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There are ten regions in Ghana (similar to states in the U.S.); the Upper West Region is one of the two most rural and remote. There are nine districts (similar to counties) within the Upper West, during my last trip I spent most of my time with people in the Jirapa and Wa-East districts. In an earlier post, I mentioned my work with NGOs, district assemblies, and universities; now, I’ll describe what I learned from people in three villages in the Jirapa District: Ving Ving, Chapuri, and Ping. In each village, I was be speaking with between 40 and 70 people, including children, women, and men (although I often had to request that the women join us).

Describing the Talking Book Device

I always spoke through a translator, who would usually be a teen-age boy who had enough schooling to understand English. English is the national language of Ghana, often called the Second Language or Language 2. A child grows up speaking the mother tongue of their ethnic group; but they then begin learning English throughout school. Very few adults speak English in any of these rural villages and just as few can read or write their first language.

Once I found a translator in each village (once it was the village chief), I would ask people in the village to reflect on the messages that local NGOs (nonprofits) and governement health workers came to deliver. I would give an example of information to help prevent the spread of Malaria, the dehydration of small children due to diarrhea, or a method of improving crop yields with proper spacing of seeds. The translator would then translate that sample message, during which I would record the translation on my digital voice recorder. I would then explain that the Talking Book Device would allow someone to collect and listen to messages such as this — and then would play back the voice of the translator speaking the health or agricultural knowledge in their local language. This technique seemed to work well to quickly get the point across to people.

I also brought a non-functioning physical prototype of the device with me to pass around after they understood how it would function.

Feedback on the Physical Attributes and Accessibility of the Device

I intentionally did not show them how to hold the device, because I wanted to see if they would naturally grasp it the way it was intended, which nearly all of them did. I did notice that there were a few people who would hold it 180 degrees from its designed position; in other words, they would hold the device so that the speaker was on the bottom and the microphone was on the top. Without any lettering on the device, there was no cues to tell them which way was up. This became a requirement into the next iteration of our design: some inherent “upness” to the design.

The orange color went over pretty well. Only a few people said they would prefer a different color. However, many people thought that the device should be available in several colors. Orange was fine, but green and blue were the most requested additional colors.

Feedback on size and weight was very important to me. I was quite surprised that very few people complained about the weight, which was exaggerated since the device had two alkaline D-cell batteries, which are quite a bit heavier than the carbon-zinc batteries that are available in most rural regions throughout developing countries. I had heard from friends in Ghana and India that a solid device with some weight would be much more attractive to people than something closer to an iPod, which would be viewed as delicate an unreliable. This was exactly the reaction I experienced first-hand. There was only one comment about the size: the school children in these villages rarely owned bags for their school books. If the size could not be made small enough to fit into a pocket, it was suggested that we make sure that it would be easy to find a string or piece of material that could be used to carry the device over a shoulder or neck. We had already designed a “lanyard hole”, but this feedback made me understand a specific use case for it

The oval shape was generally a hit, although we are now experimenting with a design that addresses the need for vertical asymmetry. Everyone seemed to think it was pretty comfortable in their hands. In one village meeting (Ving Ving) there was a blind man and a man with only one hand present at the meeting. I made a point to check with each of them to see if they found the device comfortable and usable. The blind man seemed to be satisfied with the layout of the buttons and the distinctness of each button. The man with one hand had no problem reaching each button with the thumb of the hand he held the device in.

The best surprise for me was how young children were able to handle the device so easily. A few of us were concerned that the size and weight would make the device hard to handle by pre-school age children. I suppose we could have done this test in Seattle, but it was great to see a three-year old easily and quite happily play with the device, grasping it with one hand and using the other hand to push buttons. The Talking Book Device is not only designed to be used by adults for literacy education and access to information, but also as a tool for children to improve literacy learning inside and outside the classroom.

Market Research on Price Point

I was not able to conduct any sort of comprehensive market research on the price that people would be willing to pay, but I did confirm that our expectations that a $5-$7 price was more than acceptable by the people in these villages, given that they see real value in the device. Even people living on less than $1/day can find a way to afford a $7 device, if they believe it will impact their family’s health and economic well being. During our pilot program this September, we will gather a lot of information about the people participating in the pilot (particularly about their economic resources and opportunities), but for now I’ll just mention that:

• More than nine out of ten were farmers.
• Most of these were subsistence farmers
• There was no access to electricity, running water, or sewage/septic facilities at any of these villages. I don’t believe there was even a pit toilet in any of these villages.
• Most families owned a small radio (costing between $4.00 and $8.00) and a flashlight (~$1.50).
• Approximately 2-5% might own a mobile phone, which costs about $40.
• No one owned any motorized vehicles, although an NGO worker in one or two of the villages had the use of a motorcycle. I did see a bicycle or two in one or two of the villages.

Requested Audio Content

I was not surprised to learn that health and agriculture information was among the most requested types of audio content. Also in the top three requests was information on starting a small business. Literacy Bridge won’t be creating any of this content, but understanding what audio content people are interested in allows us to know which local organizations we should prioritize meeting with and helping create audio content.

I also received very positive feedback about interest in using the device as a literacy tool for children and adults. In the village of Ping, the translator was a school teacher. He immediately embraced the idea of the Talking Book Device as a tool for enhancing school lessons. In fact, after our meeting, he demonstrated how he might use the device to record a lesson during class and then make that lesson available to all the children who had devices, so that they could practice after class. He even had some of the children practice the alphabet with the model of the device in their hand, showing how they might also record what they practiced so they could play it back later.

Local Stories

Each Talking Book Device has a microphone and recording ability built into it. For minimal extra cost, we did this for a couple reasons. One reason is that the Talking Book Project is designed primarily for locally created content. Although nearly all the NGOs and government field offices will have access to a computer that could run our audio authoring software, we also want to make it possible to record a simple message into the device directly. Another reason for this is that it allows any listener to also be a creator of content for others to hear. This could allow a farmer to share an agricultural practice that seems to work well with others, but it could also allow people in villages to capture and share recordings of stories passed down from their ancestors. While this use might not directly relieve poverty, my experience is that it will attract people to the device and will serve as another important function: cultural preservation at a time when many small ethnic groups are losing their unique heritage.

During my last trip there were several people who were excited about the possibility to record stories. In fact, one of them recorded a story directly on my digital voice recorder, which I may post on our site some time.

That’s probably more than enough for now. I’ll post more later on any other feedback I recall during my time in the villages.

One of the main purposes of my trip was to help local Ghanaian organizations get started creating audio content for the Talking Book device. Everyone at Literacy Bridge understands that the success of this project depends on the content. Technology is just a tool to make an existing process more efficient and more available to more people; but without good content that people want to hear, the technology is pointless. From the beginning, we’ve been emphasizing the need for the content to be created locally, but we’ve also realized that we can and should play a role in helping coordinate the creation and sharing of content

Our pilot program is scheduled to start in late August or early September, soon after the first devices are produced and tested. Since it’s important to have a preexisting library of audio content ready before the Talking Book devices are made available for use, we decided to purchase 15 off-the-shelf, digital voice recorders to loan out to local organizations, so that they create audio messages now, before our content authoring software is ready.

While in Ghana, I distributed these voice recorders to nine different groups who all made commitments to create lots of useful content over the next few months. These groups include:

• University of Development Studies (UDS)
• the Jirapa District Ghana Health Services
• the Jirapa District Ghana Education Services
• the Jirapa District office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture
• the Wa East District Ghana Education Services
• the Wa East District office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture
• the Rural Aid Action Programme, a local NGO based in the Jirapa District
• the Chicago State University/Ghana Textbook and Learning Materials Program (funded by USAID

Students at the University of Development Studies in Wa have already submitted many written transcripts of messages they would like to record for this project. I have been working with a professor there named Damasus Tuurosong, who introduced me to the Dean of the school and other key administrative and faculty members. They are all excited to have their students participate in this program by recording knowledge on health, business, and other areas that they feel would be most helpful to users of the Talking Book Device.

The government agencies were also extremely enthusiastic about participating in this program. They see this as an opportunity to reach more people for less cost by still doing what they do today: sharing information that is most empowering for the people they serve.

One interesting feature request that came up was the ability to get feedback from users — not just to send them information, but to listen to what people thought of the information they got or to hear any questions, suggestions, needs, or concerns. I heard this request from NGOs, government field offices, and even a UDS student.

I spent six weeks in Ghana between July and September of 2007. About five weeks were spent in the rural Upper West Region, researching the idea for what became the Talking Book project.

I’ve recently returned from my second trip to Ghana and its Upper West Region. This time, I was only there for two weeks; but it was an extremely packed and productive two weeks. The three main purposes of the trip were to: 1) get feedback from content authors and consumers about the latest plans for the project and specifically on the nonfunctional Talking Book device prototype; 2) make plans for an pilot program in August or September; and 3) find organizations to commit to producing audio content to be ready by the pilot and to distribute off-the-shelf digital voice recorders to allow them to get started right away.

In my first series of blog posts, I’m going to try to produce a “trip report” describing what I learned.

I’ll start here by offering a really high level executive summary:

• I was in Ghana for 13 days: arriving on Friday, 11 April and departing on Thursday, 24 April.
• The air travel cost was about $1300 (Amsterdam-Accra round trip – travel between Seattle and Amsterdam was covered by the ApacheCon conference that I spoke at).
• I spent a total of four days in Accra, the capital of Ghana. I stayed in a hotel for four nights + 1/2 day, at a rate of $25/day — very cheap by Accra standards. I met with NGOs, universities, governmental agencies, and the USAID mission at the US Embassy.
• I spent two days traveling between Accra and the Upper West Region, about 400 miles away. I caught a bus that cost $24 each way ($22 + $1/bag)
• I spent seven days in the Upper West Region: one day in its regional capital of Wa, and six days in much smaller villages and towns.
• During this week, I rented a car and driver for $200 (there was no option to rent the car alone, but Patrick, the driver, was extremely valuable to the project, in many ways — so it worked out well). I spent about $135 on fuel (typically costing about $5.28/gallon).
• In the Upper West, I stayed with a friend for two nights and paid $7/night for six of the nights at a camp-like location with a lockable room with a foam mattress plus easy access to a bore hole and room to take “bucket showers”.  No plumbing or pit toilets; it’s usually “free range” in this area.
• I spent 2-5 hours in each of three small villages in the Upper West to discuss the Talking Book project and get feedback.
• I met with the faculty and students of the University of Development Studies in Wa and helped get students started creating audio content.
• I discussed the project with the District Chief Executive and with the education, health, and agriculture offices of two of the nine districts: Jirapa and Wa East. Another Literacy Bridge volunteer, Andrew Bayor, also began discussing the project with district offices in the Nadowli district. Andrew, Patrick, and I were able to get most of these offices set up with the hardware and software they needed to begin creating audio content for the pilot program.
• I also met with a local NGO named Rural Aide Action Programme (RAAP), which operates in the Jirapa and Sissala West districts. This is the same the NGO that hosted me during my visit in 2007 and was one of the organizations that inspired the idea that local organizations could reach many more people if the Talking Book device was designed to provide access to locally produced information/knowledge. RAAP also agreed to begin creating audio content for the pilot program using the digital voice recorder and software that we set them up with.

I’ll try to provide more detail about each of these items in coming posts.