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Digital Dividend Digest vol. 37
February 4, 2004
CONTENTS
1. Case Study Candidate Enterprise Recruitment:
We Need Your Suggestions!
2. New
in the Digital Dividend Clearinghouse: Chalta Flirta Rickshaw
Mobile Phones, Rural Life Insurance, HIV/AIDS Advice Hotline
3.
Special Opportunity: Cisco Networking Academy Scholarships
for Women, Prix Arts Electronica, Petersberg Prize Deadline
Extended
1. Case Study Candidate Enterprise
Recruitment: We Need Your Suggestions!
Digital Dividends is recruiting candidate enterprises
for its 2004 round of "What Works" case studies.
Digest subscribers are invited to submit potential project
candidates for consideration.
Digital Dividends is interested in locating innovative, profitable
private sector, or sustainable nonprofit or public sector,
initiatives that appear to be replicable, scalable, and sustainable.
Eligible projects will have at least six months of operational
experience, have documented business or operational models
of serving poor communities, and use technology as a facilitating
feature of their business. (Projects need not be solely focused
on producing a technology product or solution, but should
use technology as an enabling tool in their business.)
Case study candidate enterprise criteria:
o Innovative, well-developed business or organizational model
o Serves poor communities
o Revenue-generating/profitable or sustainable
o Technology-enabled
o Operational for at least six months
o Preference for large or medium-sized companies
Suggestions for case study candidates can be sent to dividends@wri.org
with the subject heading, “Case Study.”
Note: Solicitation of nominees is intended as a means of generating
a pool of potential candidates; Digital Dividends will conduct
further research to determine suitability. Case study participation
is dependent upon funding and enterprise consent. Final case
studies will be published in the fall of 2004.
2. New in the
Digital Dividend
Clearinghouse: Chalta Flirta Rickshaw Mobile Phones, Rural Life Insurance, HIV/AIDS Advice Hotline
Ten new projects have been entered since the last Digest.
Among the highlights:
Chalta Flirta Rickshaw Mobile Phones
Rickshaw drivers in the Indian city of Jaipur have a new
revenue stream—pay-per-use mobile phones conveniently
placed on the bicycle taxis for customer use. The project
is financed by Indian telecom Shyam Telelink, which foots
the up-front materials and installation costs. The company
retains 80% of tariff revenue, while the remaining 20% is
paid out to individual drivers.
Rural Life Insurance
Aviva Life Insurance, a leading UK-based insurance company,
has developed three policies designed especially for clients
in rural India. One policy in particular is geared towards
microfinance self-help groups. Group members can apply for
the policy and use it, in part, as collateral for their loans.
HIV/AIDS Advice Hotline
The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs
has launched a free, confidential HIV/AIDS advice hotline
in Zambia. While 16% of the Zambian population is HIV-positive,
the disease remains highly stigmatized, often preventing patients
from getting proper medical advice and treatment. In an effort
to increase education and awareness, the 24-hour, 7-day a
week hotline was launched in December 2003.
3. Special Opportunity: Cisco
Networking Academy Scholarships for Women, Prix
Arts Electronica, Petersberg
Prize Deadline Extended
Cisco
Networking Academy Scholarships for Women: Two scholarships
programs are being offered assist women from low-income communities
in Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Algeria, Morocco,
Tunisia who use IT for public benefit, demonstrate entrepreneurship,
and have the potential to become local role models for women
and girls in their communities. The initiative forms part
of Internews' DOT-GOV program, funded by USAID, and managed
by the Institute of International Education (IIE). Successful
applicants will join CISCO's Networking Academies, which are
located in the targeted countries. The Academy program combines
instructor-led, online learning with hands-on laboratory exercises
where students apply what they learn in class while working
on actual networks. The deadline for the scholarship for Bangladesh,
Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka is February 28, 2004; deadline
for the Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia scholarship is May 31, 2004.
Prix
Arts Electronica: To mark its twenty-fifth anniversary
in 2004, Ars Electronica has expanded its international competition
for cyberarts to include a new category called "Digital
Communities." The category encompasses the wide-ranging
social consequences of the Internet as well as the latest
developments in the domain of mobile communications and wireless
networks. 40,000 Euro in prize money will be awarded to six
exemplary initiatives that are furthering the development
of an Open Society. The deadline for submissions is March
12, 2004.
Petersberg
Prize: Deadline Extended to March 22, 2004
The nomination period has been extended for the Petersberg
Prize, which recognizes exemplary contributions in the field
of information and communication technologies (ICT) for development.
The prize will be awarded for a noteworthy contribution to
a successful ICT-for-development project that benefits a significant
number of people. The prize winner will receive an award of
100,000 euros during the Development Gateway Forum that will
take place in 2004. The deadline for nominations has been
extended to March 22, 2004.
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