Manthan Award 2008

Hi All,

      You would be pleased to know that our 'VoiKiosk' solution recently
won The Manthan Award South Asia 2008 in the special 'Juror's Distinction
Category'. I had the privilege to receive the award on behalf of IBM and
our field partner Byrraju Foundation in a glittering ceremony in New Delhi,
India a few days ago.

Details of the award, the ceremony and the VoiKiosk system are available
from the following links:

- The Manthan Award :  http://www.manthanaward.org/

- The Citation : http://www.manthanaward.org/section_full_story.asp?id=669

- The Ceremony : http://www.manthanaward.org/showGalPic.asp?imageID=812

- The VoiKiosk Solution : An early description is available at
http://www2008.org/papers/pdf/p1123-agarwal.pdf. . A more detailed report
on the field pilot has been submitted for publication and is under review.
In brief, traditional 'Internet Kiosks' are meant to be effective and cheap
information delivery channels by providing shared access to PC and Internet
through a trained intermediary (i.e. the Kiosk operator). However, such
Kiosks suffer from several drawbacks due to reasons such as low density,
illiteracy, lack of local content on Web etc., and others cited in the
literature. VoiKiosk overcomes many of these problems by providing a
channel for uploading and delivering local content in local language over a
simple telephone call.


thanks and regards
Arun Kumar

------------------------------------------
Research Staff Member,
IBM India Research Laboratory,
4, Block - C, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj,
New Delhi - 110 070, India,
Email: kkarun@in.ibm.com
Tel: +91-11-66192100 / +91-11-41292100
Fax: 91-11-26138889
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/a/arun

World Wide Telecom Web :
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.WWTW.html

Received on Wednesday, 29 October 2008 20:14:19 UTC