Question Box connects farming communities to AgInfo answers

Under the tagline 'Realtime Web for the Bottom Billion', a new type of service for farmers is emerging.

Piloting in India and Uganda, Question Box "brings information to people who cannot or do not access the Internet directly." It "leaps over illiteracy, computer illiteracy, lack of networks, and language barriers."

Combining mobile phones with the power of the Internet, rural people can pose their questions to local call centers where operators research answers. The questions and answers are in local languages and, notably, don't require users to be able to read and write. (Note, the Kothmale Internet Project in Sri Lanka did something similar by combining rural radio with questions and answers)

For information specialists, the project is also documenting and sharing some of the questions that they receive. Visit 'World Wants to Know' to see a visualization of the questions received. For the first time, we can all see examples of the kinds of issues on the mind of farming communities.

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