- 1.Voice-based Web access in Africa Guest lecture Inleiding IMM
10 sept 2013 Victor de Boer With input from: Nana Baah Gyan, Anna
Bon, Chris van Aart, Max Froumentin, Aman Grewal, Stephane Boyera,
Mary Allen, Amadou Tangara, Etienne Barnard, Hans Akkermans
2. CAUTION! DIGITAL DIVIDE AHEAD 3. Web Alliance for Regreening
in Africa Washington, 13-15 May 2013 4 W4RA : Information exchange
and knowledge sharing in rural Africa 4. World Wide Web as
Instrument of Empowerment Our success will be measured by how well
we foster the creativity of our children. Whether future scientists
have the tools to cure diseases. Whether people, in developed and
developing economies alike, can distinguish reliable information
from propaganda or commercial chaff. Whether the next generation
will build systems that support democracy and accountable debate. I
hope that you will join this global effort to advance the Web to
empower people. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web: 5. Can
the Web (be made to) mean something for knowledge sharing even
under very constraining conditions? No internet, no computer, no
electricity Multitude of languages, levels of literacy 6. A window
of opportunity 7. No. 1 source of information Interactive radio
programs Huge listening base Another window: rural community radios
8. Integrate local community radios and mobile ICT for knowledge
sharing Better support and integrate local languages in voice-based
services Development of appropriate speech elements (text-to-speech
and Speech recognition) Develop a free and open source toolbox for
local developers. Investigate self-sustainability Develop
appropriate business models In collaboration with local
communities. 9. (adapted) Living Labs Involvement of local
communities Trust and ownership Co-creation Bottom-up: field
visits, workshops, demos, roa dshows, etc Local communities:
innovation co- creation, Living Labs socio-technical approach Use
case gathering Observation and prototyping Test, adapt 10. June
2013Jan 2010 First cycle: Knowledge sharing for regreening Second
cycle: Use Case elicitation and selection RadioMarch: Pilot System
development (Malian French) RM: 3rd version (Bambara,Bo mu) Jan
2011 Jan 2012 Jan 2013 First field trip: Burkina Faso Second field
trip Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana RM: 4th version Third field trip
Mali Fourth field trip Mali Fifth field trip Mali Foroba Blon:
pilot version FB: 2nd version (Bambara,Bo mu) Third cycle:
Requirements elicitation and validation Business Model integration
Sixth planned field trip Mali Fourth cycle Use case and Requiremen
ts validation Fifth cycle: Use case and Requirements validation
Sept 2009 Cycle 0 Preliminary visit BF sept 2009 RM: 2nd version
(productio n version) FB: 3rd version (Bambara,Bo mu) 11. Use cases
1 m-Milk ordering and delivery service of Tominian Milk producers
and NGO 2 m-Tree protection alert service Sahel Eco Farmers and NGO
3 mobile-web Event organizer for vaccination of herds Farmers 4
m-Farmer-expert directory service Farmer organization 5 NGO
info-line about legal issues in several languages Sahel Eco 6 Leave
announcement or select your favourite song Radio 7 Shea butter and
honey trading service Radio and Sahel Eco 8 Access radio programs
and announcements on your phone Radio 9 Gourcy seed producers seed
certication service Farmer organization 10 Radio questions and
answers about agricultural issues Radio 11 m-collective purchase
organizing service Local buyers 12 m-GIS regreening service Sahel
Eco 13 m-Farmer social network Sahel Eco 14 mobile-web regional
market system Farmer organization 15 Sahel Eco portal to Regreening
and access to m-services Sahel Eco 16 m-event organizer for
re-greening events Sahel Eco, farmers 12. Context-specific issues
Lack of infrastructure Web Power Illiteracy, small languages
Bambara Bomu Local ownership and maintainability Costs Maintenance
Distance between developer and user Physical Cultural 13. Three
voice systems Market Information Citizen Journalism Event Organiser
14. M-agro Use Case Context: Regreening in Africa 15. SMS == = ====
== Internet cafe translate 16. Communiqu 17. Local market data
Communiqu GSM/Voice interface Web Interface Text-To-Speech
Community radioSahel Eco operative Buyers 18. SMS Radio 1: French
and Bambara Radio 2: French and Bomu 19. SMS Radio 1: French and
Bambara Radio 2: French and Bomu 20. Web frontend for Market data
management and communiqu generation RadioMarche.com 21. Voice
channel: Multiple solutions Netbook running Prophecy SIP over
Ethernet Netbook HTTP Officeroute running Asterix Orange Emerginov
Platform Netbook running Prophecy + Asterix Bluetooth Mobile phone
22. Audio communiqu Audio communiqu generated by slot- and-filler
Text-to-speech system concatenating prerecorded phrases Each radio
host uses own voice (!) Malian French Bambara Bomu Radio Segou
Radio Mountian 23. Slot and Filler Text-to-Speech English: Bambara:
15 liters of offered by Zakari Diarra 15_ba.wav L_ba.wav Of_ba.wav
Spoken Language Elements Repository honey 24. VoiceXML Welcome to
RadioMarche! Press one for XPress two for Y ... DTMF = Dual-tone
multi-frequency signaling 25.
http://projects.emerginov.org/V_webInt/ngo/home Demo 26. Deployment
27. Evaluation Limited usage due to: Political situation Ecological
situation Social barriers Technical issues Feedback informs next
phase More languages (Bambara, Bomu) More radio stations End user
28. Subsequent phases More languages: Bambara and Bomu More usage
In a way, we are too succesful: Too much demand not serving the
value chain Should we include this in the application? Cf.
Marktplaats? 29. Business model integration Onno Wassenaar 30.
Beyond the use case: Sharing the Data 31. Sharing across regions
Local market dat a RadioM arch market informat ion syst em Farmers
(producers) Buyers (consumers) Email GSM /VoiceW eb SM S Dat a /
communique plat form Local radio RadioMarch in second region Local
market data Data / communique layer Farmers (producers) Buyers
(consumers) Email GSM/VoiceWeb SMS Interface handler layer Local
radio 32. DBpedia GeoNames Agrovoc Inst. of Development Studies LOD
Citizen Journalism data Sahel Pluvial data SemanticXO RadioMarch
Linked market data Linked Data for Development (LD4D) 33. EcoMash
Henk Kroon 34. Use Case 2: Foroba Blon Citizen journalism platform
using the same technology as RadioMarch Multiple use cases Letters
to editor Trusted users journalists Funded by IPI news innovation
contest 35. Foroba Blon 36. Adopted by local radio stations
Positive feedback so far. 250 messages left Messages about deaths,
missing animals Problems with registration Voice Interface
difficulties Costs New business models: advertiser pays through
credit Voice Twitter? Al Jazeera used Foroba Blon for Ghanaian
(2012) and Kenyan (2013) elections coverage. Foroba Blon Results
37. Event Organising 38. Event Organizer Event organizer for Sahel
Eco User profile Name, phone number, language(s) Call everyone and
note responses Tabale: the sacred drum 39. The Tabale Platform NGO
staff Malian French Bomu Bambara Record multiple messages in
different languages yes no dont know 40. VUI design (three
languages) 41. Web for ALL. Using voice technologies and available
tools we make the benefits of the Web available to people who use
simple mobile phones. ~~ ~~ ~~ 42. Results RadioMarch -- Increased
market for farmers. Foroba Blon -- Facilitating rural citizen
journalism. Tabale -- Better meeting organising. Voice platform
with reusable components for different use cases. 43. Mobileusers
VOICES User Content VOICES Platform & Toolbox Telecom Access
Radio Program Output Web Access Mobile Training Lab Local ICT
developers Speech Tools Local end-users Sustainable business models
Mobile access PRODUCTS 44. Research questions Q1 [immediate]: Can
the Web (be made to) mean something for knowledge sharing even
under very constraining conditions? No internet, no computer, no
electricity Multitude of languages, levels of literacy Q2 [Web
future]: Can we have a Web of Speech? After all, human
communication: talking >> writing 45. More research questions
Data management via voice Data presentation/UI Voice-based browsing
Linked data / microservers Downscale2012 @ ESWC Downscale2013 @
OKCon Integration with (development) economy ICT development in
rural areas Living Labs, Sustainability 46. Out of Africa: Lessons
for ICT projects Problem- rather than solution-driven Many cycles
Open mind (low tech may be the best solution) Integrated approach
Context, business model Be inclusive rather than exclusive 47.
Questions? 48. ICT4D @ VU 49. Nichesourcing for pluvial data
digitization for the Sahel [W4RA-related M.Sc. thesis by Binyam
Tesfa] 50. Crowdsourcing voice fragment gathering 51. Interaction
design for low- literacy communities 52. SemanticXO 53.
ICT4D@MSc@CS@VU 54. dev4d.com w4ra.few.vu.nl semweb4u.wordpress.com
worldwidesemanticweb.wordpress.com @victordeboer
[email protected]