Question Box

Those queries are also posted as they come in on World Wants to Know, which is becoming a catalog of the day-to-day concerns of the poor in developing countries. Indians show interest in train schedules, cricket scores and weather forecasts, particularly during monsoon season. "The monsoon rains were delayed, and the farmers have been calling every day for the last two weeks asking about whether rain was coming," said project coordinator Rama Sundaram. Indian famers have increasingly been taking advantage of the Box to gain more control over their businesses. Farmers pay brokers to sell their produce in city markets, and although the government posts market prices online each day, farmers without internet access had been forced — until the arrival of the Box — to rely on brokers to report prices honestly.

Agricultural questions have dominated the Ugandan service, from advice on which crops thrive during which seasons to how to help a cow conceive. "There were also a lot of farmers who discovered ways they didn't know about to fight different pests," said supervisor Nat Futterman. Not that all questions are purely practical — one Ugandan submitted a request wondering, "Did the pyramids move?"

But because many villagers have no conception of what the internet is ("They just assume the operator is some egghead," said Sundaram), they're limited in the scope of questions they think to ask. Shuman's team is considering whether and how to convey the internet's potential uses to villagers in future. Their other pressing concern is how the Question Box model scales up. Operators currently receive about 70 calls per week in India and 300 in Uganda, with limited resources preventing them from promoting the service more widely. Shuman plans to keep it free for users, but may solicit advertisements to play before a call or to display on the box itself.

Scaling up will also require decisions about the best form for the "information pipeline" to take. The box employed in India requires more infrastructure than a simple hotline. But its physical design entices curious passersby to try out the service and has helped make it a local anchor, with villagers now accustomed to saying, "Let's meet in front of the Question Box." It also creates a symbiotic relationship with the shops outside which it sits. The shopkeeper who maintains the Box in the Indian village has seen his business increase by more than 30 percent since it was installed, and he's become one of its biggest promoters, urging shoppers: "If you have a question, just try the Box."

Other media are on the table as well, including text messaging, which some users have requested. But in the process of expanding the service, Shuman and her team want to make sure not to design away its strengths. Employing intermediaries to solicit villagers' questions may not be the most efficient model, for instance; but as Jonathan Gosier, Question Box’s chief technical officer in Uganda, notes, "What people using the service tell us they really enjoy — one of the main reasons they use the box — is the community interaction."