Gurgaon Idol

What interested me about this article were the challenges faced by the researchers in implementing the
Gurgaon Idol. Their objective was to create an event which would both enhance the bank of songs of the
radio station and also encourage youth and women to interact with the radio station. And thus was
initiated the Gurgaon Idol, a singing event which used IVR systems. The process involved both leveraging
technologies which would work well with semi-literate as well as creating voting methods which suited
existing cultural preferences. The poor quality of sound over phone-lines along with the lack of
experience in singing over phones identifies both the technical and human challenges in implementing
IVRs in complex applications. And while it has great potential given the pervasiveness of mobile phones,
it would be interesting to see how such applications are further improved within these technical and
cultural constraints.