Information sharing and communication are keys to participation in democracy. However, many communities across the world are deprived of media and communication mechanisms, rendering them voiceless and therefore vulnerable to exploitation. Mainstream media content is biased towards what sells rather than what is balanced or relevant.
e.g. Even with a tribal population of 90 million in Central India there are no newspapers, television channels or radio programs in tribal languages. Community radio is strictly regulated, rendering it out of reach for most communities. The internet and television are out of reach since both education and infrastructure are at a premium.
In this landscape, mobile phones provide a ubiquitous medium that utilizes oral traditions already practiced by many of these communities.
With 850 million cellphone subscribers, India is a prime market for voice based content platforms accessible via mass market cellphones.
CGNet Swara is a voice-based portal, freely accessible via mobile phone that allows anyone to report and listen to stories of local interest. Reported stories are moderated by trained journalists and made available for playback online as well as over the phone.
CGNet Swara is the first portal of its kind, where users can both listen AND record their own content. This 2-way interface allows for quick reports and reactions from the ground about issues that affect communities.
Mobile penetration in the region is much higher than internet, television or print media and the ability to use the mobile phone as an information sharing tool has taken off well. With a one year pilot started in Feb 2010 in Chhattisgarh, we now receive 300+ phone calls a day from across the country, primarily from the Central Tribal Region.
Swara was initially developed as an extension of the CGNet discussion group, also started by Shubhranshu Choudhary, which has been active since 2004. The aim was to extend the reach of CGNet into areas where there is no Internet and television.
The solution uses open source components, the core of which was developed as a student project in MIT. It consists of a server connected to a telephony interface, running a software PBX system. The PBX directs all incoming calls to a very simple (2 option) IVR interface. Users can choose to record new content, or listen to recordings left by other people that have been published by the moderators.
Since the interface is almost completely voice based and in a local language, the user does not have to be literate or specially trained to use it.
Once the content is recorded, it is filtered by trained journalists who frequently call the contributor back to check and verify details. Once the story has been verified, the moderator releases it to the web and the IVR. The web link is also published to subscribed mailing lists and social media. The target user group on the IVR are grassroots workers and rural activists. The target group for the Web are urban activists, international development/ human rights organizations and the administration.
Swara also helps forge partnerships between urban and rural activists based on reports and carries out training programmes for moderators and citizen journalists.
While we have no direct competitors, several groups are also working with voice services.
(Gramvani, Awaz.de,Gaon Ki Awaz).
We are looking to forge partnerships with these organizations with the long term view of standardizing a platform for mobile content sharing, similar to a voice-web. In the short term we are looking to collaborate with GramVani to pool our resources and expand our reach.
What we bring to the table is several years of experience in journalism and building grassroots partnerships. What differentiates Swara is the fact that we have spent over 5 years building strong networks in both urban and rural areas. Just reporting is not enough, action must follow and that requires a solid presence at both the administrative as well as grassroots level.
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