AIR: Advancement through Interactive Radio ; CU-CS-1006-06

This paper describes the rationale, design and implementation of a system for increasing the status and involvement of women in developing communities. AIR (Advancement through Interactive Radio) adds interactivity to community radio, giving community radio listeners, especially women, a voice with which to respond to programming, and to participate in the creation of programming content. We first describe the cost of excluding women from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development, and explore how community radio represents a potential antidote to this exclusion. We draw upon ethnographic data collected through feasibility studies and site visits in Southeast Kenya to support the introduction of a mechanism that enables women to “talk back” to the community radio station, in order to better facilitate participation. Using the principles of Participatory Action Research (PAR), we argue that women will be more likely to benefit from technology-mediated opportunities for development if they themselves produce information that contributes to their advancement, rather than simply consuming information created for their use. Finally, we describe the design and implementation of simple communications device that supports this model. This hand-held device enables women to record voice feedback and news for community radio at the touch of a button. This feedback is then routed asynchronously back to the radio station through a probabilistic, delay-tolerant network, where the feedback can inform subsequent broadcasts and facilitate additional discussion. We conclude with a technical summary of the AIR prototype, which will be deployed in Kenya in Fall 2007.