From: dub-bounces@dub.washington.edu [mailto:dub-bounces@dub.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Morgan Dixon Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 11:13 AM To: dub@dub.washington.edu; Neil Patel Subject: [dub] dub seminar 11/16 Neil Patel : Voice-based Social Media for Rural Communities 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<http://washington.edu/maps/?EEB>) 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<http://cs.uw.edu/homes/mdixon>