Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.

The possible disbelief in technology or being superstitious about the effects of technology would be a main inhibiting factor in our project. Since we are focusing on the creation and implementation of technological devices to improve sustainability and overall way of life in Almaty, we would need to ensure the product we want to implement is widely accepted. There can also be a distrust that can be created when using devices that monitor and collect data to improve human life. The idea of stealing data is a huge issue with a lot of people, so being aware of the cultural ties to technology is important. Subsequently, if religious or old practices are more dominant than science and medical practices we would have difficulty implementing a device that would improve the quality of life of those in Almaty. We need to be able to see eye to eye with the people of Almaty to ensure the implementation of a device is accepted and trusted. Even more so, the lack of using geographical resources because of cultural ties to the land might dissuade the people of Almaty from possibly taking advantage of their resources. One example would be to use the runoff of glacier water to produce hydroelectric energy, to allow for a cleaner environment. 

Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe at least three such situations. 

I have personally experienced my older relatives not believing in the power of technology and medicine because of the way they were raised. Instead of using medicine such as antibiotics to cure a cold they would revert to herbal remedies. Overall, there is a fair amount of distrust with the American government spying and collecting data on their citizens. This would be analogous to the idea of distrusting devices that collect data to improve the way of life for the people of Almaty because of the threat of their personal information being lost. The Dakota Access Pipeline would be an example of native citizens not wanting to implement any geographical change because of the possibility of harmful effects on the environment. This pipeline also intrudes on sacred land that means a lot to Native Americans. Overall, there are similar issues that persist at home that would most likely also persist in Almaty because of their cultural and social beliefs. 

Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community / market problems.

Kazakhs are very proud people who care deeply about their land. We can use this mentality to produce a marketable device that helps improve their environmental conditions. As Almaty grows in size and density, pollution is becoming a huge environmental issue that not only degrades the natural land and wildlife, but also affects the general health of the people. In fact, 40% of households use coal for heating. The consequence of this is the rising number of people getting carbon monoxide poisoning. We can use the idea of cultural preservation to implement smart devices to help better monitor and regulate the effects of human life on the environment. This ranges from learning the effects of increasing population and the new demands that need to be met. The increase in energy consumption, waste production, and water usage are just some of the issues that would need to be monitored to learn more about the solutions that can be created from these problems. Kazakhs strictly prohibits the creation of roads on their mountains with glaciers to preserve the history and nature of their land. Given that they care a lot about the preservation of glaciers we can use this to manufacture a device that helps monitor and track carbon emissions being released and the rate at which these glaciers are melting. By doing so we can show the people of Almaty that their direct actions and daily lives are affecting the land they care so much about. This might incentivise them to be more environmentally conscious and would want to turn to green energy and more renewable sources. Seeing the actual effects of their lifestyles in some sort of quantified data might be a large enough influence to make them want to change their current lifestyles.