One last reminder about Neil's talk. His work is definitely interesting and very relevant to the change community.
Brian ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Morgan Dixon <mdi...@cs.washington.edu> Date: Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 9:08 AM Subject: Re: [dub] dub seminar 11/16 Neil Patel : Voice-based Social Media for Rural Communities To: dub at dub.washington.edu, Neil Patel <neilp at cs.stanford.edu> Reminder! dub seminar at noon. On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 11:12 AM, Morgan Dixon <mdixon at cs.washington.edu> wrote: > > Hello dubbers! > Please join us on Wednesday for our weekly?DUB?seminar. > > Speaker: Neil Patel?(Stanford / Awaaz.De) > > Wednesday, November 16 > 12:00-1:20pm > EEB 403?(map) > > Title: > > Voice-based Social Media for Rural Communities > > Abstract: > > Online communities enable people to access and share information, but they > are out of reach for poor and isolated communities around the world. Mobile > phones have the potential to overcome the PC?s accessibility, affordability, > and familiarity barriers. However, most mobile information services limit > rural populations to being passive knowledge consumers, not active producers. > My dissertation explored the design and usage of voice-based social media for > rural communities. My collaborators and I designed Avaaj Otalo (?voice > stoop?) a voice message board application that allows small-scale farmers in > India to share agricultural advice by posting, listening to, and replying to > others' messages using any phone. AO has been live and accessed by thousands > since 2009. In all, we have deployed voice message boards with 8 partners in > 6 states across India working in agriculture, labor rights, women's > empowerment, and education, logging over 100,000 calls from over 10,000 > callers. > > Bio: > > Neil Patel is co-founder and CEO of Awaaz.De, a company that develops social > information platforms for the majority of world's people who do not have > access to the Internet. He completed a Ph.D in Computer Science from Stanford > University, and B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Business Administration > from UC Berkeley. He currently commutes between his homes in California and > Ahmedabad, Gujarat. > > > -- > Morgan Dixon > Ph.D. Candidate > Computer Science & Engineering > University of Washington > cs.uw.edu/homes/mdixon -- Morgan Dixon Ph.D. Candidate Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington cs.uw.edu/homes/mdixon _______________________________________________ dub mailing list dub at dub.washington.edu http://dub.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/dub
