The call sounds unremarkable enough at first. The number dialled is a regulation 10 digits, tinny music bursts out in welcome, and a menu materialises: Press 1 for questions, 2 for announcements, 3 for archives.

Thus far, no different from any other automated voice response call. The first question after pressing 1 is a hint of something new. A farmer named Jaikishan has called in to set out his worries about Bt Cotton.

Jaikishan has precisely one minute to state his concerns. Later, dialling into the same number, he can see if an agriculture expert or even another farmer has answered his questions.

Other farmers can browse through these questions and answers; they can scroll through the announcements and upload their own. In a more elaborate version, users can create a “voice site” with a unique URL-type number and link it to other voice sites.

In the future, they may even be able to search for specific information and navigate back and forth between voice sites. All of which begins to expand the plain-vanilla voice response system into something more delicious: an alternative, Internet-like Web. This pilot, still running for farmers in 20 villages of Gujarat, is the second to test-drive Spoken Web, IBM India Ltd’s plan to create a parallel Web driven by voice and accessed by phone.

The first pilot, then called VoiGEN, was launched in Andhra Pradesh in 2008. It ran for eight months and more than 7,000 people — not just farmers — used it to make around 110,000 calls. Parents recorded babies’ voices so relatives could dial in to listen; some sang songs; electricians and plumbers publicised their services...................Click for more

Source Web Page: Hindustan Times