Net Tuesdays or Net2 Local gatherings provide a chance to connect locally with all those interested in the intersection of social technologies and social change. There are new groups forming every week: Join in!
NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
Freedom Fone
Challenges:
Freedom Fone addresses communities' requirements for a simple, affordable technology to communicate with one another. Freedom Fone leverages the fastest growing tool for personal access to information 24/7 the mobile phone & marries it with citizen radio programming.
Audio files are stored by Freedom Fone in a Content Management System (CMS) which is updated through a simple to use browser interface. These audio clips populate an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu through which callers can navigate for information. Deployment in any language is possible as key global files for menu prompts can be uploaded through the browser interface to the CMS.
Individuals can contribute questions, content and feedback by leaving voice messages via the IVR interface. Freedom Fone can be operated as a collective, with different groups managing different channels (IVR menu options) of information from the same installation.
Freedom Fone is network agnostic and can work easily and happily with mobiles and landlines. Scalability can be factored in through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in countries where VoIP is available.
This technology can be used in a ‘cost free to caller' context where users could dial a toll-free number to access the service or tickle a number that records the user's phone number and calls them back, connecting the user to the IVR menu content. In a ‘low cost to caller' context users can SMS in for a call back.
There are no geographical or community size limitations to the implementation of Freedom Fone. The interface facilitates frequently updated short segment audio programming. It removes the technical challenge of hosting and setting up the back-end, allowing users to concentrate on content.
Elements used by Freedom Fone aren't new, but their intuitive convergence makes it innovative and globally relevant. Global Voices' Ethan Zuckerman said recently "I'm surprised there hasn't been more work done making interactive voice response systems usable for development purposes."
Freedom Fone provides exactly that.
Asterisk/Drupal integration?
Hi Freedom Fone folks :) Love your project idea, actually when we were first building http://vozmob.net we initially were going to focus on asterisk/drupal integration to allow easy creation of interactive voice menus, but ended up so far working more with mms :) But it's still on our roadmap, so will be really interested in what you do. Have you considered building it as a Drupal module, or modular for popular FOSS CMS in general? That might increase adoption, if ppl could just plug it in to their existing CMS.
peace, schock
http://vozmob.net
Important in Zimbabwe and elsewhere
Hi Freedom Fone!
Great to see you on here. From Digital Democracy's time in Zimbabwe we were really impressed with this project, and I think it will be useful not only there but in countries around the world. Our Handheld Human Rights project is working with Burmese community organizations to help human rights groups better coordinate their reports, given the prevelance of mobile phones over computers along Burma's borders. Once Freedom Fone takes off it would be great to see it deployed by the same community based groups to share information with the larger refugee community.
Readng your project description also makes me think of my time in Mali, where radio is a favored way to get news, and mobile phones are increasingly accessible. Freedom Fone would allow for community groups such as women's organizations or student groups to share information that doesn't always make it onto larger stations. I think it's an incredibly empowering tool for rights-activists and community builders.
Great work! We'll send people your way as we also share our project with them!
Great to see you here too!
Thanks for your support. We also sent people your way for the Human Rights Challenge and will do so for N2Y4 as well. We're also excited about what you are doing in Burma, and the valuable and innovative potential the Handheld Human Rights project has there. Look forward to working together as both of our projects develop!
interested in co-promoting?
Brenda Burrell & Bev Clark,
We like your proposal and have decided to include you in our promotions.
Below is our voting announcement that we're distributing to all our members.
We found that the voting directions were so poor that we had to break this into a 5-step process.
Would you include us in your promotions?
Our Cell Alert Promo:
Hey, do you have a sec?
I need some help. my non-profit and some others are trying to win a non-profit challenge
1) Go here and register: http://www.netsquared.org/hrc-ucb/vote
2) Then click "Vote in the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge" here: http://www.netsquared.org/user
3) Then vote for these 3 projects
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/frontlinesms-alerts
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/ijcentral
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/freedom-fone
4) Then click "View/Cast Ballot" (below your selected challengers in the upper right hand corner)
5) Then click "Submit Ballot"
Does that make sense?
Israel Kloss
Founder, Cell Alert
CellAlert.org
israel@cellalert.org
Thanks for your support
Hello Israel
Thanks for your support of Freedom Fone and congratulations on the UCB HRC recognition. Yes your email makes a lot of sense - and we sent a similar one to many of our colleagues encouraging support of your project, Fronline SMS and http://www.netsquared.org/projects/handheld-human-rights and http://www.netsquared.org/projects/community-mobile-channels
Best of luck to yours and these other projects in the N2Y4 challenge as well.
Amanda
Queries
Freedom Fone is a project I've been following a bit and I think the project has potential (Esp with the knight backing). However, I am interested to know the following: -
Is there a timeline for when the open source version may be available and what will be the technical requirements in setting this a project (e.g. servers, phone lines, staff, technical abilities/skills/support requirements).
What format do you use for the audio files? and what is the size of the files (e.g. 1mb for 1 min clip?)
Just for my own information - What is the GRPS situation in Zim. Is it generally available? and how is the pricing?, what percentage of people have/use GPRS phones.
Thanks
Rob Allen - (see my entry here)
Answers
Hello Rob
I see my previous two attempts to reply to this comment have failed so I'm giving it another bash. Tho I think we've answered your queries elsewhere, for the sake of transparency:
- We anticipate the first open / distributable version of the software to be ready by August this year. We are still finalising the technical specifications which will inform the hardware requirements, and we're trying to strike a balance between making things easy and affordable for users across a range of hardware and O/S, and making things simple enough in the first instance that our development can move forward quickly. However, of fundamental importance is that the software is easy for users to operate, even with limited technical skills or experience.
- To keep the audio files small, we have been using MP3s. The version of Asterisk we'll most likely be using can play .gsm or .mp3 files. Because the files are played over the phone, we bring the sample rate down to 8kHz or 16kHz - resulting in small file sizes, more like 100KB for 1 minute.
- GPRS is not generally available in Zimbabwe. It does have limited availability through Econet, but this is not widely known or promoted. It is still in the "pilot" stage (as it has been for over a year), so those who use GPRS do not pay for data rates. Econet has yet to announce what their pricing structure would be, or when they will open this up more commercially. In recent years urban, employed Zimbabweans have been getting more sophisticated handsets which could work with GPRS, and certainly these handsets are available, for a price. However, the more basic phones like Nokia 3310 remain popular and often durability is more a priority than GPRS, which most can't use.
Thanks
This is very informative and it is great that you are prioritising the affordability, simplicity and usability.
The small file sizes mean that delivery over the Internet as well as by voice could be fairly easy and cheap in some countries (e.g. in South Africa we could download a 100kb file for the equivalent of less than 2 US cents using a pay as you go SIM card). Of course this is not yet possible in Zimbabwe but looking at rolling out in some other countries it may be an opportunity.
Freedom Fone
I hope my vote has gone through - I'm not daft but I find the voting procedure unncessary complicated - surely a simple tick box stating you have to vote for three projects would be better than having to go through a series of clicks!
Good luck to you all !
Thanks Sokari!
I'm sure it went through Sokari, thanks for your support! And yes, sorry the voting process is so complicated. Hopefully NetSquared are listening in and will help simplify things before their next round of challenges.