C³TO: an architecture for implementing a chat based call centre and tutoring online

Abstract

The mobile phone is quickly becoming the personal computer of Africa. In Africa the cell phone is widely used, for example, in banking, crime prevention, tracking applications for identification documents, and education. C³TO is an architecture for implementing a call centre over various chat protocols such as Mxit, Jabber, and Google Talk. It is a J2EE based application running with Mobicents and provides the functionality to enable a number of tutors (or counsellors or information officers) to answer questions or provide information to thousands of people using inexpensive chat protocols on their cell phones. The first practical implementation of C³TO was the re-design and re-implementation of the Dr Math project in South Africa where thousands of primary and secondary school pupils get help with their mathematics homework from a handful of university students using Mxit on their cell phones