Overview

The De Novo Group takes promising university research and prototypes and further develops them into viable solutions that address the great challenges of developing regions.

One of the De Novo Group's technologies is a unique, low cost, long-distance WiFi network. Using this technology, the organization’s founders partnered with Aravind Eye Hospital in India to link remote, rural clinics to a major urban hospital. This telemedicine system has thus far restored the eyesight of 20,000 Indian citizens.

Working with leading university researchers and domain experts, the De Novo Group “packages” innovations into viable solutions though:

• Hardening software code to be more robust and secure
• Creating tutorials, schematics and other documents for learning the technology
• Writing manuals and other documents to guide the installation and operation
• Developing and documenting methodologies for successful deployment and operation
• Building developer and user communities that sustain De Novo Group’s innovations
• Offering training, deployment partnerships and technical support

All work produced by the De Novo Group is available to anyone, anywhere, 100% royalty free under an Open Source Initiative or Creative Commons approved license.

The roots of the De Novo Group lie in the 5-year NSF-funded Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions (TIER) project at UC Berkeley, led by Professor Eric Brewer. TIER has designed several new technologies for developing regions, including projects to provide local communities with connectivity, health care and education.

However, the mission of the university is research, not development, and thus TIER and other ICTD university efforts are not the right vehicle to bring innovations to scale and long term impact. Conversely, almost all development NGOs have limited technical capabilities and are thus constrained to off-the-shelf technology solutions. Research innovations are thus rarely usable by NGOs without further technology development, testing, documentation and training.

The De Novo Group aims to bridge this gap by completing the development of research prototypes, by working with NGOs and other partners to help them exploit novel technology solutions and make them sustainable, and by supporting and enhancing those solutions over time. From novel technical solutions and experienced fieldwork, to rigorous project management and a history of successful NGO partnerships, the De Novo Group is making a real impact in alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life in developing regions.