Initial fieldwork for LWAZI: A telephone-based spoken dialog system for rural South Africa Tebogo Gumede and Madelaine Plauché Human Language Technology CSIR

Outline Introduction Project Lwazi Application selection Selected application – Visited communities – Source of information – Transport – Providers – Languages Discussion Challenges

Introduction Growing interest in deploying spoken dialog systems (SDSs) South Africa is the leader in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Africa Illiteracy – Population with no schooling stood at 10.3% in 2007 (StatSA)

Introduction Mobile phone use is widespread Challenge of accessing government information – opting not to access Introducing project Lwazi

Project Lwazi Lwazi IsiZulu for Knowledge Three years funded by DAC Telephone-based information system In language of choice - 11 official languages

Project Lwazi Nationally available - Through a single number Toll-free Some key outputs – TTS in eleven languages – Quality ASR – MA and PHD – Application selection

Application selection Key Informant Interviews, Focus group Discussions Community survey Household surveys and Workshops – Morphological analysis – Application selection

The selected application Community Development Workers (CDW) – ‘Foot solders’ between government services and communities, especially the rural poor – Then follow up to ensure citizens successfully receive services. CDWs at work – example

Communities visited Rural High unemployment Old and technically challenged Suitability of Lwazi system User expertise of telephony Source of information

Potential uptake Two potential areas – Community and government (easy flow and cheaper and by-in) Key is localised information – Within government officials (they were excited about L potential )

Challenges Diversity of end users will require investment in time and resource to gather accurate information Ambitious (stakeholders, 11 languages) Not everyone in our targeted group will be excited about Lwazi.

THANK YOU