Initial fieldwork for LWAZI: a telephone-based spoken dialog system for rural South Africa

Abstract

This paper describes sociological fieldwork conducted in the autumn of 2008 in eleven rural communities of South Africa. The goal of the fieldwork was to evaluate the potential role of automated telephony services in improving access to important government information and services. Our interviews, focus group discussions and surveys revealed that Lwazi, a telephone-based spoken dialog system, could greatly support current South African government efforts to effectively connect citizens to available services, provided such services be toll free, in local languages, and with content relevant to each community.