks like IBM and YLD.io.
The event was a small community of people doing important work in Offline First design. As a member of the core team of HospitalRun, I had the privilege of representing our open source project. I also found myself participating as the sole representative of developing world modern software efforts, based on my full-time day job as the CTO of CURE International.
At the event, the impact of Offline First on the developing world (or for those even more politically correct, “low to medium income countries”) was a topic of discussion. How precisely Offline First has and can impact the developing world broke down into three primary “why’s.”
Architecting for Resilience
The notion of building resilience into a system has always been one of the core tenants of the Offline First design movement. As my colleague, John Kleinschmidt is want to say, “Stop treating offline as an error condition!” The tools available in modern browsers and front end frameworks make dealing with intermittent connectivity (within reasonable parameters) a fully addressable problem. In many products and services directed solely towards high-income markets, Offline First may seem like a “nice to have,” specifically as users are still conditioned to accept our laziness as technology architects in treating issues of connectivity resilience as an immovable constraint.
However, this issue becomes a business imperative when bringing products and services to a market with less reliable, more costly, or even less available connectivity. In markets such as Kenya, with tremendous opportunity for growth due to smartphone sales, the demand to address the Offline First problem in mobile applications is quickly becoming critical. Companies like BRCK are a great example of this focus on resilience as a business driver.
Architecting for Offline First from the beginning (as a handful of companies approaching those markets are now doing) is imperative and, thankfully, the technology has progressed far enough to support this.
Long-term Business Value
Lest we consider the topic of Offline First in the developing world fully altruistic, it’s worth recognizing that the advent of Offline First design and the growth of web technologies around the movement can, could, and should be used to open up new markets and opportunities to all sorts of sustainable business models. In fact, I’d argue that these models, in and of themselves perhaps considered “small potatoes” to venture capital, should be considered for not only the positive impact they can make in a developing world market, but the business validation they can provide for more-resourced and regulatory-constrained markets to generate tremendous profit.
Health is a great example. Breaking into the health market in a western market with a modern technology product requires a great deal of patience, capital, and collective fortitude. For the hassle of years of regulatory hurdles and tens of millions of dollars, a health startup in Silicon Valley can finally earn the privilege of validating their core product market assumptions on a real customer base. Why does this have to be? Traditionally, capital and technology constraints enforced this reality. That’s a big bet for any investor, and I’d argue that mitigating that risk in a responsible way is a problem where Offline First can help.
The proliferation of Offline First offers another way forward for addressing alternative health markets as platforms for innovation. Delivering modern solutions to developing world markets allows responsible startups to bring an idea “to life” in a less-costly, less-regulated market like India or Zambia. At a fraction of the cost and to the great benefit of users in those settings, everyone can win: users, employees and shareholders.
Doing the Right Thing as a Business Driver
Finally, we must not neglect the fact that bringing modern software solutions to the developing world, architected for Offline First, has great potential to offer intrinsic good. However, I’d argue that good extends beyond a mere feeling and translates into true business value for an organization.
Professionals in the knowledge economy want more than a paycheck; they want to believe in their work and see the good it is doing. Offline First projects for the developing world brings two major components to the table that can motivate “best work” out of creatives and developers alike: doing good work that is as interesting as it is impactful. That mojo can ultimately pay dividends in the elusive economics of corporate culture.
Conclusion
Offline First allows the advances of modern software and technology to more easily penetrate developing world markets; and the Offline First community (including projects like HospitalRun) dares to imagine a future in which some of the best solutions available in the global IT sector might be delivered to and focused on a market that can afford it the least and perhaps, therefore, even appreciate it the most.
Offline First is a linchpin in that vision.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of series of unconference session recaps submitted by the awesome folks who participated in our first ever Offline Camp, a unique tech retreat that brings together the Offline First community. You can find more coverage of our initial discussions in our Medium publication. To continue the conversation, join us at our next event or sign up for updates and cast your vote on where we should host future editions of Offline Camp.
