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Keynote talk given at Downscale2012 workshop (http://worldwidesemanticweb.wordpress.com/downscale2012) describing the VOICES project and the RadioMarche use case.
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Voice-based access to Linked Market Data in the Sahel
Victor de Boer
With input from Nana Baah Gyan, Chris van Aart, Wendelien Tuyp, Stephane Boyera,
Aman Grewal, Christophe Guéret, Hans Akkermans, Anna Bon, Frank van Harmelen
Web for Regreening in Africa (W4RA)
• Knowledge sharing issues– Distances between rural communities in
Sahel– Infrastructure and access
• Commonly: no electricity, no computer, no internet• But: mobile and radio
– Lack of relevant content• Literacy and education
– Languages
2
Can the Web (be made to) mean something for knowledge sharing even under very constraining conditions?
No internet, no computer, no electricity
Multitude of languages, levels of literacy
CAUTION! DIGITAL DIVIDE
AHEAD
Aim: integrate Web with mobile access & voice services
• service development toolbox, field deployment in Africa & make a sustainable business out of it
5
• Integrate local community radios and mobile ICT for knowledge sharing
• Better support and integrate local languages in voice-based services– Development of appropriate speech elements (text-to-speech
and Speech recognition)
• Develop a free and open source toolbox for local developers.
• Investigate self-sustainability – Develop appropriate business models – In collaboration with local communities.
Voice-based services in a rural African context
(adapted) Living Labs• Involvement of local
communities– trust and ownership
• Rapid cycles– Use case gathering– Observation and prototyping– Test, adapt
• Context-specific issues– Lack of infrastructure– Illiteracy, ‘small’ language– Local ownership and maintainability– Distance between developer and
user
M-agro Use Case Context: Regreening in Africa
Image by Onno Wassenaar
RadioMarche: Use web/voice technology to improve access to market data
Sahel Eco aggregates market info
Market info
Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio broadcast
French
Bambara
French
Bomu
@, www, g
sm“Communiqué”
Data management
RadioMarche.com
Voice channel: Multiple solutions
Netbook running Prophecy
SIP over Ethernet
NetbookHTTP
Officeroute running Asterix
Orange Emerginov Platform
Netbook running Prophecy + Asterix
Bluetooth
Mobile phone
Audio communiqué
• Audio communiqué generated by concatenating prerecorded phrases– Each radio host uses own voice (!)
• Text-to-speech where possible
• Currently only for French
• Audio quality is an issue
Voice XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><vxml version="2.0" lang="en"> <form> <prompt bargein="false"> Welcome to RadioMarche! <audio src=“audio/communique_1_bambara.wav"/> </prompt> <option dtmf="1" value=“1">Press one for X</option> <option dtmf=“2" value=“2">Press two for Y</option> ...</vxml>
Current testing phase
• Limited usage due to:– Political situation– Ecological situation– Social barriers– Technical issues
• Feedback informs next phase– More languages (Bambara, Bomu)– More radio stations– End user
Other use cases and projects
VOICES use cases
• M-agri event organizer– Schedule events, automatic calls to
farmers’ representatives.– Agricultural knowledge sharing
• M-health knowledge sharing– Use case in Senegal– Share health knowledge
Foroba Blon
• Citizen journalism platform – using the same technology as RadioMarché
• Multiple use cases – Letters to editor– Trusted users ‘journalists’
• Funded by IPI news innovation contest
Interaction design for low-literacy communities
Beyond the use case:Sharing the Data
Across regions
Local market data
RadioMarché market information system
Farmers (producers)
Buyers (consumers)
Email GSM/VoiceWeb SMS
Data / communique platform
Local radio
RadioMarché in second region
Local market data
Data / communique layer
Farmers (producers)
Buyers (consumers)
Email GSM/VoiceWeb SMS
Interface handler layer
Local radio
ClioPatria Linked Data server
DBpedia
GeoNames
Agrovoc
Inst. of Development Studies LOD
RadioMarché Linked market data
Citizen Journalism data
Sahel Pluvial data
SemanticXO
ClioPatria Linked Data server
`Ecomash’ Client application
<VoiceXML> to SPARQL*
Voice browserTel: +31208080855
Skype: +990009369996162208
RadioMarché Linked market
data
‘Allo, Linked Data?
Research questions
• Q1 [immediate]: Can the Web (be made to) mean something for knowledge sharing even under very constraining conditions?– No internet, no computer, no electricity– Multitude of languages, levels of literacy
• Q2 [Web future]: Can we have a Web of Speech?– After all, human communication:
talking >> writing
Questions?
w4ra.few.vu.nl
semweb4u.wordpress.com
worldwidesemanticweb.wordpress.com
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