Digital Green

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Digital Green
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Indian Agricultural Context

• Over 60 in agriculture
• Mostly small and marginal farmers with 1-3 acres
  of land
• Average income of 1-2/day

3
Problems in Agriculture

• Green revolution a blessing and a curse(?)
• Crop yields decreasing due to intensive farming
• Politics, subsidies, increased competition
• Farmers unable to cope up, resorting in extreme
  cases to suicides

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Current Sources of Information

• Extension programs (government and NGOs)
• Broadcast radio/TV programs
• Seed/chemical industry
• Hearsay of neighbors

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Related Work

• e-Sagu Agricultural advisory system
• Digital photos, PCs Krishna Reddy, IIIT
  Hyderabad
• aAqua Agricultural advisory system
• Questions based Krithi Ramamritham, IIT Mumbai
• Kiosk projects aiming to provide internet access
  to farmers
• Broadcast TV programs

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Agricultural Extension Traditional Style
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Field Work
Distribution lt 20 farmers Staff (100/mo)
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Digital Green System

• Record farm videos Digital Camcorders
• Play content TVs, DVD players, Laptops
• Distribute content DVDs, Cable

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Field Deployment

• Partnered with the GREEN Foundation

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Before
Distribution lt 20 farmers Staff (100/mo)
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Simple Solution?
Distribution gt 200 farmers Staff (100/mo) TV
(200) DVD Player (50) Camcorder (200)
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Local Area Network Reality
Sharing Experiences
Improving Techniques
Structuring Meetings
Personal Follow-ups
Catching Mistakes
Supplying Equipment
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Diffusion Strategy
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Web-less 2.0

• Viral Web 2.0 in a Web-less world
• education, entrepreneurship, entertainment
• Reinforce existing social networks to bring
  communities together
• Local idol competitions to support sustainable
  improvements

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All village, all the time

• gt100 Videos, gt15 hours
• Testimonials
• Experts
• Do-it-Yourself Demos
• Field Trips
• Comparative
• Exhibitions
• Interviews
• Market Opportunities
• Songs

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Preliminary Observations
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Recordings
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Recordings
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Content Repository Stats

• Number of videos 100
• Total length of videos 15 hours
• Average length of videos 10 minutes
• Number of unique farmers in videos 45
• Number of unique experts in videos 20
• Number of unique villages in videos 25
• Categories of content
• Crop management, animal husbandry, indigenous
  technologies, income generating activities, bio
• fertilizers, pest managements, composting, water
  management, entertainment

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Screenings
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Screenings
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Screening Equipment
Shared TV/DVD Player
Laptop
Personal TV/DVD Player
and Cable
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Screening Locations

• Bus stands, temples, schoolhouses, panchayat
  offices,
• storefronts, private homes, streets, fields

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Content Screening Stats

• Shared TV and DVD Player
• Number of screenings 50
• Number of farmers that viewed screenings 300
• Number of villages that viewed screenings 5
• Personal Video Exchange
• Number of farmers participating in video
  exchange 5
• Number of videos exchanged with farmers 300
• Cable
• Number of villages showing content on cable
  network 3
• Number of cable showings 20

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Why Microsoft should care

• PC impedance mismatch
• PC as media center
• Video centric device
• Web 2.0 without PCs and internet
• YouTube Compete

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Questions?