Supporting Voice Content Sharing among Underprivileged People in Urban India

Recent advances in voice-based telecom information systems enable underprivileged and low-literacy users to access and offer online services without expensive devices or specialized technical knowledge. We propose SRLs (speech resource locators), a mechanism that facilitates the creation, access, and sharing of online voice content. To test the interaction with SRLs, we developed a proof-of-concept application that allows for simple sharing of voice content. We subsequently created a smartphone application for the same service that provided a graphical user interface to the online voice application. Our findings show that literate underprivileged people were able to share online voice content on feature phones and smart phones whereas in low-literacy people were unable to access shared content over feature phones but able to do so on smart phones. We conclude by highlighting opportunities and challenges for the design of voice-based applications that support information sharing.

[1]  Daryle Gardner-Bonneau,et al.  Human Factors and Voice Interactive Systems , 1999 .

[2]  Gopal Gupta,et al.  Listener-Controlled Dynamic Navigation of VoiceXML Documents , 2004, ICCHP.

[3]  I. V. Ramakrishnan,et al.  Hearsay: enabling audio browsing on hypertext content , 2004, WWW '04.

[4]  Matthew Kam,et al.  Localized iterative design for language learning in underdeveloped regions: the PACE framework , 2007, CHI.

[5]  Steven H. Lewis,et al.  Voice Messaging User Interface , 2008 .

[6]  I. V. Ramakrishnan,et al.  TeleWeb: accessible service for web browsing via phone , 2009, W4A.

[7]  Message Phone : A User Study and Analysis of Asynchronous Messaging in Rural Uganda , 2009 .

[8]  Thomas N. Smyth,et al.  Notes from the Field Stories from the Field : Reflections on HCI 4 D Experiences , 2009 .

[9]  Arun Kumar,et al.  Content creation and dissemination by-and-for users in rural areas , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD).

[10]  Wolfgang L. Zagler,et al.  Computers Helping People with Special Needs, 12th International Conference, ICCHP 2010, Vienna, Austria, July 14-16, 2010, Proceedings, Part II , 2010, ICCHP.

[11]  Ketki A. Dhanesha,et al.  User driven audio content navigation for spoken web , 2010, ACM Multimedia.

[12]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Where there's a will there's a way: mobile media sharing in urban india , 2010, CHI.

[13]  Matthew Kam,et al.  An exploratory study of unsupervised mobile learning in rural India , 2010, CHI.

[14]  Tapan S. Parikh,et al.  Avaaj Otalo: a field study of an interactive voice forum for small farmers in rural India , 2010, CHI.

[15]  Jack Beaton,et al.  Indian cultural effects on user research methodologies , 2010, CHI EA '10.

[16]  Sougata Mukherjea,et al.  Two-stream indexing for spoken web search , 2011, WWW.

[17]  Edward Cutrell,et al.  Designing a phone broadcasting system for urban sex workers in India , 2011, CHI.

[18]  Saurabh Srivastava,et al.  SWAicons: spoken web audio icons - design, implications and evaluation , 2012, CSCW.

[19]  Jeffrey Huang,et al.  Getting in touch with text: designing a mobile phone application for illiterate users to harness SMS , 2012, ACM DEV '12.

[20]  Melissa Densmore.  Claim mobile: when to fail a technology , 2012, CHI.

[21]  Saurabh Srivastava,et al.  Designing a voice-based employment exchange for rural India , 2012, ICTD '12.

[22]  Laura L. Murphy,et al.  "Dead China-make" phones off the grid: investigating and designing for mobile phone use in rural Africa , 2012, DIS '12.

[23]  Agha Ali Raza,et al.  Job opportunities through entertainment: virally spread speech-based services for low-literate users , 2013, CHI.