Viability and Utility of a Distributable and Searchable Cache System (DiSC) in a Developing Country

This paper will investigate the impact of a Distributed Searchable Cache (DiSC) system on improving Internet access in the developing world. Our research has three objectives. First, we test the general viability of DiSC in a developing nation computing environment. Next, we examine the potential utility of DiSC in this setting, based on technical results, survey data, and interviews. Lastly, we analyze the potential drivers and barriers for adoption of DiSC. We find that DiSC is viable in a computing environment characterized by intermittent connectivity. We also find some evidence that DiSC will be useful in developing nations, because it improves document retrieval speed and reduces bandwidth demand. We argue that DiSC will be most beneficial in educational settings, and analyze the political, economic, social, and technological factors that will influence adoption.