Community Media Networks L E AR N I N G S O V E R 7 + Y E AR S O - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Design Principles to Create Sustainable Community Media Networks L E AR N I N G S O V E R 7 + Y E AR S O F C O N S TAN T E X P L O R AT I O N N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 AP P R O P R I AT E C O M P U T I N G T E C H N O L O G I E S V O I C
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L E AR N I N G S O V E R 7 + Y E AR S O F C O N S TAN T E X P L O R AT I O N N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 AP P R O P R I AT E C O M P U T I N G T E C H N O L O G I E S F O R D E V E L O P M E N T ( AC T 4 D ) , I I T D E L H I V O I C E O F T H E V I L L AG E T E C H N O L O G Y. M E D I A. D E V E L O P M E N T
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
The Gram Vaani team: Mayank, Parminder, Bala, Zahir, Kapil, Dinesh, Sayonee,
IIT Delhi students: Arvind, Dipanjan, Prateek, Abhishek Katyal, Rohit Bhatia, Deepak
Collaborators: CEDPA, Sesame Workshop, PFI, Development Alternatives, Gurgaon ki
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Variety of mechanisms
Community radio Community video Wall newspapers … 3
Community media Representation Contextual & complete info Empowerment Entertainment, community building Change agent
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
CR 2.0: Radio + mobile phones
Poor telephony integration
Media players used for scheduling Content stored in folders across different machines Many moving parts: Headphones, mics, mixer adjustments
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Single console for playout, scheduling, preview, archiving, telephony, SMS, faceted
Don’t have to switch headphones Telephony and radio integration for community engagement
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Community engagement Live Panchayat group discussions Music on hold advertising Antakshari competitions across schools NREGA helpline, agriculture helpline…
Suggestion of new works Project announcements and vacancies
Stratified database of community members
Group updates Personalization Assessment of campaign effectiveness through micro-surveys
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Inputs connected to government (local +
social enterprise partners Content moderated locally and centrally, then published on IVR, web
Users speak and listen to contributions over our intelligent IVR platform
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
90% community sourced content
Local news Interviews and informational services Opinion on topical issues Guided discussions and campaigns Grievances and feedback on government schemes Cultural artifacts including folk songs and poems
Current reach
10,000+ calls per day 8min average call duration 1,000,000+ unique callers 2,500,000+ households reach
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Broader ecosystem Technology design People processes Community character- istics Content & services Adoption & awareness
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Broader ecosystem Technology design People processes Community character- istics Content & services Adoption & awareness
Software engineering and design processes Technology architecture Ease of use, task completion, data collection accuracy, cost Machine learning, recommendations Technology support and scaleup
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Understood in 1st call Understood by 3rd call
Marsden, 2013
addressed through ICTs. But also identify good pilot partners/power users who can give actionable feedback.
Hard to find a common set of requirements
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development Understood in 1st call Did not understand by 3rd call Understood by 3rd call
Leave a message…
Offline in-person training is imperative, be it internal or external
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Nov Dec Jan' 14 Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec 1st Recording 2nd Recording 3rd Recording 4th Recording 5th Recording > 5 Recordings
(L) Phonepeti (R) Mobile Vaani
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 More Frequency Bin
Data collection
match those given to a live operator
understood more than 80% of the questions Crowd-sourced voting
QoC data collection: Getting participation is not hard if incentives are aligned and well understood
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Most faults occur when people tinker with cables and other moving parts. Impossible to avoid! Most debugging needs to be done
unskilled tech resource Moved to a cloud deployment with Mobile Vaani
Mode of communication Faults identified Faults resolved Phone calls 57 16 (28%) Remote desktop 9 9 (100%) Remote desktop & phone 9 6 (67%) Reverse SSH 6 5 (83%) Reverse SSH & phone 2 2 (100%) Physical visit 6 6 (100%)
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Direct Delayed
Evaluating interrupt misses Latency experiments Some setups are more debuggable than others: Evaluate debuggability using Prolog
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Users who call just once ranges from 25% to over 50% some times. Correlated with
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 Nov-12 Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 Jan-14 Mar-14 May-14 Jul-14 Sep-14 Nov-14 Jan-15 Mar-15 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Activity of users Activity of long lived users
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Broader ecosystem Technology design People processes Community character- istics Content & services Adoption & awareness
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
MV field team Volunteer clubs Volunteers SHG and community networks Our field team enters new geographies through NGO/ CBO partners We begin with identifying volunteers from the community
1 2
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Over time, volunteers are then
into clubs
3
Clubs are mentored closely by the field team
4
MV field team Volunteer clubs Volunteers SHG and community networks Our field team enters new geographies through NGO/ CBO partners We begin with identifying volunteers from the community
1 2
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
BMV – 6000 callers per day in 10 months Jamui club – 6000 callers per day in 5 months
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“…I have only one passion and that’s listening to news… Since I can’t read newspaper and don’t have access to television, MV is my only source of local news and information… when the clubs weren’t formed, we got to listen to stories, messages and local news from different districts of Jharkhand that were occasionally from our region…we had no control
region specific content… after formation of clubs we are not only able to listen to the local events and happenings in our region but are also able to listen to statewide content… it is a win- win situation for us…” – Visually impaired caller, Jharkhand “… MV has helped women like me, come out of our conservative households, build our identity as community reporters and stand for ourselves for finding solutions to our problems… Before listening to MV, my husband never allowed me to go out of the house to attend meetings, but ever since he started listening to MV he has encouraged me go for club meetings… he is positive that I’ll learn something constructive out of it…” – Woman volunteer, Jharkhand
For volunteers
interviews
working women
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2 1 3 4 4 2 1 3 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 More
Number of clubs Cost per user acquisition
Good content, volunteers are reporters Women clubs
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Varying importance of financial incentives Caste and class hierarchies impact
functioning
Clean communication and relationship
building is important
Mentoring Vs transacting, to maintain an
asset-light offline model
“… The policy was discontinued after a while, but it left a lot
volunteers and communities disappointed and dissatisfied, so much so that some of them snapped all ties with MV…” – Community Manager, Jharkhand “I don’t volunteer with MV for money, I don’t pay much attention to the payments, and they are such small amounts
development…” – Volunteer, Bihar “… It would be better if MV hires someone separately to handle the work of grievance follow ups at block level… there’s a lot of running around to do… how much can a club coordinator and a handful volunteers run around? We also have to keep up with the community mobilization activities…” – Volunteer, Jharkhand
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Broader ecosystem Technology design People processes Community character- istics Content & services Adoption & awareness
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
What is MV for you? What do you want to
hear on MV?
Challenge: How to
change the character of the system? Only 20- 30% of users exhibit preferences even though 85% navigate comfortably
Social issues 40% Entertainm ent 24% Local news 16% Livelihood 20%
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Grievances Entertainment
Krishi Samadhan Hyperlocal news Bolein Dil ki Baat
Contributions on travel
experiences, childhood memories Kitaabon ki Paanon Se
Solicit ideas on legends and
folk tales
Famous writers like
Premchand and Bhishm Saini Haat Bazaar
Interviews of vegetable sellers
and local merchants Employment channel,
Children’s slot, Talent competition…
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Women News
Agriculture solutions Hyperlocal news Straight from the heart
Contributions on travel
experiences, childhood memories Story telling
Solicit ideas on legends and
folk tales
Famous writers like
Premchand and Bhishm Saini My life and times
Interviews of vegetable sellers
and local merchants Employment channel,
Children’s slot, Talent competition…
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
“… The shift in content from grievances reported on various issues to weekly entertainment and informative programs is very refreshing to me, as a listener… By doing this, MV has gone a step further in informing, entertaining and inspiring its users. I say this because the localized entertainment and information offered by the weekly programs aired is unparalleled to the generic content offered by the mass media… Similarly, the discussions initiated by campaigns on various social issues help me learn about a wide variety of things such as existing laws on that issue, our rights and entitlements along with people’s lived experiences, making me want to listen to MV again and again…” – Caller, Jharkhand “… Mobile Vaani is like an ideal community media platform where people represent themselves the way they want to. They don’t need an external news agency or a journalist to cover their issues on their behalf… it is the people who own and run the entire MV platform right from choosing the issue they want to base their discussion on, to composing a report, a message, a song
encourage further discussion within the community or make a dent in government administration or giving mainstream media like our newspaper, material to base news reports on…” – Caller, Jharkhand
[Bailur, 2007]
“My wife had some ideas for programs. She went to the station. But they told her she had to belong
to a self-help-group.”
“… and it is not every group, but only good groups – meaning, you behave well, keep good books…”
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Strike update Problems caused Valid cause Invalid cause Request to government Request to para teachers Para-teachers 24% 7% 31% 37% Activists 10% 24% 20% 31% 3% Students 43% 4% 34% Parents 4% 38% 9% 38% Govt 90% Media 53% 17% 23% 5%
Jharkhand, state wide: Month long para-teachers strike paralyzes all schools across the state. Demand for permanent positions and increased salaries. Parents rebut with accusations of negligence of duty. Teachers send their petition to the
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Duration: 4 weeks Outreach: 100,000 households in Jharkhand Topics
Laws against early marriage Reasons for early marriage Implications of early marriage on the health of girls Implications of early marriage on boys Drama, chutki ki kahani, who was married at 14
Offline activity. 100+ volunteers recruited from across the state
Get pledges from Panchayats Ask pandits and moulavis to visit weddings and condone early marriage Get testimonials from school teachers Form a committee comprising the Panchayat, teachers, religious leaders, and police
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
“… I feel better informed about the issue of child marriage after listening to the campaign but I would like to point out that in practice, not much change has happened in our village since the campaign. Yet, campaigns on issues such as these must go on because without the campaign, no discussion would be initiated
discussing such issues amongst themselves. A lot of people are getting educated and are better informed due to such discussions. They are able to understand the difference between good and bad practices, the things they should do and the ones that they shouldn’t do…” – Woman listener, Jharkhand “… After listening to people’s experiences discussed during the campaign, I got to know about preventable health problems and financial issues caused due to child marriage. Hence, I've decided that neither will I get married before age nor would I marry a girl who is younger than 18 years… I will also discourage people in my family, community and society from doing it. In my case, I’ll only get married when I am properly settled and ready to take on the responsibilities that marriage brings with it…” – 19 year old male youth, Jharkhand
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Selection of appropriate campaign method Develop content plan and message matrix together with partner Weekly episodes
through guided sourcing of messages from community Analysis and impact assessment
1 2 3 4 5 6
Content quality: 1-5
Game Non-contextual comments Discussion Serial episodes Early marriage Parenting Sesame Sesame MKBKSH Early marriage Child sex abuse Medicine price hike
Bulk of our campaigns “Mass” content does not work Need to explore
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Broader ecosystem Technology design People processes Community character- istics Content & services Adoption & awareness
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
“I get information about a lot of government schemes from
Antrikaran Protsahan Yojana from MV. Within that scheme, drip irrigation equipment and pump sets are available at 50 percent subsidized rates. I (applied for that scheme) received pump set and drip irrigation system. It has helped me change the direction of my work (made my work easier).” – Smallhold farmer, Jharkhand “In the past one year I have heard campaigns on the issue of violence against women and I feel these are commendable efforts by team MV. These campaigns have given me the confidence to take up social work and I hope to help create a society that doesn’t encourage violence against women”. – Woman caller, Jharkhand “I comment on the health channel and spread awareness among people on health services like free medicines and Mamta Vahan. Through my contributions this helped me gain respect in the community and helped my work as an ASHA” – Community health worker, Jharkhand
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
“A few weeks back I recorded a message on JMV about a school headmaster harassing the students by charging Rs 10 per student for issuing the admit card. When a few students refused to pay the amount, the headmaster threatened to fail them in the practical
spread like wildfire. Everybody got to know about the tactics of the headmaster. So the headmaster called a meeting of the parents and owned up to his mistake. He promised not to repeat such a mistake in the future and also appealed to the students to write their exams without worrying about all this.” – Volunteer, Jharkhand “… It is ironical that popular culture of hindi movies has penetrated our otherwise remote region and the youth here have been more interested in movie songs than our folk songs… Most cultural heritage remained limited to the villages of the region due to lack of a medium to promote the aural culture of the village…. Now owing to MV, we are able to listen to self-composed folk songs and poetry in local dialects such as Khortha, that are recorded by other users. This has led to more MV users, especially youth embracing our cultural heritage…” – Old caller, Jharkhand
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
“…During the monsoons, the rivulets near our village used to get flooded and excessive water used to flow down the Damodar river… we were unable to make any use of it… for the past 4-5 years we have started building check dams on these rivulets and created bunds of water out of them… this has not only resolved our water shortage issues but has also helped in recharging the water table… we now get drinking water all year round…” – Farmer, Jharkhand
“In the Koderma district of Jharkhand, alcoholism among men is a big issue. People began to voice their concerns on MV and a desire to see an improvement, at first with a few stories, and very soon many people started recording their messages. This finally prompted us the volunteers to pick up the stories and write a letter to the district administration demanding closure of illegal alcohol selling in the main town of Koderma.” – Volunteer, Jharkhand
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
People reported on a few officials who were demanding bribes for UID
A village ignored by health agencies was reported to have had 3 malaria deaths in the last one week. A mobile ambulance was immediately dispatched, with fumigation equipment and first aid
Jan Shakti Abhiyaan and Janta Darbar – two entirely volunteer driven initiatives Can this be formalized for scaleup? Needs volunteer training and mentoring
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Adoption largely depends on conscientiousness of officer However, inefficient in implementation since it is top-down Pioneering a civil society assisted grievance redressal system for micro health insurance, as an mid-way
updating done by gram sevaks
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State helplines get single-digit
Poor awareness Low redressal rate, no tracking CM helplines have been more
Hand-holding by intermediaries is
“…We raised the issue of the death of a migrant labour on MV during a campaign, who died while migration (on worksite) due to poor working conditions… MV interfaced the issue with the labour department of Jharkhand in Ranchi from where the labour commissioner personally looked into the issue… commissioner further used MV to inform all of us to register
we informed them that our village council members haven’t received training on documenting people migrating, the Labour department conducted migrant registration awareness and trainings camps in many blocks and districts including
migration related grievances/issues that we report…” – Volunteer, Jharkhand
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development Our server makes and receives calls/SMS from contract staff on their deliverables Community members query the status and dispute it if they want Status and disputes were made available on a web dashboard and reviewed by the MCD commissioner; City Representatives post responses on Facebook Municipal Corporation of Delhi approached Gram Vaani for phone based citizen monitoring of waste disposal in the city
Self-reported status by MCD staff Citizens can query and dispute
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development Community members call into a toll-free number to leave complaints NGO listens to complaints and categories/transcribes them on the Internet Youth wing of NGO files complaint officially, and sends a report to the local councilor Redressal statistics also displayed on website (and wall newspapers)
Internal pressure dynamics thus created were used to improve grievance rates on ration, pension, and sanitation. New toilets and public works were sanctioned
A governance focused NGO, Action India, approached Gram Vaani to build a ‘better grievance redressal system’
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Hard evidence gathered on public health facilities
80% do not have clean drinking water 40% have vacant posts for doctors Deliveries happening in the bathroom
Stories carried by several regional media
Testimonials about 5 health facilities that have
Estimated 100,000 people thus indirectly
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Usable and appropriate technology design Build a sense of community and ownership.
Institutional structures should be nurtured
Create content formats that encourage
contextualization by the community itself
Work in partnership with other stakeholders to give the platform a larger voice.
But understand the political economy of the ecosystem
Unsolved problem: Financial sustainability!
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G r a m Va a n i C o m m u n i t y M e d i a W e b s i t e : h t t p : / / w w w. g r a m v a a n i . o r g E m a i l : c o n t a c t @ g r a m v a a n i . o r g
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Replicate learning to mobile apps
Build peer-to-peer or intermediary driven training and adoption processes for our apps Leverage the stronger Internet ecosystem that already consists of platforms such as online
social networks Can the learning be applied to adoption of mobile Internet itself? Potential to be
Consolidate offline processes including volunteer recruitment, training, club
Possibility of USSD integration to ease IVR navigation Shortcode based VAS access to build a marketplace for information services
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Mobile Vaani: Technology. Media. Development
Joint work with Stanford Liberation
Technologies and IIT Delhi
People enrolled with job card +
mobile phone information
MIS status for job cards picked up
from the website, and converted into voice messages
People could file a grievance if
they noticed a discrepancy
Initial work: 52 people pinged, 30
detected a problem, 23 filed a grievance