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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Mobile Web for Social Development Roadmap</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="print" href="print.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="screen.css" media="screen">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
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<body>
<div class="head">
<a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img height="48" width="72" alt="W3C"
src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home"></a>
<h1><a name="title" id="title">Mobile Web for Social Development
Roadmap</a></h1>
<h2><a name="w3c-doctype" id="w3c-doctype">W3C Interest Group Note 08 December
2009</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt>This version:</dt>
<dd><a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mw4d-roadmap-20091208/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mw4d-roadmap-20091208/</a></dd>
<dt>Latest version:</dt>
<dd><a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/mw4d-roadmap/">http://www.w3.org/TR/mw4d-roadmap/</a>
</dd>
<dt>Previous version:</dt>
<dd><a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mw4d-roadmap-20091117/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mw4d-roadmap-20091117/</a></dd>
<dt>Author:</dt>
<dd>Stéphane Boyera, W3C</dd>
</dl>
<p>This document is also available in <a
href="/2008/MW4D/docs/mw4d-nonnorm.html">non-normative formats such as
PDF</a>.</p>
<p class="copyright"><a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a> ©
1998-2009 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><acronym
title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</acronym></a><sup>®</sup> (<a
href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><acronym
title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym></a>, <a
href="http://www.ercim.org/"><acronym
title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</acronym></a>,
<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>), All Rights Reserved. W3C <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
<a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>
and <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document
use</a> rules apply.</p>
</div>
<hr>
<div>
<h2><a name="abstract" id="abstract">Abstract</a></h2>
<p>This document is the heart of the MW4D IG work. Its purpose is to understand
the current challenges of deploying development-oriented services on mobile
phones, evaluate existing technologies, and identify the most promising
directions to lower the barriers of developing, deploying and accessing
services on mobile phones and thereby creating an enabling environment for more
social-oriented services to appear. <br>
This document is divided into two major parts. The first part presents the
major challenges today for both developing and accessing mobile services,
potential ways to bridge them with existing tools, technologies and
infrastructure, and potential research directions to follow to provide a more
comprehensive resolution or solution. The second part focuses on presenting the
major technologies and the major options existing today to deploy content and
applications on mobile phones. For each of these technologies, the document
presents a short analysis of the technology's potential and the requirements in
terms of infrastructure, devices, targeted end-users, and costs associated with
implementation and delivery.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a name="status" id="status">Status of this Document</a></h2>
<p><em>This section describes the status of this document at the time of its
publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C
publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in
the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/">W3C technical reports index</a> at
http://www.w3.org/TR/.</em></p>
<p>This is a public Interest Group Note produced by the <a
href="/2008/MW4D/">Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group</a>, which
is part of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/">Mobile Web Initiative</a>.
This publication as an Interest Group Note represents the completion of the
first charter of group work. The contents of this document may be subject to
further iteration and development. Please send comments to <a
href="mailto:public-mw4d@w3.org">public-mw4d@w3.org</a> (<a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/">publicly archived</a>).
</p>
<p>Publication as an Interest Group Note does not imply endorsement by the W3C
Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted
by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as
other than work in progress.</p>
<p>This document was produced by a group operating under the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">5 February 2004 W3C
Patent Policy</a>. The group does not expect this document to become a W3C
Recommendation. W3C maintains a <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/42462/status">public list of any patent
disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group</a>; that
page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has
actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#def-essential">Essential
Claim(s)</a> must disclose the information in accordance with <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#sec-Disclosure">section
6 of the W3C Patent Policy</a>.</p>
<p>The disclosure obligations of the Participants of this group are described
in the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2007/12/MW4D/charter1.1.html#patentpolicy">charter</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="toc">
<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>Table of Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-f8358050c6eb8b7baf2f374014ade8523dbe8ad4">Executive
Summary</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-366fc6c54237b9e943a8a50ec89979299efe5dce">1.
Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-019966aa394346f2645fb196e26b9f512ef2df88">2.
Motivation</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-aa7aa1013846430c987b467b949c8cdbf4ab71cc">3.
Objectives</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-692f59f051018ae2523ab3853fd72fa80fe78aab">4. Scope of the
Document</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-635824d8346d3dd165eca4b44c74b5aac36af73e">5.
Audience</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-10193b4eb778a207288718330828ffe7c6957a8c">6.
Challenges</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-f978cbf6a99d65115ee04a9cf0db0c4d681f9db1">6.1 Access
Challenges</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-82b5ba761a3ff7048057142f1a4792bfd44c56ed">6.1.1
Accessibility</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-5b177a37733d83567ac299db099fbd95d5443e6f">6.1.2
Illiteracy</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-a1adbf2df545daa8cd2f198724a8aba3d77c7e45">6.1.3
Localization/Internationalization</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-12bd9ef23610e205907983b13f18ca6b8584456a">6.1.4
Computer Literacy</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-7a95ddf26c15f3524c285165aa3076d335c477dd">6.1.5
Costs for the end-user</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-ffc2ba59f226bc731701c17c976b94114a983573">6.1.6
Infrastructure</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-825bda0843b61e8653224aa89491be3a0fe45376">6.1.7
Handset</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#head-57896d1d6f862849d59023f13c0f395c3e0a01c5">6.2 Content
Provider Challenges</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-8cf7b1a8ce230f379598fbb1bd9be3a14cdab4c5">6.2.1
Awareness</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-61e89219dd673da5f4a38547a793a4df617aff58">6.2.2
Expertise</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-4bcb4f591c03e6f7ccddbad21a0460b444fc5ef7">6.2.3
Tools</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-59448009ce3e34e3458e0bfd66ba23e680df7a1e">6.2.4
Business Model</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-9f8485f43024bffafc325ac4f09d04d0cc3e380c">6.2.5
Deployment</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-86e4834f6f540c993d3cbd92921e74c1cebf5648">6.2.6
Monitoring and Assessment</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-0ead7bd1acc9e4643ba1ac6d9ac6d1d4d3714a6c">6.2.7
Scalability and Replicability</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#head-2c39388b182f4d9ecb99472ebaa68bdb89b31c64">6.3 Policy
&amp; Regulation Challenges</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#head-a36788aca1742e9dfbbe2db96a786853033ae548">7.
Technologies</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-93639303fd22f2c01fc0799c8f749c6988d761a3">7.1 Voice
Applications</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-e9fb7689e37cf3dab965560416e8fc5d8a994e71">7.2
Applications using the signalling channel of mobile network</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-19f8b029bd93ce3a05a03c6a54fa071bb77a6a01">7.2.1
Using the Signalling Channel of mobile networks</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-0df863c6ebe1ac9b514ab82c0e828856f3e90457">7.2.2
SMS</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-e744dbc0c19cf93b75bdf42da7da00460a8c7801">7.2.3
USSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-c86bbee0fb033ace8c04e0246a961352311de703">7.2.4
Cell Broadcast</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#head-6c78200087b30b4f4af4fa4152610c953a47ffe7">7.3
Data-Service based Applications</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-b5e352e79d9927daee3b5e2f113e6927c9a730e0">7.3.1
Using Data Service</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-67bf896933b970cd61290db886bcf510374784b0">7.3.2
Mobile Web browser</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-0dcac7a447b23f3822cb0683ac0821b849de9045">7.3.3
Other Data-service based Applications</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#head-3838582d8f8ce68e25fdf20b30a30a87a39093a7">8.
Conclusion</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-15a17387281002bc5cd30350074b540a8a498559">9.
References</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-7400551ef2975c838f0b905e38d1b808e61fc1c3">10.
Contributors</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-062164a828d28e2817543f5d7ae3c71a650d2f87">11. Annexes</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#head-e3153973491747d902a89e061c40c624e9cb369b">11.1
Abbreviations</a></li>
<li><a href="#head-174b253dfb13ed80b6026b25e843c001e732399c">11.2
Definition</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="body">
<div>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="introduction"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-40"></span> </p>
<p></p>
<h2 id="head-f8358050c6eb8b7baf2f374014ade8523dbe8ad4">Executive Summary</h2>
<p><span class="anchor" id="line-121"></span> </p>
<p class="line874">This section summarizes the major <span class="anchor"
id="line-122"></span>findings described within the document, and gives an
overview of the <span class="anchor" id="line-123"></span>different actions
recommended. The document has two major objectives: firstly, to <span
class="anchor" id="line-124"></span>identify challenges that have an impact on
either developers or users of mobile <span class="anchor"
id="line-125"></span>services and content, and secondly to investigate the
potential of existing technologies <span class="anchor" id="line-126"></span>to
meet (at least some of) these challenges. The technologies considered in the
scope of <span class="anchor" id="line-127"></span>this document are split into
three categories, depending on the type of <span class="anchor"
id="line-128"></span>infrastructure required. Indeed, networks can offer up to
three <span class="anchor" id="line-129"></span>channels of communication.</p>
<p class="line874"><strong>NB</strong>: In this document, the term 'channel of
communication ' will be used instead of the more appropriate technical term <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_service">[196]bearer services</a>
which might be less clear for non-technical readers, or non-specialists.<span
class="anchor" id="line-130"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Voice channel: The voice channel is used for person-to-person voice
communications. <span class="anchor" id="line-131"></span></li>
<li>Signalling channel: Mobile networks have a dedicated channel, called a
signalling channel, which is used to monitor network operations, and
activities on the other channels (voice and data). This is the channel used
by <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service">[1]SMS</a>, and
also a lesser-known technology called <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data">[2]USSD</a>,
enabling applications for recharging prepaid subscriptions, or to get an
account balance for example. <span class="anchor" id="line-132"></span></li>
<li>Data channel: The data channel is the channel used by most applications
to communicate with remote computers, and, in general, to access the
Internet <span class="anchor" id="line-133"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-134"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">For each of the identified challenges in the roadmap, we
investigate how it <span class="anchor" id="line-135"></span>is handled by each
of the technologies working on these different channels. <span class="anchor"
id="line-136"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-137"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This document has two major objectives to identify
challenges that are impacting either developers or users of mobile services and
content, and to investigate the potential of existing technologies to meet
(part of) these challenges. The following tables summarize the findings of this
roadmap. The first table compares the abilities of the different technologies
to meet the user-related challenges. The second compares the abilities of the
different technologies to meet the author-related challenges. </p>
<p class="line874"><span class="anchor" id="line-138"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-139"></span></p>
<div>
<table border="1">
<caption style="font-weight:bold">Table 1: Technology capabilities vis-a-vis
user-related challenges </caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"></p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>People with Disabilities</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>People with low reading skills</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>People speaking lesser-known languages</strong>
</p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>People without computer literacy</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="2"><p class="line862"><strong>Costs (for the end-user to
access the service)</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>Infrastructure</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>Handset</strong> </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-140"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Predictability</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Amount</strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><span
class="anchor" id="line-141"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Voice Channel</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>VoiceXML</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Accessible]
<p class="line862">Ok for people with Visual Impairment </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Accessible]
<p class="line862">Ok </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Accessible]</p>
<p class="line862">Ok for pre-recorded audio file / issues with
Text-to-speech and speech recognition engines </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Existing Applications can be aggregated]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">No discoverability (1) mechanism/Works with portals
</p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Predictable cost]
<p class="line862">Same as voice call </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Expensive]
<p class="line862">Usually more expensive than SMS (3) </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[No requirements]</p>
<p class="line862">Works on all telephony networks </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No Requirements]
<p class="line862">Works on all phones, even not mobile </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-142"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Other Voice Applications</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Accessible]</p>
<p class="line862">Ok for people with Visual Impairment </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Accessible]
<p class="line862">Ok </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Accessible]
<p class="line862">Ok for pre-recorded audio file / issues with
Text-to-speech and speech recognition engines </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Aggregation hardly possible]
<p class="line862">No discoverability mechanism (1)/Doesn't work with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Predictable cost]</p>
<p class="line862">Same as voice call </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Expensive]
<p class="line862">Usually more expensive than SMS (3) </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No requirements]
<p class="line862">Works on all telephony networks </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[No requirements]</p>
<p class="line862">Works on all phones, even not mobile </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><span
class="anchor" id="line-143"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Signalling Channel</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>SMS</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Depends on the Handset]</p>
<p class="line862">Depends on the accessibility of the operating system
of the handset </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Not Accessible]
<p class="line862">only text representation </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Poorly Accessible]
<p class="line862">depends on the handset and the network. Very few
operators supports appropriate encoding</p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[Aggregation hardly possible]</p>
<p class="line862">No discoverability (1) mechanism/Doesn't work with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Predictable cost]</p>
<p class="line862">Same as SMS </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Potentially Expensive]
<p class="line862">Relatively expensive depending on the application
</p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No requirements]
<p class="line862">Works on all mobile networks </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No requirements]
<p class="line862">Works on all phones </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-144"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>USSD</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Depends on the Handset]
<p class="line862">Depends on the accessibility of the operating system
of the handset </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Not Accessible]
<p class="line862">Only text representation </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[Poorly Accessible]</p>
<p class="line862">Depends on the handset and the network. Very few
operators supports appropriate encoding.</p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Aggregation hardly possible]
<p class="line862">No discoverability (1) mechanism/Doesn't work with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Free]
<p class="line862">Free </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Free]
<p class="line862">Free </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No requirements]
<p class="line862">Works on all mobile networks </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No requirements]
<p class="line862">Works on all phones </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><span
class="anchor" id="line-145"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Data Channel</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Mobile Web</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Depends on the Content Developer]
<p class="line862">Ok if written in the right way following Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Potentially Accessible]</p>
<p></p>
<p class="line862">No guidelines available yet, but supports of icons
and audio stream </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Accessible]</p>
<p class="line862">Infrastructure can support all languages of the
World, but only few languages supported </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Discoverable]
<p class="line862">Discoverability (1) through search engines and
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Not Predictable cost]
<p class="line862">Not Predictable if not flat-rate plan </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Not Expensive]
<p class="line862">Usually at least 1000 times cheaper than SMS </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Medium Requirements] Requires
data service, GPRS minimum </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Medium Requirements]</p>
<p class="line862">Needs at least a java stack </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-146"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Other data-service based
applications</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[no support]
<p class="line862">No default support of assistive technologies or
accessibility interface on the phone </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Potentially Accessible]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">No guidelines available yet, but potential supports
of icons and audio stream </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Problematic]</p>
<p class="line862">Depends on the handset, and the appropriate
implementation of the applications. </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[Aggregation hardly possible]</p>
<p class="line862">No Discoverability (1) / on some platforms,
application stores (2) </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Not Predictable cost]
<p class="line862">Not Predictable if not flat-rate plan </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Not Expensive]</p>
<p class="line862">Usually at least 1000 times cheaper than SMS </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Medium Requirements]</p>
<p class="line862">Requires data service, GPRS minimum </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Medium Requirements]</p>
<p class="line862">Needs at least a java stack or an operating system
APIs </p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p><span class="anchor" id="line-147"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-148"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-149"></span> </p>
<p class="line874">(1)Discoverability: The ability for user to use tools to
automatically find <span class="anchor" id="line-150"></span>existing services,
content or applications. The existence of search engines on <span
class="anchor" id="line-151"></span>the Web enables potentially all resources
to be found by any users without <span class="anchor"
id="line-152"></span>external intervention <span class="anchor"
id="line-153"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-154"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(2)Application stores: Digital distribution platforms for
<span class="anchor" id="line-155"></span>mobile devices. The application store
is a service accessible directly from the phone as a specific application that
allows users to browse and download applications. These applications are
available to purchase or free of charge, depending on the application. The
applications are downloaded directly to the phone. <span class="anchor"
id="line-156"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-157"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(3)Usually the price of one SMS is equivalent to a voice
call of around 10 to 30 second duration (national number, depending on
intra/inter networks calls) <span class="anchor" id="line-159"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-160"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Author-related Challenges</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-161"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-162"></span></p>
<div>
<table border="1">
<caption style="font-weight:bold">Table 2: Technology capabilities vis-a-vis
developer-related challenges </caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"></p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>Expertise</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="2"><p class="line862"><strong>Tools</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><p
class="line862"><strong>Monetization of services</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="2"><p class="line862"><strong>Costs (for the content
author)</strong> </p>
</td>
<td colspan="2"><p class="line862"><strong>Deployment</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-163"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Platform-level tools (1)</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Application-level tools (2)</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Hosting</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Delivery</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Discoverability (3)</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>End-user Training</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><span
class="anchor" id="line-164"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Voice Channel</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>VoiceXML</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Medium expertise required ]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">No usability guidelines - but easy to use/easy to
understand markup language </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Free voice browsers, standalone or as extension for
asterisk exists </p>
<p>Voice development frameworks exist</p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[No Tools]
<p class="line862">No application-level tools exists yet </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Possible but hard to implement ]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">Possibility to use surtaxed phone numbers / no
monetization option at the application level </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Expensive]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">Expensive infrastructure required but could be free
if relying on a third-party infrastructure/hosting service </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Free]
<p class="line862">Free except if callback mechanism implemented </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Existing Applications can be aggregated]
<p class="line862">No discoverability (3) mechanism / Works with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No Training Required]
<p class="line862">Very easy to use for non-trained end-user </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-165"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Other Voice Applications</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[High expertise required]</p>
<p class="line862">No usability guidelines / requires programming
skills </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Free and open source tools available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[No Tools]</p>
<p></p>
<p class="line862">No application-level tool exists </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Possible but hard to implement
]</p>
<p class="line862">Possibility to use surtaxed phone numbers / no
monetization option at the application level </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Expensive]
<p class="line862">Expensive infrastructure required </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Free]
<p class="line862">Free except if callback mechanism implemented </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Aggregation hardly possible]
<p class="line862">No discoverability (3) mechanism/Doesn't work with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[No Training Required]
<p class="line862">Very easy to use for non-trained end-user </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><span
class="anchor" id="line-166"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Signalling Channel</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>SMS</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Low expertise required]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">Low expertise required on some SMS platforms </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Lots of free and open source tools </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Few Tools exist]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">Some application level tools available (mostly data
collections) </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Difficult]
<p class="line862">Premium rate SMS service (4) available but difficult
to implement cross-network and need deals with operators or other
companies to setup </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Relatively Expensive]
<p class="line862">Requires at least a pc and a GSM modem or Web
connection + Subscription to Bulk</p>
<p class="line862">SMS provider</p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Expensive]
<p class="line862">Cost of sending SMS is high for service providers
</p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Aggregation hardly possible]
<p class="line862">No discoverability (3) mechanism/Doesn't work with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Minimal training and Awareness Required]
<p></p>
<p class="line862">Interaction at user's initiative / no way to know
how to interact with the service. However people are used to use SMS
client </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-167"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>USSD</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[High expertise required]</p>
<p class="line862">Programming skills required </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[No Tools]</p>
<p></p>
<p class="line862">No free and open source tools available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[No Tools]
<p class="line862">No application level tools available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred"><p class="line862">[Difficult]</p>
<p class="line862">No monetization possible except through the operator
billing system </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Relatively Expensive]
<p class="line862">Requires at least a pc and a gsm modem </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Free]</p>
<p class="line862">Free </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Aggregation hardly possible]
<p class="line862">No discoverability (3) mechanism/Doesn't work with
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Training and Awareness Required]
<p class="line862">Interaction at user's initiative / no way to know
how to interact with the service </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="text-align: center"><span
class="anchor" id="line-168"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Data Channel</strong> </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"><strong>Mobile Web</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Low-expertise required]
<p class="line862">Low expertise required, Free WYSIWYG authoring tools
available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Lots of free and open tools for support, development
or authoring </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Few application level tools available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Possible]</p>
<p></p>
<p class="line862">Classical ecommerce techniques available but no
micropayment yet </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Free]
<p class="line862">Free hosting available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen"><p class="line862">[Free]</p>
<p class="line862">Free </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Discoverable]
<p class="line862">Discoverability (3) through search engines and
portals </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Minimal Training Required]
<p class="line862">Need configuration and training on using a browser,
but then easy to use content </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span class="anchor" id="line-169"></span>
<p class="line862"><strong>Other data-service based
applications</strong> </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[High expertise Required]
<p class="line862">Requires programming skills </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Few Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Lots of free SDK (5) </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Few Tools exist]
<p class="line862">Few specific tools available </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange"><p class="line862">[Possible]</p>
<p class="line862">Nothing specific available except with Application
Stores</p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Moderately Expensive]
<p class="line862">Depends on the application, but usually rely on free
web hosting solution </p>
</td>
<td class="tdgreen">[Free]
<p class="line862">Free </p>
</td>
<td class="tdorange">[Aggregation possible in some cases]
<p class="line862">no Discoverability (3) / on some platforms,
application stores (6) </p>
</td>
<td class="tdred">[Training Required]
<p class="line862">Needs specific application user training </p>
</td>
<td><p class="line862"></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p><span class="anchor" id="line-170"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-171"></span> </p>
<p class="line874">(1)Platform-level tool: Platform-level tools enable the use
of a particular technology in a completely free way, without any specific task
focus. Examples of such tools are SMS Hub, HTML authoring tools or Voice
Authoring tools. <span class="anchor" id="line-172"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-173"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(2)Application level tool: More advanced tools focusing on
specific tasks or type of applications, offering advanced features, complex
user interactions, or dynamic content, for authors without programming skills.
<span class="anchor" id="line-174"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-175"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(3)Discoverability: The ability for user to use tools to
automatically find existing services, content or applications. The existence of
search engines on the Web enables potentially all resources to be found by any
users without external intervention. <span class="anchor"
id="line-176"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-177"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(4)SDK: Software Development Kit <span class="anchor"
id="line-178"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-179"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(5)Premium SMS Service: A way to have an SMS charged at a
rate higher than a regular person-to-person SMS. See <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">[3]a detailed definition</a>. <span
class="anchor" id="line-180"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-181"></span></p>
<p class="line874">(6)Application stores: Digital distribution platforms for
mobile devices. The application store is a service accessible directly from the
phone as a specific application that allows users to browse and download
applications. These applications are available to purchase or free of charge,
depending on the application. The applications are downloaded directly to the
phone. <span class="anchor" id="line-182"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-183"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Future Directions to explore</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-184"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-185"></span></p>
<p class="line862">For each of the challenges identified in sections 6.1 and
6.2, the roadmap identifies future directions to explore or actions to launch.
Those actions are of three types: R&amp;D actions, Support Actions,
Recommendations. <span class="anchor" id="line-186"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-187"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>R&amp;D Actions</em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-188"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-189"></span></p>
<p class="line862">R&amp;D actions are proposed for challenges that require
further research, investigations or standardization. The R&amp;D actions
suggested in the roadmap are the following: <span class="anchor"
id="line-190"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-191"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Building a community on the theme of interfaces for people with
low-reading skill, and developing and standardizing guidelines and best
practices for such interfaces, in particular how to design meaningful icons
<span class="anchor" id="line-192"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-193"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Adding support for more languages: Identifying best language
targets, developing guidelines for extending the number of languages
supported in both Mobile Browsing, and Voice Technologies (Text-to-Speech
and Speech Recognition engines) <span class="anchor"
id="line-194"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-195"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Exploring new paradigms in user interface, e.g. widget
stores, that could lower the impact of computer illiteracy <span
class="anchor" id="line-196"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-197"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Establishing micro-payment on the Web <span class="anchor"
id="line-198"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-199"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing off-line capabilities of Mobile Web Browsers <span
class="anchor" id="line-200"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-201"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing usability guidelines for Voice applications <span
class="anchor" id="line-202"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-203"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing adoption guidelines for integrating ICT services
in rural and underprivileged populations </li>
<li class="gap">Developing guidelines and best practices on how to build
trust in service usage among targeted populations <span class="anchor"
id="line-206"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-207"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-208"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-209"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><em>Support Actions</em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-210"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-211"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The support actions are proposed for challenges that require
actions of dissemination, capacity building or tools development. The support
actions suggested in the roadmap are the following: <span class="anchor"
id="line-212"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-213"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Raising awareness on the potential of mobile technologies in the
entrepreneur and NGO communities <span class="anchor"
id="line-214"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-215"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Raising awareness on the potential of VoiceXML applications
and building community around the theme of Voice for Development <span
class="anchor" id="line-216"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-217"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Building capacities on: <span class="anchor"
id="line-218"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-219"></span>
<ul>
<li>Mobile technologies, particularly VoiceXML, Mobile Web <span
class="anchor" id="line-220"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-221"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Accessibility guidelines and how to design accessible
content <span class="anchor" id="line-222"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-223"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Identifying gaps in tools for the different technologies,
and launch community open source development <span class="anchor"
id="line-224"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-225"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing further a comprehensive repository of
resources with stories and use-cases with in-depth analyses and lessons
learned, and links to relevant tools for different tasks <span
class="anchor" id="line-226"></span></li>
<li>Packaging existing tools to build a low-cost easy-to-use minimal
voice infrastructure toolkit <span class="anchor"
id="line-227"></span></li>
<li>Packaging existing tools and services to build an integrated toolkit
to author and deploy Mobile Web sites. <span class="anchor"
id="line-228"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-229"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><em>Recommendations</em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-230"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-231"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Recommendations are specific messages sent to specific
actors or stakeholders of the domain. The roadmap makes the following
recommendations: <span class="anchor" id="line-232"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-233"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Targeted at network operators <span class="anchor"
id="line-234"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-235"></span>
<ul>
<li>Developing and extending Data Service, even low-bandwidth data
services such as GPRS with stable and reliable service at low-cost
<span class="anchor" id="line-236"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-237"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Implementing Unicode support for SMS on all networks
<span class="anchor" id="line-238"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-239"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="gap">Targeted at handset manufacturers <span class="anchor"
id="line-240"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-241"></span>
<ul>
<li>All handsets should have at least GPRS access and a J2ME/MIDP stack
or a standards-compliant browser <span class="anchor"
id="line-242"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-243"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Handsets should be extensible to support external/new
character sets and to be usable in all languages of the world <span
class="anchor" id="line-244"></span></li>
<li>Handsets should provide software modules such as Text-to-Speech
engines to improve accessibility and offer opportunity for a greater
support of voice</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="gap">Targeted at public authorities <span class="anchor"
id="line-246"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-247"></span>
<ul>
<li>Considering the mobile platform as the most widely available option
to deliver ICT services to people <span class="anchor"
id="line-248"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-249"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing policy frameworks that ease the work of
potential service authors, particularly entrepreneurs <span
class="anchor" id="line-250"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-251"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing policy frameworks that enforce availability of
minimal data service at low-cost everywhere <span class="anchor"
id="line-252"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-253"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Enforcing requirements on accessible and usable content
for people with disabilities, with low-reading skills, or who speak a
non-supported language <span class="anchor" id="line-254"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-255"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Building national or regional platforms to enable Voice
services <span class="anchor" id="line-256"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-257"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="gap">Targeted at service developers <span class="anchor"
id="line-258"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-259"></span>
<ul>
<li>Share, cooperate, collaborate and document work and projects so that
the whole community can benefit from the experience of others. In that
regard, before engaging in new projects, one should carefully examine
preexisting projects and real market needs/demands before
(re)developing pieces that are already available <span class="anchor"
id="line-260"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-261"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Implement and rely on documented open data formats that
would allow aggregation of information from different small systems as
well as provide a global overview on what is happening locally <span
class="anchor" id="line-262"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-263"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-264"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-265"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><span class="anchor" id="challenges"></span></p>
<p></p>
<h2 id="head-366fc6c54237b9e943a8a50ec89979299efe5dce">1. Introduction</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-41"></span>
<p class="line874">This document summarizes the work done and discussions held
in the W3C Mobile Web <span class="anchor" id="line-42"></span>for Social
Development Interest Group (MW4D) since June 2008 and in the two <span
class="anchor" id="line-43"></span>workshops organized <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/">[4]in June 2008</a>, and <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/">[5]April 2009</a>. The
aim of the MW4D group is <span class="anchor" id="line-44"></span>to explore
the potential of Web technologies on Mobile phones as a solution to <span
class="anchor" id="line-45"></span>bridge the Digital Divide and provide
Information and Communication Technology <span class="anchor"
id="line-46"></span>(ICT) based services to rural communities and
underprivileged populations of <span class="anchor"
id="line-47"></span>Developing Countries. <span class="anchor"
id="line-48"></span>In the context of this document, the expression '
<strong>Mobile Web</strong> ' should be understood in its widest sense as
accessing and interacting with Web content from a mobile phone. It is not
limited to Mobile Browsing. The section <em>Technologies</em> defines the
different technologies that are in the scope of this definition. The section
<em>Definitions</em>, at the end of the document summarizes the list of terms
and their meaning. <span class="anchor" id="line-49"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-50"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This document provides a roadmap identifying <span
class="anchor" id="line-51"></span>the current usage and potential of mobile
technologies in Development and the <span class="anchor"
id="line-52"></span>current challenges and barriers and the potential
directions to explore in the <span class="anchor" id="line-53"></span>future.
The focus of this work is on content, applications and services. While <span
class="anchor" id="line-54"></span>there are many initiatives looking at
improving connectivity, bandwidth and <span class="anchor"
id="line-55"></span>infrastructure in Developing Countries, this roadmap
explores <span class="anchor" id="line-56"></span>how to use existing
infrastructure to provide services that would contribute to <span
class="anchor" id="line-57"></span>social and economic development of rural and
underprivileged populations. In <span class="anchor" id="line-58"></span>this
regard, the document targets mainly devices that are currently deployed <span
class="anchor" id="line-59"></span>(low-end phones with small screens). In this
version of the document, mobile <span class="anchor" id="line-60"></span>phones
are considered exclusively as a platform to access services and <span
class="anchor" id="line-61"></span>content, and not a platform to author or
deliver them. This version does not investigate specific application fields,
but rather focuses on content, application and <span class="anchor"
id="line-63"></span>services in general. Read the <em>Scope of the
Document</em> <span class="anchor" id="line-64"></span>section for further
details. <span class="anchor" id="line-65"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-66"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This document is organized into ten sections. After this
introduction, the second section presents the motivation behind the work, the
rationale for focusing on the mobile <span class="anchor"
id="line-67"></span>platform, and the gaps this document intends to fill. The
third section introduces and describes the objectives. The fourth section
details the scope of the document. The target audience is defined in the fifth
<span class="anchor" id="line-68"></span>section. The sixth and seventh
sections are the core sections of the document, <span class="anchor"
id="line-70"></span>introducing the major challenges preventing a widespread
usage of mobiles in <span class="anchor" id="line-71"></span>development, and
the technologies available today, with their major strengths <span
class="anchor" id="line-72"></span>and potential improvement to address the
identified challenges. The last <span class="anchor" id="line-73"></span>three
sections provide a short <span class="anchor" id="line-74"></span>conclusion of
this work, a set of references that were useful in the <span class="anchor"
id="line-75"></span>development of this document, and the list of people who
contributed to the <span class="anchor" id="line-76"></span>work. <span
class="anchor" id="line-77"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-78"></span></p>
<p class="line862">This work is part of the <a class="http"
href="http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/">[6]EU-FP7 project Digital World
Forum</a> focusing on the use of ICT to leverage economic development in Africa
and Latin America. <span class="anchor" id="line-79"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-80"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-81"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-82"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="motivation"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-83"></span> </p>
<h2 id="head-019966aa394346f2645fb196e26b9f512ef2df88">2. Motivation</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-84"></span>
<p class="line874">The emergence of new information and communication
technologies (ICT), the Web and Internet in particular, in late 80s, has
changed the World, offering a new paradigm in communication, exchange and
commerce. ICTs are also a great opportunity for the Developing World. Providing
basic social services (such as Health, Education, Business, Government, etc )
to rural communities and under-privileged populations is of major importance to
improve people's lives, and to sustain development. Using ICTs would be the
easiest and possibly only way to develop and deploy those services. It is
therefore critical to work towards finding solutions by realizing the potential
of this digital opportunity. <span class="anchor" id="line-85"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-86"></span></p>
<p class="line862">In this context, the recent explosion of mobile telephony in
the Developing World is a great opportunity. During 2009, according to the GSMA
and ITU, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions reached 4 billion, and
80% of the world population is currently covered by a GSM network (source <a
class="http"
href="http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/universal_access_full_report.pdf">[7]GSMA
universal Access report</a>, <a class="http"
href="http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2008/29.html">[8]ITU Press
Release</a>). These numbers illustrate the potential of the mobile platform to
be the right solution to deploy services now, compared to other existing (e.g.
fixed line) and emerging options which are still in development phase (e.g.
low-cost laptops). Scientific micro-economic studies have provided clear
measurable results. Recent Studies in <a class="http"
href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/qjec.122.3.879">[9]fishing
villages in India</a>, in <a class="http"
href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/39/8/41713101.pdf">[10]crop markets in
Uganda</a>, or <a class="http"
href="http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/2.12.08/Aker_Job_Market_Paper_15jan08_2.pdf">[11]grain
markets in Niger</a> have demonstrated the impact of mobile phones and
associated services on productivity and social development. <span
class="anchor" id="line-87"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-88"></span></p>
<p class="line862">However, the potential is far greater than this number.
Indeed, it is still quite difficult to develop and widely deploy reliable
mobile content, services and applications targeted at and addressing specific
communities' needs. Despite the proof of concept demonstrated by numerous
success stories (see a <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories">[12]list of this stories</a>)
over the last few years, there is still today a limited number of services
available in the world, a limited number of actors in the Development sector
able to mainstream mobile technologies in their work, and a limited number of
people in Developing Countries having access to development-oriented services
on mobile. The role of the W3C MW4D IG and this document therefore is to
assemble a global community of all stakeholders of the domain, identify the
major obstacles preventing development, and thereby take valuable steps toward
realizing the full potential of the mobile platform. <span class="anchor"
id="line-89"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-90"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="objectives"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-91"></span> </p>
<h2 id="head-aa7aa1013846430c987b467b949c8cdbf4ab71cc">3. Objectives</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-92"></span>
<p class="line874">There is currently no global initiative involving all the
stakeholders from the domain of mobile ICT for Development, and investigating
how to realize the full potential benefit of the mobile platform. This
document, and the community around it, is striving to build consensus on the
most promising technologies capable of achieving global impact and realizing
the promise of ICT for Development. <span class="anchor"
id="line-93"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-94"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The MW4D roadmap has two main goals. The primary objective
lies within the short term and is targeted at practitioners. The roadmap seeks
to provide actors within the field of international development with up-to-date
reference information concerning the functionality and availability of mobile
solutions; it also seeks to provide information about the tools enabling these
solutions and how to integrate them within mainstream work processes. The
document seeks to inform practitioners about the potential challenges which can
be encountered during the implementation of mobile projects. This information
is intended to facilitate the selection of appropriate technologies, techniques
and workarounds by development practitioners, thereby lowering the barriers to
mobile technology use and adoption. <span class="anchor"
id="line-95"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-96"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The secondary objective is targeted at actors involved in
leveraging the impact of ICT for Development. Its focus lies within the medium
term. The MW4D roadmap aims to inform various global actors of the current
challenges and barriers that limit the potential impact of mobile technology in
development. More specifically, the document considers the following:<span
class="anchor" id="line-97"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-98"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>The challenges and barriers encountered by practitioners in developing,
deploying and leveraging access to mobile content, applications and
services <span class="anchor" id="line-99"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-100"></span></li>
<li class="gap">The most promising courses of action for lowering and
removing these barriers <span class="anchor" id="line-101"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-102"></span></li>
<li class="gap">The actions that could accelerate the adoption and impact of
the mobile platform for development <span class="anchor"
id="line-103"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-104"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="audience"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-105"></span></p>
<h2 id="head-692f59f051018ae2523ab3853fd72fa80fe78aab">4. Scope of the
Document</h2>
<p class="line874">In this section, we describe in detail the different topics
that are considered in the document, and those that are either out of the
scope, or considered for a future revision. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1812"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1813"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Content and Infrastructure</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1814"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1815"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned earlier in the document, the field of ICT for
Development has <span class="anchor" id="line-1816"></span>been attracting
notable attention from international organizations in the last <span
class="anchor" id="line-1817"></span>decade. So far, most of the effort has
been and is still focused on the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1818"></span>development of connectivity, infrastructure and
bandwidth. The general role of this <span class="anchor"
id="line-1819"></span>document and the MW4D IG group is to focus on how to take
advantage <span class="anchor" id="line-1820"></span>of these infrastructures,
and particularly the existing availability of mobile <span class="anchor"
id="line-1821"></span>networks, to deliver human-centred life-critical services
to people. In other words, the <span class="anchor" id="line-1822"></span>focus
of this work is on content and deployment of numerous <span class="anchor"
id="line-1823"></span>services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1824"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1825"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Content and Infrastructure can be seen as different layers.
The <span class="anchor" id="line-1826"></span>infrastructure offers different
channels to the Content or application layer. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1827"></span>In this document, we will not investigate the different
technologies used in <span class="anchor" id="line-1828"></span>the
infrastructure layer, but rather, we consider that the layer provides
potentially <span class="anchor" id="line-1829"></span>three types of channel
and an associated cost for each of them. The <span class="anchor"
id="line-1830"></span>three types of channel are the following: </p>
<ul>
<li>Voice channel enabling voice applications <span class="anchor"
id="line-1832"></span></li>
<li>Signalling channel enabling applications such as SMS and USSD <span
class="anchor" id="line-1833"></span></li>
<li>Data channel (with an associated bandwidth) enabling Internet-related
applications <span class="anchor" id="line-1834"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1835"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1836"></span></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>NB</strong>: in this document, the term <em>channel of
communication</em> will be used instead of the more appropriate technical
term<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_service">[196]bearer
services</a> which might be less clear for non-technical readers, or
non-specialists.<span class="anchor" id="line-13010"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In the domain of mobile networks, GSM networks provide by
default the voice <span class="anchor" id="line-1837"></span>and signalling
channel, with data services offered following the launch of GPRS-enabled <span
class="anchor" id="line-1838"></span>networks. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1839"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1840"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This document explores how to leverage these three channels
to deliver <span class="anchor" id="line-1841"></span>content, applications and
services to people. We consider in the document <span class="anchor"
id="line-1842"></span>that we are working within the scope of mobile networks,
i.e. ones where voice and signalling <span class="anchor"
id="line-1843"></span>channels are available. However, in specific cases or
under certain conditions, these channels are not available: only the data <span
class="anchor" id="line-1845"></span>channel (e.g. Wifi or Wimax connected
mobile phones) is available. In these cases, the voice <span class="anchor"
id="line-1846"></span>channel can be simulated through voice-over-IP (VoIP)
applications, and all <span class="anchor"
id="line-1847"></span>recommendations and observations made in the document are
still applicable, <span class="anchor" id="line-1848"></span>except the
unavailability of signalling channel, and related technologies. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1850"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1851"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Mobile Device</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1852"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1853"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The context of this document is to investigate how to take
advantage of the <span class="anchor" id="line-1854"></span>huge installed base
of mobile phones in Developing Countries to deliver <span class="anchor"
id="line-1855"></span>development-oriented services to people. In that regard,
the types of device <span class="anchor" id="line-1856"></span>considered are
those widely available with small screen, limited interaction <span
class="anchor" id="line-1857"></span>methods, limited input mechanism, and
limited computing power. <span class="anchor" id="line-1858"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1859"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Mobile and Development</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1860"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1861"></span></p>
<p class="line862">This document attempts to evaluate the role of mobile phones
in Development and their impact on livelihood. Mobiles are one of the tools
that are available to the different actors of the Development sector, and the
aim of this document is to understand the actions that would lower the barriers
of integration of this tool and improve its impact in the work of the different
actors. However, this document does not seek to help actors of the development
sector to determine if, for a specific domain or a specific issue, for example,
a mobile-based content or service is the most appropriate solution to select.
Numerous studies (see e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://mobileactive.org/files/file_uploads/Mobiles_for_Development_-_Plan_2009.pdf">[13]Mobile
for Development Report by Plan</a>) underline the importance of considering ICT
in general as a tool and not as an objective to solve existing problems and
issues. <span class="anchor" id="line-1862"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1863"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Application Field</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1864"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1865"></span></p>
<p class="line862">This document focuses on evaluating generic technologies
that enable the delivery of content and applications on mobile phones. While <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories">[12]the existing
projects and stories in different applications domains</a> are very useful to
capture the potential and challenges of each of these technologies, this
version of the document will not consider specificities of each application
domain (challenges of the domain, potential impact of mobile in the domain,
importance of the domain in social and economic development, etc).</p>
<p class="line862"><strong>Mobile broadband and Smartphones</strong> </p>
<p class="line862">This document derives its content from studies of field
experiences, and therefore reflects what is available today in targeted
countries. Technologies and infrastructure considered in this document are
already widely available, or will be so in the short-term. For instance, this
document does not investigate the possible mid/long-term future when mobile
broadband and smart phones will be widely available. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1866"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1867"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Accessibility</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1868"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1869"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Accessibility of devices, services and content for people
with disabilities is critical to ensure that the benefits of ICT and the
Information Society are available to all. This topic has been a focus of an
extensive domain of research and development since the early days of the Web,
with the launch in 1997 of the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/">[14]W3C Web Accessibility Initiative</a>. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1870"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1871"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This roadmap does not aim to explore this domain in depth
and/or identify new topics for exploration. However, because potential content
authors' need to understand the work done in this area, the <em>Challenges</em>
section has dedicated a chapter to this field, referencing both the relevant
material developed by other groups, and the tools available. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1872"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1873"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Mobile as an authoring and delivery
platform</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-1874"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1875"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are two themes that are currently emerging in the
field of mobile for development: mobile as an authoring platform and mobile as
a delivery platform. Concerning the first theme, the potential of mobile phones
as an ICT platform is based, as mentioned before, on the still growing but
already extensive penetration of devices and networks all around the world.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1876"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1877"></span></p>
<p class="line862">However, today most mobile applications development takes
place in a desktop PC environment, and therefore people who do not have access
to PC are merely content recipients and can barely become producers or
providers of services and information. This is clearly a problem, but some
initiatives (see e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://mobility.kiwanja.net/">[15]kiwanja's mobility project</a>) are
starting to explore how to offer authoring and development environments on
mobile phones, enabling those who have access to this platform to become
service providers. <span class="anchor" id="line-1878"></span>Concerning the
second theme, there are some experiments on peer-to-peer models where people
can expose and share some of the content of their mobile to their friends,
families and colleagues. Some of these experiments are very specific (<a
class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/nokia_slides.pdf">[16]sharing
music</a>, <a class="http"
href="http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~gaz/papers/leo1.pdf">[17]sharing photos</a>)
and some are more general, such as the development of a web server for mobile
phones (see <a class="http"
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/2009Jul/0002.html">[18]Nokia's
project</a>). Such solutions are very new, and are potential options to provide
connectivity or to lower the costs of offering information locally. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1879"></span>Both domains are at the early stages of
exploration, and while they are interesting concepts, the study of these two
fields will be considered in the next revision of this roadmap, when they are
more mature. <span class="anchor" id="line-1880"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1881"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Technologies</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1882"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1883"></span></p>
<p class="line874">A mobile phone can handle many different technologies and
types of <span class="anchor" id="line-1884"></span>application. There are many
different ways to <span class="anchor" id="line-1885"></span>group these
different technologies. In this document, we identify <span class="anchor"
id="line-1886"></span>three families based on the channel of communication they
use: <span class="anchor" id="line-1887"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1888"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Voice applications that are using the voice channel of the network. This
is not solely related to mobile networks, as fixed-line networks are
offering this channel and therefore fixed-line phones are also devices able
to access such applications. It is important to note that such a channel
can be simulated on top of a data service (IP network) through
Voice-over-IP (VoIP) systems. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1889"></span></li>
<li><p class="line862">Applications using the signalling channel of mobile
networks. Mobile networks have a specific channel of communication, called
signalling channel, which is used to monitor the network operation. The two
major technologies relying on this channel are SMS (<a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">[3]Short Message Service</a> and
USSD (<a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data">[2]Unstructured
Supplementary Service Data</a>). <span class="anchor"
id="line-1890"></span></p>
</li>
<li>Data-service based applications. This family of applications gathers all
applications relying on IP networks, and available on the Internet. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1891"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1892"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">In the <em>Technologies</em> section of this document, we
describe in detail each of <span class="anchor" id="line-1893"></span>these
families of technologies. <span class="anchor" id="line-1894"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1895"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: This document is a technical roadmap
that requires the reader to have domain knowledge and a technical background.
<span class="anchor" id="line-117"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-118"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-119"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="conclusion"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1896"></span> </p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h2 id="head-635824d8346d3dd165eca4b44c74b5aac36af73e">5. Audience</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-106"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-107"></span>
<p class="line874">This document targets different actors of the ICT for
Development domain at different levels. The following is a list of the major
stakeholders and their potential interests in this roadmap. <span
class="anchor" id="line-108"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Individuals/Organizations/Entrepreneurs/etc. that are interested in
learning how to build and deliver mobile services today. The roadmap
describes the available technologies, and related tools, and presents the
critical factors to take into account when designing new services. Based on
the relevance of one or more challenges, people interested in developing
and deploying new services will be informed on the most appropriate option
to select. <span class="anchor" id="line-109"></span></li>
<li><span class="anchor" id="line-10910">Mobile industry (handset
manufacturers, operators, software makers etc) interested in understanding
the current domain barriers and providing appropriate services, pricing
schemes, or infrastructure that could have a positive impact on some of
these barriers. The roadmap identifies a set of requirements on
infrastructure, handsets, and software that could ease and leverage the
development and deployment of and access to mobile services. This set of
requirements is partly targeted at the mobile industry.</span><span
class="anchor" id="line-10911"></span></li>
<li><span class="anchor" id="line-109111">Academics/Universities/Individuals
working in capacity building and who are interested in identifying the most
promising technologies to transfer to current and future actors of
Developing Countries. Capacity building and training are critical to
empowering people and organizations to exploit mobile as an ICT platform.
The roadmap describes different technologies that are available on mobiles,
their requirements on the infrastructure, handset and the expertise needed
to use/implement them. Based on the needs and contexts existing in specific
regions of the World, those organizations could identify the most relevant
technologies and then build capacities on them.</span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1091111"></span></li>
<li><span class="anchor" id="line-10911111">International
organizations/Academics/R&amp;D department/Foundations/Donors that are
interested in launching/funding actions to lower barriers for authoring,
deploying and accessing mobile content and services. The roadmap defines
future actions that could lower barriers to potential service providers,
and end-users. Organizations interested in identifying existing challenges,
and the actions that could positively impact them will find a set of
recommendations that can drive their investments through research or
funding</span>. <span class="anchor" id="line-113"></span></li>
<li>Policy makers/Regulatory bodies/Governments: While this technical roadmap
was not designed primarily to support ICT policy makers, the knowledge of
challenges that influence development, deployment, access and availability
of ICT services on mobiles is critical to drive the design of efficient ICT
policies. Information on available technologies, their requirements on the
infrastructure, and the way they can address some of the specificities
existing locally (illiteracy rate, languages used and their support in the
ICT world, etc) is also critical. Therefore, this document can help inform
regulators and policy makers on which factors to consider. <span
class="anchor" id="line-114"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-115"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-116"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="exec"></span> <span class="anchor"
id="line-120"></span> </p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="line-266"></span> </p>
<h2 id="head-10193b4eb778a207288718330828ffe7c6957a8c">6. Challenges</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-267"></span>
<p class="line874">This section of the roadmap presents the challenges
identified by W3C MW4D IG that limit the impact of mobile technologies in the
Development sector. This part of the document is split in two sub-sections: the
first part explores the challenges of access, and the second part describes the
challenges of service development and deployment. <span class="anchor"
id="line-268"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-269"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h3 id="head-f978cbf6a99d65115ee04a9cf0db0c4d681f9db1">6.1 Access
Challenges</h3>
<span class="anchor" id="line-270"></span>
<p class="line874">This section describes the challenges users may experience
when accessing specific content, services or applications. The challenges
described below may or may not be relevant in the implementation of a specific
project, but may need to be assessed or considered. <span class="anchor"
id="line-271"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-272"></span></p>
<p class="line862">For each of the challenges, the document describes the
issue, why it merits consideration, the different options - technical or
otherwise - to solve or work around the issue and the research and development
(R&amp;D) actions that could facilitate its management. <span class="anchor"
id="line-273"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-274"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-82b5ba761a3ff7048057142f1a4792bfd44c56ed">6.1.1 Accessibility</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-275"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-276"></span>
<p class="line862">Accessibility, in the context of broader Web access and in
this document, in particular, covers the challenges of accessing and using
devices, content and services on the Web for people with disabilities. Since
the early days of the Web, extensive work has been conducted at the technical
and policy levels to ensure that everyone, including those with disabilities
can access all content of the Web. In that regard, when designing and
implementing an application, it is critical to use the right techniques that
would allow people using assistive technologies to access and interact with the
service. While it is a very important issue in Developed Countries, it is even
more critical in Developing Countries. For instance, 87% of the visually
impaired people in the world live in Developing Countries (see <a class="http"
href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/">[19]WHO Fact
Sheet</a>). Some countries are promoting or enforcing accessibility in their
policies, e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://www.isocdisab.org/Maniladeclaration.htm">[20]Read Manila
Declaration on Accessible ICT</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-277"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-278"></span></p>
<p class="line862">The following section references the relevant work done by
the <a class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/">[21]W3C Web Accessibility
Initiative</a>, and by the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/">[22]W3C Mobile Web Initiative</a>, and briefly
introduces the ongoing work around availability of low-cost assistive
technologies in Developing Countries. <span class="anchor"
id="line-279"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-280"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Web Content Accessibility Guidelines</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-281"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-282"></span></p>
<p class="line862">The <a class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/">[14]W3C
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)</a> develops a set of documents named
<em>Web Content Accessibility Guidelines</em>. These documents explain how to
make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Web "content"
generally refers to the information in a Web page or Web application, including
text, images, forms, sounds, and other media. <span class="anchor"
id="line-283"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-284"></span></p>
<p class="line862">From the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag">[23]WCAG Overview page</a>, there is a
list of resources that can help a content or service developer to meet
accessibility criteria. <span class="anchor" id="line-285"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-286"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Device Accessibility</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-287"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-288"></span></p>
<p class="line862">The <a class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/">[14]W3C
WAI</a> and the <a class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/">[24]W3C Mobile
Web Initiative</a> have also jointly developed a set of documents that are
considering accessibility in mobile browsing. Content and application
developers will find relevant guidelines and best practices on the <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/">[25]Web Content Accessibility
and Mobile Web Overview page</a> to ensure that their content is accessible.
<span class="anchor" id="line-290"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Assistive Technologies</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-291"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-292"></span></p>
<p class="line862">The W3C WAI has identified the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components.php">[26]key components required
for the Web to be accessible to people with disabilities</a>. While most of
these components are not specific to a developed or developing country context,
this resource merits further investigation. Indeed, Assistive Technologies (AT)
consist of screen readers, alternative keyboards, switches, scanning software,
etc and provide a human interface to the alternative text in various
modalities. Access to AT and their availabilities and affordability in a
Developing Countries context are important issues. <span class="anchor"
id="line-293"></span>These issues are well-known in the accessibility domain
and a relatively large number of free AT are starting to become available.
Organizations such as <a class="http"
href="http://raisingthefloor.net/">[27]Raising the Floor</a> with their '<a
class="http"
href="http://raisingthefloor.net/projects/limitedresource">[28]Solutions for
Those with Extremely Limited Resources</a>' group are also investigating this
area and working toward making more AT both available and affordable. See also
<a class="http"
href="http://www.atsolutions.org/folders/solutions.htm">[29]Assistive
Technologies Solutions</a> who offer designs and plans, not specific to Web and
ICT but with some dedicated sections on these topics. <span class="anchor"
id="line-294"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-295"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="L2539"></span> <span class="anchor"
id="line-296"></span> </p>
<h4 id="head-5b177a37733d83567ac299db099fbd95d5443e6f">6.1.2 Illiteracy</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-297"></span>
<p class="line867"><a class="http"
href="http://www.sil.org/literacy/litfacts.htm">[30]According to UNESCO</a>,
<span class="anchor" id="line-298"></span>there are roughly one billion
non-literate adults in the World, with 98% of <span class="anchor"
id="line-299"></span>them in Developing Countries. Many countries in
sub-Saharan Africa, south-east <span class="anchor" id="line-300"></span>Asia
and Latin America have a low rate of literacy among adults, sometimes <span
class="anchor" id="line-301"></span>below 30 or 40 percent of the population
(see the <a class="http"
href="http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/3.html">[31]UNDP Human Development
Index</a> and a <a class="http"
href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/World_literacy_map_UNHD_2007_2008.png">[32]World
map of illiteracy)</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-302"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-303"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Illiteracy is clearly a profound barrier to access of
written content and applications on the Web. This is also a barrier stopping
underprivileged people benefiting from ICTs and accessing to
development-oriented services. It is therefore essential for content or service
developers to evaluate the importance of literacy among their targeted end-user
population. In general, when a service is attempting to reach the public at
large, this challenge could be pervasive. It could also be present when
targeting specific categories of the population, particularly those in the
low-income groups or with <a class="http"
href="http://www.sil.org/literacy/litfacts.htm">[30]women who make up
two-thirds of all non-literates</a>. </p>
<p class="line874">In the remaining part of this sub-section, the document
introduces different methods of tackling this issue and identifies a number of
potential actions towards making ICT applications usable by people with
low-reading skills. <strong>NB:</strong> At the time of writing this document,
there are no standardized, well-established techniques and guidelines
available. </p>
<p class="line867">Also note that the aim of this section is to help content
and service developers create solutions that are usable by people with
low-reading skills and not to understand how ICT on mobiles could help improve
the literacy <span class="anchor" id="line-311"></span>rates. <span
class="anchor" id="line-312"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-313"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="Using"></span> <span class="anchor"
id="line-314"></span><strong>Proximal Literacy</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-315"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-316"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The first possible workaround in delivering content and
services to people with <span class="anchor" id="line-317"></span>low reading
skills is an organizational one, <span class="anchor"
id="line-318"></span>consisting of intermediaries that are literates. It is
often possible to <span class="anchor" id="line-319"></span>find a literate
person in a community who could serve as a relay to his or her <span
class="anchor" id="line-320"></span>community. This model is particularly
relevant in the Village Phone model, <span class="anchor"
id="line-321"></span>originally developed by Grameen Phone in Bangladesh and
now <a class="http"
href="http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what-we-do/empowering-poor">[33]developed
further by Grameen Foundation</a>. In this model, the village phone operator is
migrating from a pure phone operator to an ICT service provider. See for
instance the description of <a class="http"
href="http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/community-knowledge-worker-project">[34]Community
Knowledge Worker</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-322"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-323"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-324"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Through such an organizational setup, the barriers of
literacy, as well as <span class="anchor" id="line-325"></span>languages and
digital literacy as described later in this document, can be <span
class="anchor" id="line-326"></span>lowered to a large extent. However, it is
not always possible to rely on such a concept. For instance, in cases where the
service is targeting users away from their communities (such as those "on the
road", or migrant workers). <span class="anchor" id="line-327"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-328"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-329"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="Using1"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-330"></span><strong>Using Voice modality</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-331"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-332"></span></p>
<p class="line874">When people have <span class="anchor"
id="line-333"></span>low reading skills, the use of voice might be an option.
There are <span class="anchor" id="line-334"></span>two major ways of using
voice applications or audio content. <span class="anchor"
id="line-335"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-336"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The first one is to develop a voice application, also known
as IVR <span class="anchor" id="line-337"></span>(Interactive Voice Response).
This document offers a <a
href="#head-93639303fd22f2c01fc0799c8f749c6988d761a3">dedicated section on
Voice Applications</a> that presents the principle, solutions and the strengths
and weaknesses of this approach of providing ICT services <span class="anchor"
id="line-338"></span>and Web access. Here, the major issues are the
requirements on the <span class="anchor" id="line-339"></span>content authors
to provide, in most cases, two different applications if s/he <span
class="anchor" id="line-340"></span>wants to keep a traditional more
complex/complete textual version. <span class="anchor"
id="line-341"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-342"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The second option to provide audio output for a service is
to use techniques and devices such as screen readers, which were originally
developed to address accessibility issues, particularly blindness or visual
impairment. There are indeed today software screen readers available on mobile
phones, which are generating audio output for application on the phones,
including SMS and Web browsers. The most well-known examples are <a
class="http" href="http://www.nuance.com/talks/">[35]Talks</a> and <a
class="http" href="http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=24">[36]Mobile
Speak</a>. While these solutions offer very good results, they are not truly
applicable in the context of this document. Existing software screen readers
are still very expensive, and they are not available on low-end phones.
Moreover, they require a specific installation process which in turn creates
another barrier. Finally, none of the current solutions enable user input, and
therefore interaction with an application is limited. We may see in the near
future free and open source solutions of this kind. However, they would only
provide partial solutions for people with low-reading skills till interaction
and input are possible. </p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="Using2"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-361"></span><strong>Using graphical representation /
Meaningful icons</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-362"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-363"></span></p>
<p class="line874">One of the most promising technical solutions in this area
is the recent <span class="anchor" id="line-364"></span>development of
meaningful icons and user interface design for illiterate <span class="anchor"
id="line-365"></span>users. This domain is an active area of research and a
number of papers on this topic <span class="anchor" id="line-366"></span>have
been published. See for examples <a class="http"
href="http://www2007.org/papers/paper764.pdf">[37]Optimal Audio-Visual
Representations for Illiterate Users of Computers by Microsoft Research
India</a> and <a class="http"
href="http://eniac.cs.qc.cuny.edu/matt/pubs/huenerfauth-2002-thesis.pdf">[38]Developing
Design Recommendations for Computer Interfaces Accessible to Illiterate Users
by Matthew Paul Huenerfauth</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-368"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-369"></span></p>
<p class="line862">There are now commercial pilots such as the <a class="http"
href="http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Microsites/Entry_Event/phones/Nokia_Life_Tools_datasheet.pdf">[39]Nokia's
life tools suite</a>, that are building on these results. Some approaches have
also tested combined solutions using meaningful icons annotated with voice. </p>
<p class="line874">While this domain is still mostly at the research level, the
results <span class="anchor" id="line-375"></span>demonstrate the promise of
providing content and applications to people with <span class="anchor"
id="line-376"></span>low-reading skills. However, the major issue here is the
cost of capturing and designing the icons and the <span class="anchor"
id="line-378"></span>interface in a culturally relevant way. There are
currently no techniques, <span class="anchor" id="line-379"></span>guidelines
or well-defined methodologies to help application <span class="anchor"
id="line-380"></span>developers to design such interfaces and icons. <span
class="anchor" id="line-381"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-382"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Potential Future Directions</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-383"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-384"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As presented above, there are some solutions to providing
services to people <span class="anchor" id="line-385"></span>with low-reading
skills, through the use, combined or not, of the voice <span class="anchor"
id="line-386"></span>modality and meaningful icons. This research must now move
into the mainstream domain and build a community of people who have experience
in one <span class="anchor" id="line-388"></span>or more of these solutions.
This community could help define guidelines, best practices <span
class="anchor" id="line-389"></span>and methodologies necessary to build user
interfaces that are usable by people with <span class="anchor"
id="line-390"></span>low-reading skills. There are two major directions to
follow with regards to icon design and graphics and vocal annotation
integration. Building a community, <span class="anchor"
id="line-392"></span>developing resources, sharing experiences, standardizing
best practices and <span class="anchor" id="line-393"></span>disseminating
information are all essential steps toward realizing a significant <span
class="anchor" id="line-394"></span>improvement in this domain. <span
class="anchor" id="line-395"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-396"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-397"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-398"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-a1adbf2df545daa8cd2f198724a8aba3d77c7e45">6.1.3
Localization/Internationalization</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-399"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-400"></span>
<p class="line862"><a class="http"
href="http://www.sil.org/literacy/litfacts.htm">[30]According to UNESCO</a>,
there are roughly 1.25 billion people speaking lesser-known languages. While
many developing countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America, use
English, Spanish or French as one of the national official languages, many
people (specifically the poorest part of the population) speak, read and write
their own native language only. The availability of content and services in
these local languages is critical to lowering the barriers to access ICT.
Unfortunately, few of these lesser-known languages currently exist in the
Information Society. In the following section, the document introduces the
different workarounds that content authors can use today to provide services to
people who speak, read and write "ICT-unsupported" languages. The last part of
this section introduces potential actions to launch toward increasing the
number of languages supported in the ICT world. Readers interested in
understanding this issue can also refer to <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-i18n">[40]a definition of
Localization and Internationalization concepts and how they relate each
other</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-415"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-416"></span></p>
<p><strong>NB</strong>: The term "lesser-known languages", in the context of
this document, refers to languages not necessarily lesser-spoken in the World,
but which do not attract attention from to the majority of the developer
communities active on the ICT domain.</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Low-reading skills related workarounds</strong>
<span class="anchor" id="line-418"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-419"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Although there is clearly a significant difference between
people who have low-reading <span class="anchor" id="line-420"></span>skills
and people who are literate in a language that is not supported in ICT, <span
class="anchor" id="line-421"></span>the only option today for content and
service developers to provide usable <span class="anchor"
id="line-422"></span>applications to people in the later category is to
implement some of the workarounds <span class="anchor"
id="line-423"></span>described in <a href="#L2539">section 6.1.2</a>. <span
class="anchor" id="line-424"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-425"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>Using intermediaries speaking a supported language</em>
<span class="anchor" id="line-428"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-429"></span></p>
<p class="line862">See details in <a href="#L2539">section 6.1.2</a>. This
option would be <span class="anchor" id="line-430"></span>effective in places
where it is easy to find people speaking supported <span class="anchor"
id="line-431"></span>languages. This is typically the case in countries having
a Latin language as <span class="anchor" id="line-432"></span>an official
language. Most African countries have French, English or <span class="anchor"
id="line-433"></span>Portuguese as national languages; most of countries in
Latin America also <span class="anchor" id="line-434"></span>have Spanish or
Portuguese as a national language. In these countries, it might <span
class="anchor" id="line-435"></span>be easy to find someone in a particular
community who is literate in the <span class="anchor"
id="line-436"></span>national language supported in ICT. In Asia, the challenge
might be more <span class="anchor" id="line-437"></span>problematic. <span
class="anchor" id="line-438"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-439"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>Using Voice Modality <strong></strong></em><span
class="anchor" id="line-440"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-441"></span></p>
<p class="line862">See <a href="#L2539">details in section 6.1.2</a>. The
problem of <span class="anchor" id="line-442"></span>supporting lesser-known
languages is also a hurdle in the Voice applications <span class="anchor"
id="line-443"></span>domain. There is indeed weak support for many of these
languages in existing Text-To-Speech engines, <span class="anchor"
id="line-444"></span>and Speech Recognition engines. See details in the <a
href="#Weaknesses">Weaknesses of Voice Applications</a>. However, it is always
<span class="anchor" id="line-445"></span>possible to develop Voice
applications using audio files that are recorded in <span class="anchor"
id="line-446"></span>the targeted languages. Though this brings more complexity
and less <span class="anchor" id="line-447"></span>flexibility to the
application development process, it is today the only option <span
class="anchor" id="line-448"></span>to provide services in all languages of the
world. <span class="anchor" id="line-449"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-450"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-451"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Increasing the number of languages
supported</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-452"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-453"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The only way to lessen the impact of this challenge is to
increase <span class="anchor" id="line-454"></span>support for more languages
in ICT. <span class="anchor" id="line-455"></span></p>
<p class="line874">For a specific language to be supported by a specific
technology, there are <span class="anchor" id="line-457"></span>two aspects to
consider: the infrastructure (that allows a document to be <span class="anchor"
id="line-458"></span>localized in any language and dialect of the world) and
the components <span class="anchor" id="line-459"></span>required for a
specific language to be supported by all the elements of the <span
class="anchor" id="line-460"></span>content production and consumption chain
(authoring tools, client-side <span class="anchor"
id="line-461"></span>applications, input and output mechanisms, etc). <span
class="anchor" id="line-462"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-463"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Concerning the infrastructure, this is not an issue in the
voice application <span class="anchor" id="line-464"></span>area, at least
regarding delivery of content to the user, which is achieved through an audio
<span class="anchor" id="line-465"></span>stream. How the content is conveyed
and parsed to the platform generating the <span class="anchor"
id="line-466"></span>audio stream might be an issue. In the case of <a
href="#Standardiz">VoiceXML</a>, see <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/voice-intro/">[41]W3C Speech Interface
Framework</a>. For other types of voice applications, this depends on the
platform used. </p>
<p class="line874">In general, the problem is the support of speech recognition
(SR) and text-to-speech (TTS) engines. The availability of these key components
in Voice application development is a critical factor to leverage the number of
these applications. Unfortunately, there is neither an established method nor
guidelines on how to implement support for a new language in SR and TTS,
therefore limiting the development of such components to experts in the domain.
Developing a step-by-step process, and standardized APIs (Application
Programming Interface) for such tasks, would ease the development process.
These processes would also offer support for more languages through a community
process, and help create an initiative around multilingual free <span
class="anchor" id="line-467"></span>and open source SR and TTS that would make
a significant step toward realizing the <span class="anchor"
id="line-468"></span>potential of Voice applications in Development. <span
class="anchor" id="line-469"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-470"></span></p>
<p class="line874">With regards to SMS, there have been some initiatives to
support non-Latin scripts, <span class="anchor" id="line-471"></span>but in
terms of infrastructure many network operators still do not <span
class="anchor" id="line-472"></span>support <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode">[42]Unicode</a> that allows almost
all languages to be represented in SMS. The lack of support for this <span
class="anchor" id="line-474"></span>standard by some network operators prevents
all initiatives at the handset <span class="anchor" id="line-475"></span>level
to offer a technology that supports more languages. It is therefore <span
class="anchor" id="line-476"></span>essential to promote the use of Unicode by
all network operators for SMS. <span class="anchor" id="line-477"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-478"></span></p>
<p class="line874">At the Web level, for HTML and XML languages,
internationalization and <span class="anchor" id="line-479"></span>localization
have been a domain of extensive research and development since <span
class="anchor" id="line-480"></span>1998 and the launch of the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/International/">[43]W3C Internationalization
Activity</a>. Significant material --<a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/International/resources">[44]specifications,
techniques, quicktips, software and so on</a>-- have been developed by this
activity, and a global framework for allowing any language of the world to be
represented on <span class="anchor" id="line-481"></span>the Web has been
established. <span class="anchor" id="line-482"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-483"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Though this framework exists, there are still only a few
languages <span class="anchor" id="line-484"></span>supported. There is a need
to identify the different building blocks and steps <span class="anchor"
id="line-485"></span>required to support new languages (character sets, fonts
or input methods for example) <span class="anchor" id="line-486"></span>and to
identify the most important languages to support in the near future. An <span
class="anchor" id="line-487"></span>initiative by UNESCO, called <a
class="http"
href="http://webworld.unesco.org/imld/babel_en.html">[45]Initiative B@bel</a>
examined these issues in 2003, and <a class="http"
href="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&amp;amp;cat_id=Babel">[46]some
resources have been developed</a> in this area. However, this work needs
further development, and a new leading initiative in this scope is required.
<span class="anchor" id="line-488"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-489"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There is also a need for a global open source initiative to
support free <span class="anchor" id="line-490"></span>fonts. While similar
initiatives such as <a class="http"
href="http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/">[47]Font Forge</a>, <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafont">[48]Metafont</a>, or <a
class="http" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/">[49]Freefont</a>
already exist, further work focusing on languages that are critical to lower
the barriers to access ICT is essential. <span class="anchor"
id="line-491"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-492"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-12bd9ef23610e205907983b13f18ca6b8584456a">6.1.4 Computer
Literacy</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-493"></span>
<p class="line874">The term 'Computer Literacy' or 'Information Literacy'
describes the ability - usually through past experience and training - for
someone to search, find and use new content, applications and services without
requiring the provider of this content to develop dedicated training for
his/her service. This specific challenge does not directly affect delivery of
services, but is essential for the ecosystem of mobile content and services
which will need to be able to cope with a huge number of applications in the
future. <span class="anchor" id="line-494"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-495"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This challenge predominantly concerns Web browsing, as other
technologies such as <span class="anchor" id="line-496"></span>SMS or Voice
applications require in all cases a specific advertisement and <span
class="anchor" id="line-497"></span>awareness campaign to disseminate
information about the service itself. The <span class="anchor"
id="line-498"></span>only potential workaround for these other technologies is
through portals. This <span class="anchor" id="line-499"></span>workaround is
described later in this section. <span class="anchor"
id="line-500"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-501"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Furthermore, with respect to Web browsing, the critical
challenge is to find a relevant service/information among the billions of pages
available. Using a multi-purpose generic web browser with a complicated
interface, manipulating URLs, or searching the Web are the basic required
skills. These skills rarely exist or are not natural in <span class="anchor"
id="line-506">many</span> underprivileged populations, or to first-time Web
users in general. As of <span class="anchor" id="line-507"></span>today, there
is no real solution other than training people. In the following discussion, we
examine several workaround solutions that reduce the complexity of this task
<span class="anchor" id="line-509"></span>and some new technologies that have
the potential to provide a better, more <span class="anchor"
id="line-510"></span>scalable solution to this issue. <span class="anchor"
id="line-511"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-512"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: In this sub-section, we don't treat the
issue of <span class="anchor" id="line-513"></span>availability and
ease-of-access to the client application on the mobile <span class="anchor"
id="line-514"></span>device. This topic is investigated for each technology in
the <a href="#technologies">Technologies section</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-515"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-516"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Portals</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-517"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-518"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Portals are a way to offer, through a single unified entry
point, access to <span class="anchor" id="line-519"></span>a suite of services
and content coming from different sources. This concept <span class="anchor"
id="line-520"></span>appeared on the Web in the 1990s before the emergence of
search engines. <span class="anchor" id="line-521"></span>However, portals are
not limited to Web browsing and are also possible in voice, <span
class="anchor" id="line-522"></span>potentially in SMS, and other technologies.
<span class="anchor" id="line-523"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-524"></span></p>
<p class="line874">They are a very powerful way to bring new content and
services to people, <span class="anchor" id="line-525"></span>and to largely
reduce the complexity for end-users who usually have to search, find and use
new <span class="anchor" id="line-526"></span>content. A portal might be
particularly appropriate in a community structure, or in a <span class="anchor"
id="line-527"></span>model like Village Phone Operators, where one member of
the community is <span class="anchor" id="line-528"></span>computer literate
and whose expertise benefits the entire <span class="anchor"
id="line-529"></span>community. This is similar to <a href="#Using">literate
intermediaries described earlier in this document</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-530"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-531"></span></p>
<p class="line874">However, portals have also limitations. The principle of
portals is that they are <span class="anchor" id="line-532"></span>managed, in
most cases, by hand, by the portal owner. The visibility of services is
therefore <span class="anchor" id="line-533"></span>decided by the manager of
the portal. <span class="anchor" id="line-534"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-535"></span></p>
<p class="line874">While there is no other easy way for new Voice or SMS
applications to be <span class="anchor" id="line-536"></span>found
automatically (except advertisement campaign), a portal is not always <span
class="anchor" id="line-537"></span>satisfactory for Web access and they may
lead to walled gardens, as happened during the <span class="anchor"
id="line-538"></span>early days of WAP and mobile Internet access. The use of
portals should be <span class="anchor" id="line-539"></span>considered as an
intermediary step. While providing an easier way for people <span
class="anchor" id="line-540"></span>without Web experience to discover the Web
and useful services, there should also be a way for them to acquire skills on
how to search, find <span class="anchor" id="line-542"></span>and access
content not on the portal. This goal can be realized through the <span
class="anchor" id="line-543"></span>integration of full web access in the
portal, and can be achieved with the simple addition of links to search <span
class="anchor" id="line-544"></span>engines. <span class="anchor"
id="line-545"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-546"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Mobile Widgets</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-547"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-548"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Mobile widgets and application stores have been largely
<span class="anchor" id="line-549"></span>publicized thanks to the popularity
of the Apple iPhone. The development of <span class="anchor"
id="line-550"></span>similar services by many companies such as Google for the
<a class="http" href="http://www.android.com/market/">[50]Android platform</a>,
Nokia with their <a class="https" href="https://store.ovi.com/">[51]Ovi
Store</a>, or Qualcomm with their <a class="http"
href="http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2008/080529_Qualcomm_Introduces_Plaza.html">[52]Plaza
service</a> (see <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_distribution_platforms_for_mobile_devices">[53]a
complete list of these distribution platforms</a>) demonstrate the growing
interest of this new kind of technology in <span class="anchor"
id="line-551"></span>the mobile sector. While they are considered today as a
feature of very high-end <span class="anchor" id="line-552"></span>phones, this
new technology, by offering an information-appliance type <span class="anchor"
id="line-553"></span>interface, has the power to facilitate the access to
development-oriented <span class="anchor" id="line-554"></span>services on the
Web. Coupled with work on <a href="#Using2">meaningful icons</a>, it has the
potential to lower some of the barriers mentioned in this <span class="anchor"
id="line-555"></span>document (see also the <a href="#Monetizati">section on
monetization of Services</a>). It is therefore essential to evaluate the
potential of <span class="anchor" id="line-556"></span>this technology in
reducing the required expertise to access search, find and <span class="anchor"
id="line-557"></span>access new services. Stores can be considered as a new
kind of portal that provides access to content for users, and a business model
for content developers<span class="anchor" id="line-558"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-559"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are four different dimensions to consider: Access to
<span class="anchor" id="line-560"></span>services, discovery and installation
of new services, development and <span class="anchor"
id="line-561"></span>deployment of applications by the content provider, and
requirements on the <span class="anchor" id="line-562"></span>handset. While it
is critical to assess the improvement of usability brought by <span
class="anchor" id="line-563"></span>mobile widgets, it is also essential to
understand the whole ecosystem that <span class="anchor"
id="line-564"></span>could lead to the appearance of numerous services, and
would allow people to <span class="anchor" id="line-565"></span>develop,
deploy, and access services and content easily. For instance, these <span
class="anchor" id="line-566"></span>stores present the risk as mentioned in the
<span class="anchor" id="line-567"></span>previous part of this section, to
lead to a walled garden situation, where <span class="anchor"
id="line-568"></span>users of these commercial stores are not able to access
all content on the <span class="anchor" id="line-569"></span>Web. <span
class="anchor" id="line-570"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-571"></span></p>
<p class="line874">At the time of writing, there is no initiative investigating
<span class="anchor" id="line-572"></span>the potential of this technology to
improve access to the Web for <span class="anchor"
id="line-573"></span>computer-illiterate people. Creating a community around
this theme, with actors <span class="anchor" id="line-574"></span>of the mobile
industry, actors of ICT for Development domain, Web specialists <span
class="anchor" id="line-575"></span>and researchers, investigating and
identifying the key components of the <span class="anchor"
id="line-576"></span>ecosystem, setting-up some pilot projects and developing a
roadmap would be <span class="anchor" id="line-577"></span>useful actions that
could make a significant step in this area. <span class="anchor"
id="line-578"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-579"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="L2679"></span> <span class="anchor"
id="line-580"></span> </p>
<h4 id="head-7a95ddf26c15f3524c285165aa3076d335c477dd">6.1.5 Costs for the
end-user</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-581"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-582"></span>
<p class="line862">When developing services targeted at the bottom of the
pyramid, where potential users have a very low-income, the cost of accessing
and using the service is critical. In this section, we are not addressing the
issue of monetizing services for the content developer which is <a
href="#Monetizati">addressed later in the document</a>, but introducing the key
aspects to consider for making the service accessible by targeted end-user.
<span class="anchor" id="line-583"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-584"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Affordability is a key barrier for using ICT, and the major
part of the cost is related to the infrastructure. However, how to lower these
access costs is not part of the investigation of this document. The pricing
scheme is usually related to many factors such as the policy framework and
taxation scheme in the local country or region, the absence of monopoly or fair
competition, the number of competitors, or the way the costs of the physical
infrastructure are shared or not. There are specific studies conducted in this
area on how to provide low-cost access to wireless infrastructure. See e.g. <a
class="http" href="http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/wp3">[54]Low-access
broadband access and infrastructure roadmap of EU-FP7 Digital World Forum
project</a>. There is also research related to the use of other types of
infrastructure other than mobile networks, such as Bluetooth technology, or
radio broadcast, but this is also out of the scope of this document which
focuses on leveraging the number of services and valuable content for social
and economic development through existing mobile networks. <span class="anchor"
id="line-585"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-586"></span></p>
<p class="line874">While the absolute cost of accessing and using a particular
service is an important aspect, the critical aspect is really the return on
investment (RoI) for the user. While services, content and applications around
topics such as entertainment might be successful for many reasons, in the
context of this document (which focuses on social and economic development),
the rationale for a particular service should be to improve, one way or
another, the income or the quality of life of the targeted users. The increase
of income could be direct (e.g. saving travel time and expenses) or indirect,
through e.g. education and training that would help the user to find (better)
job, through health or agriculture services that can help the user to work
better to increase productivity, and so on. Evaluating carefully the potential
impact that the targeted service or application could have on the income of the
user is clearly a critical step of any project requirement phase. <span
class="anchor" id="line-587"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-588"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The RoI depends on the cost of usage of the service. There
are two dimensions critical for the user: the total cost of usage, and the
predictability of this cost. The selection of a particular technology has an
impact on these two dimensions. Each technology relies on a specific network
layer. There are different types of network connectivity or channel: Data,
Voice and signalling. <span class="anchor" id="line-589"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-590"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Data channel includes technologies such as GPRS, 3G and
related technologies which allow the implementation of data transfer. These
technologies are still charged based on the size of the data transferred (per
kilobytes) by operators in many mobile markets. In terms of costs, looking at
the price per character provided to the user, this is the cheapest technology
by far, usually between 500 to 1000 times cheaper than SMS (See <a class="http"
href="http://africansignals.com/">[55]African signal</a> and <a class="http"
href="http://manypossibilities.net/2009/04/sms-costs-in-africa-2008/">[56]some
other sites</a> for a list of the different pricing schemes and the price of
SMS in Africa). However, except in the still very rare case of flat rate plans,
the predictability of the cost with such technologies is almost impossible to
establish, and completely out of management by the user. The user has no way of
knowing in advance how much actual data will be transferred, and therefore, how
much it will cost, before the end of their session. <span class="anchor"
id="line-591"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-592"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: It is important to note that Data
service characteristics and costs described in this section are related to
mobile networks, and mobile operator pricing schemes. There are ongoing
experiments and initiatives looking to provide free or low-cost flat-rate data
connectivity to people through technologies such as Wifi or Wimax. As mentioned
in the 'Scope of the Document' section, it is not in the scope of this document
to discuss the underlying infrastructure technologies, however if a content
author is designing a service in such context, the costs of access for the user
would be marginal. There are also other technologies such as Bluetooth that can
be used as the infrastructure layer to provide connectivity at no-cost. While
the use of such technologies has an impact in terms of costs, and affordability
for users, this has limited impact on how to build the content or application
to deliver to the final user, and therefore also out of the scope of this
document. Finally, the price of mobile data services might also be influenced
by regulatory authorities to promote and leverage access to ICT services. <span
class="anchor" id="line-593"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-594"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Voice-based applications use the voice channel for
communication. The cost of this channel is the highest as it is based, like
with regular phone calls, on the length of the call. For comparison, the price
of a SMS is usually equivalent to a ~10s conversation in an inter-network call,
and ~30s in intra-network call, which is a very short time to provide
information to the user. However, the cost is completely predictable by the
user, who can stop the application at any time by hanging up. Some possible
workarounds are the use of the call-back mechanism through a <a class="http"
href="http://rashmisinha.com/2006/01/09/no-one-uses-voicemail-in-india-and-the-concept-of-missed-calls/">[57]missed
call</a> by the user, or the use of free phone numbers. <span class="anchor"
id="line-595"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-596"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: It is important to note that the
references used to evaluate the costs of voice applications are based on the
pricing scheme currently offered by operators, at the time of writing of this
document. However, this pricing scheme might be largely influenced by the
regulatory authorities, which might decide to promote voice applications by
enforcing low-cost, or flat-rate costs for accessing such applications. It is
also important to note that flat-rate plans for voice calls (e.g. within the
operator network, or during off-peak hours) are starting to appear in different
regions of the World. See announcement of such plans in India: <a class="http"
href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=19268">[58]free unlimited
calls within the operator</a>,and a <a class="http"
href="http://teck.in/pay-per-call-prepaid-plan-of-tata-indicom-and-tata-teleservices.html">[59]pay-per-call
model where people pay for a call, independently of its length</a>. <span
class="anchor" id="line-597"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-598"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Signalling channel is the channel originally used for signal
exchanges, not designed originally for service delivery at the user level, but
rather for the network operation. This includes SMS, but also other
technologies such as USSD. <span class="anchor" id="line-599"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-600"></span></p>
<p class="line862">In term of costs, as mentioned before, SMS are very
expensive given the number of characters available. However, there is no cost
for the receiver of the message (except for the USA) and forthe sender, the
cost is completely predictable, except in the case of <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">[60]premium services</a> where the cost
is higher than a normal person-to-person SMS. <span class="anchor"
id="line-601"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-602"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Some service providers have implemented missed call
procedure that triggers the delivery of SMS message or <a class="http"
href="http://www.kubatana.net/html/ff/ff_cont.asp">[61]the other way around
(SMS triggering voice applications callback)</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-603"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-604"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Some other technologies on this channel, such as USSD, don't
yet have a billing system associated with them and are still free for the user
in most countries. This will no doubt change in the future, as some operators
have already implemented billing systems for USSD. See <a
href="http://help.vodacom.co.za/customercare/wss/faq.asp?id=18">[62]Vodacom</a>
and <a href="http://www.mtn.co.za/SUPPORT/FAQ/Pages/USSD.aspx">[63]MTN</a>
pricing in South Africa. </p>
<p class="line874">Also note also that many USSD-based services are not free.
<span class="anchor" id="line-605"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-606"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Finally, while this is not related directly to cost, it is
important to note that the vast majority of subscriptions in Developing
Countries are pre-paid plans (<a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/FrontPage?action=AttachFile&amp;amp;do=get&amp;amp;target=Africa_Mobile_Fact_Book_2008.pdf">[64]95%in
Africa</a>). This has a major impact in terms of how content providers monetize
services. <span class="anchor" id="line-607"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-608"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-609"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-610"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: This section has the aim of informing
potential service providers on the costs the user will experience when
accessing a service. In that regard, we are considering the social and economic
development a service could bring in terms of measurable impact and the RoI in
terms of quantitative value only. There is a broader view on the qualitative
impact of mobile and mobile services on people and human development which is
far harder to quantify. It is essential to consider this broader perspective as
an element in the overall ecosystem. <span class="anchor"
id="line-611"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-612"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-ffc2ba59f226bc731701c17c976b94114a983573">6.1.6 Infrastructure</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-613"></span>
<p class="line874">As mentioned in the previous section, the key focus of this
roadmap is on content and not on the underlying infrastructure. However, it is
important to bear in mind the specific context available on the targeted
regions of the World (Developing Countries) has an impact on the selection of
the technology to implement a specific service. <span class="anchor"
id="line-614"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-615"></span></p>
<p class="line862">In the <a href="#L2542">Technologies section</a> of this
document, each technology studied has a specific section on its infrastructure
requirements. In this section, we detail factors to consider, and outline the
information which needs gathering in order to drive the selection of the most
appropriate option. <span class="anchor" id="line-616"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-617"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are two major aspects to consider: the availability of
Data service and the type of connection mode available. <span class="anchor"
id="line-618"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-619"></span></p>
<p class="line862">In terms of type of connectivity available, as soon as a GSM
network is in the range of the user, voice and signalling services are
available. It is not the case for data service. The wide availability of
reliable data service is a major limiting factor today for most of advanced
technologies such as Web browsing. As <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html#Messages">[65]underlined
during the last workshop organized in the scope of MW4D IG</a>, the problem is
not really the size of the bandwidth, and the availability of real broadband
access such as 3G networks, but the availability of data service, even
low-bandwidth ones such as GPRS, that would enable new types of technologies
and services. It is important to note that there is a general (and wrong)
perception on the cost of data services compared to other technologies (see <a
href="#L2679">details in the previous section</a>), and the complexity of
setting up such services (for example, GPRS set up generally requires just a
single SMS message to the operator to configure the user device). <span
class="anchor" id="line-620"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-621"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of connection mode, it is also critical to evaluate
if the users of the service will be able to work in a connected mode or a
disconnected one, and at what duration. Among all the technologies, only SMS
services allow a true transparent disconnected mode. Voice applications require
a connected mode, and, concerning technologies relying on data services, while
it might be possible to find workarounds sometimes, many do not have an
off-line mode. <span class="anchor" id="line-622"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-623"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Another critical dimension associated with the
infrastructure is related to privacy and identity. It is important to note that
there is a relationship between the type of technology used and the way
identity is provided and confirmed to the service. <span class="anchor"
id="line-624"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-625"></span></p>
<p class="line862">For SMS services, and other services using the signalling
channel, the information about the <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID">[66]callerID</a> is carried to
the service provider, and there is no way for the user to prevent that. In some
cases this might be an issue when e.g. reporting rights violations. In some
other cases, the service relies on this feature, for example m-banking systems.
This might also be an issue in a village phone operator model, where it is not
possible for multiple people using the same SIM card to have different
m-banking accounts. <span class="anchor" id="line-626"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-627"></span></p>
<p class="line862">For voice services and voice applications, the user can
decide whether or not to provide the <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID">[66]callerID</a> information, and
the service can decide to use this information as an identifier or not. The
application can also decide to use an application level authentication, e.g. a
username or password. <span class="anchor" id="line-628"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-629"></span></p>
<p class="line862">For data services, it is almost impossible for the service
to get the information about the <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID">[66]callerID</a>, and the
authentication has to take place at the application level. <span class="anchor"
id="line-630"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-631"></span></p>
<p class="line874">It is critical for a service developer to understand this
issue, and the conditions in which the developed service would be used (e.g.
through a village phone operator model or not) to make the appropriate choice
of technologies. <span class="anchor" id="line-632"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-633"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: It is important to note that Data
service and Voice service characteristics and costs described in this section
are related to mobile networks, and the mobile operator pricing scheme. There
are experimentations ongoing to provide free or low-cost flat-rate data
connectivity to people in certain regions of Africa, particularly South Africa,
through technologies such as Wifi or Wimax. As mentioned in the 'Scope of the
Document' section, it is not in the scope of this document to discuss the
underlying infrastructure technologies, however if a content author is
designing a service in such context, it is worth bearing in mind that the costs
of access for the user would likely be marginal. <span class="anchor"
id="line-634"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-635"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-825bda0843b61e8653224aa89491be3a0fe45376">6.1.7 Handset</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-636"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-637"></span>
<p class="line874">Handsets are clearly a critical element in the overall
picture of the mobile service delivery chain. There are two aspects to consider
in this area: the type of handset and the model of usage. </p>
<p></p>
<p class="line874"><strong>Type of handset</strong> </p>
<p class="line874"><span class="anchor" id="line-639"></span>In terms of
characteristics, it is essential for a content author to have a sense of the
type of handset available in the pocket of the targeted end-user population.
For voice applications and technologies using the signalling channel (SMS or
USSD) are available on all phones. All other technologies relying on data
service depend on the support by the handset of data service, and availability
of software and APIs in the operating system of the phone. <span class="anchor"
id="line-640"></span>It is extremely difficult to have reliable statistics on
the availability of specific features, such as support of some kind of data
service (GPRS or above), or availability of a Java API or a type of Web browser
in the installed base of mobiles in the World. However, there are some
important facts to note: <span class="anchor" id="line-641"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line862">Low-end phones are now offering minimal data service
support and Web browsing capabilities. See e.g. the characteristics of a <a
class="http"
href="http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2008/gb2008114_268373.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories">[67]below-$50
phone with internet capabilities</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-642"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line862">Most of the new phones shipped in 2008 have browsing
capabilities. A <a class="http"
href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/03/the-size-of-the-mobile-industry-in-2009-short-overview-of-major-stats.html">[68]mobile
industry market analysis</a> found out that among the 1.15 billion of
mobile phones sold in 2008, 92% have basic browsing capabilities. <span
class="anchor" id="line-643"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line862">Related to the section 6.1.2 and 6.1.4 presented
earlier, the <a class="http"
href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/03/the-size-of-the-mobile-industry-in-2009-short-overview-of-major-stats.html">[68]same
market study</a> established that 90% of the shipped phones have a color
screen, and 71% have the ability to display pictures. <span class="anchor"
id="line-644"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-645"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">It is also important to note that in 2008 the average
replacement cycle of a mobile phone at a global level was 14 months. This
number does not reflect the situation in Developing Countries, where the cycle
is far longer, often due to recycling, reparation and reuse. However, while it
is also very hard to get any reliable information on this topic, the trend of
support of data services, higher level APIs and browsing capabilities is clear.
In order to accelerate this trend, and enable higher level technologies and
higher level of services and applications, it is essential to promote the
availability of minimal characteristics in all phones, particularly the
cheapest ones. These minimal capabilities should at least include the support
of a basic data service such as GPRS, and the support of Java mobile
applications that enable a wide range of applications, including Web Browsers.
<span class="anchor" id="line-646"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-647"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Usage Model</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-648"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-649"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned previously in this document, one popular model
to increase access to mobile services is the use of a shared model, like the
original public phone model. This model, originally developed in Bangladesh by
Grameen Phone, is now being replicated in many places of the World. The use of
such model in the targeted end-user population is an essential point impacting
the design of content and services, and the choices of technology. <span
class="anchor" id="line-650"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-651"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned in sections 6.1.2, 6.1.3, and 6.1.4, this model
might solve some of the challenges identified in the document. It might also
sometimes be an issue, related to identification associated with a specific SIM
card, or callerID, as mentioned in section 6.1.6, or related to privacy when
one can access history and information coming from previous phone usage. <span
class="anchor" id="line-652"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-653"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Finally, the use of a community phone as a bank of
information might also be a possibility. Technologies using textual content
might allow people to more easily share the information and associated costs
between them, e.g. getting the news, or the weather forecast. Here again, it is
critical to understand the appropriateness of the technology in that case. For
instance, voice applications provide information to the user of the service
only. SMS services provide information to the user of the service, and any
other user of the handset who can read the SMS. Web technology offers some kind
of caching capabilities that can enable shared usage, but that could be largely
improved. <span class="anchor" id="line-654"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-655"></span></p>
<p class="line874">It is therefore critical for a content author to identify,
during the <span class="anchor" id="line-656"></span>requirements phase, if the
targeted end-user population is structured around <span class="anchor"
id="line-657"></span>such a shared phone model, and if this is the case, what
implications it may have on the <span class="anchor"
id="line-658"></span>service. <span class="anchor" id="line-659"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-660"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-661"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h3 id="head-57896d1d6f862849d59023f13c0f395c3e0a01c5">6.2 Content Provider
Challenges</h3>
<span class="anchor" id="line-662"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-663"></span>
<p class="line874">This section of the roadmap presents the challenges and
issues identified by W3C MW4D IG that may be limiting the number of people or
organization developing and deploying mobile applications, content and services
that could contribute to social and economic development. While the first part
of this chapter (section 6.1) was targeted at helping content authors in the
design of their applications, this second part is more dedicated to an
international or a national audience interested in engaging actions that would
create an enabling environment for mobile-based applications. <span
class="anchor" id="line-664"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-665"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This section is structured in seven parts investigating how
to raise awareness, build capacity, provide enabling tools, use the right
business model, deploy applications, monitor and assess impact, and improving
scaling up from a small project to a more widely used service. <span
class="anchor" id="line-666"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-667"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-8cf7b1a8ce230f379598fbb1bd9be3a14cdab4c5">6.2.1 Awareness</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-668"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-669"></span>
<p class="line862">For a number of years, the Development community has
witnessed the explosion mobile telephony first, and later the appearance of
success stories that demonstrated that simple services on phones have the
potential to help the social and economic development of some communities (see
e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/qjec.122.3.879">[9]the
case of fishing village in Kerala, India</a>). Most of those success stories
are very simple services, like weather forecast, market information,
appointment managements and so one, which should be easy to replicate. However,
this is not really what appears to be happening now. While we observe big
projects developing at country or regional level, targeting huge numbers of
people (see e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://www.tradenet.biz/">[69]Tradenet/Esoko</a> or <a class="http"
href="http://www.voxiva.com/">[70]Voxiva</a>), there is still a low-level
activity at the grassroots level. One of the major reasons for the low uptake
of mobile ICT by grassroots organizations or entrepreneurs is the lack of
awareness in two dimensions: what is possible and what others are doing. <span
class="anchor" id="line-670"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-671"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Knowing what's possible</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-672"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-673"></span></p>
<p class="line874">One of the major issues today is the lack of awareness
around the potential and openness of the mobile platform. For lots of people,
mobile phones are a closed world, more or less like television, where the
content is developed by the handset manufacturers and/or the network operators.
Very few people are aware that it is not necessary to have a deal with a mobile
operator, or even their permission, to develop and deploy an SMS, voice or
mobile web service. <span class="anchor" id="line-674"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-675"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Local creativity and innovation can be stifled by this lack
of awareness. Just demonstrating what is possible and how to create content and
services are often enough to unlock this potential. <span class="anchor"
id="line-676"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-677"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Knowing what others are doing/have done</strong>
<span class="anchor" id="line-678"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-679"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Another critical aspect is to know what others are doing.
For instance, the number of crowdsourced election monitoring projects in Africa
is growing very quickly. One the first report was from <a class="http"
href="http://www.ndi.org/files/2329_sms_engpdf_06242008.pdf">[71]Indonesia in
2005</a>. Since then many other similar initiatives have appeared around the
World e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6570919.stm">[72]in Nigeria in
2007</a>, <a class="http" href="http://mobileactive.org/texting-it-in">[73]in
Sierra Leone the same year</a> or in <a class="http"
href="http://mobileactive.org/sms-critical-election-observation-ghana">[74]Ghana
in 2008</a>. The success of the original project and the media/blog coverage
brought attention from many NGOs interested in doing similar activities. Those
NGOs realized the power of using ICT in these kinds of initiatives, and decided
to replicate the process. In this case, like in many others in different
sectors, seeing people and organizations tackling similar challenges or
targeting the same goals and integrating mobile technologies creates
replication among other organizations, and helps them to learn from these
experiences, and re-apply them. <span class="anchor" id="line-680"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-681"></span></p>
<p class="line862">One key factor for an organization to investigate and
integrate new mobile tools in their work is to understand the impact of those
tools in similar environments. It is therefore essential to reference the
different projects, stories, and cases on the use of Mobile technology in
social-oriented service delivery. In that regards, one first step is to link
the different projects, as done by MW4D IG in its <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories/">[75]wiki of Stories</a>. Early
initiatives include<a
href="http://www.kiwanja.net/database/kiwanja_search.php">[77]kiwanja.net
mobile applications database</a> and the more recent <a
href="http://mobileactive.org/directory">[76]Mobileactive.org mDirectory</a>.
These initiatives could be extended further to include a more in-depth analysis
of each example: what are the tools used, what were the development costs, the
business model, the impact, the learning... Section 6.2.7 investigates in more
detail the different factors that can improve the replicability of projects and
stories. </p>
<p>The same issue exists in the development of tools. Many projects are
developing their own applications while tools already exist with similar
features. Some open source initiatives are trying address this issue. See e.g.
<a href="http://www.open-mobile.org/">[78]Open Mobile Consortium</a>, altough
the re-inventing of wheels also exists among the open source communities.</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Potential Actions to address the challenge</strong>
<span class="anchor" id="line-684"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-685"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In order to address the challenge of raising awareness of
the potential of mobile technologies, it is critical to organize dissemination
events, such as hands-on workshops aimed at local NGOs and entrepreneurs. In
order to reach a greater impact, it might be useful to use cooperation networks
and networks of NGOs with presence in many countries as a vector of
dissemination. <span class="anchor" id="line-686"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-687"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Developing a repository of use cases or
completing/coordinating existing initiatives with in-depth analysis is also an
important resource which could trigger attention in different communities or in
specific sectors not using mobile technologies as a tool today. <span
class="anchor" id="line-688"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-689"></span></p>
<p class="line874">It is also important to attract attention and raise
awareness at a public authority level. At this level, very few people are aware
of the potential of mobile as an ICT platform, and very few regulatory bodies
are informed of existing challenges, and how policy and regulation can impact
positively or negatively on the growth of mobile content and services. Section
6.3 presents briefly some of the factors and key aspects in this domain. <span
class="anchor" id="line-690"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-691"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-61e89219dd673da5f4a38547a793a4df617aff58">6.2.2 Expertise</h4>
<p class="line874">Knowing what's possible, what other people have done and how
they did it is critical as mentioned in the previous section. However, moving
from an observer position to an acting role, designing and developing a
service, often requires minimal expertise of the different technologies.
Building capacity on mobile technologies is therefore critical. Few initiatives
exist today, the two major ones coming from students and researchers of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). <span class="anchor"
id="line-694"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-695"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://aiti.mit.edu/">[79]African Information Technology Initiative
(AITI)</a>: This initiative focus on mobile programming for students with a
computer science background. Courses are organized by volunteers during
summer sessions. <span class="anchor" id="line-696"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://eprom.mit.edu/">[80]Entrepreneurial Programming and Research
On Mobiles (EPROM)</a>: This is initiative is of broader scope, covering
both programming sessions and courses for entrepreneurs. <span
class="anchor" id="line-697"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-698"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">While the success of these initiatives demonstrates the
needs and interests for training and teaching on the mobile platform, it is
critical that their scope and coverage is extended. There are at least two
dimensions in which they could be scaled up. <span class="anchor"
id="line-699"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-700"></span></p>
<p class="line874">At present these courses are taking place at the university
level. It might be important to extend them to other audiences such as NGOs,
non-student entrepreneurs, and the public sector. The requirements of each of
the targeted crowds should be investigated (technical level...). <span
class="anchor" id="line-701"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-702"></span></p>
<p class="line874">It is also worth considering more technologies. While EPROM
is briefly covering SMS applications, and Mobile Web, it would be interesting
to develop these topics further, particularly around tools available for
content authors. It would also be interesting to cover voice technologies. The
inclusion of specific modules on entrepreneurship and business models is also
critical. <span class="anchor" id="line-703"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-704"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Finally, the current coverage of these initiatives is still
limited (generally a few countries only). In order to have a more global
impact, it would be interesting to try to enable a viral growth of such a
training concept through: <span class="anchor" id="line-705"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-706"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Organization, development, and maintenance of free training material
particularly targeted at those without a computer-science background <span
class="anchor" id="line-707"></span></li>
<li>Creation and management of a community of trainers and teachers <span
class="anchor" id="line-708"></span></li>
<li>Development of online training content for potential trainers with
process and guidelines on how to organize training sessions. This would
help anyone to acquire the knowledge to setup series of training workshops
<span class="anchor" id="line-709"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-710"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line862">The EPROM initiative has demonstrated most of this concept
through e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://eprom.mit.edu/~eprom/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page">[81]a public
wiki with training material</a>. It would be beneficial to scale up the concept
along the dimensions mentioned above. <span class="anchor"
id="line-711"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-712"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-4bcb4f591c03e6f7ccddbad21a0460b444fc5ef7">6.2.3 Tools</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-713"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-714"></span>
<p class="line874">The third critical aspect to enable people and organizations
to mainstream mobile technologies in their work is the availability of tools.
Indeed, in order to see a real take-off of mobile content and services, it
should be possible for the thousands of small NGOs and individual entrepreneurs
to create and deploy those content and services. However, most of these small
organizations don't have expertise and skills in programming or in computer
science and telecommunication in general. For them to provide services, it is
critical to have access to tools that are free and easy to use, and that would
enable authoring, and perform delivery action without programming skills. <span
class="anchor" id="line-715"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-716"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are different levels of tools that can enable those
targeted non-computer-specialists. <span class="anchor"
id="line-717"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-718"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Platform level-tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-719"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-720"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Platform-level tools are tools which enable the use of a
particular technology in a completely free way. An example is e.g. a SMS
gateway enabling people to create group of users, and keywords to react on. It
enables the application of SMS without being tied to a particular task or a
particular service. Having such tools for all major technologies is important.
In Section 7 of this document, each technology investigated has a section on
available tools. Among the numerous features, the most important ones are:
<span class="anchor" id="line-721"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-722"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Free availability <span class="anchor" id="line-723"></span></li>
<li>Open-source: using open source software is critical to ensure its
evolution, and development of extra modules and functionalities, or
localization by the community. <span class="anchor"
id="line-724"></span></li>
<li>Easy to use, preferably WYSIWYG, authoring tools <span class="anchor"
id="line-725"></span></li>
<li>Packaged: for some technology e.g. mobile web applications or VoiceXML
applications, authoring and delivery of services are not taking place in
the same place. It is therefore important to have tools managing the
different tasks. It is also critical to have guidelines and references on
all the different required components to author and deploy a specific
service <span class="anchor" id="line-726"></span></li>
<li>With a strong community: as mentioned in Section 6.2.1, knowing what
others are doing and how there are doing it is crucial. Having a strong
community using a tool enables shared learning and more applications. It
also ensure that the tool will evolve based on user needs <span
class="anchor" id="line-727"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-728"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">As mentioned before, the different 'tools' sub-sections of
Section 7 on Technologies list and link some of the existing tools for each
technology. However, a more exhaustive investigation, as well as a complete and
formal analysis of the landscape, and the identification of the potential gaps,
is required. It would be essential to identify the critical requirements and
most important features needed in each category (such as compliance to
standards), and investigate their support in the current list of tools. <span
class="anchor" id="line-729"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-730"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Application/Task Specific tools</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-731"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-732"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Platform-level tools are important because they enable all
kinds of content and services without restriction. For static content, or easy
tasks like simple form filling without data analysis, this is usually enough.
However, in order to have advanced features, complex user interactions, or
dynamic content, it is difficult, without programming skills, to develop
applications. It is therefore essential to have higher-level tools that are
enabling specific tasks, or specific applications. Some free and open source
tools are starting to appear. One of the most active fields is data collection.
Data collection and results analysis are very common tasks in many sectors,
like e.g. health (patient records), agriculture (market information), or
election monitoring (filling reports on specific events). </p>
<p class="line862">Another leading platform today is <a class="http"
href="http://www.ushahidi.com">[82]Ushahidi</a>, a platform for crowdsourced
information. This platform enables the mashup of different reports in a
geographical representation. It could be used for very different purposes such
as election monitoring or tracking the evolution of diseases in a region. <span
class="anchor" id="line-735"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-736"></span></p>
<p class="line862">These higher-level tools enable more advanced applications,
and it would be interesting to identify what kind of other types of tools would
enable more services. An example could be around exploiting the camera
available of many phones. See e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/Dearden_slides.pdf">[83]the case
presented during the MW4D Workshop in 2009</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-737"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-738"></span></p>
<p class="line874">A critical aspect for these tools is their ability to use
different channels or technologies (e.g. SMS, Voice, Web...) and to rely on any
underlying infrastructure that could change from one project to another. It is
also critical for them to use standardized interfaces so that they could be
'mashed' together easily for a specific purpose or goal. <span class="anchor"
id="line-739"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-740"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Here again, a formal analysis of existing products and the
global landscape would be critical to identify potential extensions and
required future developments. <span class="anchor" id="line-741"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-742"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-59448009ce3e34e3458e0bfd66ba23e680df7a1e">6.2.4 Business Model</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-743"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-744"></span>
<p class="line874">Developing and deploying services is not free. Out of the
specific time to learn the technology, design the service or content, and
author it, there are other costs for the content author in setting up the
service and delivering it to end-users. To be sustainable, it is essential for
the organization to at least cover these costs, and even generate a revenue
stream in the case of entrepreneurs. In some cases, it is also critical to
provide a completely free service to people (e.g. providing health information
or alerts). In this section, we describe, in the first part, the different
types of cost a service provider should consider. In the second part, we
introduce some information on how to monetize services, and in the last part we
present a number of ways to provide free services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-745"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-746"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Costs for Service Providers</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-747"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-748"></span></p>
<p class="line874">These costs can be split into two categories: hosting and
delivery costs. <span class="anchor" id="line-749"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-750"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Hosting costs are the costs incurred by the setup of an
appropriate infrastructure that enables potential users to access the service.
It is directly linked to the type of technology selected. In some cases, as
with web content, one can find free hosting services. In other cases as with
SMS, all you need is at least one computer and one mobile subscription to run
the service. In Section 7 of this document, for each technology, the hosting
cost is described. <span class="anchor" id="line-751"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-752"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Delivery costs are the cost incurred by the delivery of
services. In the case of data-connection, there is usually no delivery cost,
because there are many free hosting services all over the Internet. In case of
SMS, the costs are associated with the sending of SMS to users. In case of
voice applications, it depends on the initiator of the call. If the service is
initiating the call, the cost is on the service provider. If the user is
calling the service, the cost is on the user. It is important to note that in
the case of SMS and Voice, the delivery costs varies according to the mobile
network used by the service and the mobile network used by the user
(international call and SMS, as well as inter-network call and SMS are more
expensive). <span class="anchor" id="line-753"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-754"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Identifying and evaluating the costs of hosting and delivery
is critical in choosing the right business model. <span class="anchor"
id="line-755"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-756"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Service Delivery Model</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-757"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-758"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned above and in Section 6.1.5, it is critical
during the design of a service to identify who should pay for the service. Some
services are public services and should be covered by the provider of the
service whereas some commercial services should be paid by the user. Some
marketing strategies recommend to start with free services to advertise and
demonstrate their usefulness, before making them commercial. The choice of
technology has a direct impact on the implementation of one or other model. In
the next section, we will discuss how to generate revenue from a service. In
this section we review the different free delivery models. <span class="anchor"
id="line-759"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-760"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Each category of technology has its own strengths and
weaknesses. In terms on delivery of services, voice applications are often the
most flexible options. Two different models are available: <span class="anchor"
id="line-761"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-762"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Use of a free phone number: it is possible to get a free phone number, so
that people will not pay when calling it. Depending on the local
telecommunication policies and regulations, the concept of a free phone
number is usually implemented cross-operator. The issue with this option is
the need to buy and install such a number which is usually tied to a fixed
line subscription, which might or might not be a challenge in some
contexts. <span class="anchor" id="line-763"></span></li>
<li>Call-back mechanism: Through for example a call-me like service (<a
class="http"
href="http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp?docid=3317">[84]see an
example in Tanzania</a>), or through a <a class="http"
href="http://www.podtech.net/home/3780/indias-mobile-users-and-missed-calls">[85]missed
call</a>, it is possible to relatively easily implement a call-back
mechanism where the user does not pay anything. See an <a class="http"
href="http://www.kubatana.net/html/ff/ff_cont.asp">[61]example of such a
service in Zimbabwe</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-764"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-765"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">It is also important to note that Voice-over-IP (VoIP)
systems are free to use (but should be considered, in terms of business model,
as a data-service application). <span class="anchor" id="line-766"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-767"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The case of applications working on the signalling channel
(see section 7.2) is not homogeneous. Most technologies in this category don't
have a billing system, and therefore are totally free for users. This is not
the case of the most popular one, SMS. <span class="anchor"
id="line-768"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-769"></span></p>
<p class="line874">For SMS applications, one way to provide a free service to
users is through the broadcast of information. It is also possible to imagine
that one can implement a kind of call-back mechanism for SMS too. However, the
issue with both options is the challenge for the user who has to interact with
the service. Sending back information to the service is not free. <span
class="anchor" id="line-770">Another option may be reverse-billing by the
service provider, but this option is not always made available or offered by
operators. </span></p>
<p class="line874">For applications using data-services, there is no specific
cost for the delivery of the service itself, but the connectivity, the
bandwidth and the size of data transferred is usually charged to the users, and
cannot be supported by the service provider, as this is independent of the
service itself.<span class="anchor" id="line-772"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-773"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Because the characteristics described in this section are
intrinsic to each technology, there is no real way to change this situation at
a technical level. Most of the solutions are at the policy level and are out of
the scope of this document. <span class="anchor" id="line-774"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-775"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><a name="Monetizati" id="Monetizati"><strong>Monetization of
Services</strong></a> <span class="anchor" id="line-776"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-777"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned in Section 6.1.5, the success of a specific
service depends largely on the ratio between costs for the user and
added-value. At the same time, sustainability hinges on costs on the author
side being at least covered (it often provides additional revenue, i.e. profit,
in many cases). In the previous section, we investigated how to provide free
services to people. In this section, we investigate how to monetize services.
<span class="anchor" id="line-778"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-779"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: We are investigating the monetization
of services from a technical point of view. It is out of the scope of this
document to help content authors define the right pricing scheme for their
services. For that, the service provider has to make a detailed analysis
including summing-up all the costs he has to support (development, hosting,
delivery, advertising, training, maintenance...), evaluating the potential
increase of income or interest and costs on the user side, his purchasing power
, and so on.<span class="anchor" id="line-780"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-781"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Monetizing services means selling the service to the user
for a specific cost. It is possible to implement the management of the
monetization of the service independently, for example through a monthly
subscription not managed within the application itself. In this section, we
investigate the option to manage the monetization within the service. <span
class="anchor" id="line-782"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-783"></span></p>
<p class="line874">With mobile technology, there are two options for the
monetization: at the application level, and at the network level. <span
class="anchor" id="line-784"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-785"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Monetization at the network level</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-786"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-787"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Here, the principle is that the costs of the service will be
charged directly to the user account (prepaid or postpaid) transparently to the
user. The service provider has a deal with the network operator, or with a
company linked to multiple operators which allow him to get a percentage of
what is charged to the user (revenue sharing). Here again this largely depends
on the technology: <span class="anchor" id="line-788"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-789"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>Voice Applications</em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-790"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-791"></span></p>
<p class="line874">It is possible for a voice application provider to buy a
surtaxed number so that user calling it will pay more than the usual cost of
the call, and a share of the money is given back to the service provider. This
solution is not very flexible altough it is relatively easy to implement, as it
requires deal with operators or an external company at least, but usually is
relatively easy to setup. However, in most countries, the policy framework
makes it mandatory to easy identify these surtaxed numbers, and users are
losing the sense of cost predictability, and are often reluctant to use such
numbers. <span class="anchor" id="line-792"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-793"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>SMS Applications</em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-794"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-795"></span></p>
<p class="line874">We are only considering in this section SMS. Indeed, while
in principle, they can support monetization of services, in practice, other
type of technologies need access to the billing system of the operator, as no
other interfaces are available. This limits the use of these types of
technologies for monetization. <span class="anchor" id="line-796"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-797"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Concerning SMS, the situation is close to the voice case,
with 'premium rate' SMS offering revenue sharing. The situation is usually
harder to implement across multiple networks, and the issue around
predictability is also present. <span class="anchor" id="line-798"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-799"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>Data-service Applications</em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-800"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-801"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of data-service applications, there is no way to
setup such revenue sharing option as the application as no knowledge on the
underlying infrastructure providing data services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-802"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-803"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Monetization at the application level</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-804"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-805"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The principle is that the monetization is managed at the
application level. This is not something generally possible for SMS or voice
applications. It is possible to implement external payments from mobile phones
through m-banking, but this is not linked to the service directly. <span
class="anchor" id="line-806"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-807"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The major advantage of managing monetization and payment at
the application level is the independence vis-a-vis the network operators, and
its applicability in all types of connectivity. <span class="anchor"
id="line-808"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-809"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Concerning Web resources, there is no simple, easy and
transparent way of implementing payments on an application. There are the
classical ecommerce techniques (such as using intermediaries like Paypal, or
credit card number), but they are not applicable in context of very small
amount of money (<a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment">[86]micro-payments or
micro-commerce</a>), where the cost of the transaction can be up to ten or
hundred times more expensive than the amount of the payment. As underlined in
the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html">[87]MW4D Workshop in
2009 Executive Summary</a>, there is need for developing infrastructure,
standards and tools in this domain. <span class="anchor"
id="line-810"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-811"></span></p>
<p class="line874">With other types of data applications, the situation is
similar. The application stores model mentioned in Section 6.1.4 represents a
good option for revenue sharing, and for content providers to generate revenue
from their content. This is, however, only for the sale of the applications
itself, and often not for any micro-payments incurred during the use of the
service. <span class="anchor" id="line-812"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-813"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In conclusion, while some techniques and solutions exists
for monetizing services with SMS and voice, there is no simple methods for
peer-to-peer payments without an operator in the middle, and this is a limiting
factor for monetizing services using these technologies. <span class="anchor"
id="line-814"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-815"></span></p>
<p class="line874">On the Web side, the absence of micro-payment technologies
is also an issue that needs to be investigated further. <span class="anchor"
id="line-816"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-817"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-9f8485f43024bffafc325ac4f09d04d0cc3e380c">6.2.5 Deployment</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-818"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-819"></span>
<p class="line874">The major objective of any service or content provider is to
reach as many people as possible, and to develop the largest possible community
of users. Therefore, the strategy for the deployment of a new service is
crucial. There are three dimensions to consider in the deployment phases: the
dissemination of the information about the new service, the trust the targeted
end-user has in the service, and the required training necessary to use the
application. <span class="anchor" id="line-820"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-821"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Discoverability</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-822"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-823"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The first factor is linked to the technology itself and its
ability to offer a way for user to search, find and use new services. This is
called discoverability. <span class="anchor" id="line-824"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-825"></span></p>
<p class="line874">SMS and other signalling channel-based technologies do not
offer the user any built-in way of searching and finding new content and
services. Operators usually offer a portal or a description of some of the
services, but this is an adhoc service and any service wishing to appear in the
list have to deal with each network operator. It is also a challenge to know
how to use a service, except through extra interaction cycles (such as the
generic 'HELP' keyword). Neither is it possible to really implement
transparently the notion of portals in SMS for applications hosted on different
SMS hubs (see details in Section 7.2.2). <span class="anchor"
id="line-826"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-827"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Voice applications have similar issues. There is no way to
automatically 'know' the phone numbers to call to reach a specific service.
However, the use of specific technologies like VoiceXML (see section 7.1) can
partly overcome this issue through the design of portals gathering different
applications coming from different sources. <span class="anchor"
id="line-828"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-829"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Web resources, in terms of discoverability, are the most
scalable, flexible and easy to use option. Search engines have demonstrated
their ability to handle more than one trillions of resources. Portals are also
a proven method of decreasing the complexity of search. See a more detailed
investigation on this topic in Section 6.1.4. <span class="anchor"
id="line-830"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-831"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Other data-service applications can, on some platforms, rely
on application stores that offer easy to use discoverability features. However,
the policy associated with some of the stores might be a barrier for some
application developers. Otherwise, authors can simply put their applications on
the Web for download, and benefit from more general Web discoverability. <span
class="anchor" id="line-832"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-833"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In cases of a lack of discoverability mechanism, or in a
population with low computer literacy, the only way to disseminate information
and raise awareness is through more traditional channels such as radio, TV,
advertisements, and newspapers.</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Trust</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-836"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-837"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The second critical point is about trust. This is not a
technical issue at all, but it is an important concept for a service author to
understand. Although people might be aware of an existing application or
content, they might not want to use it because they don't trust it. This is
particularly the case for applications where there is no immediate payback, or
that might have a significant impact on people. An example may be in the
teaching new agriculture techniques. In such a case, people would decide to use
new techniques that might jeopardize their production for a year if, and only
if, they strongly trust the source teaching them the techniques. Identifying in
a particular structure or community how the chain of trust is organized is
critical in finding the appropriate entry points. The availability and use of
trusted intermediaries such as village phone operators is a perfect entry
point. When not available, the task might be more difficult, and it would be
important to identify use cases, success and failures, and establish best
practices in terms of trust. Technically, it might be possible to build trusted
intermediaries in the form of portals. Such a solution should be investigated
further. <span class="anchor" id="line-838"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-839"></span></p>
<p class="line862">In order to achieve the maximum acceptance rate of a product
or service, one could also use a co-design process to develop it i.e., to
design and innovate with people and not just for them. Co-design differs from
participatory design and user centric design as it involves all the relevant
stakeholders (end-user handset manufacturers, operators, software makers, etc)
(c.f. <a class="http"
href="http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Challenges-And-Merits-Of-Co-Design-Of/194797">[88]Challenges
and merits of co-design of mobile concepts</a> by Jenny de Boer, Liliane
Kuiper, MobileHCI 2008) as active participants throughout the entire process of
designing. The co-design process allows to understand the structure of the
local community in order to receive input from the different stakeholders and
emulate peers learning (c.f. <a class="http"
href="http://bid.berkeley.edu/papers/chi_2007/co_design_dev_regions/">[89]Social
Dynamics of Early Stage Co-Design in Developing Regions</a> by Divya
Ramachandran, Matthew Kam, Jane Chiu, John Canny, James L. Frankel,Proceedings
of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing system) . As the
technology literacy in emerging regions is often unknown, the use of artifacts
is recommended to assess it and evaluate the market expectation of the
community. A co-design/co-creation approach could also be used to imagine,
launch, and grow a sustainable business in emerging regions. In that case, the
co-design process will not only produce a product or service, but also a
business model and a strategy that creates long-term community value and
corporate growth (c.f. <a class="http"
href="http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/sge/docs/BoP_Protocol_2nd_ed.pdf">[90]BoP
Protocol (2nd Edition): Towards Next-Generation BOP Strategy</a> by Erik
Simanis &amp; Stuart Hart, et al.). <span class="anchor"
id="line-840"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-841"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Training</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-842"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-843"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The last point in this section is around training. People
might know about a service and they might trust it, but for them to use it,
they have to be trained. This is an important step in the deployment phase. The
first step into the application depends of the technology itself. SMS is
usually at the user's initiative: you have to know more or less the type of
command you can send to the application. In that case, the training is
important, depending on the number and complexity of actions. <span
class="anchor" id="line-844"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-845"></span></p>
<p class="line874">With other technologies - voice, Web or other type of
data-service applications- the initiative is on the service side: actionable
content is presented to the user, either visually or graphically. However,
there is today a lack of widely adopted guidelines for designing easy-to-use
natural visual and vocal user interfaces. In the graphical user interface
design, though a growing community is working on participatory design within
the context of developing countries, defined methodologies, guidelines and best
practices are yet to come. This direction has to be explored further. In the
voice interface, there are no established guidelines and best practices. This
has to be further investigated too. <span class="anchor"
id="line-846"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-847"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-86e4834f6f540c993d3cbd92921e74c1cebf5648">6.2.6 Monitoring and
Assessment</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-848"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-849"></span>
<p class="line874">Monitoring and assessment are critical activities in all
projects, particularly in ICT. Most of funders and donors require project
impact assessments. It is not in the scope of this document to discuss the best
ways of assessing projects, identifying <span class="anchor"
id="line-850"></span>critical factors to measure, and best practices to measure
them. There is extensive <span class="anchor" id="line-851"></span>literature
on these topics. See for example a review of this literature, <a class="http"
href="http://ict4dblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/idrc-ia-for-ict4d-compendium1.doc">[91]Compendium
on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-852"></span>However, we should note the importance of capturing and
integrating user feedback about the content and service developed, and to
monitor the device and network performance. Those factors are critical to
understand the key barriers or improvements that could be integrated. <span
class="anchor" id="line-853"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-854"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-0ead7bd1acc9e4643ba1ac6d9ac6d1d4d3714a6c">6.2.7 Scalability and
Replicability</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-855"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-856"></span>
<p class="line874">Scalability and Replicability are the two key concepts to
achieve a global impact. When a specific service contribute to socio-economic
development in a small community somewhere deep in a specific country, public
authorities or development agencies are usually willing to scale such a system
to extend the coverage. Scaling-up a service has usually two objectives: <span
class="anchor" id="line-857"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-858"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Extending the benefits of the service to (a larger part of) a country
<span class="anchor" id="line-859"></span></li>
<li>Providing a global view of what's happening in the country: e.g. a global
health system can give hints about an epidemic <span class="anchor"
id="line-860"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-861"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line862">The first and most traditional way of scaling up is just by
extending the system (vertical growth): dedicating more computing power and
more resources so that the service can handle more users, and cover more use
cases. As underlined in the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html">[87]MW4D Workshop in
2009 Executive Summary</a>, there are a number of issues with such approach:
<span class="anchor" id="line-862"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-863"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Big investment: building a big system creates a single point of failure,
that therefore requires proper replication, expensive hardware and more
expertise to manage it. Such systems are then less replicable in other
contexts due to their costs <span class="anchor" id="line-864"></span></li>
<li>Local relevancy: building a system that covers a bigger area and a bigger
number of people requires adequate coverage of different use cases. E.g.
for a market price information system, you need to cover more crops, which
are not relevant in many regions. Moreover, the system is managed in places
more distant to the user, and therefore, is less cognizant of the exact
needs and requirements. <span class="anchor" id="line-865"></span></li>
<li>Trust: As mentioned in the previous section, building trust in the
service is a critical step, and far more difficult to reach if the system
is far from the user. <span class="anchor" id="line-866"></span></li>
<li>Complexity: Finally, managing more users and use cases, makes systems far
more complex for the user, for the developers and for the maintenance,
which in turn results in less flexibility, and fewer evolutions and
innovations. <span class="anchor" id="line-867"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-868"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">The other option for scaling-up a service is through
replication (organic or horizontal growth). The principle is to keep a service
simple, and only replicate it at other locations to extend the coverage. The
best example of such a scalable model is the growth of the Web in past 20
years, moving from a single user to 1.5 billion userstoday. The Web, i.e.
billions and billions of resources, is a completely decentralized system, with
simple web servers handling small groups of users and resources. Below is an
attempt to identify the key features that explain such successful organic
growth, ones that are critical to create highly replicable solutions: <span
class="anchor" id="line-869"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-870"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Interoperability: This is the most important factor. Having interoperable
technologies allows global effects from local actions. Having solutions
that works on all handsets, and all infrastructures is critical <span
class="anchor" id="line-871"></span></li>
<li>Visibility: People that have problems and are looking for solutions have
to be able to find and see what others are doing. Otherwise, they will
start from scratch and make their own choices, leading most of the time to
the same issues that others already experienced. Learning by understanding
what others are doing is an important vector of dissemination (also
mentioned in Section 6.2.1). <span class="anchor" id="line-872"></span></li>
<li>Openness: It is beneficial to understand that someone did something
similar to what I want to do. But if I cannot closely examine the solution,
if I cannot use the same technology or the same tools and if the solution
is more advertised than shared, then this is not really useful. Having
solutions fully accessible and readable is a critical factor for people to
understand how to achieve desired behaviors. The openness is at different
level: openness of the solution, openness of the standards used for the
solution, openness of the software used, and openness of the data managed
by the solution so that someone could access it and aggregate <span
class="anchor" id="line-873"></span></li>
<li>Customizability/modularity/extensibility: It is rare to be able to use a
solution out-of-the-box. One's conditions and use-case are rarely the same
as one's neighbors. The ability to take pieces of what someone did on a
project, and combine it with what someone else did somewhere else, is also
one of the critical factor of success. <span class="anchor"
id="line-874"></span></li>
<li>Simplicity: simplicity is also an essential feature. The importance of
opening the field of mobile content and services to people without a
computer science is critical. As mentioned in section 6.2.3, the
availability of different kind of tools and services (free or very cheap
hosting, authoring tools and application level tools) is a critical
enabling factor for non-technical potential authors. <span class="anchor"
id="line-875"></span></li>
<li>Freeness: The availability of free tools and technologies that allow
anybody to make some content available to other is also an essential factor
to empower people. <span class="anchor" id="line-876"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-877"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">The concept of organic growth is essential for a real
take-off of the number of mobile services and content. These key dimensions
mentioned above can be seen as a summary of the different sections in this
chapter that identify the different actions that are needed in different
domains (awareness, expertise, tools, business model and deployment) to reach a
point where all the conditions are created for numerous people to become
contributors of services. <span class="anchor" id="line-878"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-879"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-880"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h3 id="head-2c39388b182f4d9ecb99472ebaa68bdb89b31c64">6.3 Policy &amp;
Regulation Challenges</h3>
<span class="anchor" id="line-881"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-882"></span>
<p class="line874">Telecommunications policy and regulations are major
horizontal issues that cut across all the players involved in implementing MW4D
projects. Content providers are not an exception. Telecommunications policy and
regulations may influence MW4D projects in favourable or adversarial manners.
All the various stake-holders in MW4D projects need to work in line with the
requirements of the national telecommunications authorities within the country
where the project is implemented. <span class="anchor"
id="line-883"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-884"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-885"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-886"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The scope of regulation impact in project delivery is
wide-ranging. For mobile phones, the following items are often under the
control of the national telecommunications authorities or the incumbent
telecommunications operators: <span class="anchor" id="line-887"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-888"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-889"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-890"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Availability and quality of mobile network infrastructure <span
class="anchor" id="line-891"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-892"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Availability and quality of mobile broadband infrastructure
<span class="anchor" id="line-893"></span></li>
<li>Availability and quality of satellite links <span class="anchor"
id="line-894"></span></li>
<li>Availability and quality of the Internet connection <span class="anchor"
id="line-895"></span></li>
<li>Network interconnection of mobile telecommunications operators and
service providers' networks <span class="anchor" id="line-896"></span></li>
<li>Network, service usage and interconnection charges of both voice and
data, monthly fixed and usage sensitive charges <span class="anchor"
id="line-897"></span></li>
<li>Internet access charges (Internet Service Provider [ISP] charges) <span
class="anchor" id="line-898"></span></li>
<li>Market competition among ISPs <span class="anchor"
id="line-899"></span></li>
<li>Regulations on sharing of any customer or transaction information between
a telecommunications operator and the external organizations, for example,
credit providers in case of mobile banking and mobile payment systems.
<span class="anchor" id="line-900"></span></li>
<li>Approval procedures for handsets, orany other equipment needed for the
deployment of mobile telecommunication services <span class="anchor"
id="line-901"></span></li>
<li>Licensing requirements of the telecommunications regulators <span
class="anchor" id="line-902"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-903"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line862">The telecommunications services and infrastructure are
improving in developing countries, where the government takes the ICT sector as
a growth focus, and where policy-makers favour market liberalization. It has
been reported that the penetration rates of mobile phones has risen
significantly in countries that introduced competition in the mobile
telecommunications sector (Source: <a class="http"
href="http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf">[92]The
ICT Development Index</a>, ITU, 2009). <span class="anchor"
id="line-904"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-905"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The expensive cost of mobile phone service and the
penetration gap between urban and rural areas are remaining challenges in a
number of developing countries. For example, in a number of countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of mobile phone services are 20 to 60 per cent of
Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. These are unaffordable levels.
Policy-makers and project planners should work to keep end-user charges at
affordable levels. When such services serve as public good and contribute
towards human or econolic development, public contribution towards their
running costs should be sought. <span class="anchor" id="line-906"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-907"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Project planners are advised to study as early as possible
local practice of telecommunications regulators and operators in the areas
where they plan to roll out socially-oriented mobile projects. In some cases,
law enforcement may be left to the discretion of one person. Should they have
the opportunity, project planners and implementors are advised to maintain good
working relationships with local telecommunications regulators and
operators.</p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="technologies"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-910"></span><span class="anchor" id="L2542"></span>
<span class="anchor" id="line-911"></span> </p>
<h2 id="head-a36788aca1742e9dfbbe2db96a786853033ae548">7. Technologies</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-912"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-913"></span>
<p class="line874">This section of the roadmap focuses on the technologies used
to <span class="anchor" id="line-914"></span>build and deliver applications. As
mentioned in the 'Scope of the document' <span class="anchor"
id="line-915"></span>section, this roadmap explores the three families of
technologies depending of the type <span class="anchor" id="line-916"></span>of
network infrastructure they are relying on: voice applications, applications
using the <span class="anchor" id="line-917"></span>signalling channel of
mobile networks and applications using data services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-918"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-919"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h3 id="head-93639303fd22f2c01fc0799c8f749c6988d761a3">7.1 Voice
Applications</h3>
<p class="line874">This section is about voice applications. In the first part,
we introduce <span class="anchor" id="line-924"></span>the basics of this
technology, and discuss the general strengths and issues associated with this
type <span class="anchor" id="line-925"></span>of applications. In the second
part, we present the different options and <span class="anchor"
id="line-926"></span>technological solutions to develop such applications.
<span class="anchor" id="line-927"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-928"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Overview</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-929"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-930"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Voice applications are based on the use of the traditional
voice <span class="anchor" id="line-931"></span>channel. End-users place a
traditional phone call to a specific phone <span class="anchor"
id="line-932"></span>number and reach a voice platform through which the
service is accessed. From <span class="anchor" id="line-933"></span>there,
navigation through the application is done either by voice input (the <span
class="anchor" id="line-934"></span>user speaks to the application) or by
pressing the phone keypads. <span class="anchor" id="line-935"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-936"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Voice Applications have different components: <span
class="anchor" id="line-937"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-938"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-939"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>The core engine running the application written by the content
author/service designer <span class="anchor" id="line-940"></span></li>
<li>There are extension modules which can ease the task of the application
developers: <span class="anchor" id="line-941"></span>
<ul>
<li><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis">[93]Text-to-speech
engine (TTS)</a>: a TTS is a module that can generate an audio file
from a text string. Without a TTS, the application developer has to
generate or record all the audio files needed during the application
runtime. With the use of TTS, the generation of audio is done at the
runtime, on the fly. Not only does the use of TTS ease largely the task
of the application developer, but it also allows the application to
provide live data without changing the application itself. TTS are
external modules provided by third parties and plugged in the <a
href="#PABX"></a>PABX (See the definition of <a href="#PABX">Private
Automatic Branch Exchange</a>) environment. A specific TTS comes with a
set of supported languages and voices (male, female, child, adult,
elderly, etc). <span class="anchor" id="line-942"></span></li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition">[94]Speech
Recognition Engine (SR)</a>: SR is the counterpart of TTS: it
translates audio files into text. It is always possible to design a
voice application without SR. In that case the only possible
interaction with the user is done through the phone keypad. The
presence of an SR allows a user to 'speak' to the application. Like
TTS, a specific SR understands only a set of languages, and usually
requires a <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/">[95]grammar</a> to be
provided by the application developer to increase the quality of the
voice recognition process. </p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">Without these extension modules, a voice application is just
a management of <span class="anchor" id="line-945"></span>multiple audio files
that are served to the end-user according to a specific <span class="anchor"
id="line-946"></span>algorithm or flow chart. <span class="anchor"
id="line-947"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-948"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Costs for service providers and end-users</strong>
</p>
<p class="line874">As presented in Sections 6.1.5 and 6.2.4, there are
different costs associated with <span class="anchor"
id="line-951"></span>development, deployment and access to voice applications:
access price for the <span class="anchor" id="line-952"></span>user, running
costs for the delivery of the service, and infrastructure and hosting <span
class="anchor" id="line-953"></span>costs for setting up the service. We don't
include here the costs of <span class="anchor" id="line-954"></span>development
of the service itself, but later in this section, we consider the <span
class="anchor" id="line-955"></span>level of expertise required, and the
general availability of this expertise. <span class="anchor"
id="line-956"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-957"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In term of the price of access to the user, it is the same
as the price of a phone call. The basic pricing models are: <span
class="anchor" id="line-959"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-960"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Same price as traditional phone calls based on the location of the user
and the location of the service, and the length of the call. <span
class="anchor" id="line-961"></span></li>
<li>No cost to the user with the use of a toll-free phone number or call-back
mechanism <span class="anchor" id="line-962"></span></li>
<li>Over-priced services, through the use of surtaxed phone numbers. <span
class="anchor" id="line-963"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-964"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-965"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">In terms of delivery cost for the service provider, there is
not much costs <span class="anchor" id="line-966"></span>associated with the
delivery of the service itself, except in the case of free <span class="anchor"
id="line-967"></span>phone numbers and call-back services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-968"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-969"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of infrastructure and hosting costs, in order to
deliver a voice <span class="anchor" id="line-970"></span>service, the content
provider has to rely on an infrastructure which is <span class="anchor"
id="line-971"></span>connected to the telephony system. If willing, service
providers can deliver the service <span class="anchor"
id="line-972"></span>through VoIP or through the use of external VoiceXML
content on the Internet (see <span class="anchor"
id="line-973"></span>below).</p>
<p class="line874">The cost of required infrastructure on the telephony <span
class="anchor" id="line-974"></span>side is a key aspect. While the price of
software is not an issue with the availaibility of numerous <span
class="anchor" id="line-975"></span>free and open source solutions (see the
tools section later in this section), <span class="anchor"
id="line-976"></span>the physical part that is handling the phone calls from
users is relatively expensive. One major issue that increase the cost is the
ability for the hardware <span class="anchor" id="line-978"></span>to handle
multiple concurrent calls. Indeed, the hardware managing few phone <span
class="anchor" id="line-979"></span>lines (1 to 8) is relatively inexpensive,
but hardware managing higher numbers <span class="anchor"
id="line-980"></span>is far more expensive. Moreover the cost of the phone
lines themselves is significant, and each line will be busy during the whole
duration of the interaction with the user. That means that users will get a
busy signal when the capacity of lines is <span class="anchor"
id="line-983"></span>reached. Offering appropriate capacities for voice
services is a major issue in <span class="anchor" id="line-984"></span>terms of
costs, particularly when the service is provided by individuals or <span
class="anchor" id="line-985"></span>small organizations. <span class="anchor"
id="line-986"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-987"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-988"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-989"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Strengths of Voice applications</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-990"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-991"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Voice applications present a set of advantages that have
attracted attention in the Development community. Among the major features, the
<span class="anchor" id="line-993"></span>following aspects are critical: <span
class="anchor" id="line-994"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-995"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Availability on all phones, mobile or not, and through a VoIP system
<span class="anchor" id="line-996"></span></li>
<li>Availability on all networks <span class="anchor"
id="line-997"></span></li>
<li>Operator independence: a content author does not have to deal with the
operators, or to get their agreement. Renting some phone lines (mobile or
not) is sufficient to build the required infrastructure, without the need
for further interaction with the operator. <span class="anchor"
id="line-998"></span></li>
<li>Predictable costs (most of the time, except when using overcharged
numbers) for the user <span class="anchor" id="line-999"></span></li>
<li>Easy access for people with low-reading skills: as mentioned in section
6.1.2, by providing information through an audio stream, Voice applications
are particularly adapted to people with low-reading skills <span
class="anchor" id="line-1000"></span></li>
<li>Delivery of content in all languages of the world: As mentioned in
section 6.1.3, the availability of services in local languages is critical
to leverage adoption and use of content and services. As of today, there is
only a very small set of languages supported in the ICT world. This is also
the case for TTS and SR engines. However it is always possible to design a
voice application with recorded audio files. In that case, it is possible
to use any language. In some cases, recording and using the voice of
someone who is trusted by the end-user might be a way for lowering the
trust barrier and increasing the confidence of the local populations in the
content delivered. <span class="anchor" id="line-1001"></span></li>
<li>Natural way of communication: Communicating by voice is a very natural
way to communicate in all cultures. Phone communication is common in all
regions. Using voice applications accessible through the same procedure as
a regular phone call makes them easy to use, requiring little or no
training for first time users. However, the applicability of IVR to customs
for initiation of a discussion, established in various spoken cultures,
needs to be studied. <span class="anchor" id="line-1002"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1003"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1004"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="Weaknesses"></span> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1005"></span><strong>Weaknesses of Voice
Applications</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-1006"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1007"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Voice applications have weaknesses and specific challenges
for <span class="anchor" id="line-1008"></span>both the users and the content
developers. <span class="anchor" id="line-1009"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1010"></span></p>
<p class="line874">For content developers, one of the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1011"></span>major challenges is centered around cost: <span
class="anchor" id="line-1012"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1013"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Cost of the infrastructure as mentioned previously. There are no real
hosting services widely available for voice applications, and therefore
service providers have to have their own infrastructure running 24 hours a
day. <span class="anchor" id="line-1014"></span></li>
<li><p class="line862">Cost of the additional modules such as TTS and SR.
There are very few free and open source initiatives in that area. The best
examples are <a class="http"
href="http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/">[96]Festival</a> for
TTS, and <a class="http"
href="http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/sphinx/">[97]sphinx</a> for SR which
support only few functionalities. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1015"></span></p>
</li>
<li>Cost of advertisement. There are no built-in discovery mechanisms for
voice applications. Therefore, content developers have to manage the
advertisement of their services through traditional channels. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1016"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1017"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1018"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">The second set of challenges is related to the required
expertise. Authoring voice <span class="anchor"
id="line-1019"></span>application is not an easy task. In most case (see the
proprietary PBX-based <span class="anchor" id="line-1020"></span>paragraph
later in this section), the development requires advanced programming <span
class="anchor" id="line-1021"></span>skills which limits the access to computer
scientist and programmers. Moreover, <span class="anchor"
id="line-1022"></span>the usability of Voice applications is another big
challenge. Although it can be difficult <span class="anchor"
id="line-1023"></span>for those without experience with voice application
development to grasp, the lack of output in the form of written content is a
significant issue. There are no widely available usability guidelines for voice
<span class="anchor" id="line-1025"></span>applications. While <span
class="anchor" id="line-1026"></span><a class="http"
href="http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&amp;amp;cpsidt=3635815">[98]the
needs for such guidelines have been recognized for a long time</a>, there are
<span class="anchor" id="line-1027"></span>still only very brief help guides
(see <a class="http" href="http://www.ivr-usability.com/guidelines.htm">[99]an
example of such guidelines</a>). However, it is important to note that new
voice development frameworks are now available to ease the tasks of developers,
and even enable people to provide content, and develop their own application by
voice, through a phone call. Examples of such framework:</p>
<ul>
<li><a
href="https://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.pubs.html/$FILE/VOISERV-IEEE-WowMom2007.pdf">[100]VOISERV:
Creation and Delivery of Converged Services through Voice for Emerging
Economies</a> </li>
<li><a
href="http://mobileactive.org/research/voikiosk-content-creation-and-dissemination-and-users-rural-areas">[101]VoiKiosk
: Content Creation and Dissemination by-and-for Users in Rural
Areas</a></li>
<li><a
href="http://www.researchintouse.com/downloads/spokenweb/Folksomaps_-_ICTD_09_-_April_09.pdf">[102]FOLKSOMAPS
- Towards Community Driven Intelligent Maps for Developing Regions</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Such initiatives are paving the road to lower the barriers of developing and
providing VoiceXML services and content.</p>
<p class="line874"><span class="anchor" id="line-1028"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1029"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Concerning the user issues, the first challenge is
discoverability. It is <span class="anchor" id="line-1030"></span>impossible
for someone to know what the available services that might be <span
class="anchor" id="line-1031"></span>useful are. One of the major strengths of
VoiceXML compared to other voice technologies is its integration with the Web
and its independence vis-a-vis the infrastructure. It is therefore possible to
search the Web and find existing VoiceXML services and applications, and build
portals to offer access to these services. It is even possible to link
different portals together. <span class="anchor" id="line-1032"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1033">There are examples of voice applications
directories such as <a
href="http://www.google.com/goog411/">[103]GOOG-4-1-1</a>, which are
referencing applications and their association with phone numbers, but this
requires the author of the application to advertise to all directories.
</span></p>
<p class="line874">The second important issue is around the nature of the
information provided through voice applications. Its <span class="anchor"
id="line-1034"></span>lifetime tends to be short and there is no built-in way
for the user to save or keep the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1035"></span>information or the audio stream for sharing with others,
or for re-listening <span class="anchor" id="line-1036"></span>or re-using the
information. Each time the information is needed, the cost of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1037"></span>accessing the service has to be paid
again, and the handset has to be within the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1038"></span>range of a network (no off-line/disconnected mode
capabilities).</p>
<p class="line874">There are initiatives to solve this issue. For example, some
services are now investigating the use of voice mailbox service available with
all subscriptions to provide information for multiple usages. There are also
some devices enabling the recording of the audio stream. An example is the <a
href="http://www.literacybridge.org/">[104]Literacy Bridge</a>.</p>
<p><strong>NB</strong>: This paragraph concerns the reuse by the end-user of
information provided by a voice service. It does not cover the case of
applications that are enriched through interaction with end-users. For
instance, some services have a body of information (like e.g. a Question and
Answer service) available, and if the end-user needs an answer not available,
the answer is delayed, provided later, and the service is completed for future
usage, reducing the time needed to access the information. This is a feature at
the application level, independent of the technology used to deliver the
information to people.</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Examples</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1047"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1048"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Below are three examples using <span class="anchor"
id="line-1051"></span>this technology: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1052"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1053"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.kubatana.net/html/ff/ff_cont.asp">[61]Freedom Fone by
Kubatana.net (Zimbabwe)</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1054"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.WWTW.html">[105]IBM
Spoken Web Initiative (India)</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1055"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.cwhonors.org/viewCaseStudy.asp?NominationID=199">[106]National
Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers (Colombia)</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1056"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1057"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Type of technologies and development
environments</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-1058"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1059"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are different options available to build Voice
applications. As <span class="anchor" id="line-1060"></span>mentioned in the
previous paragraph, the voice services rely on an underlying <span
class="anchor" id="line-1061"></span>infrastructure handling the calls and the
phone lines. This infrastructure as a <span class="anchor"
id="line-1062"></span>whole is called <span class="anchor"
id="line-1063"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_branch_exchange">[107]PBX or PABX
(Private Automatic Branch Exchange)</a>. These PABX could be an individual
piece of <span class="anchor" id="line-1064"></span>hardware or just software
on a desktop machine with appropriate extension card <span class="anchor"
id="line-1065"></span>receiving the phone lines (mobile or fixed). <span
class="anchor" id="line-1066"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1067"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Almost all PABX offer some capabilities (<a
href="#API">APIs</a>, tools, etc.) for developing <span class="anchor"
id="line-1068"></span>voice applications. However, those capabilities are in
various stages of development, they have different levels of accessibility by
non-technical specialists and exhibit various levels of standardization. Below,
we present briefly the most well-known <span class="anchor"
id="line-1071"></span>non-standardized option, and then focus on VoiceXML, the
standardized approach. <span class="anchor" id="line-1073"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1074"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em>Proprietary PBX-based solutions</em> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1075"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1076"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned above, almost every PABX provider has its own
feature list, <span class="anchor" id="line-1077"></span>and set of APIs for
development of voice applications. The major issue with such <span
class="anchor" id="line-1078"></span>solution is the proprietary aspect of the
solution. In general, the application <span class="anchor"
id="line-1079"></span>has to be specifically designed and developed for the
specific PABX, and is generally not easily portable on to other models. It is
particularly <span class="anchor" id="line-1081"></span>difficult to scale up
from a few-lines hardware to a larger infrastructure. Due to this proprietary
aspect, it is difficult for generic tools to offer a voice channel and
maintains support on all PABX. <span class="anchor" id="line-1084"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1085"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Having said that, it is important to note that one platform
is attracting <span class="anchor" id="line-1086"></span>particular attention
from NGOs and organization working in the development <span class="anchor"
id="line-1087"></span>sector. This is the free and open-source platform <span
class="anchor" id="line-1088"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.asterisk.org/">[108]Asterisk</a>. It is the most widely
available and popular software PABX <span class="anchor"
id="line-1089"></span>solution and has a strong and very active community
behind it. It <span class="anchor" id="line-1090"></span>accepts all the majors
commercial, or free TTS and SR engines, and various complementary <span
class="anchor" id="line-1091"></span>modules are freely available. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1092"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1093"></span></p>
<p class="line874">However, it is important to note that voice applications
developed on <span class="anchor" id="line-1094"></span>Asterisk work only on
this platform, and it requires extensive programming skills.<span
class="anchor" id="line-1096"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1097"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1098"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1099"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><em><a name="Standardiz" id="Standardiz">Standardized
infrastructure-independent solution: VoiceXML</a></em> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1100"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1101"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Since 1990, W3C is leading a global industry initiative,
called <span class="anchor" id="line-1102"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/">[109]Voice Browser Activity</a>, in charge of
<span class="anchor" id="line-1103"></span>developing a standardized Speech
Interface Framework around <span class="anchor" id="line-1104"></span><a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/Guide/#overview">[110]VoiceXML</a>.
This initiative, <span class="anchor" id="line-1105"></span>gathering all the
major PABX manufacturers and voice application specialists, <span
class="anchor" id="line-1106"></span>has as its major objective to provide a
way for application developers to use a <span class="anchor"
id="line-1107"></span>standardized layer for voice applications, independently
of the underlying <span class="anchor" id="line-1108"></span>PABX, and to
integrate voice applications on the Web. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1109"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1110"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The aim of VoiceXML is to use a standard way for voice to
access Web content, in the same way HTML is a standard for visual content.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1112"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1113"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The diagram below summarizes the functionalities and
commonalities between VoiceXML and HTML. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1115"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1116"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><img src="voicebrowserarch.png"
alt="picture representing voice browser and html bowser relationships"> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1117"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1118"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Like any Voice application engine, VoiceXML supports the use
of TTS, SR, and <span class="anchor" id="line-1119"></span>plain audio files.
The application is completely independent of the underlying <span
class="anchor" id="line-1120">PABX</span> infrastructure. All major PABX
providers, including <span class="anchor" id="line-1122"></span>Asterisk,
support VoiceXML directly or through third party extension modules. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1124"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1125"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The use of VoiceXML for voice applications presents a number
of <span class="anchor" id="line-1126"></span>advantages: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1127"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1128"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>As a standardized way of developing voice applications, VoiceXML is now
largely adopted by all players in the domain (PABX manufacturers, TTS and
SR developers, etc.), making it the most portable and reusable option. One
of the advantages of standardization is the availability of numerous tools
(TTS, SR, Authoring tools, etc.) which is a key factor of adoption. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1129"></span></li>
<li>Being an XML-based family of languages, VoiceXML can be manipulated
(generated, checked, parsed, etc.) with all the XML related tools.
Moreover, thanks to the availability of tools and its nature as a markup
language, the expertise required expertise for developing VoiceXML
applications is lower than the expertise required by traditional
programming languages. <span class="anchor" id="line-1130"></span></li>
<li><p class="line862">VoiceXML is a specific language, but the <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/voice-intro/">[41]W3C Speech
Interface Framework</a> is a complete family of languages that covers all
aspects of voice applications, including <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/">[95]Speech Recognition Grammar
Specification</a>, or <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis11/">[111]Speech Synthesis
Markup Language</a>. See the complete list of <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/#work">[112]Voice technology developed by
W3C</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-1131"></span></p>
</li>
<li>VoiceXML has been designed to be the way of accessing Web content through
voice. It is therefore implementing all concepts of the Web: <span
class="anchor" id="line-1132"></span>
<ul>
<li>The content is somewhere on the Internet, accessible and addressable
by a URI <span class="anchor" id="line-1133"></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The (voice) browser gets the content through HTTP (see the diagram
above). The voice browser is the piece of infrastructure where is the
PABX and the module being able to handle VoiceXML content (plus e.g. SR
and TTS engines). The VoiceXML content is served to the voice browser
through a plain traditional HTTP server. This means that all the
classical server-side generation technologies (such as e.g. PHP, ASP,
CGI, etc.) can be used to generate the voiceXML content on the fly.
This allows for the delivery of live information, and eases the
development of multi-channel applications (e.g. VoiceXML and HTML
content) that can rely on the same data (e.g. in a database). <span
class="anchor" id="line-1134"></span></li>
<li>VoiceXML content can have hyperlinks linking other VoiceXML
applications (or other content such as audio files) on the Web. This
feature allows the implementation of voice portals indexing voice
applications through e.g. a URI and a short description. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1135"></span></li>
<li>Because there is a complete separation between the content (being on
a web server) and the delivery taking place at the voice browser, it is
possible to imagine that voice portals could be built at a local level.
For example, governments or network operators can provide portals for
accessing content developed somewhere else. In such a setup, the cost
of delivery for the service developer is null, and this might be a way
towards an increase of the number of voice applications. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1136"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1137"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1138"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1139"></span></p>
<p class="line862">There are many free and open source tools available for
voice applications. Below is a list of some of these tools. The MW4D IG is <a
class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#vtools">[113]referencing a
preliminary list of these tools on its wiki</a>. This list does not aim to be
exhaustive, and there is a need for a more formal analysis of the tools
landscape in the VoiceXML area, and their compliance with the different
standards released by W3C. <span class="anchor" id="line-1140"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1141"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Free PBX platform <span class="anchor" id="line-1142"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.asterisk.org/">[108]Asterisk</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1143"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Free VoiceXML Browser <span class="anchor" id="line-1144"></span>
<ul>
<li>Module for Asterisk <span class="anchor" id="line-1145"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.voiceglue.org/">[114]Voice Glue, VoiceXML module
for Asterisk</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1146"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.i6net.com/products/vxi/">[115]VXI* VoiceXML
Browser, VoiceXML module for Asterisk</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1147"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/publicvoicexml/">[116]public
VoiceXML - a free complete voice Browser</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1148"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Free Text-to-Speech engine <span class="anchor" id="line-1149"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/">[96]Festival</a>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1150"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Free Speech Recognition engine <span class="anchor"
id="line-1151"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/sphinx/">[97]Sphinx</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1152"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.kenrehor.com/voicexml/#tools">[117]A review of VoiceXML
Development tools</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1153"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/#work">[112]W3C Voice Related
Specifications</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1154"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1155"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">It is important to note that while it is possible to build a
low-cost infrastructure for delivering voice and VoiceXML applications using a
combination of cheap hardware, Asterisk, and free Voice Browser modules,
advanced expertise is required, particularly to install and configure Asterisk
and the underlying operating system. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1156"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1157"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Future directions</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1158"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1159"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In this paragraph, we detail potential activities that <span
class="anchor" id="line-1162"></span>would increase the impact of these types
of applications, and the number of <span class="anchor"
id="line-1163"></span>usable and useful services available. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1164"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1165"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The first important point is to build a community around
this theme. As underlined in <span class="anchor" id="line-1169"></span><a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html">[87]the
last MW4D Workshop in April 2009</a> and evidenced by the examples mentioned
<span class="anchor" id="line-1166"></span>in <span class="anchor"
id="line-1167"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories">[12]MW4D wiki: Stories</a>,
more people and organizations are now field-testing <span class="anchor"
id="line-1170"></span>this technology. It is essential to create a forum to
exchange results and to identify key factors of success. It is also essential
to <span class="anchor" id="line-1172"></span>disseminate information about
available tools and solutions to ease implementation of low-cost voice
applications. <span class="anchor" id="line-1174"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1175"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The second important point is to raise awareness and promote
the use of the <span class="anchor" id="line-1176"></span>standardized,
web-integrated option, VoiceXML and its related set of languages. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1177"></span>VoiceXML has been originally developed by
the industry, for a business purpose. Meanwhile, the development community has
been focusing almost exclusively <span class="anchor" id="line-1179"></span>on
the use of the open source solution Asterisk. While Asterisk is great <span
class="anchor" id="line-1180"></span>software PABX tool, it should not be the
platform for application development. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1181"></span>There are free modules on top of Asterisk (see the <span
class="anchor" id="line-1182"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#vtools">[113]MW4D Wiki on voice
tools</a>) that enable VoiceXML applications. Unfortunately, the lack of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1183"></span>awareness on the potential of VoiceXML and
the availability of tools limits its <span class="anchor"
id="line-1184"></span>adoption in the development community. This task should
include training <span class="anchor" id="line-1185"></span>courses, and the
future development of degree/modules at Universities. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1186"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1187"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Thirdly, as noted in the tools section, there are <span
class="anchor" id="line-1188"></span>some tools available, but a formal
analysis on the tools landscape could help content authors. A study <span
class="anchor" id="line-1189"></span>of the tools' standard compliance, how
they work together (TTS, SR, voice browser, authoring <span class="anchor"
id="line-1190"></span>tools, etc.) and what gaps there are in their
availability is needed. <span class="anchor" id="line-1191"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1192"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The fourth aspect focuses on language. As mentioned in
Section <span class="anchor" id="line-1193"></span>6.1.3, there are only few
languages supported by TTS and SR engines. Those <span class="anchor"
id="line-1194"></span>modules are critical for easing the task of content
authors, and therefore it <span class="anchor" id="line-1195"></span>is
necessary to establish easy-to-implement process for supporting new <span
class="anchor" id="line-1196"></span>languages in these modules. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1197"></span><a class="http"
href="http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/docs/ict4d06/speech_recognition_illiterate-mp.pdf">[118]Some
work has already started</a>, but a more global initiative on this topic is
<span class="anchor" id="line-1198"></span>required. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1199"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1200"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The fifth aspect mentioned earlier is the lack of usability
guidelines. This <span class="anchor" id="line-1201"></span>is not specifically
related to work in Developing Countries, but usability guidelines are critical
to enable more potential authors to develop usable voice <span class="anchor"
id="line-1203"></span>applications. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1204"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1205"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Finally, one of the key barriers today is still the
infrastructure. It is <span class="anchor" id="line-1206"></span>almost
impossible for individual organizations to provide an appropriate <span
class="anchor" id="line-1207"></span>infrastructure. The availability of such
infrastructure, or global hosting <span class="anchor"
id="line-1208"></span>service, is critical for the real take-off of this
technology. This is <span class="anchor" id="line-1209"></span>relatively easy
to implement at an operator level, and there are already such <span
class="anchor" id="line-1210"></span>hosting services available on the Web,
even for free (see <span class="anchor" id="line-1211"></span><a class="https"
href="https://studio.tellme.com/">[119]Tellme Studio</a>), but these services
are <span class="anchor" id="line-1212"></span>for now almost exclusively
providing phone numbers in the USA. Implementing <span class="anchor"
id="line-1213"></span>something similar to application stores at an operator or
country level might <span class="anchor" id="line-1214"></span>be a way to have
an affordable scalable hosting solution. Another approach to addressing the
same issue might be toward packaging some tools together in an easy-to-use,
easy-to-setup low-cost solution for setting up a minimal infrastructure for the
deployment of voice applications. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1215"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1216"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h3 id="head-e9fb7689e37cf3dab965560416e8fc5d8a994e71">7.2 Applications using
the signalling channel of mobile network</h3>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1217"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1218"></span>
<p class="line874">This section is about technologies using the signalling
channel of the <span class="anchor" id="line-1219"></span>mobile network.
Mobile networks have a dedicated channel, called signalling <span
class="anchor" id="line-1220"></span>channel, used to monitor network
operations, and monitor activities on <span class="anchor"
id="line-1221"></span>the other channels (voice and data). Since the early days
of GSM, the network <span class="anchor" id="line-1222"></span>standards have
included the implementation of two protocols or technologies to <span
class="anchor" id="line-1223"></span>exchange information using this signalling
channel, <span class="anchor" id="line-1224"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service">[1]Short Message
Service (SMS)</a>, and <span class="anchor" id="line-1225"></span><a
class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data">[2]Unstructured
Supplementary Service Data</a> (USSD). In the last part of this section, we
also briefly explore a more recent technology called <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast">[120]Cell Broadcast</a>.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1226"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1227"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Before discussing the specificities of each technology, we
<span class="anchor" id="line-1228"></span>introduce the characteristics
specific to the signalling channel. In subsections 7.2.2, 7.2.3 and 7.2.4
respectively, we <span class="anchor" id="line-1229"></span>investigate SMS
technology, USSD and Cell Broadcast. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1231"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1232"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-19f8b029bd93ce3a05a03c6a54fa071bb77a6a01">7.2.1 Using the
Signalling Channel of mobile networks</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1233"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1234"></span>
<p class="line874">The use of this specific channel as the transport layer for
applications has <span class="anchor" id="line-1235"></span>some constraints
and specificities. This type of channels is part <span class="anchor"
id="line-1236"></span>of the GSM specifications and a characteristic of mobile
networks only. <span class="anchor" id="line-1237"></span>Therefore, it is
impossible to develop applications based on this <span class="anchor"
id="line-1238"></span>infrastructure in the absence of a mobile network (e.g.
using other types of <span class="anchor" id="line-1239"></span>connectivity
other than mobile networks such as Bluetooth, Wifi or Wimax). <span
class="anchor" id="line-1240"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1241"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of internationalization, there are still many
network operators which do not <span class="anchor"
id="line-1242"></span>support appropriate <span class="anchor"
id="line-1243"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encoding">[121]characters
encoding</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1244"></span>on the signalling
channel which would allow all characters of the world to be <span
class="anchor" id="line-1245"></span>represented. The GSM specification makes
mandatory the support of GSM 7-bit <span class="anchor"
id="line-1246"></span>alphabet, but optional the support of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1247"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8">[122]UTF-8</a> and <span
class="anchor" id="line-1248"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16">[123]UTF-16</a> which does allow
encoding <span class="anchor" id="line-1249"></span>of all characters. See e.g.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1250"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service">[124]details on
message size and structure for SMS.</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1251"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1252"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of availability, because SMS and USSD are part of
the GSM <span class="anchor" id="line-1253"></span>specifications, they are
supported on all mobile networks and all handsets. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1254"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1255"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of capabilities, the signalling channel is
supporting text only. <span class="anchor" id="line-1256"></span>There is no
way to support any other type of data than text. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1257"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1258"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-0df863c6ebe1ac9b514ab82c0e828856f3e90457">7.2.2 SMS</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1259"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1260"></span>
<p class="line874">In this section, we investigate the use of SMS for
delivering content and <span class="anchor" id="line-1261"></span>services to
people. In the first part, we introduce the basic idea, and address <span
class="anchor" id="line-1262"></span>general strengths and issues associated
with these types of applications. In the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1263"></span>second part we present the different options and
technological solutions to <span class="anchor" id="line-1264"></span>develop
such applications. <span class="anchor" id="line-1265"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1266"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: It is important to note that in this
section the term <span class="anchor" id="line-1267"></span>SMS application
covers the case of applications using SMS as the transport <span class="anchor"
id="line-1268"></span>protocol, and as SMS client and functionalities
(reception and emission) on the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1269"></span>handset. There are nowadays applications (see e.g. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1270"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Microsites/Entry_Event/phones/Nokia_Life_Tools_datasheet.pdf">[39]Nokia
life tools</a> or <a
href="http://www.frontlinesms.com/forms/">[125]frontlineSMS <span
class="anchor" id="line-1271"></span>form</a>) using SMS as the
transport/network protocol only, exclusively or in <span class="anchor"
id="line-1272"></span>the absence/unavailability of other network technologies.
It is out of the scope of <span class="anchor" id="line-1273"></span>this
document to discuss and compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1274"></span>each network technology used at the
network layer. Those types of applications, <span class="anchor"
id="line-1275"></span>by requiring download, installation or use of a specific
application on the <span class="anchor" id="line-1276"></span>handset, are
studied in the section 7.3.3, while the constraints described in <span
class="anchor" id="line-1277"></span>section 7.2.1 still apply. In any case, it
is important to mention that, given the current pricing scheme adopted by most
operators, SMS is the most expensive option, in terms of price per character,
to deliver content to users. <span class="anchor" id="line-1278"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1279"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Overview</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1280"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1281"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Originally, SMS was designed to be a person-to-person text
messaging system, <span class="anchor" id="line-1282"></span>but then evolved
to be used as a way to deliver information to people. There <span
class="anchor" id="line-1283"></span>are two types of applications, based on
the way the information is provided to <span class="anchor"
id="line-1284"></span>the user: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1285"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1286"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line862">Broadcasting of information (push method): the
information is provided to users when the service decides it, or when the
information is available. The user can usually just subscribe or
unsubscribe from the service. Typical services are alerts (e.g. <a
class="http" href="http://www.wap.ait.ac.th/tsunami.html">[126]Tsunami
alerts system in Thailand</a>), or weather forecast. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1287"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line862">User-driven services (pull method): the user sends an
SMS to the phone number associated with a specific SMS service with one or
more keywords and associated content in the body of the message. The SMS
system receives the SMS, parses it, and according to the keyword and
information provided, builds an answer and sends it back to the user, in
one or more messages. Even if SMS is a stateless protocol, it is possible
to have a service implementing multiple cycles and interactions with the
user, through e.g. identification of the <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID">[66]callerID</a>. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1288"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1289"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1290"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">All the SMS platforms, also known as <span class="anchor"
id="line-1291"></span><a class="http"
href="http://wiki.mobiles.tacticaltech.org/index.php/SMS_hubs">[127]SMS
Hubs</a>, <span class="anchor" id="line-1292"></span>offer the possibility to
manage different keywords, different actions based on <span class="anchor"
id="line-1293"></span>keywords and callerID, and different groups of users.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1294"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1295"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Costs</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1296"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1297"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As presented in sections 6.1.5 and 6.2.4, there are
different costs associated with <span class="anchor"
id="line-1298"></span>development, deployment and access to SMS applications:
access price for the <span class="anchor" id="line-1299"></span>user, delivery
cost for delivering the service, and infrastructure and hosting <span
class="anchor" id="line-1300"></span>costs for setting up the service. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1301"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1302"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In term of access price for the user, the reception of SMS
is free (except in <span class="anchor" id="line-1303"></span>the US). All the
information received from the system is therefore free. The <span
class="anchor" id="line-1304"></span>user pays only the messages s/he is
sending to the service. It is important to <span class="anchor"
id="line-1305"></span>note that in some cases the reception of content is not
free, or the sending of <span class="anchor" id="line-1306"></span>a SMS to a
number is over-charged. This is known as <span class="anchor"
id="line-1307"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">[60]premium-rated SMS services</a>.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1308"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1309"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of delivery cost, in all cases, the service
providers have to pay <span class="anchor" id="line-1310"></span>SMS sent to
the users. The cost of each SMS depends on the service and user origin networks
(inter-operator SMS are more expensive than <span class="anchor"
id="line-1312"></span>intra-operator SMS). In order to reduce these costs,
almost all SMS hubs <span class="anchor" id="line-1313"></span>support the
management of multiple modems, and multiple subscriptions, that <span
class="anchor" id="line-1314"></span>allow the service to select the least
expensive options. There are also some <span class="anchor"
id="line-1315"></span>services available like <a class="http"
href="http://www.clickatell.com/">[128]clickatell</a> or <span class="anchor"
id="line-1316"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.bulksms.com/">[129]bulkSMS</a> which are providing SMS sending
<span class="anchor" id="line-1317"></span>in various networks at reduced
costs, but require an Internet connection. Despite these potential ways <span
class="anchor" id="line-1318"></span>of reducing this part of the service
operation, this cost is still a major barrier <span class="anchor"
id="line-1319"></span>to deploying SMS services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1320"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1321"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In terms of infrastructure and hosting costs, in order to
deliver an SMS <span class="anchor" id="line-1322"></span>service, the content
provider has to have an SMS hub which is the place where <span class="anchor"
id="line-1323"></span>the service is run and delivered to the users. There are
few software SMS hubs, <span class="anchor" id="line-1324"></span>that require
only a PC and a GSM modem (that can be just a mobile phone <span class="anchor"
id="line-1325"></span>connected to the PC). See e.g. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1326"></span><a class="http"
href="http://mobiles.tacticaltech.org/HowtosetupanSMShub">[130]How to build a
SMS Hub</a>. This piece of infrastructure has to run 24 hours day (or at least
<span class="anchor" id="line-1327"></span>during the supposed working hours of
the service). <span class="anchor" id="line-1328"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1329"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Strengths of SMS</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1330"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1331"></span></p>
<p class="line874">SMS applications present a set of characteristics which make
them the most-used technology in the development sector. Among the major
features, the <span class="anchor" id="line-1333"></span>following aspects are
critical: <span class="anchor" id="line-1334"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1335"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Availability on all mobile phones <span class="anchor"
id="line-1336"></span></li>
<li>Availability on all networks <span class="anchor"
id="line-1337"></span></li>
<li>Operator independence: a content author does not have to deal with
network operators, or get their agreement. Getting a mobile subscription
and a mobile phone or GSM modem is enough to build the required
infrastructure, without interacting further with the operator. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1338"></span></li>
<li>Predictable low costs (most of the time, except when using premium rate
services) for the user <span class="anchor" id="line-1339"></span></li>
<li>Low required expertise for application development: many SMS Hubs are
usable by non-programmers withmany existing applications implemented by
NGOs without technical background <span class="anchor"
id="line-1340"></span></li>
<li>Ease of use for end-user: because SMS applications use the same
functionalities and software on the phone as the traditional
person-to-person text messaging, it is very easy to use, and no
configuration or installation is required. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1341"></span></li>
<li>Availability of tools and examples: there are today many examples
available all over the world of SMS services for development, in diverse
domains like agriculture, education, health, etc. Lots of these services
have been developed through free and open source tools. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1342"></span></li>
<li>Lasting and reusable information: As SMS messages are stored on the
handset, all interactions and the information received are recorded and
re-usable later. People can easily share information, or access the content
of the service multiple times without paying for the service again. That's
said, it is important to note that while for some services, that would be a
good feature (sharing news, weather forecast, price of goods, etc.), in
some other cases, e.g. human rights violation reports, HIV related advice
request, this might constitute a security and privacy issue, particularly
where phones are shared. <span class="anchor" id="line-1343"></span></li>
<li>Built-in off-line mode: One of the key features of SMS is also the
built-in off-line mode. Related to the previous point, it is possible for
people to have access to previously received SMS messages, even if there is
no network in the range of the handset. It is also possible to write SMS
messages and send them while there is no network in the range of the
handset. As soon as the network is again accessible, all SMS messages are
automatically sent. This is an important feature for e.g. data collection.
<strong>NB</strong>: because there is no way for a sender to know if
his/her SMS has been correctly delivered, this feature, in some cases,
might also be an issue.<span class="anchor" id="line-1344"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1345"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1346"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Weaknesses of SMS</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1347"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1348"></span></p>
<p class="line874">SMS applications have also some weaknesses and specific
challenges for both <span class="anchor" id="line-1349"></span>the user and the
content developer. <span class="anchor" id="line-1350"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1351"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Concerning content developer challenges, as mentioned
earlier, one of the <span class="anchor" id="line-1352"></span>major issue is
around cost: <span class="anchor" id="line-1353"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1354"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Cost of the infrastructure as mentioned in the costs paragraph. There are
no real hosting services widely available for SMS applications, and
therefore service providers have to have their own infrastructure running
24 hours a day. That said, it is important to note that there is no real
issue of scalability like for voice applications. One GSM line is enough to
handle the traffic because the messages are queued by the operator untill
treatment or reception. If the infrastructure is overloaded, there will be
delays in receiving and answering SMS messages but there is usually no loss
of messages. <span class="anchor" id="line-1355"></span></li>
<li>Cost of the delivery of service: The costs of delivering SMS to end-users
are significant and remain a critical barrier <span class="anchor"
id="line-1356">for service providers</span></li>
<li>Cost of advertisement. There is no built-in discovery mechanism for SMS
applications, and therefore, content developers have to manage the
advertisement of the service, through traditional channels. There is no
easy way to implement portals in SMS across different SMS Hub. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1357"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1358"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1359"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">The second challenge for developers is the lack of
standardized interfaces for SMS Hub. While the low-level APIs to manage SMS and
the GSM modem are standardized, the application level is not, which make almost
impossible the transfer of one application from one SMS hub to another. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1364">It is also important to mention that there is no
initiative currently exploring the integration of SMS on the Web in a similar
way as voiceXML is used in the integration of voice applications of the Web.
Past initiatives, such as</span><span class="anchor" id="line-13641"><a
href="http://www.smsforum.net/">[131]SMS Forum</a>, used to explore some of
these issues, but have stopped their activities. The launch of a new initiative
in that area might be useful, but would also be questionable in terms of
long-term impact, and the foreseen lifetime of SMS technology as an application
platform.</span></p>
<p class="line874">The third challenge for developer is the limitation of the
technology. Not <span class="anchor" id="line-1365"></span>only each message is
limited at best to 160 characters, but complex multi-cycle <span class="anchor"
id="line-1366"></span>interactions with the user are complex to implement, and
not offered by most <span class="anchor" id="line-1367"></span>popular SMS Hubs
(and would also be costly for both the user and the service provider). For
query-based services (weather forecast, price <span class="anchor"
id="line-1368"></span>of goods, etc.) these limitations would not be a huge
issue, but for e.g. filling a <span class="anchor" id="line-1369"></span>set of
successive forms, this would be an issue. </p>
<p class="line874">Concerning the user issues, the first challenge is
discoverability. It is <span class="anchor" id="line-1372"></span>impossible
for someone to know what the available services that might be <span
class="anchor" id="line-1373"></span>useful are, and even if the number is
known, what the keywords to put in the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1374"></span>message are. This is a problem particularly if the number
of SMS services is <span class="anchor" id="line-1375"></span>growing. There is
no way, like e.g. for voice application to record the phone <span
class="anchor" id="line-1376"></span>numbers with the keywords in the handset
contact list. <span class="anchor" id="line-1377"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1378"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The second challenge is related to the fact that only
textual information <span class="anchor" id="line-1379"></span>is available.
This is a major issue when targeting population with low <span class="anchor"
id="line-1380"></span>reading skills. That's one of the major problems
mentioned by SMS service <span class="anchor" id="line-1381"></span>providers,
who are often moving from SMS to Voice applications (or adding a <span
class="anchor" id="line-1382"></span>voice access to their service). <span
class="anchor" id="line-1383"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1384"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Finally, as mentioned in section 7.2.1, lots of languages
are not supported <span class="anchor" id="line-1385"></span>on SMS, and
therefore, it is impossible to deliver SMS services in local <span
class="anchor" id="line-1386"></span>languages in many regions of the world,
not because of the limited capabilities <span class="anchor"
id="line-1387"></span>of the handset or unavailability of fonts, but because of
the inability of the <span class="anchor" id="line-1388"></span>network to
support the right encoding. It is important to note also that the
implementation of the right encoding has an impact of the size of the SMS
message available for user-data. For instance a 8bit-encoding, required to
support e.g. accentuated Latin characters, allows 140 characters, and a
16bit-encoding needed for Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Cyrillic
alphabet allows 70 characters only. </p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Example</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1393"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1394"></span></p>
<p class="line874">SMS applications have been the most popular technology used
so far in the <span class="anchor" id="line-1395"></span>development sector,
and there are many examples of such services. The <span class="anchor"
id="line-1396"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/">[132]MW4D Wiki</a> is keeping <span
class="anchor" id="line-1397"></span><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories/">[75]a list of stories and
related projects on different domains</a> such as agriculture, education,
health, <span class="anchor" id="line-1398"></span>government services and so
on. Most of them are SMS services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1399"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1400"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1401"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1402"></span></p>
<p class="line862">There are many free and open source tools available for SMS
applications. Below is a list of some of these tools. The MW4D IG is <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#sms">[133]referencing
a longer list of these tools in its wiki</a>. However, this list does not aim
at being exhaustive. There are a huge number of SMS Hubs, some are more
developer-oriented and some are more user-oriented. The list of tools also
includes tools that can be associated with SMS Hub for integrating an SMS
channel for feeding or providing information from a Web-based application. See
an example of such setup with e.g. <a class="http"
href="http://www.ushahidi.com/">[134]Ushahidi crow-sourcing platform</a>. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1403"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1404"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>SMS Hub <span class="anchor" id="line-1405"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.frontlinesms.com/">[135]frontlineSMS</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1406"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://rapidsms.sourceforge.net/">[136]RapidSMS</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1407"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/2bdeb3c6-9945-4804-a9bc-0d53704d35da/default.aspx">[137]MSR
SMS Toolkit</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1408"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Platform integrating a SMS channel <span class="anchor"
id="line-1409"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://ushahidi.com/">[138]Ushahidi</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1410"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.mobilisr.org/features">[139]Mobilisr</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1411"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Services for sending SMS at low prices in many countries <span
class="anchor" id="line-1413"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.clickatell.com/">[128]clickatell</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1414"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.bulksms.com/">[129]bulksms</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1415"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1416"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1417"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Future directions</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1418"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1419"></span></p>
<p class="line874">SMS is clearly today the leading platform for delivering
content and <span class="anchor" id="line-1420"></span>services to people.
While this technology presents some critical limitations <span class="anchor"
id="line-1421"></span>related to access barriers existing in the context of
developing countries, it is <span class="anchor" id="line-1422"></span>still in
many cases the only available option. With the evolution of mobile <span
class="anchor" id="line-1423"></span>networks and handsets, and the needs for
higher level of applications, the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1424"></span>situation will surely change in the near future but in
the meantime, it is <span class="anchor" id="line-1425"></span>important to
lower the barriers for potential content providers, and ease <span
class="anchor" id="line-1426"></span>access to such services. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1427"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1428"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In order to slightly decrease the access barriers,
particularly around the <span class="anchor" id="line-1429"></span>availability
of local languages, it is essential to promote a wide support of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1430"></span>appropriate encoding by all network
operators. This is a critical piece in the <span class="anchor"
id="line-1431"></span>infrastructure in order to offer services in all
languages. <span class="anchor" id="line-1432"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1433"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The cost of sending SMS is the major issue for potential
service providers. <span class="anchor" id="line-1434"></span>Lots of voices in
the community are advocating for lower costs of SMS for <span class="anchor"
id="line-1435"></span>development-oriented applications, particularly because
there is no cost <span class="anchor" id="line-1436"></span>associated with SMS
and the use of the signalling channel for the operator. See <span
class="anchor" id="line-1437"></span>e.g. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1438"></span><a class="http"
href="http://manypossibilities.net/2009/02/a-modest-proposal-the-1-cent-sms/">[140]A
Modest Proposal - The 1 cent SMS blog post</a> by Steve Song. Such initiative
<span class="anchor" id="line-1439"></span>will surely unleash the number of
potential content authors. <span class="anchor" id="line-1440"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1441"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The second aspect, which is more in the scope of this
document, is to work <span class="anchor" id="line-1442"></span>towards a
better integration of SMS channel in web applications. As mentioned <span
class="anchor" id="line-1443"></span>earlier in this section, while there are
some initiatives and platforms <span class="anchor"
id="line-1444"></span>considering SMS has a channel for feeding and retrieving
Web applications and <span class="anchor" id="line-1445"></span>content, most
of the SMS applications are standalone ones, and SMS Hub are both <span
class="anchor" id="line-1446"></span>a piece of the infrastructure and the
application development environment. Some work, guidelines or APIs around
easing the integration of web <span class="anchor"
id="line-1450"></span>applications and SMS infrastructure (hubs and handsets)
would surely help having more web applications using <span class="anchor"
id="line-1451"></span>this channel, and having more people being able to access
and use some Web <span class="anchor" id="line-1452"></span>content and
services through SMS. <span class="anchor" id="line-1453"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1454"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1455"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1456"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-e744dbc0c19cf93b75bdf42da7da00460a8c7801">7.2.3 USSD</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1457"></span>
<p class="line874">In this section, we investigate the use of Unstructured
Supplementary Services Data (USSD) for delivering content and services to
people. In the first part, we introduce the basic idea, and the general
strengths and issues associated with this type of applications. In the second
part we present the different options and technological solutions to develop
such applications. <span class="anchor" id="line-1458"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1459"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Overview</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1460"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1461"></span></p>
<p class="line874">USSD is a GSM specification service that allows instant
interactive communication between the subscribers and applications platform on
a GSM Network. USSD services are a very simple connection-oriented service.
They are similar to IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) that access
services using the keypad instead of voice. USSD services can be requested by
the user (pull method) or broadcasted by the network operator (push method).
From the handset, the access to a specific service is done through dialling a
specific string, starting with the character '*', finishing with the character
'#', and containing a suite of numbers, and * sign. The interaction with the
service is session-oriented, and is achieved through a set of menus sent to the
user. Compared to SMS, there isn't a way to store the information received on
the handset, and USSD services are not usable off-line. An example of USSD
transaction would be dialling a shortcode such as *151# or similar numbers in
between * and # to access services such as balance enquiry, receive alerts,
information services, voucher transactions, and to top-up prepay phones. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1462"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1463"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Strengths of USSD</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1464"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1465"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The biggest advantage of USSD is the fact that there is
usually no billing mechanism associated with USSD, and therefore, the use of
USSD services are free for the user in most countries. However, this might
change in the future, as some operators are invoicing the use of USSD channel.
See <a
href="http://help.vodacom.co.za/customercare/wss/faq.asp?id=18">[62]Vodacom</a>
and <a href="http://www.mtn.co.za/SUPPORT/FAQ/Pages/USSD.aspx">[63]MTN</a> in
South Africa. </p>
<p class="line874"><span class="anchor" id="line-1466">From an authoring
perspective, because the protocol is session-based, USSD is particularly well
designed for interactive communication between the user and the service, and
for multi-cycle communications.</span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1467"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Weaknesses of USSD</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1468"></span></p>
<p class="line867">The major weakness of USSD is that a service developer can
not implement a service independently of and without the operator. The access
to the USSD <span class="anchor" id="line-1470"></span>platform and the use of
one specific code for the service have to be dealt <span class="anchor"
id="line-1471"></span>by the network operator. In the context of this document,
this is a critical <span class="anchor" id="line-1472"></span>limitation, which
explains also the relative lack of tools and support for this <span
class="anchor" id="line-1473"></span>technology. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1474"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1475"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Another critical point, due to the strong ties between USSD
and network <span class="anchor" id="line-1476"></span>operators, is the
limited scope of one USSD service that can be associated with <span
class="anchor" id="line-1477"></span>only one network operator. </p>
<p class="line874"><span class="anchor" id="line-1478">Finally, it is also
important to mention the fact that USSD services are faced with the same issue
as voice technologies when it comes to the lack of a persistent record of the
information which was communicated during the use of the service.</span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1479">When the USSD session ends, all the information
delivered during the session is lost, and there is no way for the user to save
it.</span><span class="anchor" id="line-1480"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1481"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1482"></span></p>
<p class="line862">There are generic toolkits integrating USSD modules. An
example is <a class="http" href="http://www.mobilisr.org/">[141]the Mobilsr
platform</a>. This <span class="anchor" id="line-1483"></span>technology is
still very rarely available on most platforms, and it remains <span
class="anchor" id="line-1484"></span>very hard to develop such services. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1485"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1486"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1487"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Examples</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1488"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1489"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Due to the limitation of the technology, and the lack of
standardized API <span class="anchor" id="line-1490"></span>and easy access,
there are only very few examples of services using this <span class="anchor"
id="line-1491"></span>technology. One example has been presented at the <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/">[5]MW4D Workshop in
April 2009</a>: <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/kdetolly.pdf">[142]Use of USSD
for HIV/AIDS behaviour change communications (South Africa)</a> (see also <a
class="http"
href="http://www.cell-life.org/cellphones-4-hiv/mobilisr?1768f84c07a3a208150af5c12451b8b9=7d449c4e5ea2f055cb275d4f0947550f">[143]Cellphones-4-HIV</a>
a resource with additional information about the same example). <span
class="anchor" id="line-1493"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1494"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Most network operators tend to offer USSD services to their
<span class="anchor" id="line-1495"></span>customers. Such services include
topping-up prepaid card balances, m-banking and call-me back services. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1496"></span>See the example of <a class="http"
href="http://www.sl.zain.com/en/phone-services/ussd-services/index.html">[144]services
provided by Zain in Sierra Leone</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1497"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1498"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1499"></span></p>
<p class="line874">In conclusion, as of today, the use of USSD as a technology
to deliver <span class="anchor" id="line-1500"></span>content and applications
to end-users is not very straightforward due to the lack of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1501"></span>tools, and the lack of easy access to the
USSD platform without discussions <span class="anchor"
id="line-1502"></span>with the network operators. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1503"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1504"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-c86bbee0fb033ace8c04e0246a961352311de703">7.2.4 Cell Broadcast</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1505"></span>
<p class="line874">Cell Broadcast (CB) is a mobile technology that allows
messages to be broadcast to all mobile handsets within a designated area. CB
messaging can be supported by most mobile network operators as it is defined by
the ETSI's GSM committee and is part of the GSM standard. CB is designed for
simultaneous delivery of messages to multiple users in a specified area.
Whereas the Short Message Service - Point to Point (SMS-PP) is a one-to-one
service, or, with the inclusion of an SMS Hub, a one-to-a-few service, Cell
Broadcast is a genuine one-to-many, geographically-focused, messaging service.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1506"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1507"></span></p>
<p class="line874">A Cell Broadcast message page comprises 82 octets, which,
using the default character set, equates to 93 characters. Up to 15 of these
pages may be concatenated to form a Cell Broadcast message. Each page of the
message will have the same message identifier and serial number that identifies
the source of the message. Using this information, the mobile telephone is able
to identify and ignore broadcasts of already received messages. CB messages are
directed to radio cells, rather than to a specific terminal. A Cell Broadcast
message is an unconfirmed push service, meaning that the originator of the
message does not know who has received the message, allowing for services based
on anonymity. CB is similar to other mass distribution media such as Teletext
or Radio Data System (RDS). To support this feature the network operator
requires a Cell Broadcast Center (CBC) to enable the mass distribution of local
information to mobile subscribers via the various base station controllers BSCs
while not taxing network resources. <span class="anchor" id="line-1508"></span>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1509"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1510"></span></p>
<p><img src="cellbroadcast.jpg" alt="CellBRoadcast schema"></p>
<p class="line874">In the developed world, CB technology is typically used in
deploying location-based subscriber services, such as local weather and traffic
conditions. CB can also be used for managing and communicating with remote
teams such as emergency services or volunteers. The emergency services could
send an encrypted message to all officers or other staff in a certain area to
respond to an incident. Cell Broadcast is ideal for delivering local or
regional information suited to all the people in that area, rather than just
one or a few people. Examples include hazard warnings, cinema programs, local
weather; health concerns flight or bus delays, tourist information, parking and
traffic information. <span class="anchor" id="line-1511"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1512"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The main use of this technology in developing nations is for
deploying Early Warning System (EWS) for citizens. CB can be used warning
system by governments to contact citizens on their mobile phones to warn them
of incidents in a particular area. Some countries have already adopted this
technique for early warning, supplementing existing forms of communication like
sirens, or radio and TV. <span class="anchor" id="line-1513"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1514"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Strengths of Cell Broadcast</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1515"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1516"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>The advantage of this system is that it allows sending messages without
having to know the phone numbers of the users in the region. Instead of
sending a message to a specific known mobile phone, you can send a text to
all mobile phones in a specific zone enabling fast mass communication.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1517"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1518"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Regardless of network state (congested or not) CB is always
available. As opposed to SMS, CB is part of the so-called 'low-level'
signalling between handset and network. In case of network congestion it
will be impossible to use regular voice and SMS services while CB will
remain fully functioning. It is not as affected by traffic load; therefore,
it may be usable during a disaster when load spikes tend to crash networks.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1519"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1520"></span></li>
<li class="gap">The CB is a mature system that has been around for over a
decade and robust to support national public warning systems. Examples of
national implementations exist in Japan, Netherlands and USA. CB is
specified in GSM and in UMTS and will be specified in LTE, the successor of
UMTS, making it future proof. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1521"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1522"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Every handset including roaming (example: foreign and
national roaming MVNOs) connected to the network receives the message. When
someone has the warning service enabled and this person visits another
country, this person will also receive warning messages, provided that the
local network also offers the warning service. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1523"></span></li>
<li>There is no cost to the subscriber to receive the message. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1524"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1525"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Weaknesses of Cell Broadcast</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1526"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1527"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Cell Broadcast is a feature of the network, and some operators do not
have the Cell Broadcast messaging function activated in their network yet.
Every operator needs to have a CB Center and CB functionality enabled in
its network to deliver the service. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1528"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1529"></span></li>
<li class="gap">There are numerous handsets that do not have the capability
to support the display of the cell broadcast message properly. See notes on
handset support for CB. <span class="anchor" id="line-1530"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1531"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Another problem is that the user can switch the receiving of
Cell Broadcast messages option on or off. This means that the operator has
no means of knowing who is receiving the message. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1532"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1533"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Although sending of messages are free, there is an initial
cost for the network operator to set up a CB center used to compose and
deliver the messages onto the mobile network for delivery to the handsets.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1534"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1535"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Enabling the CB functionality in a handset will lead to
increased battery consumption. The additional battery consumption is
calculated to be very small, especially compared to today's features such
as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UMTS, full color displays, and built-in MP3 players,
which consume far more battery power (See <a
href="http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-9491">[197]Support
for Cell Broadcast as Global Emergency Alert System thesis</a>). <span
class="anchor" id="line-1536"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1537"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1538"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1539"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The major issue with CB for a service developer is that it
is impossible to use this service independently of the network operator.
Although access to the CBC center can be provided to a third party, the
platform must be installed and maintained by the network operator. In the
context of this document, this is a critical limitation, which explains also
the complete lack of tools and support for this technology. There are no free
tools and utilities, and all components are provided by commercial equipment
manufacturers. <span class="anchor" id="line-1540"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1541"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Handset Support for CB</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1542"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1543"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Intensive validation tests of GSM mobile terminals by the
Cell Broadcast Forum revealed that there is a wide variety of different Cell
Broadcast implementations currently in the market. This variety is the result
of a missing GSM/UMTS (3GPP) Technical Specification of the series 02.xx. There
is no specification that discusses how a mobile phone is to receive, display
and store CB messages. This is why the different handsets handle and support
the message in different ways. The Cell Broadcast Forum intends to reduce the
variety of implementations by defining some basic requirements pointing to a
future homogeneous mobile terminal behavior. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1544"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1545"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Examples</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1546"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1547"></span></p>
<p class="line874">NTT Docomo in Japan offers Alert Mail since November 2007.
It is a CB service that provides warnings for earthquake and tsunamis. NTT
Docomo supplies mobile handsets to their customers that have a specific
configuration menu where the user can chose to receive earthquake warnings
and/or tsunami warnings. Furthermore, the volume and duration of the dedicated
alert tone can be set in this menu. The Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System
(ETWS) is currently being standardized in 3GPP. Once that has been concluded
other tsunami and earthquake prone countries, mostly in Asia, may deploy the
same service. <span class="anchor" id="line-1548"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1549"></span></p>
<p class="line862">The Disaster Management Center (DMC) of Sri Lanka in
collaboration with Dialog Telekom launched Sri Lanka's first mass alert warning
system in 2009 called Disaster &amp; Emergency Warning Network (DEWN). The
Emergency Operations Center of the DMC has been given access to the secure DEWN
alerting interface. When information is received by the DMC, the information is
verified and alerts can be issued. In a potential disaster scenario, the DMC
will first use DEWN to alert the emergency personnel on their individual
phones, and public alerts will be issued only when a threat is adequately
verified. In addition to messages received on mobile phones, specially designed
DEWN remote alarms will also be used to alert nominated emergency personnel.
<span class="anchor" id="line-1550"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1551"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1552"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h3 id="head-6c78200087b30b4f4af4fa4152610c953a47ffe7">7.3 Data-Service-based
Applications</h3>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1553"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1554"></span>
<p class="line874">In this section, we investigate applications relying on data
connection. <span class="anchor" id="line-1555"></span>This is, by far the area
where the choice of technologies and <span class="anchor"
id="line-1556"></span>authoring/development environments are the most
important. In the first part, we <span class="anchor"
id="line-1557"></span>introduce the basic idea of data connections, and the
general strengths and <span class="anchor" id="line-1558"></span>weaknesses of
applications relying on this type of service. In the second part, <span
class="anchor" id="line-1559"></span>we focus on the mobile web platform (web
browsing), and in the last part we <span class="anchor"
id="line-1560"></span>briefly note other types of applications relying on data
service. <span class="anchor" id="line-1561"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1562"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-b5e352e79d9927daee3b5e2f113e6927c9a730e0">7.3.1 Using Data
Services</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1563"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1564"></span>
<p class="line874">The basic idea of data services is the establishment of a
network connection <span class="anchor" id="line-1565"></span>between the
handset and the targeted computer hosting the service, or more <span
class="anchor" id="line-1566"></span>generally the Internet, using the
traditional <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol">[145]Internet
Protocol</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1567"></span>(IP). See <a
class="http" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_services">[146]more details
on data service</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-1568"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1569"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The characteristics shared by all content, services and
<span class="anchor" id="line-1570"></span>application relying on the use of
such network layer are as follows: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1571"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1572"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Availability of service: As mentioned before, data services are not
available on all networks. While the coverage of technologies such as GPRS,
3G, or even Wifi or Wimax are expanding quickly in developing regions, the
availability of such service, its stability and reliability is still weak
in most rural parts of Africa, Latin America or south-east Asia. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1573"></span></li>
<li><p class="line862">Availability on handset: while the service could be
available at the network level, not all handsets have the capability to use
data services. However, this is changing quickly as <a class="http"
href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/03/the-size-of-the-mobile-industry-in-2009-short-overview-of-major-stats.html">[68]92%
of the phones sold last year had some browsing capabilities</a>, i.e.
support of data services. Therefore, this aspect would not a limiting
factor in the near future. <span class="anchor" id="line-1574"></span></p>
</li>
<li>Costs of usage: as mentioned in section 6.1.5, the cost of data services
is far lower than SMS (on average 500 to 1000 times cheaper per character
sent), and can even be almost free when using specific infrastructure (Wifi
networks) or very low-cost flat-rate plan. However, when there is no such
flat-rate plan, the cost of usage is not predictable, as it depends on the
size of the data sent by the service provider. It is also important to note
that there is no way for the service provider to be charged for the cost of
data usage. While voice applications or SMS can use toll-free numbers that
are paid for by the service provider, this is not possible with on data
services. The user will have to pay for the data usage in all cases. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1575"></span></li>
<li>Configuration: the use and access to a data service usually requires a
specific configuration. In most cases, when offered by the network
operator, this can be done very easily through an SMS sent to the operator,
for example. When more specific infrastructures are available such as Wifi
or Wimax, the configuration might be a more important issue. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1576"></span></li>
<li>Monetization of services: The data service layer does not offer any way
to transparently manage the payment for a service. While voice applications
or SMS can use surtaxed numbers, or premium rate services that allow a
service provider to get revenue for the service in a transparent way, this
is not possible for data services. Therefore, in most cases, payment or
subscription aspects have to be managed at the application level. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1577"></span></li>
<li>Training: because voice applications and SMS are basic functionalities of
handsets, people are accustomed to using them in a normal context
(person-to-person messaging or phone calls). So the adoption of services
using voice or SMS interaction method is very easy and natural, and people
find it straightforward to learn how to use them. In the case of other
applications, such as those covered in this section, people have to learn
and be trained on how to use these new applications. This usually is a
complete new experience for them. The time, effort, and costs involved in
these training tasks should not be underestimated. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1578"></span></li>
<li>Operator independence: the role of the operator in the ecosystem of
data-service-based applications is just to provide the connectivity. It has
no role, and there is no required contact or discussion with the content
authors, and those working at the application layer. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1579"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1580"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1581"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-67bf896933b970cd61290db886bcf510374784b0">7.3.2 Mobile Web
browser</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1582"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1583"></span>
<p class="line862">In this category of data-services applications, Web browsers
have a particular place. Through a small piece of software on the handset, it
is possible today to access all content existing on the World Wide Web. Since
2004, W3C has been leading an initiative, the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/">[147]Mobile Web Initiative</a>, around leveraging Web
<span class="anchor" id="line-1584"></span>access from mobile phones. Thanks to
the work done in this initiative, and better availability of standard-compliant
Web browsers on mobile, it is now <span class="anchor"
id="line-1586"></span>possible to author, deploy and very easily access mobile
Web sites. In this <span class="anchor" id="line-1587"></span>section, we
investigate the strengths and weaknesses of this platform for <span
class="anchor" id="line-1588"></span>delivering social-oriented services in
Developing Countries. <span class="anchor" id="line-1589"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1590"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: Mobile Web access is also known as <a
class="http" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAP_2.0">[148]WAP (Wireless
Application Protocol) 2.0</a>. The original WAP 1.0 was using a specific markup
language called <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Markup_Language">[149]WML</a>, and
some <span class="anchor" id="line-1591"></span>of the oldest phones, while
having some browsing capabilities, support only <span class="anchor"
id="line-1592"></span>this languages and not HTML. There is almost no content
available using WML, <span class="anchor" id="line-1593"></span>and since 2002,
all phones released supports WAP 2.0 i.e. mobile Web access and <span
class="anchor" id="line-1594"></span>HTML support. However, it is important to
note that the generic term 'WAP' is <span class="anchor"
id="line-1595"></span>still widely use to mention mobile Web access. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1596"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1597"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1598"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Costs</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1599"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1600"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Costs for authoring, delivering, and accessing Mobile Web
content is similar <span class="anchor" id="line-1601"></span>to desktop Web.
For users, the cost is related to data services as explained in <span
class="anchor" id="line-1602"></span>Section 7.3.1. For content authors, they
just need to author their content or <span class="anchor"
id="line-1603"></span>applications and use one of the thousands of free or
low-cost web hosting <span class="anchor" id="line-1604"></span>services
existing on the Internet. There no other running or delivery cost for <span
class="anchor" id="line-1605"></span>the content author. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1606"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1607"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Strengths of Mobile Web Content and
Applications</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-1608"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1609"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Using the Web and Web technologies as the platform for
authoring and <span class="anchor" id="line-1610"></span>delivering content,
application and services presents numerous interesting <span class="anchor"
id="line-1611"></span>characteristics: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1612"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1613"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>As mentioned before, there are lots of free hosting services on the Web.
Content and service providers can use them to host and deliver their
applications at no cost, and without having to setup and maintain an
infrastructure. <span class="anchor" id="line-1614"></span></li>
<li>Thanks to search engines, as soon as a new service is up and running, it
will be indexed by search engines and is discoverable by potential users
without any action from the content author. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1615"></span></li>
<li>Content authoring is accessible to non-programmers through easy to use
WYSIWYG authoring tools. <span class="anchor" id="line-1616"></span></li>
<li><p class="line862">Developers can use all the traditional server-side
technologies (PHP, Database, CGI, etc.) and client-side ones (e.g.
JavaScript) <span class="anchor" id="line-1617"></span></p>
</li>
<li>The Web environment offers a standardized abstraction layer for
developers and content authors who don't have to care about the specific
characteristics of the client handset. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1618"></span></li>
<li>Web technologies supports multimedia content (graphic, sound, video,
etc.). That's said, related to costs for the user, the size of data sent to
the user is critical. <span class="anchor" id="line-1619"></span></li>
<li>It is very easy to have one application with a dedicated output for
desktop clients and one for mobile clients. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1620"></span></li>
<li>As mentioned in Sections 6.1.3, and 6.1.1, Web technologies offer
guidelines and infrastructure to support accessible content for people with
disabilities and in all languages. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1621"></span></li>
<li>Developing access and use of Mobile Web browsers is a scalable ways to
offer lots of services to people without further training and installation.
It is also a way for people to have access to the billions of resources
already existing on the Web. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1622"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1623"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1624"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1625"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1626"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Weaknesses of Mobile Web Content and
Applications</strong> <span class="anchor" id="line-1627"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1628"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The use of Web technologies also has limitations in regard
to the type of <span class="anchor" id="line-1629"></span>services and
functionalities content authors can provide. The major challenges <span
class="anchor" id="line-1630"></span>are summarized below: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1631"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1632"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Availability on handsets: not all handsets have browsing capabilities.
Even if today most of devices sold integrate a browser, this is not the
case for handsets from previous generations, which largely have no browser,
or a browser not compatible with current standards. However, it is
important to note that there are now third-party browsers which are
compliant with standards, and freely downloadable. Some of these browsers
are able to work on low-end devices, just requiring the support of Java,
and are able to cope with low-bandwidth network such GPRS due to
compression of content. <span class="anchor" id="line-1633"></span></li>
<li>Access to all handset features: As mentioned, Web browsers offer for the
content author a kind of abstraction layer that ensure that the content or
applications will work on all standard-compliant browsers. However, Web
technologies, and particularly mobile Web technologies are still evolving
technologies. As of today, these technologies do not yet allow a service
designer to access and use all the components of the handsets in his
application. For instance, there is no standardized APIs to access and use
e.g. the GPS, or the camera of the phone from the browser. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1634"></span></li>
<li>Usability of Web browser: mobile browsers available on phones today
reproduce exactly the interface of desktop browsers in order to help users
coming from the desktop world. For first time users, such interfaces on
phones, plus the issue of computer literacy (see section 6.1.4) are
barriers for accessing services, and require heavy training. Related to
this issue, access to specific services or portals has to be manually
configured on the handset. <span class="anchor" id="line-1635"></span></li>
<li>Web and low-reading skills: As mentioned in Section 6.1.2, while the Web
technology itself is not a barrier, there are no guidelines or
methodologies to develop Web content and applications accessible to people
with low-reading skills. <span class="anchor" id="line-1636"></span></li>
<li>Web support of lesser-known languages: As mentioned in Section 6.1.3,
while the Web architecture has been developed to support all languages,
many of these languages are not available yet on the Web. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1637"></span></li>
<li>Awareness on Mobile Web Technologies: While there are now tools,
standards and guidelines on how to write Web content and applications for
mobile, very few people are aware of this work, and don't know how to
deliver services that are usable on mobiles.<span class="anchor"
id="line-1638"></span></li>
<li>Support of disconnected mode: Web technologies still support poorly the
disconnected and the off-line modes. While browsers have some very limited
caching capabilities which allow a user to access some previously-read web
pages when not in range of a network, there is no real support of these
modes that would allow the completion of tasks such as form filling, and
access a long list of web pages previously load. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1639"></span></li>
<li><p class="line862">Support and implementation of standards and
specifications. Not all mobile browsers implement all of the W3C and other
related standard bodies specifications in the same way, or don't implement
all features. However, it is important to note that the <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/">[151]W3C Mobile Web Best
Practices</a> define best practices and guidelines that take into account
this lack of homogeneity between implementations, and an author following
the recommended techniques can expect his/her content to be rendered
homogeneously on all handsets. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1640"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1641"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1642"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1643"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1644"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Examples</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1645"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1646"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There is not yet a wide availability of examples of services
using Mobile <span class="anchor" id="line-1647"></span>Web access. Some
examples below: <span class="anchor" id="line-1648"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1649"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://corp.cellbazaar.com/wap.html">[152]Cellbazaar</a>, a service
for buying and selling goods in Bangladesh <span class="anchor"
id="line-1650"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.nedbank.co.za/website/content/Products/product_detail.asp?SubSubcatid=1865&amp;Subcatid=501&amp;ProductID=102&amp;showmoreBF=1">[153]Nedbank</a>,
a m-banking service using Mobile Web Access in South Africa <span
class="anchor" id="line-1651"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1652"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">Some platforms are supporting a Mobile Web channel: <span
class="anchor" id="line-1653"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1654"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.voxiva.com/platform.php">[154]Voxiva</a>, a platform for
mhealth services have a mobile Web access channel. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1655"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.mobilisr.org/features">[139]Mobilesr</a>, a generic
platform for mobile services development by civil society organizations
<span class="anchor" id="line-1656"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1657"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1658"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line862">Finally, Grameen Foundation is conducting <a class="http"
href="http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/high-end-device-trial-without-map">[155]a
field test with high-end phones and mobile Web access in Uganda</a>. This <span
class="anchor" id="line-1659"></span>experience 'Bringing the World Wide Web to
the Village' enables village phone <span class="anchor"
id="line-1660"></span>operators with high-end phones and GPRS access to allow
them to use the Web and <span class="anchor" id="line-1661"></span>offer
services to the village. <span class="anchor" id="line-1662"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1663"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1664"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1665"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are many different kind of tools that can be useful
for a software <span class="anchor" id="line-1666"></span>developer. Below is a
list of some of these tools. The MW4D IG is <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#mweb">[156]referencing a longer
list of these tools on its wiki</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1667"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1668"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>NB</strong>: in this section we are referencing
tools for basic <span class="anchor" id="line-1669"></span>mobile Web content
development. There are higher-level platforms to support <span class="anchor"
id="line-1670"></span>specific service development that integrate a mobile Web
channel. These <span class="anchor" id="line-1671"></span>platforms are
mentioned in the wiki. <span class="anchor" id="line-1672"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1673"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Some free mobile browsers: <span class="anchor" id="line-1674"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.opera.com/mini/">[157]Opera Mini</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1675"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.skyfire.com/product">[158]Skyfire</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1676"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line862"><a class="http"
href="http://boltbrowser.com/home.html">[159]Bolt</a> </p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazer_(web_browser)">[160]Blazer
(PalmOS)</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1678"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="https"
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile">[161]Firefox Mobile</a> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1679"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www-archive.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/">[162]Minimo,
the project before Firefox Mobile</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1680"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Standards and best practices <span class="anchor" id="line-1681"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/">[151]W3C Mobile Web Best
Practices 1.0</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1682"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mobileOK-20090625/">[163]W3C
MobileOK Scheme 1.0</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1683"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-mobileOK-basic10-tests-20081208/">[164]W3C
MobileOK Basic Tests 1.0</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1684"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-DDR-Simple-API-20081205/">[165]W3C
Device Description Repository Simple API 1.0</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1685"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Support tools <span class="anchor" id="line-1686"></span>
<ul>
<li>Phone Emulators <span class="anchor" id="line-1687"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://emulator.mtld.mobi/emulator.php">[166].mobi phone
emulator</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1688"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Checker <span class="anchor" id="line-1689"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://validator.w3.org/mobile/">[167]W3C MobileOK
checker</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1690"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN">[168].mobi
MobiReady checker</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1691"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Tutorials/Training <span class="anchor" id="line-1692"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/training/">[169]W3C Mobile Web
Training</a> <span class="anchor" id="line-1693"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/Dev#tutorials">[170]W3C
Tutorials/Webinars and presentations</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1694"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/dotmobi-mobile-web-developers-guide">[171].mobi
mobile Web Developer Guides</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1695"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/screencast-beginning-mobile-web-development">[172].mobi
beginning Mobile Development</a> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1696"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Authoring Tools <span class="anchor" id="line-1697"></span>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.mobisitegalore.com/index.html">[173]MobiSitegalore</a>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1698"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1699"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">It is important to note, that while many different tools
exist for completing the different tasks required to author and deploy a mobile
Web site, there is no packaged platform that integrates all the steps through a
single interface, and drives content developers through the different steps.
The development and availability of such an integrated toolkit would lower the
barriers for authoring and deploying mobile Web sites. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1700"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1701"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1702"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1703"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1704"></span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h4 id="head-0dcac7a447b23f3822cb0683ac0821b849de9045">7.3.3 Other Data-service
based Applications</h4>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1705"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1706"></span>
<p class="line874">Due to the current limitations of the Web browser approach
mentioned in the <span class="anchor" id="line-1707"></span>previous section,
and, until recently, the unavailability of standard-compliant <span
class="anchor" id="line-1708"></span>Mobile Web browsers on low-end phones and
low-bandwidth networks, there have <span class="anchor"
id="line-1709"></span>been numerous applications that are using data-services
through other <span class="anchor" id="line-1710"></span>environments than a
Web browser. <span class="anchor" id="line-1711"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1712"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Some of these applications, while existing as standalone
applications, or <span class="anchor" id="line-1713"></span>through APIs using
Java or OS specific environments, also exist as Web <span class="anchor"
id="line-1714"></span>applications. This is the case for e.g. major <a
class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service">[174]Social
Networks</a>, <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging">[175]Instant
Messengers</a>, or <a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS">[176]RSS readers or writers</a>.
Developing services on higher application levels like on top of <span
class="anchor" id="line-1715"></span>Social Networks or Instant messengers is
an interesting topic, and some <span class="anchor"
id="line-1716"></span>experiences have demonstrated the potential of these
technologies, See <a class="http"
href="http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=2539&quot;&gt;an">[177]example in
South-Africa</a>. <span class="anchor" id="line-1717"></span>While this is out
of the topic of this version of the document, it is surely a <span
class="anchor" id="line-1718"></span>subject for further investigations in the
future. <span class="anchor" id="line-1719"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1720"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1721"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1722"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Potential Reasons for developing applications
outside a Web environment</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1723"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1724"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned in the Weaknesses of Mobile Web technologies,
there are some <span class="anchor" id="line-1725"></span>constraints or
reasons that can drive the selection of alternate <span class="anchor"
id="line-1726"></span>technologies: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1727"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1728"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line862">Development of applications that requires the use of
specific features of the handset, such as GPS, camera, sensors, contact
lists, etc. While there are ongoing efforts to define APIs in the browser
environment to manage those devices from a Web application (see e.g. <a
class="http" href="http://www.w3.org/2008/geolocation/">[178]W3C
Geolocation Working Group</a> or <a class="http"
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DPF/">[179]W3C work on Delivery Context: Client
Interface</a>, those standardization initiatives are not complete yet, and
only specific development environments (iPhone, Android, Java) allow today
the management of the complete functionalities of the device. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1729"></span></p>
</li>
<li>Development of applications that integrate off-line mode, for accessing
and sending information. While Mobile Web browsers support some caching
features, further work on off-line browsing is needed (e.g. off-line form
filling). For developers who want or need such features, they have no other
choices than implementing them in their own applications. However, it is
important to note that it is easy to do so, through APIs offered on the
handset, and most of existing applications implement the support of
disconnected mode. <span class="anchor" id="line-1730"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1731"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1732"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1733"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1734"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Weaknesses of the approach</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1735"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1736"></span></p>
<p class="line874">While there might be good reasons for a developer to author
an application <span class="anchor" id="line-1737"></span>directly on the
handset, such approaches have also many drawbacks, which are <span
class="anchor" id="line-1738"></span>summarized below: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1739"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1740"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>No discoverability mechanism, outside the potential application store
offered by some platforms <span class="anchor" id="line-1741"></span></li>
<li>Required programming skills to develop and implement such applications
<span class="anchor" id="line-1742"></span></li>
<li>Lack of global standardization of APIs to access device modules which
usually requires the support of multiple platforms, or strong requirements
on the supported handsets <span class="anchor" id="line-1743"></span></li>
<li>Needs for download, installation and training of end-users <span
class="anchor" id="line-1744"></span></li>
<li>More maintenance and support required <span class="anchor"
id="line-1745"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1746"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1747"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Examples</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1748"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1749"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are many examples of applications relying on data
services and not in <span class="anchor" id="line-1750"></span>the Web
environment for the handset side. Some examples in different <span
class="anchor" id="line-1751"></span>domains: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1752"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/">[180]MXit</a>: a very popular social
network and instant messenger in South Africa <span class="anchor"
id="line-1753"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://www.open-mobile.org/technologies/javarosa-open-rosa-consortium">[181]JavaRosa</a>:
an open-source platform for data collection on mobile devices <span
class="anchor" id="line-1754"></span></p>
</li>
<li><p class="line891"><a class="http"
href="http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2009/08/13/goma-a-major-ushahidi-update/">[182]Ushahidi
Mobile platform</a>: a platform for crowdsourced crisis information <span
class="anchor" id="line-1755"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1756"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1757"></span></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Tools</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1758"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1759"></span></p>
<p class="line874">There are no specific tools for this very broad category of
applications. The <span class="anchor" id="line-1760"></span>Java language on
mobile is called Java Micro-Edition or JavaME, formerly known <span
class="anchor" id="line-1761"></span>as J2ME. Devices are usually implementing
a specific profile (a set of features <span class="anchor"
id="line-1762"></span>and libraries for JavaME), the most popular on mobile
phones being the <span class="anchor" id="line-1763"></span><a class="http"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Information_Device_Profile">[183]Mobile
Information Device Profile</a>. A specific Software Development Kit (SDK) for
<span class="anchor" id="line-1764"></span>JavaME is available for developers:
see the <a class="http"
href="http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30.jsp">[184]Java Platform Micro
Edition Software Development Kit 3.0</a>. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1765"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1766"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Each operating system has also its own SDK (<a class="http"
href="http://developer.apple.com/iphone/">[185]IPhone</a>, <a class="http"
href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/">[186]Android</a>, <a class="http"
href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/Tools_Docs_and_Code/Tools/Platforms/">[187]Symbian</a>,
etc.). <span class="anchor" id="line-1767"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1768"></span></p>
<p class="line862">Some Social Networks also offer APIs such as <a class="http"
href="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/">[188]Twitter</a> to be used in a wide
environment and platform. <span class="anchor" id="line-1769"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1770"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1771"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1772"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1773"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>7.3.4 Future Directions</strong> <span
class="anchor" id="line-1774"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1775"></span></p>
<p class="line874">This category of applications enable more advanced services
compared to SMS <span class="anchor" id="line-1776"></span>and Voice. It is
also the category that provides the easiest access for developers as <span
class="anchor" id="line-1777"></span>they don't have to setup an
infrastructure. In that area, using the Web browser <span class="anchor"
id="line-1778"></span>as the default environment on mobile is surely the most
promising option to <span class="anchor" id="line-1779"></span>offer easily
lots of services to people, and to empower a big number of <span class="anchor"
id="line-1780"></span>non-computer-scientist authors to build and deliver new
content. However, the <span class="anchor" id="line-1781"></span>mobile web
technology has to evolve to become more powerful. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1782"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1783"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Some efforts are currently under development such as better
management of <span class="anchor" id="line-1784"></span>resources available on
phones, or for location-based services, and we can <span class="anchor"
id="line-1785"></span>therefore expect quick evolution in a near future. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1786"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1787"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Several efforts, not specific to a developing countries
context, would <span class="anchor" id="line-1788"></span>benefit the Mobile
Web at large. Investigating monetization of Web content, <span class="anchor"
id="line-1789"></span>through e.g. micropayments would be one of these that
would enable small <span class="anchor" id="line-1790"></span>entrepreneurs to
start and sell services easily. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1791"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1792"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Some actions, more specific to the developing countries
context, would also <span class="anchor" id="line-1793"></span>be important.
The development of a real off-line/disconnected functionality, understanding
the <span class="anchor" id="line-1794"></span>specific usage and requirements
of mobile-only Web users without prior desktop <span class="anchor"
id="line-1795"></span>experience, or investigating the potential of Mobile
Widgets and stores to <span class="anchor" id="line-1796"></span>decrease the
barriers of computer literacy are topics of significance which mandate further
investigation. <span class="anchor" id="line-1797"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1798"></span></p>
<p class="line874">As mentioned in Section 7.3.2, there is also a great need of
<span class="anchor" id="line-1799"></span>awareness raising and capacity
building to demonstrate to content and application <span class="anchor"
id="line-1800"></span>authors the potential of the Mobile Web technologies. In
terms of tools, better <span class="anchor" id="line-1801"></span>packaging and
integration for non-experts are required. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1802"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1803"></span></p>
<p class="line874">These efforts would improve the current technology, and
disseminate <span class="anchor" id="line-1804"></span>information about it to
enable people to author, deploy and access more easily <span class="anchor"
id="line-1805"></span>all kinds of services. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1806"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1807"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1808"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1809"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="scope"></span> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1810"></span> </p>
<h2 id="head-3838582d8f8ce68e25fdf20b30a30a87a39093a7">8. Conclusion</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1897"></span>
<p class="line874">This roadmap is a first attempt to build a state-of-the-art
on mobile applications for social and economic development. The document covers
the major families of technology available today, and their strengths and
weaknesses. It also identifies the different challenges that have been
appearing in the different stories and projects started in the past few years.
</p>
<p class="line874"><span class="anchor" id="line-1899"></span></p>
<p class="line862">The roadmap identifies a series of actions to launch in a
near future to increase the availability of services, to empower more people to
become authors and contributors, and to enable more people to access those
services. Those actions are of two types: R&amp;D and Support. <span
class="anchor" id="line-1900"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1901"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>R&amp;D Actions</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1902"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1903"></span></p>
<p class="line862">R&amp;D actions are proposed in order to address challenges
requiring further research, investigations or standardizations. The R&amp;D
actions suggested in roadmap are: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1904"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1905"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Building a community on the theme of interfaces for people with
low-reading skill, and develop and standardize guidelines and best
practices for such interfaces, in particular how to design meaningful icons
<span class="anchor" id="line-1906"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1907"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Adding support to more languages: i<span class="anchor"
id="line-1909">dentify best language targets, develop guidelines for
extending the number of languages supported in both Mobile Browsing, and
Voice Technologies (Text-to-Speech and Speech Recognition
engines)</span></li>
<li class="gap">Exploring new paradigm in user interface that could lower the
impact of computer illiteracy such as widget stores <span class="anchor"
id="line-1910"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1911"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Establishing micro-payment on the Web <span class="anchor"
id="line-1912"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1913"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing off-line capabilities of Mobile Web Browsers <span
class="anchor" id="line-1914"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1915"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing usability guidelines for Voice applications <span
class="anchor" id="line-1916"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1917"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing usability guidelines and design principles for
integrating ICT services in rural and underprivileged population without
prior ICT experience <span class="anchor" id="line-1918"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1919"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Developing guidelines and best practices on how to build
trust in service usage among targeted populations <span class="anchor"
id="line-1920"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1921"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Support Actions</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1922"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1923"></span></p>
<p class="line874">Support actions are proposed for addressing challenges that
require efforts in the areas of dissemination, capacity building or tools
development. The support actions suggested in the roadmap are: <span
class="anchor" id="line-1924"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1925"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Raising awareness on the potential of mobile technologies in the
entrepreneurs and NGOs communities <span class="anchor"
id="line-1926"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1927"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Raising awareness on the potential of VoiceXML applications
and building community around the theme of voice for Development <span
class="anchor" id="line-1928"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1929"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Building capacities on: <span class="anchor"
id="line-1930"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1931"></span>
<ul>
<li>Mobile technologies, particularly VoiceXML, Mobile Web <span
class="anchor" id="line-1932"></span></li>
<li>Accessibility guidelines and how to design accessible content <span
class="anchor" id="line-1933"></span></li>
<li>Identifying gaps in tools for the different technologies, and launch
community open source development <span class="anchor"
id="line-1934"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Developing further a comprehensive repository of resources with stories
and use-cases with in-depth analysis and lessons learn, and links to
relevant tools for different tasks <span class="anchor"
id="line-1935"></span></li>
<li>Packaging existing tools to build a low-cost easy-to-use minimal voice
infrastructure toolkit <span class="anchor" id="line-1936"></span></li>
<li>Packaging existing tools and services to build an integrated toolkit to
author and deploy Mobile Web sites. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1937"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1938"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><strong>Recommendations</strong> <span class="anchor"
id="line-1939"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1940"></span></p>
<p class="line874">The roadmap also defines a series of recommendations for
specific actors of the domain to create an enabling environment: <span
class="anchor" id="line-1941"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1942"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Targeted at network operators <span class="anchor"
id="line-1943"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1944"></span>
<ul>
<li>Developing and extending Data Service, even low-bandwidth data
service such as GPRS with a stable and reliable service at low-cost
<span class="anchor" id="line-1945"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1946"></span></li>
<li class="gap">Implementing Unicode support on signalling channel on all
network <span class="anchor" id="line-1947"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Targeted at handset manufacturers <span class="anchor"
id="line-1948"></span>
<ul>
<li>All handsets should have at least GPRS access and a J2ME/MIDP stack
or a standards-compliant browser <span class="anchor"
id="line-1949"></span></li>
<li>Handsets should be extensible to support external/new character sets
and to be usable in all languages of the world </li>
<li><span class="anchor" id="line-1950">Handsets should provide software
modules such as Text-to-Speech engines to improve accessibility and
offer opportunity for a greater support of Voice</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Targeted at public authorities <span class="anchor"
id="line-1951"></span>
<ul>
<li>Considering the mobile platform as the most widely available option
to deliver ICT services to people <span class="anchor"
id="line-1952"></span></li>
<li>Developing policy framework that ease the work of potential service
authors, particularly entrepreneurs <span class="anchor"
id="line-1953"></span></li>
<li>Developing policy framework that enforces availability of minimal
data service at low-costs everywhere <span class="anchor"
id="line-1954"></span></li>
<li>Enforcing requirements on accessible and usable content for people
with disabilities, with low-reading skills, or who speak a
non-supported language <span class="anchor" id="line-1955"></span></li>
<li>Building national or regional platforms to enable Voice services
<span class="anchor" id="line-1956"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Targeted at service developers <span class="anchor"
id="line-1957"></span>
<ul>
<li>Share, cooperate, collaborate and document work and projects so that
the whole community could benefit from the experience of others. In
that regard, before engaging in new projects, one should investigate
what is existing and what extensions are needed, without redeveloping
pieces that are already available <span class="anchor"
id="line-1958"></span></li>
<li>Implement and Rely on documented open data formats that would allow
aggregation of information from different small systems as well as
provide a global overview on what is happening locally <span
class="anchor" id="line-1959"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1960"></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="line874">While this document is an attempt to cover all the
dimensions of mobile applications for social development, it is only a first
step towards building a large community on this theme. It is critical now to
promote the adoption of this roadmap, the launch of the identified actions, and
the enforcement of the recommendations. <span class="anchor"
id="line-1961"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1962"></span></p>
<p class="line874">It is also essential to continue this work further in
different directions: <span class="anchor" id="line-1963"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1964"></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Understanding the commonalities and differences in context between the
different developing regions of the world <span class="anchor"
id="line-1965"></span></li>
<li>Investigating the specific challenges in the different application fields
(agriculture, education, health, etc.) <span class="anchor"
id="line-1966"></span></li>
<li>Investigating the role of mobiles as an authoring platform, and as a
delivery platform (peer-to-peer) <span class="anchor"
id="line-1967"></span></li>
<li>Investigating the role of emerging social networks in Development, and
how applications could take advantage of these existing virtual communities
<span class="anchor" id="line-1968"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1969"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1970"></span><span
class="anchor" id="line-1971"></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="references"></span>Finally, it is
important to note that during the development of this roadmap over the last 18
months, we could observe a shift in the technology usage. While SMS was almost
the only technology used during last 3 or 4 years, lots of project are now
investigating voice applications and data-service based applications. With the
increase of coverage of data service, the far-lower cost compared to SMS, and
the availability of ultra-low-cost handsets supporting data service, this
technology offers far greater possibility than SMS, and is a powerful
alternative. However, this potential is still largely untapped by service
developers. </p>
<p>Concerning the use of mobile browsers as an application platform, there are
very few examples of the use of this technology in specific field projects.
However, the study in this document demonstrates that this solution has the
potential to meet most of the challenges identified on both the user and author
sides. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, further work
addressing comprehensively and adequately issues such as illiteracy, languages,
digital literacy, and the monetization of services needs to be embarked on.
With the improvement of the technology, the quick increase in data-service
coverage, and the continuing reduction in the unit price of web-enabled mobile
phones, this technology will surely have a major role in the future.</p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="line-1972"></span> </p>
<h2 id="head-15a17387281002bc5cd30350074b540a8a498559">9. References</h2>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[1]:</span> Wikipedia Definition for SMS <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[2]:</span> Wikipedia Definition for USSD <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[3]:</span> Wikipedia Definition for SMS <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[4]:</span> W3C Workshop on the role of
Mobile Technologies in Development, June 2008, Sao Paulo, Brazil <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/">http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[5]:</span> W3C Workshop on the role of
Mobile Technologies in Development, April 2009, Maputo, Mozambique <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[6]:</span> FP7 Digital World Forum Project
<a
href="http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/">http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[7]:</span> Universal Access, How Mobile can
Bring Communications to All, GSMA Report, 2008 <a
href="http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/universal_access_full_report.pdf">http://www.gsmworld.com/documents/universal_access_full_report.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[8]:</span> ITU Press Release, Worldwide
mobile cellular subscribers to reach 4 billion mark late 2008 <a
href="http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2008/29.html">http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2008/29.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[9]:</span> R. Jensen, The Digital Provide:
Information (technology), Market, Performance, and Welfare in the south Indian
Fisheries Sector, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. CXXII August 2007
Issue 3 <a
href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/qjec.122.3.879">http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/qjec.122.3.879</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[10]:</span> The impact of mobile phone
coverage expansion on market participation: panel data evidence from Uganda,
OECD 2008 <a
href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/39/8/41713101.pdf">http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/39/8/41713101.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[11]:</span> Does Digital Divide or Provide?
The Impact of Cell Phones on Grain Markets in Niger, Jenny C. Aker, University
of California, Berkeley, January 2008 <a
href="http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/2.12.08/Aker_Job_Market_Paper_15jan08_2.pdf">http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/2.12.08/Aker_Job_Market_Paper_15jan08_2.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[12]:</span> W3C MW4D IG Wiki -
Projects/Examples <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[13]:</span> Mobiles for Development: How
mobile technologies can enhance Plan and partners work in Africa, Hannah
Beardon, January 2009 <a
href="http://mobileactive.org/files/file_uploads/Mobiles_for_Development_-_Plan_2009.pdf">http://mobileactive.org/files/file_uploads/Mobiles_for_Development_-_Plan_2009.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[14]:</span> W3C Web Accessibility
Initiative <a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/">http://www.w3.org/WAI/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[15]:</span> Kiwanja.net Mobility Project <a
href="http://mobility.kiwanja.net/">http://mobility.kiwanja.net/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[16]:</span> Huruma Music Study, Nokia
Research Center, Africa, W3C Workshop, Maputo, Mozambique, April 2009 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/nokia_slides.pdf">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/nokia_slides.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[17]:</span> Co-Present Photo Sharing on
Mobile Devices, Leonard M. Ah Kun &amp; Gary Marsden, University of Cape Town,
South Africa, Proceedings Mobile HCI 2007 <a
href="http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~gaz/papers/leo1.pdf">http://people.cs.uct.ac.za/~gaz/papers/leo1.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[18]:</span> Nokia Web-Server on Mobile
Phone <a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/2009Jul/0002.html">http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/2009Jul/0002.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[19]:</span> World Health Organization,
Factsheet on Visual impairment and blindness, May 2009 <a
href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/">http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[20]:</span> Internet Society Disability and
Special Needs Chapter, Accessible Information and Communications Technology
(ICT)” &amp; Calls for United Nations International Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities, 3 October 2003 <a
href="http://www.isocdisab.org/Maniladeclaration.htm">http://www.isocdisab.org/Maniladeclaration.htm</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[21]:</span> W3C Web Accessibility
Initiative <a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/">http://www.w3.org/WAI/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[22]:</span> W3C Mobile Web Initiative <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/">http://www.w3.org/Mobile</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[23]:</span> W3C Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG) Overview <a
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag">http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[24]:</span> W3C Mobile Web Initiative <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/">http://www.w3.org/Mobile/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[25]:</span> Web Content Accessibility and
Mobile Web:Making a Web Site Accessible Both for People with Disabilities and
for Mobile Devices <a
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/">http://www.w3.org/WAI/mobile/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[26]:</span> Essential Components of Web
Accessibility <a
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components.php">http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components.php</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[27]:</span> Raising the Floor,
international coalition of individuals and organizations working to ensure that
the Internet is accessible to people experiencing accessibility or literacy
problems <a
href="http://raisingthefloor.net/">http://raisingthefloor.net/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[28]:</span> Raising the Floor Solutions for
Those with Extremely Limited Resources Group<a
href="http://raisingthefloor.net/projects/limitedresource">http://raisingthefloor.net/projects/limitedresource</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[29]:</span> Assistive Technology Solutions,
Providing Plans for Do-It-Yourself Devices to Assist Persons with Disabilities
<a
href="http://www.atsolutions.org/folders/solutions.htm">http://www.atsolutions.org/folders/solutions.htm</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[30]:</span> International Literacy Day,
September 7, 2001, Washington, DC <a
href="http://www.sil.org/literacy/litfacts.htm">http://www.sil.org/literacy/litfacts.htm</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[31]:</span> UNDP Human Development Reports
<a
href="http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/3.html">http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/3.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[32]:</span> Map of Literacy Rates in the
World (2007-2008) <a
href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/World_literacy_map_UNHD_2007_2008.png">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/World_literacy_map_UNHD_2007_2008.png</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[33]:</span> Grameen Foundation Village
Phone: Connecting Technology and Innovation <a
href="http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what-we-do/empowering-poor">http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what-we-do/empowering-poor</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[34]:</span> Grameen Foundation Community
Knowledge Worker (CKW) Initiative <a
href="http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/community-knowledge-worker-project">http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/community-knowledge-worker-project</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[35]:</span> Nuance Talks, Text-to-speech
engine for Mobile Phones <a
href="http://www.nuance.com/talks/">http://www.nuance.com/talks/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[36]:</span> CodeFactory Mobile Speak,
Text-to-speech engine for Mobile Phones <a
href="http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=24">http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=24</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[37]:</span> Optimal Audio-Visual
Representations for Illiterate Users of Computers, Indrani Medhi, Archana
Prasad, Kentaro Toyama, Microsoft Research Labs India, WWW2007 Proceedings <a
href="http://www2007.org/papers/paper764.pdf">http://www2007.org/papers/paper764.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[38]:</span> Developing Design
Recommendations for Computer Interfaces Accessible to Illiterate Users, Matthew
Paul Huenerfauth, National University of Ireland, University College Dublin,
Master of Science (M.Sc.) August 2002 <a
href="http://eniac.cs.qc.cuny.edu/matt/pubs/huenerfauth-2002-thesis.pdf">http://eniac.cs.qc.cuny.edu/matt/pubs/huenerfauth-2002-thesis.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[39]:</span> Nokia Life Tools <a
href="http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Microsites/Entry_Event/phones/Nokia_Life_Tools_datasheet.pdf">http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/Microsites/Entry_Event/phones/Nokia_Life_Tools_datasheet.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[40]:</span> W3C Internationalization
Q&amp;A: Localization vs. Internationalization <a
href="http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-i18n">http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-i18n</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[41]:</span> W3C Working Draft, Introduction
and Overview of W3C Speech Interface Framework December 2000 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/voice-intro/">http://www.w3.org/TR/voice-intro/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[42]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Unicode
<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[43]:</span> W3C Internationalization
Activity <a
href="http://www.w3.org/International/">http://www.w3.org/International/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[44]:</span> W3C Internationalization
Activity: Resources <a
href="http://www.w3.org/International/resources">http://www.w3.org/International/resources</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[45]:</span> Initiative B@bel <a
href="http://webworld.unesco.org/imld/babel_en.html">http://webworld.unesco.org/imld/babel_en.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[46]:</span> NRSI: Computers &amp; Writing
Systems <a
href="http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&amp;amp;cat_id=Babel">http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&amp;amp;cat_id=Babel</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[47]:</span> FontForge, An outline font
editor <a
href="http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/">http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[48]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of
Metafont <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafont">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafont</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[49]:</span> GNU FreeFont, a free family of
scalable outline fonts <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/">http://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[50]:</span> Android Market: Application
Store for Android phones <a
href="http://www.android.com/market/">http://www.android.com/market/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[51]:</span> OVI: Application Store for
Nokia phones <a href="https://store.ovi.com/">https://store.ovi.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[52]:</span> Plaza: Qualcomm Application
Store <a
href="http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2008/080529_Qualcomm_Introduces_Plaza.html">http://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2008/080529_Qualcomm_Introduces_Plaza.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[53]:</span> Wikipedia List of digital
distribution platforms for mobile devices <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_distribution_platforms_for_mobile_devices">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_distribution_platforms_for_mobile_devices</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[54]:</span> FP7 Digital World Forum -
WorkPackage 3 - Broadband Wireless Infrastructure <a
href="http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/wp3">http://www.digitalworldforum.eu/wp3</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[55]:</span> African Signals, a site
dedicated to finding out and showing local rates for mobile phone and internet
connections around Africa <a
href="http://africansignals.com/">http://africansignals.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[56]:</span> SMS Costs in Africa – 2008 <a
href="http://manypossibilities.net/2009/04/sms-costs-in-africa-2008/">http://manypossibilities.net/2009/04/sms-costs-in-africa-2008/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[57]:</span> Concept of Missed call in
India, blog post, Jan 2006 <a
href="http://rashmisinha.com/2006/01/09/no-one-uses-voicemail-in-india-and-the-concept-of-missed-calls/">http://rashmisinha.com/2006/01/09/no-one-uses-voicemail-in-india-and-the-concept-of-missed-calls/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[58]:</span> Example of Free Mobile Voice
call in India (Reliance Communications) <a
href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=19268">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=19268</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[59]:</span> Example of Pay-Per-Call Prepaid
Plan of Tata Indicom and Tata Teleservices <a
href="http://teck.in/pay-per-call-prepaid-plan-of-tata-indicom-and-tata-teleservices.html">http://teck.in/pay-per-call-prepaid-plan-of-tata-indicom-and-tata-teleservices.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[60]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of SMS
Premium Rate <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[61]:</span> Freedom Phone, Kubatana.net <a
href="http://www.kubatana.net/html/ff/ff_cont.asp">http://www.kubatana.net/html/ff/ff_cont.asp</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[62]:</span> Vodacom USSD Pricing in South
Africa <a
href="http://help.vodacom.co.za/customercare/wss/faq.asp?id=18">http://help.vodacom.co.za/customercare/wss/faq.asp?id=18</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[63]:</span> MTN USSD Pricing in South
Africa <a
href="http://www.mtn.co.za/SUPPORT/FAQ/Pages/USSD.aspx">http://www.mtn.co.za/SUPPORT/FAQ/Pages/USSD.aspx</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[64]:</span> African Mobile Factbook 2008,
Blycroft Publishing, February 2008 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/FrontPage?action=AttachFile&amp;amp;do=get&amp;amp;target=Africa_Mobile_Fact_Book_2008.pdf">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/FrontPage?action=AttachFile&amp;amp;do=get&amp;amp;target=Africa_Mobile_Fact_Book_2008.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[65]:</span> Executive Summary of the W3C
Worksop on the role of Mobile Technologies in Development, April 2009, Maputo,
Mozambique <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html#Messages">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html#Messages</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[66]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Caller
ID <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[67]:</span> Below-50$, Internet-enabled
Nokia phone <a
href="http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2008/gb2008114_268373.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories">http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2008/gb2008114_268373.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[68]:</span> The Size of the Mobile Industry
in 2009, Tomi Ahonen, March 2009 <a
href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/03/the-size-of-the-mobile-industry-in-2009-short-overview-of-major-stats.html">http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2009/03/the-size-of-the-mobile-industry-in-2009-short-overview-of-major-stats.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[69]:</span> Tradenet/Esoko: a Market
Information System <a
href="http://www.tradenet.biz/">http://www.tradenet.biz/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[70]:</span> Voxiva, a provider of mobile
centric information solutions <a
href="http://www.voxiva.com/">http://www.voxiva.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[71]:</span> Indonesia 2005 Election
Monitoring project <a
href="http://www.ndi.org/files/2329_sms_engpdf_06242008.pdf">http://www.ndi.org/files/2329_sms_engpdf_06242008.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[72]:</span> Texts monitor Nigerian
elections, BBC Report April 2007 <a
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6570919.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6570919.stm</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[73]:</span> Texting It In: Monitoring
Elections With Mobile Phones, mobileactive.org, November 2007 <a
href="http://mobileactive.org/texting-it-in">http://mobileactive.org/texting-it-in</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[74]:</span> SMS Critical in election
monitoring in Ghana, Mobileactive.org, July 2007 <a
href="http://mobileactive.org/sms-critical-election-observation-ghana">http://mobileactive.org/sms-critical-election-observation-ghana</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[75]:</span> W3C MW4D IG Wiki - Stories and
examples <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories/">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[76]:</span> Mobileactive.org mDirectory <a
href="http://mobileactive.org/directory">http://mobileactive.org/directory</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[77]:</span> Kiwanja.net Mobile project
Database <a
href="http://www.kiwanja.net/database/kiwanja_search.php">http://www.kiwanja.net/database/kiwanja_search.php</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[78]:</span> Open Mobile Consortium <a
href="http://www.open-mobile.org/">http://www.open-mobile.org/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[79]:</span> MIT Africa Information
Technology Initiative <a
href="http://aiti.mit.edu/">http://aiti.mit.edu/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[80]:</span> MIT EPROM - Entrepreneurial
Programming and Research On Mobiles <a
href="http://eprom.mit.edu/">http://eprom.mit.edu/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[81]:</span> EPROM Wiki and Course Material
<a
href="http://eprom.mit.edu/~eprom/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page">http://eprom.mit.edu/~eprom/wiki/index.php?title=Course_Materia</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[82]:</span> Ushahidi, Crowdsourcing Crisis
Information <a href="http://www.ushahidi.com">http://www.ushahidi.com</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[83]:</span> Integrating mobile data
services into an existing information ecology, Andy Dearden, Sheffield Hallam
University, UK, W3C Workshop, April 2009<a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/Dearden_slides.pdf">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/Dearden_slides.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[84]:</span> Vodacom Tanzania Call-me
service <a
href="http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp?docid=3317">http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp?docid=3317</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[85]:</span> India's Mobile Users and Missed
Calls <a
href="http://www.podtech.net/home/3780/indias-mobile-users-and-missed-calls">http://www.podtech.net/home/3780/indias-mobile-users-and-missed-calls</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[86]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of
Micro-Payment <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[87]:</span> Executive Summary of the W3C
Worksop on the role of Mobile Technologies in Development, April 2009, Maputo,
Mozambique <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/exec_summary.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[88]:</span> Challenges and merits of
co-design of mobile concepts, Jenny de Boer, TNO ICT, March 2009 <a
href="http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Challenges-And-Merits-Of-Co-Design-Of/194797">http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Challenges-And-Merits-Of-Co-Design-Of/194797</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[89]:</span> Social Dynamics of Early Stage
Co-Design In Developing Regions, Divya Ramachandran, Matthew Kam, Jane Chiu,
John Canny, James L. Frankel, ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)
(2007) <a
href="http://bid.berkeley.edu/papers/chi_2007/co_design_dev_regions/">http://bid.berkeley.edu/papers/chi_2007/co_design_dev_regions/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[90]:</span> The Base of the Pyramid
Protocol: Toward Next Generation BoP Strategy, Erik Simanis and Stuart Hart,
Cornell University, Second Edition, 2008 <a
href="http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/sge/docs/BoP_Protocol_2nd_ed.pdf">http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/sge/docs/BoP_Protocol_2nd_ed.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[91]:</span> Compendium on Impact Assessment
of ICT-for-Development Projects, Richard Heeks &amp; Alemayehu Molla, 2009 <a
href="http://ict4dblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/idrc-ia-for-ict4d-compendium1.doc">http://ict4dblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/idrc-ia-for-ict4d-compendium1.doc</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[92]:</span> The ICT Development Index, ITU,
2009 <a
href="http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf">http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[93]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Speech
Synthesis <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[94]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Speech
Recognition <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_recognition</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[95]:</span> Speech Recognition Grammar
Specification Version 1.0, W3C Recommendation 16 March 2004 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/">http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-grammar/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[96]:</span> The Festival Speech Synthesis
System <a
href="http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/">http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[97]:</span> The CMU Sphinx Group Open
Source Speech Recognition Engines <a
href="http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/sphinx/">http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/sphinx/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[98]:</span> Increasing the usability of
interactive voice response systems : research and guidelines for phone-based
interfaces : Telecommunications, SCHUMACHER R. M., HARDZINSKI M. L., SCHWARTZ
A. L, Human factors, 1995, vol. 37, no2, pp. 251-264 <a
href="http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&amp;cpsidt=3635815">http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&amp;amp;cpsidt=3635815</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[99]:</span> IVR Usability Guidelines <a
href="http://www.ivr-usability.com/guidelines.htm">http://www.ivr-usability.com/guidelines.htm</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[100]:</span> VOISERV: Creation and Delivery
of Converged Services through Voice for Emerging Economies, Arun Kumar,
Nitendra Rajput, Dipanjan Chakraborty, Sheetal K Agarwal, Amit Anil Nanavati,
IBM India Research Laboratory, 2007 <a
href="https://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.pubs.html/$FILE/VOISERV-IEEE-WowMom2007.pdf">https://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.pubs.html/$FILE/VOISERV-IEEE-WowMom2007.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[101]:</span> VoiKiosk: Content Creation and
Dissemination by-and-for Users in Rural Areas, Sheetal Agarwal, Arun Kumar,
Amit Anil Nanavati, Nitendra Rajput, Jan 2009, ICTD 2009 <a
href="http://mobileactive.org/research/voikiosk-content-creation-and-dissemination-and-users-rural-areas">http://mobileactive.org/research/voikiosk-content-creation-and-dissemination-and-users-rural-areas</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[102]:</span> FOLKSOMAPS - Towards Community
Driven Intelligent Maps for Developing Regions, Arun Kumar, Dipanjan
Chakraborty, Himanshu Chauhan, Sheetal K. Agarwal, Nitendra Rajput, IBM India
Research Lab., ICTD 2009 <a
href="http://www.researchintouse.com/downloads/spokenweb/Folksomaps_-_ICTD_09_-_April_09.pdf">http://www.researchintouse.com/downloads/spokenweb/Folksomaps_-_ICTD_09_-_April_09.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[103]:</span> Google GOOG-411 Service <a
href="http://www.google.com/goog411/">http://www.google.com/goog411/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[104]:</span> Literacy Bridge <a
href="http://www.literacybridge.org/">http://www.literacybridge.org/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[105]:</span> WWTW - The World Wide Telecom
Web (a.k.a. The Spoken Web), Sheetal K. Agarwal, Dipanjan Chakraborty, Anupam
Jain, Priyanka Manwani, Sougata Mukherjea, Amit A. Nanavati, Nitendra Rajput :
IBM India Research Lab <a
href="http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.WWTW.html">http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_people.nsf/pages/arun_kumar.WWTW.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[106]:</span> IVR for National Federation of
Colombian Coffee Growers, The Computerworld Honors Program, 2007 <a
href="http://www.cwhonors.org/viewCaseStudy.asp?NominationID=199">http://www.cwhonors.org/viewCaseStudy.asp?NominationID=199</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[107]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of PBX <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_branch_exchange">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_branch_exchange</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[108]:</span> Asterisk, the open source
telephony project <a
href="http://www.asterisk.org/">http://www.asterisk.org/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[109]:</span> W3C Voice Browser Activity <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/">http://www.w3.org/Voice/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[110]:</span> W3C VoiceXML Overview <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/Guide/#overview">http://www.w3.org/Voice/Guide/#overview</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[111]:</span> W3C Speech Synthesis Markup
Language (SSML) Version 1.1, W3C Candidate Recommendation, August 2009 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis11/">http://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis11/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[112]:</span> VoiceXML Related
Specificiations <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Voice/#work">http://www.w3.org/Voice/#work</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[113]:</span> W3C MW4D Wiki - Voice Related
Tools <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#vtools">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#vtools</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[114]:</span> VoiceGlue, a VoiceXML
implementation with OpenVXI and Asterisk <a
href="http://www.voiceglue.org/">http://www.voiceglue.org/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[115]:</span> VXI* VoiceXML browser for
Asterisk <a
href="http://www.i6net.com/products/vxi/">http://www.i6net.com/products/vxi/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[116]:</span> PublicVoiceXML, a free
VoiceXML 2.0 browser <a
href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/publicvoicexml/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/publicvoicexml/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[117]:</span> K. Rehor's list of VoiceXML
Development Tools <a
href="http://www.kenrehor.com/voicexml/#tools">http://www.kenrehor.com/voicexml/#tools</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[118]:</span> Speech Recognition for
Illiterate Access to Information and Technology, Madelaine Plauché, Udhyakumar
Nallasamy, Joyojeet Pal, Chuck Wooters, and Divya Ramachandran, ICTD 2006 <a
href="http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/docs/ict4d06/speech_recognition_illiterate-mp.pdf">http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/docs/ict4d06/speech_recognition_illiterate-mp.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[119]:</span> Tellme Studio, a suite of
Web-based VoiceXML development tools and community resources <a
href="https://studio.tellme.com/">https://studio.tellme.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[120]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Cell
Broadcast <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[121]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of
Character Encoding <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encoding">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encoding</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[122]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of UTF-8
<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[123]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of UTF-16
<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[124]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of SMS
Message Size <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[125]:</span> Forms module of FrontlineSMS
<a
href="http://www.frontlinesms.com/forms/">http://www.frontlinesms.com/forms/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[126]:</span> TAS, a Tsunami Alert System,
developed by Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) <a
href="http://www.wap.ait.ac.th/tsunami.html">http://www.wap.ait.ac.th/tsunami.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[127]:</span> Tactical Tech SMS Hub
Definition <a
href="http://wiki.mobiles.tacticaltech.org/index.php/SMS_hubs">http://wiki.mobiles.tacticaltech.org/index.php/SMS_hubs</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[128]:</span> Clickatell, a bulk SMS gateway
<a href="http://www.clickatell.com/">http://www.clickatell.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[129]:</span> BulkSMS, Internet based sms
messaging solutions <a
href="http://www.bulksms.com/">http://www.bulksms.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[130]:</span> Tactical Tech, Mobiles
in-a-box: How to set up an SMS hub <a
href="http://mobiles.tacticaltech.org/HowtosetupanSMShub">http://mobiles.tacticaltech.org/HowtosetupanSMShub</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[131]:</span> SMS Forum <a
href="http://www.smsforum.net/">http://www.smsforum.net/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[132]:</span> W3C MW4D IG Wiki <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[133]:</span> W3C MW4D IG Wiki - Tools about
SMS <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#sms">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#sms</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[134]:</span> Ushahidi, Crowdsourcing Crisis
Information <a href="http://www.ushahidi.com/">http://www.ushahidi.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[135]:</span> FrontlineSMS, a free SMS HUB
for NGOs <a
href="http://www.frontlinesms.com/">http://www.frontlinesms.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[136]:</span> RapidSMS, a free SMS Hub <a
href="http://rapidsms.sourceforge.net/">http://rapidsms.sourceforge.net/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[137]:</span> Microsoft Research SMS Server
Toolkit <a
href="http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/2bdeb3c6-9945-4804-a9bc-0d53704d35da/default.aspx">http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/2bdeb3c6-9945-4804-a9bc-0d53704d35da/default.aspx</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[138]:</span> Ushahidi, Crowdsourcing Crisis
Information <a href="http://ushahidi.com/">http://ushahidi.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[139]:</span> Mobilisr, an open source
mobile platform for NGOs <a
href="http://www.mobilisr.org/features">http://www.mobilisr.org/features</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[140]:</span> A Modest Proposal – The 1
cent SMS, blog post, Steve Song, February 2009 <a
href="http://manypossibilities.net/2009/02/a-modest-proposal-the-1-cent-sms/">http://manypossibilities.net/2009/02/a-modest-proposal-the-1-cent-sms/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[141]:</span> Mobilisr, an open source
mobile platform for NGOs <a
href="http://www.mobilisr.org/">http://www.mobilisr.org/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[142]:</span> Innovative use of cellphone
technology for HIV/AIDS, behaviour change communications: 3 pilot projects,
Katherine de Tolly and Helen Alexander, Cell-Life, Cape Town, W3C Workshop,
April 2009 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/kdetolly.pdf">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/papers/kdetolly.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[143]:</span> Cell-Life, an NGO aiming to
improve the lives of people infected and affected by HIV in South Africa <a
href="http://www.cell-life.org/cellphones-4-hiv/mobilisr?1768f84c07a3a208150af5c12451b8b9=7d449c4e5ea2f055cb275d4f0947550f">http://www.cell-life.org/cellphones-4-hiv/mobilisr?1768f84c07a3a208150af5c12451b8b9=7d449c4e5ea2f055cb275d4f0947550f</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[144]:</span> Examples of USSD Services in
Sierra Leone (ZAIN) <a
href="http://www.sl.zain.com/en/phone-services/ussd-services/index.html">http://www.sl.zain.com/en/phone-services/ussd-services/index.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[145]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of IP <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[146]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of GSM
Data Transmission <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_services">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_services</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[147]:</span> World Wide Web Consortium <a
href="http://www.w3.org/">http://www.w3.org/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[148]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of WAP
2.0 <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAP_2.0">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAP_2.0</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[149]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of WML <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Markup_Language">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Markup_Language</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[151]:</span> W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
1.0 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/">http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[152]:</span> CellBazaar, mobile phone
market, Mobile Web version <a
href="http://corp.cellbazaar.com/wap.html">http://corp.cellbazaar.com/wap.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[153]:</span> NedBank, Cellphone Banking,
Mobile Web version <a
href="http://www.nedbank.co.za/website/content/Products/product_detail.asp?SubSubcatid=1865&amp;Subcatid=501&amp;ProductID=102&amp;showmoreBF=1">http://www.nedbank.co.za/website/content/Products/product_detail.asp?SubSubcatid=1865&amp;Subcatid=501&amp;ProductID=102&amp;showmoreBF=1</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[154]:</span> Voxiva Platform <a
href="http://www.voxiva.com/platform.php">http://www.voxiva.com/platform.php</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[155]:</span> Grameen Foundation, High-End
Device Trial, "Bringing the World Wide Web to the Village" <a
href="http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/high-end-device-trial-without-map">http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/high-end-device-trial-without-map</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[156]:</span> W3C MW4D IG Wiki - tools about
Mobile Web <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#mweb">http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Tools#mweb</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[157]:</span> Opera Software Opera Mini
Browser <a href="http://www.opera.com/mini/">http://www.opera.com/mini/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[158]:</span> Skyfire Mobile Browser <a
href="http://www.skyfire.com/product">http://www.skyfire.com/product</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[159]:</span> Bolt Mobile Browser <a
href="http://boltbrowser.com/home.html">http://boltbrowser.com/home.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[160]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Blazer
Mobile Browser <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazer_(web_browser)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazer_(web_browser)</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[161]:</span> Mobile Firefox <a
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile">https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[162]:</span> Minimo, the previous Mozilla
Mobile Browser <a
href="http://www-archive.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/">http://www-archive.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[163]:</span> W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0, W3C
Working Group Note 25 June 2009 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mobileOK-20090625/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-mobileOK-20090625/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[164]:</span> W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0,
W3C Recommendation 08 December 2008 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-mobileOK-basic10-tests-20081208/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-mobileOK-basic10-tests-20081208/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[165]:</span> W3C Device Description
Repository Simple API, W3C Recommendation 05 December 2008 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-DDR-Simple-API-20081205/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-DDR-Simple-API-20081205/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[166]:</span> dotMobi Mobile Phone Emulator
<a
href="http://emulator.mtld.mobi/emulator.php">http://emulator.mtld.mobi/emulator.php</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[167]:</span> W3C MobileOK checker <a
href="http://validator.w3.org/mobile/">http://validator.w3.org/mobile/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[168]:</span> dotMobi Mobile Readyness
checker <a
href="http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN">http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[169]:</span> W3C Mobile Web Training <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/training/">http://www.w3.org/Mobile/training/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[170]:</span> W3C Mobile Web Tutorials <a
href="http://www.w3.org/Mobile/Dev#tutorials">http://www.w3.org/Mobile/Dev#tutorials</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[171]:</span> dotMobi Mobile Web Developer's
Guide <a
href="http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/dotmobi-mobile-web-developers-guide">http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/dotmobi-mobile-web-developers-guide</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[172]:</span> dotMobi Mobile Web Training <a
href="http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/screencast-beginning-mobile-web-development">http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/screencast-beginning-mobile-web-development</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[173]:</span> MobiSiteGalore, a free mobile
website design tool <a
href="http://www.mobisitegalore.com/index.html">http://www.mobisitegalore.com/index.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[174]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of Social
Networking <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[175]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of
Instant Messaging <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[176]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of RSS <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[177]:</span> Mobile social network used in
education pilot project, April 2009 <a
href="http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=2539">http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=2539</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[178]:</span> W3C Geolocation Working Group
<a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/geolocation/">http://www.w3.org/2008/geolocation/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[179]:</span> W3C Delivery Context: Client
Interfaces (DCCI) 1.0, Accessing Static and Dynamic Delivery Context
Properties, W3C Candidate Recommendation 21 December 2007 <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DPF/">http://www.w3.org/TR/DPF/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[180]:</span> MXIT, a mobile instant
messenger, South Africa <a
href="http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/">http://www.mxitlifestyle.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[181]:</span> JavaRosa, an open-source
platform for data collection on mobile device <a
href="http://www.open-mobile.org/technologies/javarosa-open-rosa-consortium">http://www.open-mobile.org/technologies/javarosa-open-rosa-consortium</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[182]:</span> Goma, a major release of
Ushahidi, including mobile versions, August 2009 <a
href="http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2009/08/13/goma-a-major-ushahidi-update/">http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2009/08/13/goma-a-major-ushahidi-update/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[183]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of MIDP
<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Information_Device_Profile">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Information_Device_Profile</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[184]:</span> JaveME SDK <a
href="http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30.jsp">http://java.sun.com/javame/downloads/sdk30.jsp</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[185]:</span> iPhone SDK <a
href="http://developer.apple.com/iphone/">http://developer.apple.com/iphone/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[186]:</span> Android SDK <a
href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/">http://developer.android.com/sdk/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[187]:</span> Nokia SDK <a
href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/Tools_Docs_and_Code/Tools/Platforms/">http://www.forum.nokia.com/Tools_Docs_and_Code/Tools/Platforms/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[188]:</span> Twitter API <a
href="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/">http://apiwiki.twitter.com/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[189]:</span> Executive Summary of the W3C
Worksop on the role of Mobile Technologies in Development, June 2008, Sao
Paulo, Brazil <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/exec_summary.html">http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/exec_summary.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[190]:</span> Executive Summary of the W3C
Worksop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries, December 2006, Bangalore,
India <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2006/07/MWI-EC/exec_summary.html">http://www.w3.org/2006/07/MWI-EC/exec_summary.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[191]:</span> W3C MW4D IG Public Archives <a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/">http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[192]:</span> Participants of the W3C
Worksop on the role of Mobile Technologies in Development, June 2008, Sao
Paulo, Brazil <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/ws_participants.html">http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/ws_participants.html</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[193]:</span> Participants of the W3C
Worksop on the role of Mobile Technologies in Development, Avril 2009, Maputo,
Mozambique <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/Participants_list.pdf">http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/Participants_list.pdf</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[194]:</span> Wikipedia Definition of
Usability <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability</a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:bold;">[195]:</span> Introduction to W3C Widgets,
blog post, Peter-Paul Koch, April 2009 <a
href="http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2009/04/introduction_to.html">http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2009/04/introduction_to.html</a></p>
<p><strong>[196]</strong>: Wikipedia Definition of Bearer Services <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_service">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_service</a></p>
<p><strong>[197]</strong>: Support for Cell Broadcast as Global Emergency Alert
System,Axelsson, Karin (Linköping University, Department of Science and
Technology), Student Thesis, 2007 <a
href="http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-9491">http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-9491</a></p>
<h2 id="head-7400551ef2975c838f0b905e38d1b808e61fc1c3">10. Contributors</h2>
<span class="anchor" id="line-1980"></span><span class="anchor"
id="line-1981"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-1982">This document
received, during its development, lots of comments and contributions from the
subscribers of the <a
href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-mw4d/">[191]public archived
mailing-list public-mw4d@w3.org</a>. The following people have been active
during the whole process and have been key in the evolution and publication of
the document. By alphabetical order:</span>
<ul>
<li>Ken Banks (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Nicolas Chevrollier (TNO)</li>
<li>Raphael Dard (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Lauri Hirvonen (Nokia till Sept 30 2009)</li>
<li>Adesina Iluyemi (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Arun Kumar (IBM)</li>
<li>Renjish Kumar (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Yoshiko Kurisaki (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Phililip Olla (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Betty Purwandari (University of Southampton)</li>
<li>Richard Scullin (Invited Expert)</li>
<li>Mira Slavova (Invited Expert)</li>
</ul>
<p><span class="anchor" id="line-19821">It is also important to note that an
important part of the content in this document is coming from the discussions
which took place during the two workshops in <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/">[4]June 2008 in Sao Paulo, Brazil</a>
and in <a href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/">[5]April 2009 in Maputo,
Mozambique</a>. As such, <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/02/MS4D_WS/ws_participants.html">[192]the
participants in Brazil</a> and <a
href="http://www.w3.org/2008/10/MW4D_WS/Participants_list.pdf">[193]the
participants in Mozambique</a> should also be considered as
contributors.</span></p>
<p class="line867"></p>
<h2 id="head-062164a828d28e2817543f5d7ae3c71a650d2f87">11. Annexes</h2>
<h3 id="head-e3153973491747d902a89e061c40c624e9cb369b">11.1 Abbreviations</h3>
<p class="line867"><strong>3G :</strong> A family of standards for wireless
communications, of 3rd Generation </p>
<p class="line867"><strong>3GPP</strong>: 3rd Generation Partnership Project, a
collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, to make a
globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification<br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong><a name="API" id="API">API</a> :</strong>
Application Programming Interface <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>AT :</strong> Assistive technologies </p>
<p><strong>BOP or BoP</strong>: base or bottom of pyramid, the largest, but
poorest socio-economic group</p>
<p><strong>BSC</strong>: Base Station Controller</p>
<p><strong>CB</strong>: Cell Broadcast</p>
<p><strong>CBC</strong>: Cell Broadcast Center</p>
<p><strong>DEWN</strong>: Disaster &amp; Emergency Warning Network</p>
<p><strong>DMC</strong>: Disaster Management Center</p>
<p><strong>EPROM</strong>: Entrepreneurial programming and research on mobiles,
initiated at MIT</p>
<p><strong>ERCIM</strong>: European Research Consortium for Informatics and
Mathematics</p>
<p><strong>ETSI</strong>: European Telecommunications Standards Institute</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>ETWS</strong>: Earthquake and Tsunami Warning
System<strong></strong></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>EU-FP7 :</strong> European Union Seventh Framework
Programme </p>
<p class="line867"><strong>GNI</strong>: Gross National Income<br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>GPRS :</strong> General packet radio service <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>GSM :</strong> Global System for Mobile
communications: originally from Groupe Special Mobile <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>GSMA :</strong> GSM Association <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>HTML :</strong> Hypertext Markup Language <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>ICT :</strong> Information and communication
technologies <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>ICTD :</strong> Information and Communication
Technologies and Development <br>
</p>
<p><strong>IP</strong>: Internet Protocol</p>
<p><strong>ISP</strong>: Internet Service Provider</p>
<p><strong>ITU :</strong> International Telecommunication Union <br>
</p>
<p><strong>IVR :</strong> Interactive Voice Response </p>
<p><strong>J2ME</strong>: Java Micro-Edition, the java language on mobiles</p>
<p><strong>LTE</strong>: Long Term Evolution, a mobile telecommunication
standard,successor to UMTS</p>
<p><strong>MIDP</strong>: Mobile Information Device Profile</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>MIT</strong>: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology<br>
</p>
<p><strong>MVNO</strong>: Mobile virtual network operator</p>
<p><strong>MW4D IG :</strong> Mobile Web for Social Development Interest
Group</p>
<p><strong>NGO</strong>: Non-governmental organization</p>
<p><strong>PBX</strong>: Private branch exchange, a type of telephone exchange
that serves a particular business or office</p>
<p><strong>PP</strong>: Point to Point</p>
<p><strong>R&amp;D :</strong> research and development <br>
</p>
<p><strong>RDS</strong>: Radio Data System</p>
<p><strong>RSS</strong>: Really Simple Syndication, a web feed formats used to
publish frequently updated content</p>
<p><strong>SDK</strong>: Software Development Kit</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>SIGCHI</strong>: Special Interest Group on
Computer–Human Interaction<br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>SMS :</strong> Short message service <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>SR :</strong> Speech recognition <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>TTS :</strong> text-to-speech </p>
<p class="line867"><strong>UMTS</strong>: Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System<br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>UNDP :</strong> United Nations Development Programme
<br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>UNESCO :</strong> United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>URL :</strong> Uniform Resource Locator <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>USSD :</strong> Unstructured Supplementary Service
Data <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>VoIP :</strong> Voice over Internet Protocol <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>W3C :</strong> World Wide Web Consortium <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>WAI :</strong> Web Accessibility Initiative <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>WAP :</strong> Wireless Application Protocol <br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>WCAG :</strong> Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
<br>
</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>WHO :</strong> World Health Organization </p>
<p><strong>WML</strong>: Wireless Markup Language, markup used in mobile
phones</p>
<p><strong>WWW :</strong> World Wide Web </p>
<p><strong>WYSIWYG</strong>: What you see is what you get</p>
<p><strong>XML :</strong> Extensible Markup Language </p>
<h3 id="head-174b253dfb13ed80b6026b25e843c001e732399c">11.2 Definition</h3>
<p class="line867"><strong>Accessibility</strong>: Web accessibility means that
people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility
means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and
interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web
accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing
abilities due to aging.</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Application level tool</strong>: more advanced tools
focusing on specific tasks or type of applications, offering advanced features,
complex user interactions, or dynamic content, for authors without programming
skills. </p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="line-20181"><strong>Application
Store:</strong></span><span class="anchor" id="line-2018"><strong></strong>Also
known as digital distribution platforms for mobile devices. The application
Store is a service accessible directly from the phone as a specific application
which allows users to browse and download applications. These applications are
available to purchase or free of charge, depending on the application. The
applications are downloaded directly to the phone.</span></p>
<p><strong>Bearer Services</strong>: Bearer service is a telecommunications
term referring to a service that allows transmission of information signals
between network interfaces. See the complete <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearer_service">[196]Wikipedia
definition</a>.</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Discoverability</strong>: Ability for a user to use
tools to automatically find existing services, content or applications. The
existence of search engines on the Web enables potentially all resources to be
found by any user without external intervention</p>
<p class="line867"><span class="anchor" id="line-2020"><strong>Mobile
Browsing</strong>: Mobile browsing refers to browser-based web services such as
the World Wide Web, WAP and i-Mode (Japan) using a mobile device such as a cell
phone, PDA, or other portable gadget connected to a public network. This
definition is also usually used for Mobile Web. In the context of this
document, the term Mobile Web has a broad scope, as defined below</span><span
class="anchor" id="line-2021"></span></p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Mobile Web</strong>: <span class="anchor"
id="line-2022"></span><span class="anchor" id="line-2023">In the context of
this document, the term ' Mobile Web ' should be understood in its widest
sense, accessing and interacting with Web content from a mobile phone. It is
not limited to Mobile Browsing only.</span></p>
<p><strong><a name="PABX" id="PABX">PABX or PBX</a></strong>: A private branch
exchange (PBX) is a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or
office, as opposed to one that a common carrier or telephone company operates
for many businesses or for the general public. PBXs are also referred to as:</p>
<ul>
<li>PABX - private automatic branch exchange</li>
<li>EPABX - electronic private automatic</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_branch_exchange">[107]See a
detailed wikipedia definition</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Platform-level tool</strong>: Platform-level tools are tools
enabling the use of a particular technology in a complete free way, without any
specific task focus.</p>
<p><strong>Premium SMS Service</strong>: a way to have overcharged SMS number.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS">[3]See a detailed definition</a></p>
<p><strong>SDK</strong>: Software Development Kit</p>
<p class="line867"><strong>Usability</strong>: <span class="anchor"
id="line-2024">In human-computer interaction, usability often refers to the
elegance and clarity with which the interaction with a computer program or a
web site is designed (<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability">[194]excerpt from Wikipedia
Definition</a>).</span></p>
<p><strong>Widget: </strong>a widget is a local HTML/CSS/JavaScript web
application. A mobile phone user downloads a widget once, and from that moment
on he has a web application stored locally on his mobile phone. (excerpt from
<a
href="http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2009/04/introduction_to.html">[195]Quirksmode
blog</a>)</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>
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