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CONTENTS

1. Lessons from the Field: ICTs in Telecenters

2. New in the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse: MANOBI-SENEGAL and Voices in Your Hand

3. Special Opportunity: Tech Museum Awards

1. Lessons from the Field: ICTs in Telecenters

Telecenters are one of the most rapidly growing applications of ICTs in the developing world. Their rationale lies in shared-access models that allow provision of a wide range of services to more users at lower cost than privately-owned home or office computers which are often out of financial reach of poor people.

This article highlights the market intelligence the Digital Dividends project has gleaned from its research on telecenters. The data analyzed is composed of projects included in the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse and currently includes more than 200 telecenter projects, representing several thousand telecenters. Read more

2. New in the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse: MANOBI-SENEGAL and Voices in Your Hand

Five new projects have been added to the Clearinghouse since our last edition of the Digest. Among the highlights are:

MANOBI-SENEGAL: A joint venture between Manobi-France and Sonatel, a Senegalese subsidiary of France Telecom, this project will provide data and e-business services using mobile telephony to the rural sector and agribusiness professionals in Senegal. Through these services, Senegalese farmers will be able to participate in the national and international agriculture markets from remote rural locations.

Voices in Your Hand: Created by the Digital Vision Fellowship Program at Stanford University, Voices in Your Hand is a humanitarian project that seeks to create a simple, voice-email handset and low-cost audio services. Services are aimed at helping to help shanty towns and isolated rural areas in the developing world to overcome illiteracy and in bridge the gap between majority and minority languages.

3. Special Opportunity: Tech Museum Awards

The Tech Museum Awards program honors innovators from around the world who use technology to benefit humanity. This year, cash prizes totaling $250,000 will be awarded in the categories of Education, Equality, Economic Development, Environment, and Health.

A simple nomination form, along with further program details, can be found at http://techawards.thetech.org. Individuals, nonprofit organizations, and companies are all eligible, and self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. The nomination deadline is May 16, 2003.