The web of voices - best practice on Voice-based mobile services for social development
Mobile and web services play a major role in social and economic progress in developing countries. Mobile telephony has shown a massive uptake in the developing world, opening great opportunities. But the World Wide Web remains inaccessible for many people. Communication in the Sahel region in West Africa, for example, is voice-based (many can’t read or write) and in many different local languages.
The VOICES project removes some of the access barriers to the Web related to communication channels, access infrastructure, literacy and languages. VOICES couples in a novel way Web facilities to mobile telephony and community radio, gluing all together by voice services. VOICES supports rural villages and remote communities in creating “spoken Web content”, sharing information across big distances. This represents a major step forward in realizing the potential of mobile ICT services for social and economic development, particularly in the African context.
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