CGNet Swara

Last updated

CGNet Swara
Swaracover-small.png
Founded2010
OwnerShubhranshu Choudhary
URL www.cgnetswara.org

CGnet Swara is an Indian voice-based online portal that allows people in the forests of Chhattisgarh to report local news in Gondi by making a phone call. The portal is freely accessible via mobile phone or online. It allows anyone to report stories and listen to them by giving a missed call. Reported stories are moderated by journalists and become available for playback online as well as over the phone. It is founded by journalist, Shubhranshu Choudhary. For the project, Choudhary won the Digital Activism Award in 2014 from the Index on Censorship beating Edward Snowden and China's Free Weibo. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History

Choudhary was a journalist with the BBC World Service. He left his job and joined the Knight International Journalism Fellowship. He took help from Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Thies to develop a cell phone based news and current affairs portal. He launched CGNet Swara with the help of Microsoft Research India in 2010. He trained people in the local community to produce audio news reports using their cell phone. Reports on local land issues, sanitation, health, crime and human rights were made using the service. [4]

How it works

Reporters recorded their news reports using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. They recorded their message by calling a toll-free number. A group of professional journalists review and verify the news reports using a web interface. Once they are approved the stories are available for playback on the phone or on the CGNet Swara's website.

In 2014, with the advent of the low cost cell phones, an Android application was developed by Krittika D'Silva, then a student at the University of Washington. The application supported an interactive voice forum where users could record and play messages. The application also supported the ability to upload photos. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AIM (software)</span> Instant messaging service

AIM was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time.

Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows telephone users to interact with a computer-operated telephone system through the use of voice and DTMF tones input with a keypad. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interact with a company's host system via a telephone keypad or by speech recognition, after which services can be inquired about through the IVR dialogue. IVR systems can respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated audio to further direct users on how to proceed. IVR systems deployed in the network are sized to handle large call volumes and also used for outbound calling as IVR systems are more intelligent than many predictive dialer systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MSN</span> Collection of Internet sites

MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voicemail</span> Voice message storage and retrieval

A voicemail system is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products, and services, using an ordinary phone. The term is also used more broadly to denote any system of conveying a stored telecommunications voice messages, including using an answering machine. Most cell phone services offer voicemail as a basic feature; many corporate private branch exchanges include versatile internal voice-messaging services, and *98 vertical service code subscription is available to most individual and small business landline subscribers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype</span> Telecommunications software service/application

Skype is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debit-based calls to landline and mobile telephones, and other features. Skype is available on various desktop, mobile, and video game console platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizen journalism</span> Journalism genre

Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." Similarly, Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news. Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists; collaborative journalism, which is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together; and social journalism, which denotes a digital publication with a hybrid of professional and non-professional journalism.

Teleo was a peer-to-peer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network founded in by Wendell Brown, Andy Moeck and Craig Taro Gold in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media activism</span> Form of activism using media for social or political movements

Media activism is a broad category of activism that utilizes media and communication technologies for social and political movements. Methods of media activism include publishing news on websites, creating video and audio investigations, spreading information about protests, or organizing campaigns relating to media and communications policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype for Business</span> Enterprise instant messaging and video conferencing software by Microsoft

Skype for Business is an enterprise software application for instant messaging and videotelephony developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Office suite. It is designed for use with the on-premises Skype for Business Server software, and a software as a service version offered as part of Microsoft 365. It supports text, audio, and video chat, and integrates with Microsoft Office components such as Exchange and SharePoint.

<i>Raw Story</i> American progressive news website

Raw Story is an American progressive news website. It was founded in 2004 by John K. Byrne and is owned by Byrne and Michael Rogers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bing Mobile</span> Web search for mobile devices

Bing for mobile is a search tool for handheld mobile devices from Microsoft as part of their Bing search engine. It is designed for mobile device displays. Bing Mobile is built into Windows Mobile and Windows Phone as proprietary software, accessed via the Search key on Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 devices. It is also available on Windows Phone 8.1, and can be downloaded for other platforms, including and Android.

MailOnline is the website of the Daily Mail, a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom, and of its sister paper The Mail on Sunday. MailOnline is a division of dmg media, which is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Live Messenger</span> Deprecated instant messaging client

MSN Messenger, later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger service and, in later versions, was compatible with Yahoo! Messenger and Facebook Messenger. Versions were developed for Windows, Xbox 360, Mac OS X, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x, MSN TV, Zune HD, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile and Windows CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobile phone</span> Portable device to make telephone calls using a radio link

A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messagIng, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, satellite access, business applications, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messenger (software)</span> American instant messaging app

Messenger is a proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, released standalone iOS and Android apps in 2011, and released standalone Facebook Portal hardware for Messenger calling in 2018. In April 2015, Facebook launched a dedicated website interface, Messenger.com, and separated the messaging functionality from the main Facebook app, allowing users to use the web interface or download one of the standalone apps. In April 2020, Facebook released a Messenger desktop app for Windows and macOS.

Microsoft mobile services are a set of proprietary mobile services created specifically for mobile devices, they are typically offered through mobile applications and mobile browser for Windows Phone, | platforms, BREW, and Java. Microsoft's mobile services are typically connected with a Microsoft account and often come preinstalled on Microsoft's own mobile operating systems while they are offered via various means for other platforms. Microsoft started to develop for mobile computing platforms with the launch of Windows CE in 1996 and later added Microsoft's Pocket Office suite to their Handheld PC line of PDAs in April 2000. From December 2014 to June 2015, Microsoft made a number of corporate acquisitions, buying several of the top applications listed in Google Play and the App Store including Acompli, Sunrise Calendar, Datazen, Wunderlist, Echo Notification Lockscreen, and MileIQ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nokia Asha 310</span>

The Nokia Asha 310, also known as the Nokia Asha 3010 or the Nokia ASHA 310 RM-911, was released in March 2013. It is the first in the line of the Asha range of phones to have dual subscriber identity module (SIM) slots and Wi-Fi connectivity. It was a reinvention of the Asha range to remain competitive with new Android devices. It cost $102.00 at its launch date. It has a touchscreen, comes with either a 2 or 4 GB micro SD card, and has 64 MB of RAM, a 2 MP camera and a battery that can last up to 600 hours in standby mode. The phone can play music for up to 54 hours or video for up to 9.5 hours, and has a maximum of 17 hours talk time (2G).

Automated journalism, also known as algorithmic journalism or robot journalism, is a term that attempts to describe modern technological processes that have infiltrated the journalistic profession, such as news articles generated by computer programs. There are four main fields of application for automated journalism, namely automated content production, Data Mining, news dissemination and content optimization. Through artificial intelligence (AI) software, stories are produced automatically by computers rather than human reporters. These programs interpret, organize, and present data in human-readable ways. Typically, the process involves an algorithm that scans large amounts of provided data, selects from an assortment of pre-programmed article structures, orders key points, and inserts details such as names, places, amounts, rankings, statistics, and other figures. The output can also be customized to fit a certain voice, tone, or style.

<i>The Wire</i> (India) Indian news website

The Wire is an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website which publishes in English, Hindi, Marathi, and Urdu. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu. The publication's reporters have won several national and international awards, including three Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards and the CPJ International Press Freedom Award. It has also been subject to several defamation suits by businessmen and politicians.

Bultoo Radio is a unique mobile-based communication service which uses Bluetooth technology to exchange news of local issues and entertainment content in media dark zones. It was launched in 2015 in Chhattisgarh state of India by CGNet Swara, a citizen journalism platform, in collaboration with the state government. Bultoo radio aims to provide a common ground for Adivasi tribals and non-Adivasis to communicate and share content, ranging from recreational stories to problem messages, in their local languages. These stories are then converted to audio programmes and transmitted.

References

  1. Chatterjee, Mohua (20 March 2014). "Journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary wins 'Digital activism award'". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 21 March 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  2. Hume, Tim (22 February 2012). "Phone journalism gives a voice to India's rural poor". CNN. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  3. Krishnan, Murali (21 March 2014). "Journalism should become everyone's business". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  4. 1 2 Rezwan (18 January 2020). "CGNet Swara is using Bluetooth to source content and share news with Indian villages". Global Voices. Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.