Mobility, digital libraries and a rural Indian village

Millions of people in developed countries routinely create and share digital content; but what about the billions of others in on the wrong side of what has been called the 'global digital divide'? This paper considers three mobile platforms to illustrate their potential in enabling rural Indian villagers to make and share digital stories. We describe our experiences in creating prototypes using mobile phones; high-end media-players; and, paper. Interaction designs are discussed along with findings from various trials within the village and elsewhere. Our approach has been to develop prototypes that can work together in an integrated fashion so that content can flow freely and in interesting ways through the village. While our work has particular relevance to those users in emerging world contexts, we see it also informing needs and practices in the developed world for user-generated content