What the world wants to know

While my daughter was horseback riding, I was listening to a podcast from Appfricast on a Grameen initiative called Question Box with Community Knowledge Workers (CKW) in Uganda and India. I have worked with Community Development Workers and Creative Development Workers, but this term was new for me. Essentially the idea is to have someone with a mobile phone in each village who can call or text in questions from villagers that are then answered by people with access to knowledge a.k.a. the internet.

Interesting to see what the villagers ask:

• What causes banana bacterial wilt?
• Who is the president of Lebanon?
• Why is it that girls feel pain while in their periods?
• Best feeds to give a dairy cow to ensure it gives a lot of milk?
• Who is the president of Sao Tome?

And the list goes on. All could fairly easily be answered with a little internet surfing, especially the factual ones. It reminds me of a guy who we could ask one question as part of a getting to know each other exercise. I asked whether he could tell something about himself and he said: "yes". No chance for follow-up questions.

Most questions, and certainly internet searches, lead to more questions, particularly the ones with good answers. Giving a bad answer is the best way to keep people from asking follow-up questions. A question is more of an invitation to share and collaborate. Just as the classic "Would you like a drink?" question is not meant to quench your thirst, but to get to know you better.

The internet has two good responses to these invitations: wikipedia and social networks. Access is the answer.