An Audio Wiki for Publishing User-Generated Content in the Developing World

The power of the Web revolution came with making everyone a publisher, rather than just a consumer of information. However, as the prevailing interfaces to the Web require a high degree of literacy and full-fledged computer access, much of the world’s population lacks the skills or resources needed to create online content. In this work, we aim to lower the barrier to sharing local information via an Audio Wiki: a repository of spoken content that can be accessed and modified via a low-cost telephone. Because content is in purely audio form (from entry to playback), the system is accessible to the illiterate and naturally supports any local language. By enabling poor and illiterate users to create local stores of information, we envision broad applications in agriculture, health, government, and entrepreneurship.