Digital Dividend Digest vol. 7 September
10, 2002
CONTENTS
1. "Serving the Poor, Profitably" Published
in Harvard Business Review
2. New "Knowledge Bank" Unveiled at www.digitaldividend.org
3. From the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse:
Autonokit and Deepti
1. "Serving the Poor, Profitably"
Published in Harvard Business Review
By stimulating commerce and development at the bottom of the
economic pyramid, multinationals could radically improve the
lives of billions of people. Achieving this goal does not
require MNCs to spearhead global social-development initiatives
for charitable purposes; they need only act in their own self-interest.
How? A new article by noted business guru C.K. Prahalad and
Digital Dividend project director Allen Hammond, published
in this month's Harvard Business Review, focuses on business
strategies for providing poor communities in developing countries
with efficient and affordable access to basic goods and services--and
making a return on investment at the same time. The authors
lay out the business case for entering the world's poorest
markets, and examine innovative business models for addressing
those markets--with examples taken primarily from the Digital
Dividend Clearinghouse.
Order a copy of the article from Harvard
Business Review 
Or visit our Web site to download a free copy of the full
report on which it is based
2. New "Knowledge Bank" Unveiled
at www.digitaldividend.org
Digital Dividends is pleased to introduce its new Knowledge
Bank: a collection of materials that explore business models
using ICT to deliver critical tools and services to underserved
communities in developing countries; make the case for investment
in such 'digital dividend' activity; and discuss sustainable
ICT-for-development in general. It has four components:
The What Works series encompasses WRI's in-depth business
case studies of some of the most promising projects in the
Digital Dividend Clearinghouse as well as the strategy report
"What Works: Serving the Poor, Profitably" (see above).
Our Project Spotlights, while shorter and more journalistic
in style than the What Works studies, also provide more depth
on selected projects than you will find in their Clearinghouse
project "capsules."
The pieces featured in our Articles & Reports section, by
authors from Digital Dividends and elsewhere, make the case
for ICT-for-development--and explore ways of doing it sustainably.
Related Links is your gateway to other organizations working
on ICT-for-development and sustainability issues.
[6/30/03: The Knowledge Bank has been
restructured. Please visit our Publications
& Analysis section instead.]
3. From the Digital Dividend
Clearinghouse: Autonokit and Deepti
5 new projects have been added to the Clearinghouse since
our last edition of the Digest. Among the highlights are two
new enabling technologies that make communication easier in
developing countries...
The Autonokit is a largely autonomous
wireless network device for building informal networks in
rural, developing areas and other demanding environments.
It is based on proven, low cost wireless networking and PC
technologies as well as open source software. Read
more
Deepti, a text-to-speech chat program
which can converse intelligently with people in Hindi, has
been developed with the intention of making government and
other services more accessible to India's illiterate millions.
Read more
*You can view and comment on these and other projects when
you visit the Clearinghouse
|
