TY - GEN
T1 - Affordable Voice Services to Bridge the Digital Divide
T2 - 14th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, WEBIST 2018
AU - Baart, André
AU - Bon, Anna
AU - de Boer, Victor
AU - Dittoh, Francis
AU - Tuijp, Wendelien
AU - Akkermans, Hans
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Despite its global reach, the World Wide Web still fails to serve about 3 billion people, the majority living in the Global South, especially in poor, low-resource regions, where broadband internet is not expected to be rolled out in the foreseeable future. Yet, to bring the advantages of ICTs at the reach of communities in low-resource development regions, lightweight, affordable and context-aware ICT solutions are needed, that fit local needs and context. To this end the Kasadaka platform was developed. This platform supports easy creation of local-content and voice-based information services, targeting currently ‘unconnected’ populations, taking into account contextual and infrastructural requirements, and matching local ecosystems. The Kasadaka platform and its Voice Service Development Kit support the development of decentralized voice-based information services, to serve local populations and communities in their own local languages, in regions where Internet and Web are absent and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
AB - Despite its global reach, the World Wide Web still fails to serve about 3 billion people, the majority living in the Global South, especially in poor, low-resource regions, where broadband internet is not expected to be rolled out in the foreseeable future. Yet, to bring the advantages of ICTs at the reach of communities in low-resource development regions, lightweight, affordable and context-aware ICT solutions are needed, that fit local needs and context. To this end the Kasadaka platform was developed. This platform supports easy creation of local-content and voice-based information services, targeting currently ‘unconnected’ populations, taking into account contextual and infrastructural requirements, and matching local ecosystems. The Kasadaka platform and its Voice Service Development Kit support the development of decentralized voice-based information services, to serve local populations and communities in their own local languages, in regions where Internet and Web are absent and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
KW - Digital Divide
KW - Low literacy
KW - Low-resource hardware
KW - Services development software kit
KW - Sub-Saharan Africa
KW - Voice-based services
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079104219&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85079104219&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-35330-8_10
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-35330-8_10
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85079104219
SN - 9783030353292
T3 - Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing
SP - 195
EP - 220
BT - Web Information Systems and Technologies
A2 - Escalona, María José
A2 - Domínguez Mayo, Francisco
A2 - Majchrzak, Tim A.
A2 - Monfort, Valérie
PB - Springer
Y2 - 18 September 2018 through 20 September 2018
ER -