Avaaj Otalo: a field study of an interactive voice forum for small farmers in rural India
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Mobile-izing health workers in rural India
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Design lessons from the fastest q&a site in the west
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Constructing informed consent in ICT4D research
Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
Mobile video for patient education: the midwives' perspective
Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Symposium on Computing for Development
When technology doesn't fit: information sharing practices among farmers in rural China
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development: Full Papers - Volume 1
Understanding barriers to information access and disclosure for HIV+ women
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development: Full Papers - Volume 1
Behavior analysis of low-literate users of a viral speech-based telephone service
Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development
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Online communities enable people to easily connect and share knowledge across geographies. Mobile phones can enable billions of new users in emerging countries to participate in these online communities. In India, where social hierarchy is important, users may over-value institutionally-recognized authorities relative to peer-sourced content. We tested this hypothesis through a controlled experiment of source authority effects on a voice-based agricultural information service for farmers in Gujarat, India. 305 farmers were sent seven agricultural tips via automated phone calls over a two-week period. The same seven tips were each voice-recorded by two university scientists and two peer farmers. Participants received a preview of the tip from a randomly assigned source via the automated call, and played the remainder of the tip by calling a dedicated phone number. Participants called the follow-up number significantly more often when the tip preview was recorded by a peer than a scientist. On the other hand, in interviews conducted both before and after the experiment, a majority of farmers maintained that they preferred receiving information from scientists. This stated preference may have been expressing the more socially acceptable response. We interpret our experimental results as a demonstration of the demand for peer-based agricultural information dissemination. We conclude with design implications for peer-to-peer information services for rural communities in India.