Google Noticeboard is an application that helps people access and share information over the Internet using public digital noticeboards. Using Google Noticeboard, communities can access a variety of relevant information. People can create text messages or record voice snippets and post them to one or more noticeboards.
Typically each digital noticeboard carries publicly accessible messages. Compared to the notion of personal communication using email accounts, the Noticeboard metaphor allows user to engage in public communication with communities. Noticeboard is designed to be usable by all, even people with no prior computer experience. Since messages can be voice based, even literacy is not a pre-requisite.
1 Click Create Message and pick one or many recipient Noticeboards from your contacts.
2 Record your audio message and select an icon to denote the subject of your message. Click Send to post message.
3 The message posted is delivered to the recipient’s Noticeboard. Click on the Play button to listen to the message.
Communities with access to shared computers can use the Noticeboard for exchanging messages related to community announcements, social interactions, local buying and selling, and information that is of wider interest to the community. The Noticeboard may also be used for the community to engage in a dialog with benefactors, public servants, and other service providers who are geographically distant. For example, residents of an apartment complex can use the Noticeboard for posting announcements, or NGOs who own and operate computer centers in several villages can use the Noticeboard to enable village residents to communicate amongst themselves.
Noticeboard is a firefox extension that is installed and configured on shared computers by an operator. After the initial configuration, the Noticeboard application enables community members to exchange information over the Internet without an intermediary. As a part of the configuration, each community Noticeboard is associated with an email address and a list of contacts. Detailed installation instructions.
The shared computers used to access Noticeboard messages need Internet connectivity. The Noticeboard application tolerates intermittent or slow Internet connections. Messages that have been downloaded earlier, can be played even when Internet access is unavailable. New postings are sent out when the connection is re-established.
To share your thoughts with us, please post them to our discussion group. Google Noticeboard is part of Google India Labs, and we are still in the early stages of development. Your feedback is important and will help us improve the product. You can send your comments to indialabs+noticeboard@google.com.