I was in my hometown last weekend, visiting my parents, sister and my sprightly 4-month-old nephew. My parents have subscribed to a Kannada-language newspaper (Kannada is the local language in Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka) and I read an interesting article in the editorial page of this newspaper. It was about how some people are working towards bringing the benefits of Information Technology to the common man. As an example, the article profiled a technology, known as "CAM Mobile Services Framework", developed by one Mr. Tapan Parikh, which aims to enable small organizations reduce the amount of paperwork, make data entry process faster and increase service efficiency.

CAM is essentially a toolkit that offers a complete solution to capture data using a mobile phone's image capturing capability (camera phones) and upload it to web-based databases. This solution is ideal for orgainizations such as Microfinance institutions, aiming to reduce operational costs. CAM is currently being pilot-tested by a Delhi-based company called Ekgaon, which was co-founded by Tapan. The CAM framework consists of: 

1. CAM browser for the mobile phone, which is simplified and localized to make it usable by everyone.

2. CAM Forms, which are paper forms with visual codes that can be read by a CAM mobile phone.

3. CAM Shell, a programming language that deciphers the visual codes on a CAM form and provides interfaces to upload the deciphered data to web-based databases, provide audio feedback to the user etc.

Ekgaon is testing the usability of this technology by comparing it with a simple web-based interface on a Personal Computer. The CAM interface is expected to be more suitable to NGOs, small businesses or any organization trying to serve the poor in developing countries. This is because of the high penetration of mobile phones in rural areas, improved efficiency since data can be entered from the field itself and the ease of use.

Tapan,  a Master's degree holder in Computer Science from the University of Washington, was honored with Technology Review's Humanitarian of the year 2007 award, for this achievement. Ekgaon now plans to implement a complete Management and Information System (MIS), which can enable village-based co-operative societies to centralize tracking of accounts, financial positions and loan repayment performances.

Ekgaon in Hindi means "One Village". The company believes that what is good for the development of a single village is also good for the sustainable development of the whole world. Indeed, an inspiring belief.