I've been thinking for some possible expansion of 'podcasting for development' idea. I am sure many others may be thinking in this line too. Purpose of this posting is to find resources or contacts who are working in this direction. One of the core areas would be to let people use or create podcasts without the use of any computer keyboard that requires literacy. Obviously the options are to use cell phone or to use land phone to call a local number to leave their voice messages which would then be podcasted through a website. I know some VOIP based telephone system (such as, vonage.com or skype.com) provides telephone number that can be called locally but this service is available mostly in North America or Europe. Wondering such service can also be made available in other developing countries in Asia, Africa where users from a rural community or from a rural telecentre can call a local number to generate audio content. Much of this content then can also be received by many mp3 enabled cellphones. In cases such services are not available, we can make partnership with local ISPs or local cell phone companies who can then work to collect and to reroute the audio files to a desinated site. I think many ISPs or cell phone companies would be interested on this. Gradually podcasting can be integrated with local e-governance initiatives where local governments can receive feedback (for example, the tubewell doesn't work, the electricity poll has fall down due to strom, the doctor doesn't come regularly to the local health clinic etc.etc.) directly from the community. At certain point, podcasting can be a tool of skill development or awareness raising through community radio initiatives at the grassroots level. So much more to be done!

Partha Sarker
Bytes for All and telecentre.org