About SPICE

The USAID-funded SPICE program, implemented by the Open Institute, facilitates social and business innovation using communications technology and improves communications in Khmer via mobile devices. The purpose of the program is to build on partnerships between technology-oriented civil society organizations (CSOs) and private sector entities to utilize existing technologies to promote and deliver a greater diversity of information to the public, improve communications in Khmer using mobile devices, and increase the capacity of CSOs to use social media for development purposes.

The Open Institute and its partner EZECOM will create an open platform for incubating and developing new services, enabling content providers working in any development sector (health, agriculture, education, etc.) to share information in Khmer, and ensure the dissemination of information to audiences nationwide through mobile telephones. The two year project – valued at $1 million – promotes the concept of for-profit innovation for development, giving NGOs the opportunity to create content and the private sector an opportunity to earn profit from the dissemination of information through mobile networks.

SPICE aims to enhance Cambodians’ access to information when they need it, in their own language, and provide it in a format that can be easily accessed by mobile phones. The program will enable information on demand, filling a gap in the current mass media.

To reach its goals, SPICE will create partnerships with internet service providers and mobile network operators. These partnerships will give innovators easy access to platforms and business models for services based on voice or short message service (SMS) as a means of communication or payment.

SPICE will also create a Mobile Tele-Radio--a voice service in which users can dial a simple 4-digit number from their telephone and select the type of information they want to access. SPICE will not develop content; it will establish the platform and engage government, innovators, NGOs, and businesses to create content and services for the public. This content will include a variety of topics, such as health; agriculture, civic and voter education; educational services; messages from famous users; entertainment; local information; emergency information; and more.

SPICE will also create a Khmer-based SMS distribution platform that will allow innovators to develop services that use SMS as the means of communication or payment for services. Through partnerships with operators it will create a single entry point for sending and receiving SMSs at local rates from and to all operators, giving government and CSOs a powerful tool to communicate with most Cambodians in their own language.
As most phones cannot display Khmer Unicode text, SPICE will also create a service through which text in Khmer can be converted into a picture. This picture can be sent as a SMS and displayed correctly by most phones in Cambodia. Breaching the language barrier also requires having phones with user interfaces in Khmer and the ability to send and receive Khmer language SMS and text. While smartphones currently represent only a small percent of the Cambodian market, their usage is expected to grow quickly, covering a larger and larger part of the population. By translating a smartphone user interface into Khmer – through a partnership with Google and its Android operating system - SPICE will aim to make most smartphones in Cambodia usable in Khmer, widely expanding their use for both SMS and social media in Khmer.

SPICE will also develop a number of applications for Android phones. These applications will include tools for improving the use of languages spoken in Cambodia, such as Khmer and Cham dictionaries, spell-checkers, and predictive text. Other applications will help users to access information on different topics such as health, Cambodian laws, services for Cambodians, and social networks.

Finally, SPICE will ensure that information and training on these new opportunities reach innovators, youth, and NGOs. SPICE will co-sponsor BarCamps – meetings between technology specialists that bring together innovators, students, young professionals, grassroots organizations, and local NGOs--to discuss new technological innovations. These meetings will strengthen the capacities of youth engaged in technology, and build their knowledge so they can play a leading role in spearheading social advances, using these and other forms of technological innovations in the future.