Page 180 - ITU Kaleidoscope 2016

2016 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

particular category. Categories and questions can be specialized medical treatment, career counseling,
changed based on the information need of the user. higher education and vocational training related
queries, exhibition, trade fare related queries are
 Manage Interaction: This module is responsible for
the collection of different types of information answered and corresponding responses are sent as
regarding the regular activities and needs of a SMS to the members who raised the query.

community from the community itself. We have used  Publish Advertisement: A collaborative platform is
the concept of interactive information crowdsourcing implemented here that enables community members to
[17, 18] and integrated an interactive SMS system in establish a link to the market beyond the local
this module that enables the system to initiate a boundary. Community members can advertise the
dialogue with interested members of the community details of their manufactured products for getting
on specific domain selected by the members from a suitable market links. On the other hand, prospective
given list of options. Interactive SMS system has a buyers can publish their contact details and purchase
built-in intelligent query manager that automatically interests in different products manufactured by the
selects suitable next question based on the earlier community. The location and product-specific buyer
response obtained from the member so that a and seller details are organized by the system and
comprehensive picture about a specific domain can be made available in the Web portal so that buyer and
framed. Currently, topics are categorized as livelihood, seller can establish a direct selling channel if their
health, education, local governance, pre and post interest matches.
disaster situational updates. However, this list may be
further augmented based on community need. 5. A FIELD TRIAL WITH NCoRe
Manage Response is essentially data processing module
that offers functionalities like response validation, location, 5.1 Data Collection: Methodology
and topic based aggregation, filtering and summarization To test our Information System, a field trial was organized
of collected responses. Data processing is a multi-step with 100 SHG members at remote villages in the
method where data sources are authenticated, data Namkhana region of West Bengal, India. Internet
aggregation is done, data duplication and inconsistency are connectivity in this location is very poor and, even if it is
removed and finally topic-specific content analysis and available, it is not affordable to the majority of people.
summarization is done. Community members are using low-end mobile phones to

Manage Report is data visualization module with two fulfill their daily communication needs. Establishing
sub-modules: configure report format and configure report Internet-based communication with community members
viewer. is a big challenge in that place.

 Configure report format: This enables the To cope with this challenge, we use our Interactive SMS
administrator to input user-specific report format in System, which will initiate an automated conversation with
the system as that may differ from user to user. the selected SHG members of a community on the specific
 Configure report viewer: Information is made topic. As discussed in the earlier section, multiple choice
available to the prospective agencies like cooperatives, based queries are picked up from the topic-specific
village authorities, district headquarters and state question set preloaded in the system and automatically sent
Government in their desired format. Each agency may as SMS to the selected SHG members. The SHG members
opt to view the report in text format or tabular format need to choose the proper option to indicate his answer to
or on the Map. User specified viewing options are fed that query. As a result, SHG members having a low-end
to the system through this section. phone can also participate in the interaction and answer the
query with single key stroke. Based on the earlier response,
Manage Notifications and Contacts has three sub
modules: Configure Notification, Push Notification, and query manager module sends the next query to the
Publish advertisements members to get more in-depth information on a specific
topic. From the collected data, our system will be able to
 Configure Notification: Any emergency or identify the basic needs of local communities in terms of i)
administrative notifications are added to the system Market Linkage ii) Training Needs and iii) Advisory
through this section by the administrator. Since any Services, etc..
notification has time bound validity, the system also
offers flexibility to withdraw earlier notification if Within this framework, we have investigated key factors
validity is over. that have to be met to enable the underprivileged
community to have real and meaningful access to ICTs and
 Push Notification: Administrator may push any
domain-specific notifications to the relevant section of allow them to appropriate these technologies as an
the community only. Otherwise, mass notifications instrument for their own development. Questions are
may be viewed on the web portal or location-based prepared based upon Reserve Bank of India‟s guidelines
notification SMS may be sent by the system [19] on National Rural Livelihoods Mission launched by
automatically to the desired community. It also the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
includes an advisory service where contacts and A sample set of questions (not exhaustive) is given in
information about special needs of a community like,

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