It’s easy to think that Awaaz.De is only useful to formal organizations. But actually, it is a handy tool for any group that needs a way to communicate and coordinate through mobiles.
For example, in Ahmedabad every Wednesday evening, a remarkable young couple of social change filmmakers, Madhusudan and Meghna, hosts a group meditation in their home. The first hour is spent in silence; the second hour is a circle of sharing where a thought of the week is read and people go around sharing their reflections; the third hour is dinner, which the couple serves as a gift. It’s a remarkable event, and having been there myself many times can tell you it’s a powerful way to spend an evening. In fact, similar Wednesday gatherings have silently spread all over the world.
One thing that Madhu and Meghna struggle with is RSVPs. They need to know how many people are coming so they can make enough food. Sometimes they have gotten less than 10 RSVPs when over 20 people show up! Needless to say it’s a real issue. They have tried email, but not everyone checks their email regularly. They tried SMS, but people seem to dismiss the lightweight, informal invitation too easily.
So guess what? They set up a voice-based invitation/RSVP service with Awaaz.De. You can call in and listen for yourself:
+91 7961907711
People can RSVP with the number of people they will be bringing, get directions to the apartment, even listen to an audio version of the Thought of the Week! Every Tuesday, Madhu will schedule a broadcast from the Awaaz.De console to send out the RSVP call to the hundreds of people he has in his Wednesday contact list. An email automatically generated by Awaaz.De will alert them on the number of calls and also the RSVP count.
Awaaz.De’s range of functionality makes the technology seem much more complicated than it is. But at its core it’s a way to push around voice messages amongst groups of people. With that simple building block the possibilities are limitless. Voice invitations/RSVP today, voice kankotris tomorrow? 🙂
