Question Box gives rural populations access to the internet and information, even if they don't have computers or bandwdith.
The concept behind Question Box is simple. It's an all questions answered service where people call or SMS a given number with a question about anything, speaking in their local language. Using a pre-populated database and the Internet, Operators look up the answers to the users' questions and answer them, translating if necessary. The service works for any type of information, no matter how broad or focused.
Question Box brings the power of the Internet to people who prefer speaking and listening. It takes advantage of the explosive growth in mobile phone use, while recognizing that sucessful bottom of the pyramid technology needs to be simple, intuitive, and fun.
Question Box brings information to people who are likely to never get on the Internet. It requires no literacy, and can be accessed anywhere. The advent of the Internet brought about enormous, unexpected changes. We aim to bring some of that same power to people who currently have tremendous difficulty in accessing information.
The Question Box integrated software platform (SMS, Voice, Web) will be licensed to organizations. It will be open source with an optional service contract for deployment and implentation.
Question Box has been piloted in Noida, India, is being piloted in Pune, India. In these pilots, the Question Box service is provided via a metal telephone box, which contains a phone that direct-dials to the Operator answering questions.
The project will soon pilot in Uganda in conjunction with Grameen, where the service will be offered by Community Knowledge Workers via mobile phone. Question Bodx has been featured on Boing Boing, the BBC, ABC News Online and the UK Sunday Telegraph. A number of NGOs have been in contact with us, interested in partnering with the service to study Social Behavior and provide information about Agriculture, Water and Public Health. As software/service solution, our platform can workfor any group interested in any dataset.
How to publicize the service in countries of operation.
How to raise donor awareness and fundraise.
How to build sophisticated communication and outreach to our supporters and friends.
Help with long term planning
Training in project management skills
Training in intra-organization communication and data management
Pitching our service to for-profi partners
Question Box has three ways of deployment.
Slow internet connections and unreliable electricity make getting data a slower process than it should be. Managing a network of physical Question Boxes.
| Additional Project Idea Representative: | Rose Shuman | |
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| Additional Project Idea Representative: | Jonathan Gosier |
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Comments
Splendid project
This project is decent. You can buy project on any topic.
Information is key
The is beautiful! The possibilities are endless when information is in the hands of those who need it the most. An idea for sustainability could also rest on volunteers from larger companies in the countries supporting your idea as opposed to payment. In trade to the companies in the countries, your staff can help the company buid on the technology. Is information not what "developed" nations thrive on? I love it!
Reply
This is one of the best proposals I have seen yet. More people need to get involved and do something.
Question Box is an excellent
Question Box is an excellent example of how creative combination of low and high tech can remove the barriers to information faced by the people in the world who stand to benefit most from it.
Question Box is a super idea
Question Box is a super idea and model.Its elegance,I think ,lies in its simplicity which makes it possible to connect the internet world to the everyday/everywhere world.This will make realtime inforamation available to the masses at little or no cost.
It is an idea that needs to be encouraged,as in the foreseeable future,there is no technology available,or initiative being undertaken ,that would allow the internet to be available to the masses in developing countries,whereas standalone telephony itself has penetrated even the most underdeveloped areas.
Brilliant
An elegant solution to many of the problems of isolation and illiteracy.
If the pilot can find or educate users to gain tangible benefit from online resources, I can see real potential for this concept to become self-sustaining through commercialization.
Love it!
Thank you commenters!
Hi all,
Thanks for your lovely comments. It's very exciting when people get it - that it's the information that's important, and not the medium. The medium is there to make information accessible, not become a barrier!
Thanks, and please feel free to email back and stay in touch, as exciting things are happening!
Rose
(Also if anyone would like to help out, we are seeking interns and volunteers to do all sorts of fun stuff)
Facilitate important social and economic change
I think this project is brilliant. It uses existing technologies to give people in the developing world access to a wealth of information. We all know that information is power. By empowering people to access information easily, we can facilitate important social and economic change.
I think this project is
I think this project is brilliant...it uses the power of available technologies to make information available to those who might be left out of the information revolution. We all know that information is power. Sharing that power with people in the developing world has the potential to facilitate important social and economic change.
Interesting and needed
This project is really interesting. It addresses a specific need of both rural and urban poor people in Uganda. I have heard a number of people during my work in Uganda wishing they could get information on various topics like agriculture, health, and weather, where they can get funding for a community water point, etc. I think that this project could go a long way towards helping them to answer those questions.
Many of us have come to rely on Google or other web browsers to get information quickly. If you don't have access to the internet, like most of the poor population in Uganda, it's difficult, if not impossible to get information.
That the project has been piloted and has been proven successful bodes well for expansion to Uganda, and makes it a more solid funding choice.
Good luck, QuestionBox!
Huge potential for the everyday, as well as the emergent
I think that question box could be a great tool not only for educational and everyday practical purposes (e.g. "what is the distance between X location and Y location") but also for emergency mobilization (e.g. "where is the nearest hospital to X location?"). Great job!
Collaborative Data Collection
Hi all and thanks for the feedback! What I like most about this project is that's versatile and we're working with a number of organizations to open up this data collection. So many groups have created propriery systems, methods and workflows that don't benefit anyone but their intiative which I feel is a waste. To extend the reach and avoid redudancy of such programs (that ask/answer questions about AIDS, Agriculture, Travel etc...) our platform would be open source. Orgs could implement it and instally have access to web tools, voice/aural software and of course SMS. The true potential is in allowing NGOs to collaboratively build up data. Sharing that data is still optional but why waste resources building the same apps independently when with QuestionBox they can build on our solution?
So, for anyone posting here. What would you like know? =)