In a digital era, how do rural and poor communities share stories with one another? By a Nokia mobile phone, with adapted software, if academics in London and campaigners here get positive results from their project.

The project in south Karnataka plans to record stories digitally, and share them across the digital divide.

Using mobile phones with simplified icons, which villagers would find easier to deal with, this British-linked project seeks to zero in on what kind of information local users find useful.

Ramnath Bhat, 25, working in communications-based NGO Voices, is part of the Story Bank project, in association with University of Surrey.

It is part of a larger project called 'Bridging the Global Digital Divide' and is based in the rural area of Buddikote, in southern Karnataka's Kolar Gold Fields area.

'We've seen in a prior research that in a lot of cases, information and communication technologies, or ICTs, don't encourage communication among the poor.'

ICTs - primarily computers and electronic communications - imply centralisation, complicated methods of participation, language, and design issues.

The project is quite exciting, says Bhat. It uses the Nokia N80 mobile phone, together with easier-to-use software for villagers, including Dalits, to create multimedia content.

'We're modifying the phone interface to make easy the process of creating content. It will be all done by using icons. We'll have separate icons for recording ambient sound, for voice and for clicking pictures or taking video,' he added.

A computer icon is a small pictogram, used to supplement the normal alphanumeric tools used to relate to the computer.

With these buttons, an unlettered villager should be able to record small video clips with audio tracks. These digital stories will be then sent to a nearby central server, connected to a touch-screen.

The project aims at making it simple to create and access digital content.

Voices also runs a project in the area, where radio-type programmes are put out to local houses.

'We've noticed that villagers cannot access our community centre, because timings don't match or because of their work. With a touch-screen device located outside, they could create and send stories here anytime,' argued Bhat.

What information do villagers seek, really?

'For men, their primary needs are info on governance, legal awareness, agricultural, health. For rural women in this area, it tends to be career information for their children, profiles of other self-help groups, and options for financial loans,' he says.

Children, meanwhile, wanted info on general knowledge, sports events, film stars, and themes science (including seemingly remote themes like dinosaurs or space).

The NGO is also linking the Internet with radio, by adopting the Sri Lankan idea of 'radio browsing'. Villagers ask for the information they need, someone in the NGO searches the Net for it and then reads it out over the local radio 'station'.

'In this project, the whole idea is to see what ICTs work in a real practical situation,' said Bhat. Currently, they're installing 15-20 phones at Buddikote and Ambedkar Colony villages. The latter is a village inhabited entirely by Dalits.

Started in September 2006, the project currently has its touch-screen installed, and completed its first phase on user requirements and priorities. By April, WiFi, a wireless local network system, is to be set up to allow 'stories' to be sent from the phone to the server directly. Full-scale trials are due by August 2007.

'Even on YouTube.com (the Net-based video sharing centre), much of the content is created via cell phones,' says Bhat.

- By Frederick Noronha

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