Affordable Voice Services to Bridge the Digital Divide: Presenting the Kasadaka Platform

2019 
Despite its global reach, the World Wide Web still fails to serve about 3 billion people, the majority living in the Global South, especially in poor, low-resource regions, where broadband internet is not expected to be rolled out in the foreseeable future. Yet, to bring the advantages of ICTs at the reach of communities in low-resource development regions, lightweight, affordable and context-aware ICT solutions are needed, that fit local needs and context. To this end the Kasadaka platform was developed. This platform supports easy creation of local-content and voice-based information services, targeting currently ‘unconnected’ populations, taking into account contextual and infrastructural requirements, and matching local ecosystems. The Kasadaka platform and its Voice Service Development Kit support the development of decentralized voice-based information services, to serve local populations and communities in their own local languages, in regions where Internet and Web are absent and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
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