An asymmetric communications platform for knowledge sharing with low-end mobile phones
Neil B. Patel, Scott R. Klemmer, Tapan S. Parikh · 2011
We present Awaaz.De ("give voice"), a social platform for communities to access and share knowledge using low-end mobile phones. Awaaz.De features a configurable mobile voice application organized into asynchronous voice mes-sage boards. For poor, remote and marginal communities, the voice-touchtone interface addresses the constraints of low literacy, language diversity, and affordability of only basic mobile devices. Voice content also presents a low barrier to content authoring, encouraging otherwise disconnected communities to actively participate in knowledge exchange. Awaaz.De includes a web-based administration interface for Internet-connected community managers to moderate, annotate, categorize, route, and narrow-cast voice messages. In this paper we describe the platform's design, implementation, and future directions.