Linux voice rec to the rescue of the digitlly disadvantaged

[http://www.aol.com/~LaGiannina]

                       Equal Digital Rights for
           all the Needy Communities of the World

             Digitally Deprived of the World Unite:
              The Revolution againts Digital Divide.

Abstract: A proposal to architect and offer Linux based low cost and reliable
collaborative systems to be used by the virtual support communities of the
needy of the world and the professionals in support. This Linux based simple
to use network will provide the platform for all important applications in
support of the community especially in the arenas of distance learning and
telemedicine.

                        by  Janine M. Lodato
                         http://www.aol.com/~LaGiannina

One of the most disturbing and  deeply disappointing fact about the slow
progress the IT industry is making is the fact that it is creating a very
large underclass of people, people who cannot afford, cannot understand and
afraid to use the Internet and
the PCs and Serves connected to it. This lack of progress is due to the
practically non-existent competition in the Windows offerings which dominate
the IT landscape.
Where is Judge Green when we need him?

Not that Microsoft could not compete if they wanted to: look at what they are
doing in the on-line services arena pushing AOL to do better and better and
AOL is fighting back so we all benefit from rapid improvement in the quality
of this content heavy on-line services, although still too expensive.

The underclass of people who are digitally deprived are the ones who need low
cost, telephone simple and telephone reliable IT
on-line services to improve the quality of their lives and reduce the cost of
living and support by the government. This underclass members are the needy
of the world such as the
....aged
....ailing
....disabled
....teachers, parents, kids
....government social workers
....health care professionals

One sad comment we can make about the current IT capabilities:

     Data, data everywhere,
             not one chance to think;
     Email, email overbear,
             one can hardly blink;
     Promo, promo all unfair,
             in trivia we sink;
     Virus, virus constant scare,
             Windows you sure stink;

But we may be in luck: Linux is showing singes of life and could fulfill the
need of the digitally deprived with a unified, simple, reliable, affordable
telecom platform system, telephone simple voice-activated, that lets the user
check for caller ID, receive short messages, check for incoming and outgoing
E-mail, access address books for both telephone numbers, URLs and e-mail
addresses, and place and end telephone calls. All this without using the
maddening complexity of Windows.

Now we can implement a community wide support network for each region in
support of the needy offering
....telemedicine, to lower the cost of health care and improve its quality
....distance learning
....teletraining
....telework, tele-employment

     On this Linux based end-to-end unified community system, everything that
is now done by typing and text on PCs, will be more quickly and easily
performed with voice recognition.  That is, a voice will identify a caller ,
read short messages aloud, provide e-mail services in both text-to-voice
reading of the incoming e-mail and voice-to-text for outgoing E-mail, voice
access of address books, and voice-activated placing and closing  out phone
calls.

So we could say with assurance that...

     Linux, Linux, the openware,
             high-priced PCs on the brink;
     Info, info searched with care,
             to knowledge one shall link.

         Once the users of this community wide support system are able to
answer, make and end a call using just their voices, working with the
telephone will be a breeze and seniors will not feel isolated and lonely.
What a boon to society voice-activated telephone services will be.
     Whether or not users are at all computer-savvy, e-mail will also be an
option applied to the telephone.  It is, after all, a form of communication
as is the telephone. It is a Linux-based unified communication system.
     Of great value to the user would be e-mail and its corresponding address
book.  As e-mail comes  in, messages could be read by way of  a text-to-voice
method.
Also of great value would be a telephone system with its corresponding
address book and numbers.  Short messaging could be read through
text-to-voice technology and short messages can be left using voice -to-text
methodology.

There remains a problem: the Linux industry is highly fragmented so it would
be difficult to have each community and its social worker team to collaborate
with the Linux services companies in the development and upgrading efforts of
these community wide
on-line support systems. Instead it is suggested that the communities line up
with the large SIs (systems integrators) such as IBM, Unisys, HP, EDS etc to
have them be the technology leader in the effort needed to provide the
systems. The best way to arrange the alliance between with these large SIs
and the many many communities in need would be via a Consortium of the
non-profits and the SIs especially non-profits which have deep and already
well understood specific interest in the needed applications: telemed,
telelearn etc

This â??Non-profit and SIâ?? consortium would seed the development of the
prototype of the community wide Linux based on-line support system and would
apply for large federal grants to archive the task ,a swell as help the
leaders of the social workers of each community to apply for regional grants
to put the support systems into each community.

Of course there is still work to be done. Applications for the community wide
 platforms must be developed or perfected to allow collaboration between the
health service professionals or social worker professionals and the many
people in need. Web connected AT oriented software components running on
Linux client machines connected to Linux servers have to be created such as...
....simple and application specific user interface,
....voice based interaction via computer/telephone,
....always on and always available systems,
....a collaborative virtual community systems.

Let us be honest, the reason the large SIs will enter into this â??Non-profit
and SIâ?? consortium is not as much the fact that they are reasonably
philontropic. but in addition they realize the dual-use potential of such
end-to-end support systems, One use is of course the community wide support
financed by the government, but the other just as big market is the
enterprise market these SIs serve already offering them a similar support
system for tele-training, collaboration, e-commerce.

It is fortunate that the government agencies who will make the grants to the
â??Non-profit and SIâ?? consortium to finance the community support system, do
recognize and encourage the dual-use of these systems since it makes the
market so much bigger for the systems thus lower the cost significantly for
all.

We should keep in mind that the intellectual property for the end-to-end
support system will belong to the â??Non-profit and SIâ?? consortium so when
the
SI sell a system to an enterprise then the SI will pay a royalty to the
consortium allowing the consortium to finance continued improvements of such
intellectual property.

It is suggested that we star with two consortia
..... with EDS for telemed : MedConsortium.org
in collaboration with and seeded and promoted by a number of non-profit
members in this consortium which are interested in telemed.
..... with IBM for distance learning: EduConsortium.org
in collaboration with and seeded and promoted by a number of non-profit
members in this consortium which are interested in tele-learning.

It should be emphasized that consortium organizations of this type will
qualify for government grants of both kinds; the developmental grants as well
as the installation and service grants.

Janine M. Lodato
box 838
SAN ANDREAS, CA.
95249-838

Phone: 209-754-3822

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Linux Journal web article:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sidf10
http://linuxgazette.com/issue85/Lodato.html
http://www.e-bility.com/articles/voice_recognition.shtml
http://atnet.org/news/sept02/090105.html
http://www.funlist.com/www/coke/lib/symbol.html