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Digital Dividend Digest vol. 26
July 17, 2003
CONTENTS
1. Lessons from the Field: ICTs in Handicrafts
2. Case Study Interview: Vodacom Community
Services Phone Shops
3. New in the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse:
Aid for Aid, The Innovation Hub, Ruralnaukri.com, and
Central Asian Crafts Support Association
4. Digital Dividends Clearinghouse Categories
Updated!
5. Special Opportunity: Gamos and
Big World's Video for Development Competition
1.
Lessons from the Field: ICTs and Handicrafts
In communities throughout the world, independent artisans
create arts and crafts that reflect local culture, history,
and tradition. Historically, these artisans have marketed
their wares directly to local consumers, tourists and, through
middlemen to export markets. Upscale handicraft boutiques,
art galleries, and specialty import stores pay high prices
for traditional arts and crafts, but to reach these markets,
local artisans have had to work with middlemen who mark up
the prices significantly, leaving local producers with a fraction
of the profit. With the spread of the Internet and other information
and communication technologies (ICT), however, these artisans
are beginning to have access to tools that give them a competitive
alternative.
Read more...
2. Case Study Interview: Vodacom
Community Services Phone Shops
Digital Dividends interviewed Jennifer Reck, a student at
UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School and one of the members
of the research team writing the soon-to-be released Digital
Dividends case study on Vodacom's Community Services in South
Africa.
DD: What kinds of services does Vodacom Community Services
provide?
Vodacom's goal is to provide all South Africans with access
to mobile communications. For citizens with sufficient income,
Vodacom sells individually-owned handsets and traditional
mobile phone service plans. However, the company is also committed
to promoting widespread affordability, accessibility, and
usability of mobile communications services within disadvantaged
areas of South Africa. As such, Vodacom Community Services
provides pay-as-you-go telephone access to people in disadvantaged
communities. Since the launch of Vodacom Community Services,
many people have been able to make their first phone call
ever.
DD: What is unique about the Vodacom Community Services model
that allows them to serve bottom of the pyramid markets?
Vodacom's development of an entrepreneur-owned and operated
phone shops business model has both provided affordable communication
services to millions of South Africans and empowered thousands
of previously disadvantaged individuals with lasting business
skills and income generating opportunities. Vodacom works
with communities and owners to solicit ongoing feedback to
ensure that Community Services achieves its empowerment goals
and continues to address the needs of the communities it serves.
Read
the full interview and see photos... 
3. New in the
Digital Dividend Clearinghouse: Aid for Aid, The Innovation
Hub, Ruralnaukri.com, and the Central Asian Crafts Support
Association
Twenty-nine new projects have been added to the Clearinghouse
since our last edition of the Digest. Among the highlights
are:
Aid
for Aid uses satellite and Internet technologies to map
disaster areas. Using satellite imagery, Geographical Information
Systems (GIS), and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Aid for
Aid produces geographical maps that humanitarian agencies
can use to efficiently appropriate resources during an unfolding
crisis.
Ruralnaukri.com is a job placement portal in India aimed
at helping skilled rural workers find employers looking for
their skills. The service is free for job seekers.
The
Innovation Hub in Pretoria, South Africa is being developed
as one of the preeminent Science Parks in Africa. Through
its incubation center activities, entrepreneurs from previously
disadvantaged communities are given the tools they need to
turn their ideas into viable business propositions.
Central
Asian Crafts Support Association (CACSA) serves as an
umbrella organization for its 26 members craft development
centers and NGOs from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan by providing communication links,
marketing support, product development training, and other
resources for artisan groups seeking to sell their crafts
online.
4.
Digital Dividends Clearinghouse Categories Updated!
To further the accessibility of project types, we have
added four new activity categories to the Clearinghouse. Users
can now search for projects that use ICTs to help facilitate
microfinance, job training, handicrafts, and the empowerment
of the disabled. Search
the Clearinghouse for projects that have these and twenty-one
other activity types.
5.
Special Opportunity: Gamos and Big World's Video for
Development Competition
Gamos and Big World are holding a competition in the field
of video for development. Seeing digital video as an important
and emerging technology for information and communication
in the development field, they are offering three video cameras
and accompanying technical training to the winners of the
competition. Application requirements include a written script
for a local content video project. Examples of successful
proposal scripts might capture useful local information, document
a local problem for advocacy work, or bring important health
or livelihoods information to communities. For more information, see
their Web site.
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