InternetSpeech Voice Internet technology fits very well with GAID’s mission to help bridge the Digital Divide & eradicate poverty, and thus achieve MDGs (Millennium Development Goals). InternetSpeech theme is as follows:
“Internet For Everyone: Bridging the Digital & Language Divides a Reality – Let Base of the Pyramid People Drive Development Thru Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship”
There are over 4 billion (over 3 billion wireless, 1 billion wire-line) phones in the world as opposed to about 550 million connected computers. So, phone based Internet Access is the way to practically bridge the Digital and Language Divides.
However, cell phone with screen or personal devices, like PDAs are great devices to communicate via voice or text with small content. But these are not good devices to do computing or to access the Internet. The key reasons are:
difficult user interface because of small screen and small keypad. In fact, these devices are getting smaller, in general, whereas our eyes and fingers are not.
The content is very limited as one would need to re-write the content in another language like WML (Wireless Markup Language) in case of most cell phone viewing or the content needs to be scrolled in case of a PDA. Only a few thousand websites (out of over 2.5 billion websites on WWW) have been re-written. It is not practical to re-write the whole WWW as it would be cost prohibitive.
Not usable in an eyes busy-hands busy situation like while driving.
Not usable by many people who cannot read or write.
Expensive, especially for “bottom of the pyramid” people.
Very difficult to navigate, especially, when content size is large as there would be long navigation tree.
So, the Key Point is that while we should continue with all existing efforts to bridge the Digital Divide, existing efforts are not sufficient to “Truly Bridge” the Digital Divide!!! Good news is that InternetSpeech already has a practical solution using its Voice Internet technology, netECHO®.
Voice Internet can truly bridge the Digital Divide to anyone who has some type of telephone – wire-line phone, wireless phone, PDA and the like. Voice Internet does not need a computer. Users basically make a phone call and an automated attendant allows the caller to access the Internet and enjoy surfing, searching, email, e-commerce and other features. Users basically talk and listen to the Internet. In other words, the telephone becomes the browser.
In Voice Computer, a user calls a phone number (like the Voice Internet) and an automated attendant allows user to access and edit files, directories in a virtual computer. Simply stated, the telephone becomes the computer. Voice Internet and Voice Computer can provide the benefits of the Internet and computers to over 4 billion people who have access to some type of phone. Voice Internet overcomes the limitations/difficulties of existing devices mentioned above and is a low cost practical way to Bridge the Digital and Language Divides. It is also much easier to learn.
The benefits of bridging the Digital and Language Divides needs to be properly exploited by focusing on Education, Entrepreneurship and Innovation to get base of the pyramid people out of poverty (achieving MDGs) as well as converting them into a “Huge Resource”. This, in turn will ensure Economic, Social and other developments.
"Our goal is not just to Provide Internet to everyone but also help economic, social and other developments through education, innovation and entrepreneurship", added Dr. Khan.
About InternetSpeech:
InternetSpeech is the leader in voice Internet technology. Its voice/audio browser, netECHO®, provides consumers, businesses and Governments complete anytime, anywhere voice-based telephone access to the Internet. The company's patented technology can be bundled with other products such as traditional computer-based Internet access, location-based services, or visual micro browsers. InternetSpeech also offers business software that automates the process of voice-enabling a company's Web site and applications in any language, furthering the development of a globally-connected voice Internet. InternetSpeech, a privately held company headquartered in San Jose, Calif., launched netECHO in November 2000. For more information about InternetSpeech,
visit www.internetspeech.com, or call 408-532-8460.
netECHO® is a registered trademark of InternetSpeech.
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