Editing Interactive voice response (section)

==Social impact==
By allowing low-literacy populations to interact with technology, IVR systems form an avenue to build technological skills in developing countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/unesco-pearson_draft_guidelines_for_digital_inclusion.pdf|title=Unesco Guidelines for Digital Inclusion|publisher=Unesco}}</ref> Developing countries have a prevalence of mobile phones even in rural areas, which allows room for IVR technology to support social good projects. However, most IVR technology is designed in resource-rich domains hence research is necessary to contextualize and adapt this technology for developing countries.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} Research in ICTD has helped tailor IVR towards social impact has created innovative applications in health, agricultural, entertainment and citizen journalism.

=== Healthcare ===
In the context of tuberculosis (TB), patients need to take medicine on a daily basis for a period of few months to completely heal. In public sector, there is a scheme called [[directly observed treatment, short-course]] (DOTS{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}) which was the most effective source for poor population. However, this method requires the patient to commute to the clinic everyday which adds financial and time constraints to the patient.

99DOTS<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.99dots.org/|title=99DOTS|website=www.99dots.org|access-date=2019-03-04}}</ref> is a project that uses good ICTD principles{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} to use IVR technology to benefit TB patients. Patients have a customized packet of tablets that they receive from the healthcare official who trains them to take the medicine in the sequence daily. Opening the packet in a sequence reveals a phone number that the patient needs to dial to acknowledge that they have taken the medicine. This research project was based out of Microsoft Research India by Bill Theis and who received the [[MacArthur Fellowship]] for the project.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/973/|title=Bill Thies - MacArthur Foundation|website=www.macfound.org|access-date=2019-03-04}}</ref> The project has spun off as Everwell Technologies<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.everwell.org/|title=Everwell|website=www.everwell.org|access-date=2019-03-04}}</ref> which now works closely with the Government of India to scale this technology to patients throughout India.

=== Community-based entertainment ===
Although radio is a very popular means of entertainment, IVR provides interactivity, which can help listeners engage in novel ways using their phones. ICTD research has used IVR entertainment as a mechanism to support communities and provide information to populations that are hard to reach by traditional methods.

* Sangeet Swara:<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Vashistha|first1=Aditya|last2=Cutrell|first2=Edward|last3=Borriello|first3=Gaetano|last4=Thies|first4=William|title=Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |chapter=Sangeet Swara |date=2015|series=CHI '15|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=417–426|doi=10.1145/2702123.2702191|isbn=9781450331456|s2cid=15305511}}</ref> voice-based singing platform for low literate users in India. Although this platform was for a broader audience, it saw large participation from visually impaired people.
* Gurgaon Idol:<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Koradia|first1=Zahir|last2=Aggarwal|first2=Piyush|last3=Seth|first3=Aaditeshwar|last4=Luthra|first4=Gaurav|title=Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Symposium on Computing for Development |chapter=Gurgaon idol |date=2013|series=ACM DEV '13|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=6:1–6:10|doi=10.1145/2442882.2442890|isbn=9781450318563|s2cid=2594887}}</ref> was a singing competition used voice system, where users could vote and sing to a number presented on radio.
* Polly:<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Raza|first1=Agha Ali|last2=Pervaiz|first2=Mansoor|last3=Milo|first3=Christina|last4=Razaq|first4=Samia|last5=Alster|first5=Guy|last6=Sherwani|first6=Jahanzeb|last7=Saif|first7=Umar|last8=Rosenfeld|first8=Roni|title=Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development |chapter=Viral entertainment as a vehicle for disseminating speech-based services to low-literate users |date=2012|series=ICTD '12|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=350–359|doi=10.1145/2160673.2160715|isbn=9781450310451|s2cid=8264210}}</ref> A voiced based viral entertainment system that allowed users to modify their voice and share it with their contacts. The authors used the virality to play relevant job advertisements for  literate population. Polly's model for entertainment has been adapted to spread information about maternal health for fathers, agriculture and community generated content.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aghaaliraza.com/research.html|title=Agha Ali Raza|website=aghaaliraza.com|access-date=2019-03-04}}</ref>

=== Civic engagement ===
IVR has been used for community generated content which NGOs and social organizations can tailor to spread relevant content to hard to reach population.

* Graam Vanni:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gramvaani.org/|title=gramvaani {{!}} community-powered-technology|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-04}}</ref> meaning 'voice of the village', is a social technology company incubated out of IIT Delhi which uses IVR as the main medium. Mobile Vaani<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mobilevaani.in/vaani/##/1/home|title=Mobile Vaani - A Voice Based Social Network for Rural India|website=mobilevaani.in|access-date=2019-03-04}}</ref> is a product of this company which connects to hard to reach  in northern India with development messages, employment alerts, entrepreneurial activities, and also conduct market research studies. Mobile Vaani network caters to 500,000 households in northern India. Graam Vaani has impacted 2.5 million house holds since it started. 
* [[CGNet Swara|CGnet swara]]:<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mudliar|first1=Preeti|last2=Donner|first2=Jonathan|last3=Thies|first3=William|title=Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development |chapter=Emergent practices around CGNet Swara, voice forum for citizen journalism in rural India |date=2012|series=ICTD '12|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=159–168|doi=10.1145/2160673.2160695|isbn=9781450310451|s2cid=7982510}}</ref> A community-generated journalism platform that provided rural populations of people in the forests of Central Tribal India to broadcast their grievances. The system was moderated by editors who listened to these messages and later transcribed these messages onto a blog.