WWW 2008, April 21-25, 2008, Beijing, China.
2008
978-1-60558-085-2/08/04
1
Information ``Uptrieval": Exploring Models for Content
Assimilation and Aggregation for Developing Regions
Abstract:
Information Retrieval on the WWW is important because it is hard to find
what one is looking for. There
is a plethora of information available, and searching relevant information
is a challenge. In the case of
developing regions, we have the opposite problem:
(1) Information availability of global markets is scarce. Most of the
consumers and producers (of
information as well as goods) are relegated to local markets in
geographical vicinity. In order to reach wider
markets, it is important for this local information to reach wider
audiences. (Local information for global
consumption LIG model).
(2) At the same time, locally relevant information, such as delays in
bus/train timings, mobile medical van
schedule changes, electricity outage timings, is not easily available
either. (Local information for local consumption
LIL model).
We introduce the term Information Uptrieval to address the reverse problem
of acquiring, assimilating,
aggregating and uploading global and local information that is relevant
for developing regions to a platform
that improves the reach of the information. While the WWW is an obvious
example of one such platform,
given the low internet penetration in such regions, we need to explore
effective alternatives.
Several innovative, but disconnected approaches have been attempted to
address the information uptrieval
problem, ranging from the use of
DVDs
1 through the use of wireless
stations on motorcycles
2. Many of
these have met with reasonable success in their pilot deployments.
H.4.mInformation SystemsMiscellaneous
Developing Regions, Information Management
This panel will address methods and techniques to address the information
uptrieval problem. In particular,
distill what can be gleaned from the experiences of the various pilots and
hopefully carve out a systematic
and scalable approach for information uptrieval.
Practitioners, academicians and students working in the area of providing
IT services to the underprivileged are likely
to benefit from the panel discussions. The panel will also be attractive to
researchers who are interested in
increasing the scope of the WWW beyond the IT savvy population, which is
estimated to be a huge 4
billion people.
Despite the tremendous increase in the penetration of World Wide Web over
the last two decades,
more than 70% of the world population is still untouched by this
revolution. The population in developing
countries faces barriers in terms of the access mechanisms and
infrastructure (among other reasons) that are
used to get information from the web. The information needs of these people
are very often local. They are interested in knowing the crop prices, weather, and bus timings, in
their region.
This kind of information
is not globally required and hence is typically not currently available on
the web. More importantly, hardly any channels exist for these people to contribute
such information for others' consumption.
Therefore, it is important
to find ways for this population - the producers and consumers of local
information - to leverage and
suitably adapt the World Wide Web to their own needs.
In countries such as South Africa, India and Brazil, several initiatives
have been taken to use a
kiosk-based model for information delivery. These solutions make use of an
educated operator who
manages the kiosk and operates the computer. She is responsible to
disseminate the required information.
and to upload the information that she gathers.
At the same time, the
developing countries have seen a tremendous growth in the mobile phone
penetration. Mobile phones offer
a potential device that can be used directly by the masses to access
information.
The panel discussion on Web Delivery Models for Developing Regions at WWW
2007 was
focussed on finding the right delivery model(s) for Internet services. This
year, we intend to focus on the
opposite problem.
- We now have the benefit of the experience of several point solutions for
the Information Uptrieval
problem. Can we make the approach systematic and find a general solution?
- Should there be one method for Information Uptrieval or many?
- If many, then
- Can we identify which method is to be used under which
conditions?
- Is there a common underlying approach that is scalable?
- The WWW is a natural fit for the LIG model (defined above). Do we need a
different platform
for the LIL model?
- Web Delivery Models for Developing Regions a panel at WWW 2007, Banff,
Canada, May 9, 20073.
This panel was on trying to find the right delivery model for the internet
services that can be applicable to people in
developing regions. The panel brought together academicians and
researchers from the industry working on projects in
developing countries to brainstorm on the different requirements and the
usability aspects of the population that has several
economic, social and IT challenges.
The current proposal is a follow-up of this panel.
- "Education" - a panel at Needs and Opportunities for Technology in Developing
Regions
workshop at the United Nations-Berkeley "Bridging the Divide" conference,
April 23, 2005.
This panel focused on the different challenges for providing access to
education for low-income students and slums in
developing countries with case studies from South Africa, India and
Bangladesh. Since the focus was on education through
ICT, other aspects of providing general IT services through the web were
not discussed in the panel.
- "Social and Cultural Impact on ICT Women" a panel at the ACM Grace
Hopper Celebration of
Women in Computing, October 4-7, 2006 in San Diego, California.
This panel had focussed on the social and cultural impact of ICT on
women in Pakistan and Brazil. The effects of use
of ICT enabled devices and services on socio-cultural norms and
traditions and the changes in society due to the
affordability and availability of information and communication
technologies were presented. The proposed panel however
seeks to identify the right delivery model for this society - given the
sociological and economic profile of this population.
- ICT in Rural Agriculture: A panel at the IJCAI 2007 workshop on AI in
ICT for Development,
January 8 2007, Hyderabad, India
This panel focussed on ICT technologies for agriculture. However the
proposed panel would be discussing about a delivery
model of a variety of services that are usable and affordable to the
general users, including farmers, in developing
countries.
Recent years have seen a lot of interest and activity around bridging the
digital divide. The WWW
conference has focussed on developing regions since 2006. In 2007, we
brought together a distinguished
panel of experts. This time, we intend to focus the discussion further.
Given that the community is in its
formative years, bringing together a panel of such distinguished
researchers together in such a forum is very
important for shaping and guiding future efforts.
After an initial introduction from the moderator (5 min), each panellist
will present their views on the
possible uptrieval models, and talk about their conditional applicability
(25 min). This will be followed by
discussions guided by the moderator (45 min), in the hope of trying to
arrive at a unified, scalable approach
for Information Uptrieval. Finally, the panellists will provide their
closing positions (10 min) followed
with concluding remarks by the moderator (5 min).
- Richard J. Gowen, President, IEEE Foundation.
- Arun Kumar, IBM Research, India. (Moderator)
- Han Woo Park, YeungNam University, Korea.
- Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, NYU, USA.
- I. Medhi, A. Sagar, and K. Toyama. Text-Free User Interfaces for
Illiterate and Semi-Literate
Users. In International Conference on Information and Communication
Technologies and
Development, May 2006.
- T. S. Parikh and E. D. Lazowska. Designing an Architecture for
Delivering Mobile Information
Services to the Rural Developing World. In Proc. Intl. Conf. on World Wide
Web (WWW),
May 2006.
- M. Plauche and M. Prabaker. Tamil Market: A Spoken Dialog System for
Rural India. In
Working Papers in Computer-Human Interfaces (CHI), 2006.
- K. Ramamritham, A. Bahuman, C. B. S. Duttagupta, and S. Balasundaram.
Innovative ICT Tools
for Information Provision in Agricultural Extension. In ICTD 2006., Dec
2006.
- J. Sherwani. Are Spoken Dialog Systems Viable for Under-served
Semi-literate Populations? PhD
Thesis Proposal, Carnegie Mellon University, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/
jsherwan/JS-proposal.pdf,
2005.
- A. Kumar, N. Rajput, D. Chakraborty, S. Agarwal, and A. A. Nanavati.
WWTW: A World Wide
Telecom Web for Developing Regions. In ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Networked
Systems
For Developing Regions, Aug 2007.
Footnotes
- ... DVDs1
- eSagu,http://www.esagu.in/esagu
- ... motorcycles2
- First Mile
Solutions,http://www.firstmilesolutions.com
- ... 20073
- http://www2007.org/panel2.php