CGnet Swara is an Indian voice-based online portal that enables people in the forests of

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (; ) is a landlocked States and union territories of India, state in Central India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the List ...

to report local news in Gondi by making a phone call. The portal is accessible both through mobile phones and online. Users can 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 was founded by journalist, Shubhranshu Choudhary. For this project, Choudhary won the Digital Activism Award in 2014 from the Index on Censorship beating

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

and China's Free Weibo.

History

Choudhary was a journalist with the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

before he left to join the Knight International Journalism Fellowship. With the help of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Principal Researcher Bill Thies, he developed a cell phone based news and current affairs portal. He launched CGNet Swara with the support of Microsoft Research India in 2010. Choudhary trained people in the local community to produce audio news reports using their cell phone. The service was used to report on local issues such as land disputes, sanitation, health, crime, and human rights.

How it works

Reporters recorded their news reports using an

Interactive Voice Response 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 telephony, IVR allows customers to interact with a ...

(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 University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. The application supported an interactive voice forum where users could record and play messages. The application also supported the ability to upload photos.

References

{{Reflist

External links

CGnet Swara
Indian news websites Web portals Internet in India Science and technology in Chhattisgarh