Google goes rural
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Google wanted to find out why. It retrofitted a bus with VSAT equipment and computers and video screens to ride out the dusty country roads of semi-urban towns in Tamil Nadu, in a journey aimed at making the Internet a point of relevance in people’s lives rather than just a matter of interest. Ramasami’s grandmother, the first among Internet illiterates to board the bus enjoyed the experience of sending an e-mail for the first time in her life, in the only language she knew, which was amil.
Internet usage in India is still restricted to just 45 million people. Compare this with neighbouring China, where a staggering 221 million people use the Internet today. “Despite broadband connectivity, and cyber cafés charging as low as Rs 10/hour, we find huge Internet unawareness,” says Prasad Ram, Centre Head & Engineering Director, Google R&D, India. Google hopes to promote better usage, create new products, simplify existing ones and scale them globally.
At the Voorhees Higher Secondary School in Vellore, boys from Tamil and English medium schools, showed curiosity and interest in the 5-10 minutes allotted for each batch. “We used Google maps to locate our school, houses and the nearby Golden Lakshmi temple,” said S. Vinod, a 9th standard student. Others were thrilled with the messenger services, the search results that threw up images of their favourite film stars and the inevitable cricket score. “How do we register for e-mail—can it be done in the local language?” was a common query. Lack of knowledge about technology and cost of Internet access were other obstacles that the Google team came to know of. S.
Learning experience |
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Gnanashekaran, a maths teacher at Voorhees, who had his first peek at Wikipedia and YouTube, said: “If the Internet helps to explain my subject better in the class, I would love to include it in the classroom.” Sadly, such technology is almost non-existent in rural India. A dip stick survey by BT revealed that 90 per cent of the 800 students who boarded the bus on February 5 did not know anything about the Internet.
The team also found that though cyber cafés charged low rates, cost was still an issue for those who used mobile phones— more for the free incoming calls—and investing in a home computer entailed a big sum. Parents were also not sure how their children could actually learn lessons better at a cyber café than through tuitions. Nevertheless, wherever the bus halted, middleaged men and women learnt what the “mouse” looked like and how to apply for jobs. A mother of two, D. Rama (48) said: “The Google Bus has made everything so simple. They don’t teach all this at cyber cafés.”
In Salem and Pollachi schools, Google had to use auditoriums to interact with the 5,000-strong audience comprising students, parents, teachers. “While everybody was shown a video explaining how to use the computer and browse for information, the quality of broadband connectivity and power cuts were major issues,’’ says Nishant Nair, Online Operations Representative at Google.
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“We are keen to extend our mobile service offerings to all parts of India. Voice is going to play a big part in it,” says Ram. As the bus wound its way through Tamil Nadu’s heartland, Google gained further insight into issues surrounding Internet usage. But for many people who made it to the bus, life changed significantly. S. Anbarasu, an auto mechanic, realised that he could find technical information about two-wheelers on the web. Internet, he admitted, had arrived in his life. And, perhaps, in the lives of many others.
What the future holds Why Google is interested in the initiative. |
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