Google really does amazing things, without making too much fuss about it. People have been talking about tapping the rural potential of the internet for years now, but no one does anything practical about it. The governments aim of connecting all 5000+ villages with broadband is just so much eyewash as of now.
Google decided to find out more about it, and so they fitted a bus with wireless internet and computers with fancy LCD large screen displays, painted the bus with fancy slogans and took it for a drive in rural TN. They showed the kampooter and bada TV to the local yokels and noted down their reactions. check the story here
Their findings so far were - in my opinion - a bit disappointing. For instance, one major finding for them was that english language and computer awarenss is a problem for rural TN. Thats not exactly a great leap of understanding. I could have saved them the trouble of making the bus if this was the major finding.
Another finding is that 'out of 800 students who boarded the bus, less than 10% knew anything about the internet'. This point is pretty much a corollary of the above point. If you dont have a comp, and dont know english, then your interaction with the net is likely to be poor.
'Quality of broadband' and 'power cuts' were two other major downers which they discovered. Really? Wow. That's insightful.
But all cynicism aside, I admired the fact that they had at least done something, while all others just sit around and faff. They took the bus down to the villages, and made the locals actually use the net. Stuff like Google maps transcends language barriers. What they proved is that people like the applications - Google maps and Wikipedia solve universal wants - it is just the access point which is the problem,
To get around this they are planning to use telecom as an access point. Voice is good medium to solve language issues, as has been proven by the huge success of Telecom VAS and companies like Onmobile, BTSL, IMI etc.
However, voice has its own problems - time consuming, difficult to browse, voice recognition issues, lack of visual appeal, etc. I think they would have think hard and creatively to come out with a solution, rather than thinking that voice will solve all their problems.
Some suggestions from my side - English learning classes, with free training in using google; making easy to use computer interface devices which do not require computer and language literacy; distribute webcams and PCs and start video blogging - let them post their comments on life in general - turn them into content creators.
Lets see what they come out with.
