Abstract:
Social media tools for blogs, photo and video sharing, and online social networking websites have revolutionized accountability in governance, awareness about current affairs, and even the preservation of cultural artifacts through digital media. How can similar tools be made available in developing regions, where literacy and network connectivity remain significant challenges? We will describe a variety of innovative experiments in this regard, led by non-profit organizations working on community radio, community video, phone-based messaging systems, and even engaging with communities through in-person interactions. Many of these experiments can make use of technology to scale their operations, and we will also describe a customizable network architecture and associated applications to assist the growth of social media in developing regions. The talk will help audience understand the context for building technology in these regions, and other challenges to do with policy matters and financial sustainability, which can interestingly be quite different from the assumptions researchers often make when building systems for use in the developed world.


Aaditeshwar Seth is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at IIT Delhi. He graduated with a PhD degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada in 2008, and completed his B.Tech from IIT Kanpur in 2002 while receiving the Ratan Swaroop Memorial Award given to the best all-rounder of the batch. Aaditeshwar is passionate about building technologies for social development. He won the Knight News Challenge award in 2008 to start an organization, Gram Vaani, that builds low-cost systems for community radio stations in rural areas. His PhD thesis on rural Internet connectivity solutions, and current work with the Appropriate Computing Research group at IIT Delhi, are similarly focused on building innovative technologies aimed at solving economic and social issues in developing regions. More