Polly : Viral Entertainment as a Vehicle for Disseminating Core Development Services

1. Polly: Viral Entertainment as a Vehicle for Disseminating Core Development Services Agha Ali Raza, Roni Rosenfeld Language Technologies Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA FarhanUlHaq, Zain Tariq, MansoorPervaiz, SamiaRazaq, Umar Saif School of Science and Engineering Lahore University of Management Sciences Lahore, Pakistan

2. Our Team… Agha Ali RazaRoniRosenfeld FarhanUlHaqZain Tariq MansoorPervaizSamiaRazaq Umar Saif Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

3. Our Long Term Vision • Speech-based information access • for low-literate people • in developing countries • Examples of information services: • speech-based Craig's List • speech-based citizen journalism • speech-based message boards/blogs • health, agriculture, jobs, education,… • … Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

4. The Case for SLT4D • PCs are not feasible for low-literate masses • Non-affluent cannot afford them • Unskilled cannot operate them • Stable electricity, Internet etc. cannot be relied upon • Low cost phones may be a feasible solution • Low-cost phones often only support voice & SMS • Video not feasible • Graphical interactions not always possible • Text is problematic for low literate users • Speech may be the only viable interaction paradigm Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

5. How can we reach the low-literate? • Speech over simple phones is a viable way to reach • low-literate people in developing countries Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

6. Modes of Input - Speech-based input - Push button (DTMF) input Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

7. Problem 1: User Training Even simple IVR systems are often a challenge for the low-literate Speech Interfacesusually require user training e.g. Healthline(Sherwani et al 2009), AvaajOtalo (Patel et al 2010) Explicit training is not a scalable solution Solution: Incentivize people to train themselves “Where there's a will there's a way…” [Smyth et al 2010] “Entertainment turns UI Barriers into mere speed bumps” Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

8. Problem 2: How to Mass Disseminate? How to advertise / communicate to masses who don’t read? Solution: Viral Spread Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

9. Goal of this work • Develop Viral Entertainmentas a vehicle for disseminating Development relatedtelephone based services • Introduce and popularize speech interfaces • Use Entertainment as a Viral Conduit for delivering core development services • Setup an Experimental Testbed for testing speech interface choices • Provide Entertainment Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

10. Polly(میاں مٹھو) • Polly is a telephone-based, voice-based application which allows users to make a short recording of their voice, modify it and send the modified version to friends. Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

11. Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

12. 2011 - Pilot Launch • Single incoming phone line • Launched on March 31, 2011 • Seeded with the 32 users • Remained up for 22 days • Amassed 2,032 users who took part in 10,629 interactions • Reasons for Shut down: • Line capacity saturated within two weeks • Line remained busy during peak hours resulting in frustrated users • The international call charges ($0.126/minute) were becoming a significant financial burden for us Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

13. 2012 – Large Scale Deployment • Deployed locally in Lahore • Call charges went down to $0.023/minute • Increased capacity to 30 phone lines • Increased voice manipulations to six • Added Job Audio-Browser Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

14. First Information Service: Job Audio-Browser • Scan Pakistani newspapers for jobs for low-skilled workers • Record these ads • Invite Polly’s users to audio-browse them Ref: paperpk.com Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

15. 2012 – Large Scale Deployment • Launched on May 09, 2012: • Gave the phone number to 5 low-literate people • After 141 days (mid-September 2012): • 495,000 calls • 85,000 users • Spreading to 1,000 new people daily • 27,000people used the job search service • listened 279,000 times to job ads • and forwarded them 22,000 times to their friends. Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

16. 2012 – Large Scale Deployment Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

17. 2012 – Large Scale Deployment Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

18. Enthusiasm is Lost Quickly: • But a few people continue long term Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

19. User Demographics • Determined by listening to a sample of recordings: Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

20. User DemographicsDetermined from 207 survey calls Socio-Economic Status Low SES (No Education) Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

21. Randomized Controlled Trials • Very convenient RCT setup! • Hundreds of new users join every day • So far we have been paying all airtime charges using “missed call” mechanism • Goal: Reduce our airtime charges while maintaining system spread among the poor • Question:How will various quotas affect user behavior? • Is Polly compelling enough for people to spend their own money on it, at least sometimes? Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

22. Caller-paid Line Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

23. 2012-13 Large Scale Deployment • Launched on May 09, 2012 in Lahore, Pakistan: • Seeded with 5 low-literate people • After 1 year: • 636,000 calls • 165,000 users • At its peak it was spreading to 1,000 new people daily • 34,000people used the job search service • listened 386,199 times to 728 job ads • and 19,000 users forwarded them 34,000times to their friends. Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

24. Geographical Spread • And also a handful of calls from: • India • Belgium • Oman • Saudi Arabia • UAE Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

25. Current Work • Re-launch Polly in Pakistan to serve as a clearinghouse for jobs and skill-training opportunities • Make Polly viral in India with better mechanisms of populating Job Ads and tracking employment outcomes • Multi-platform support • Much more analysis to be done • Detailed logs, audio recordings,... • Collaborators welcome! Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

26. Summary • Can such a system scale up to millions of calls? • Yes! • Core development-related service: Job audio-browsing • Good uptake(many started calling specifically for this service!) • Can it be made cost effective? • No conclusive answer yet: • audio ads, content sponsors, carrier revenue sharing • Polly as an experimental testbed: • Used mostly by uneducated young men (some mid- and high-SES) • Interest declines within ~4 days, for most* • Most users very sensitive to airtime cost • Large dataset of social interaction, currently being analyzed • Let us know if you want to work on it! Thank you! Contact us: www.cs.cmu.edu/~Polly

27. Payload Options Health care Agriculture Job Search Entertainment Commerce ??? Education Our Strategy:

28. User Feedback

29. Voice Effects • Original Voice: Professor Roni Rosenfeld • An I-have-to-run-to-the-bathroom effect • 2) A drunk chipmunk effect • 3) Converting the voice to a whisper • 4) Adding background music • 5) The original, unmodified recording Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans

30. Where we work Intro Goals Polly Analysis Plans