How do you help villagers in rural India and Uganda gain the benefits of the Internet when there are no telephone cables, computers … or knowledge of what the Internet is?
Non-profit organisation Open Mind has come up with the answer, it’s called Question Box and the first one has been installed in India, near New Delhi.
The way it works is simple, villagers press the green button on the box to be connected to a trained operator who will answer their question by searching the Internet for answers. Imagine how AQA would be if it were done over the phone.
Common questions include cricket scores, train times, weather forecast for crops, different ways to fight pests and celebrates. Over time awareness grows and people are asking questions about tax and prices of products in the next town. World Wants to Know shows the queries as they come in. The operator can even send emails on behalf of the caller.
Many of the callers have no concept of what the Internet is (“They just assume the operator is some egghead,” said Rama Sundaram, project coordinator) so the scope of questions is limited. However, operators are now going to start prompting people with suggestions to see what happens.
In a country where 40% of people can’t read and only 5 million Internet connections for 1.2 billion people this can make a difference to peoples livelihoods such as this example. While technology races away sometimes you need to step back to move forward. Just like how Google is using SMS in Africa to help people trade and become informed.
Over in Uganda, Open Mind is trying something different by swapping the boxes for a physical hotline employing 40 community members know as ‘knowledge workers’. These workers go into the villages with mobile phones and allow users there to use them to speak to the call center.
If you want to get involved in the Question Box project vist the volunteer page here.
[Via Daily Telegraph & Change Observer]
