FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
Shu Choudhary was researching a book in the conflict regions of Central India (Chhattisgarh/Andhra Pradesh/Orissa). While talking to Maoists, tribals and the mainstream population, Shubhranshu realized that the conflict was less because of politics and more because of a gap in communication between people.
Looking for ways to open communication channels, he first explored Community Radio, but realized that restrictive regulations prevented it from being a viable tool for conflict resolution. TV was ruled out, since much of this region barely has electricity. Shu first explored the Internet as an option and started CGNet, an email discussion group that has over 2000 members today. However, this still represented only the areas with Internet penetration. The question was how to get the people not on internet to join the conversation. Shu noticed that even people in the deep interiors carried mobile phones and found ways to use them. On his return to the city, he began talking to technologists about designing a mobile solution. Bill Thies at Microsoft Research and his academic colleagues at MIT stepped up to the task, designed the initial platform and helped Shu set up the pilot.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
Since Feb 2010, we have received 58,000+ calls from 7,000+ unique phone numbers and have published about 900 reports. 71% of our calls are from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, 11% from Jharkhand and Bihar, the rest from Rajasthan, Delhi etc.
Many of these reports have been picked up by the national and international press, some with credit. Moreover, our follow-up network has been proven capable of tracking stories about one individual or issue by multiple sources. E.g. the case of Mr. Pitbasu Bhoi, a labourer who was not paid by the MNREGA scheme was reported by two independent journalists and later picked up by mainstream media
Swara has also helped empower our citizen journalists, by providing training, support and exposure to mainstream media.
We have also carried out training programmes for citizen journalists and moderators, the last one in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Culture’s Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti.
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
Over the next 5 years we envision connecting communities across the country using a network of phone and web accessible audio channels, allowing users to create and access audio content from their cellphones, creating a “voice-web”. To this end we plan to develop an open technology platform that can be leveraged by communities everywhere to build their own applications and manage their own content.
We also plan to develop a partnership and training program to get communities started with the platform and how to use it to spark and sustain follow up action on issues raised by the community.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Expand reach by starting 3 regional chanels with training for users and moderators in partnership with like-minded organizations
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Design & standardize technology/proceses that comunities can use to conect to a netwrk of linkd voice chanels that share content
Comments
Thank you for your participation in AFI Growth Prize Competition. We have a key question for you: What is your strategy for scaling-up and replicating this service? What is your plan for building a financial base to sustain this growth?
Please post your response as comment here before Dec 15, 2012, to be considered for final evaluation for this competition.
Hello Arjun,
I think this is a great idea and congrats on your success with implementation so far! I was curious if voice calls are being stored somewhere and if there is a cost associated with storing all this data? Can you talk a little about how you leverage all this data to help make an impact?
Ravi
This is a great idea! As a non-profit with similar goals, we are definitely looking at using SMS as a form of communication to reach the masses. Could you tell us a little more about the costs associated with setting up the infrastructure?
It's not expensive to get this going. For the price of a laptop (5000-7000 for a second hand or free if you can get a donation), a GSM gateway (~7000 INR) and some open source software (Free) you can get up and running. Then its a question of what bells and whistles you want to add
Thanks. Is this two way communication or just outgoing?
It's two way..."Press one to record...press two to listen" You can give the service a whirl by calling 08041137282. The number does respond and call you back if you leave a missed call, but we request people who can afford the call to ignore the message at the beginning and call through to the options.
CGNet represents a voice of the people really don't have voice today. Frequently their voice is subdued by middleman, politicians, and society who refuses to look at balanced development for all. Hats off to CGNet that they are exemplary of most needed voice. I would like to review cost model and would love to further scale by reducing cost of implementation for millions of groups around the world. We need more research and development from industry and reduced telecom cost from telecom providers in developing countries. As soon as we have we will start to see participatory democracies around the world.