IndiaUnheard

Indian freelance journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary brings to our attention a set of articles published in the Hindustan Times (1 and 2) and the BBC about the work that he and Microsoft designer Bill Thies (who recently gave a talk at our group) did to establish a grassroots news network in Chhattisgarh, India. Based on an audio wiki technology developed by Thies and Saman Amarasinghe at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the system is named CGNet Swara (Chhattisgarh Net Voice), which enables trained amateur volunteer journalists to phone in their reports to a central number where moderators then record and check the reports for accuracy. Once approved, the report is sent via text message to everyone on the news service's contact list, and they can subsequently phone in to hear the story at normal phone charge, which is less than five rupees (10 US cents).