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Digital Dividend Digest vol. 53
October 22, 2004
CONTENTS
1. Virtual
Conference Begins October 25
2. "Eradicating Poverty
Through Profit" Conference Reminder
3. New in the Digital Dividend
Clearinghouse: World Water Philippines, Virtual Agricultural
Product Market, Afghanistan Information Management Services
4. Special Opportunities:
GKP's Yeoman's Award for Local Content, The Manthan Award,
Bangladesh ICT Internship Program
1. "Eradicating Poverty
Through Profit" Virtual Conference Starting October 25
Starting Monday, October 25, Digital Dividends, in
partnership with Development
Gateway, Social
Edge, and Global
Knowledge Development (GKD), will begin hosting online
discussion forums on two themes: Globalization and the
Poor; and Serving and Connecting the Poor, Profitably.
The Social Edge discussion will be run through its online
bulletin board, while the GKD forum will be list-serve based.
Both will include the comments and insights of a wide range
of experts from the civil society, policy, and business sectors.
We encourage all members of the Digital Dividend Digest community
to contribute their voices to this important discussion.
The schedule for the discussions is as follows:
October 25 to November 8 - Social
Edge - The Role of the Private Sector in Development
October 25 to November 1 - GKD
- Can technology and a business approach make globalization
work for the poor?
November 2 to November 9 - GKD
– Is profitability essential for sustainability?
To learn more about the Virtual Conference, and to register
online, click
here
For more information on the Eradicating Poverty Through Profit
conference in San Francisco, click
here
2. Conference Reminder
Are you curious about what Hewlett-Packard is going to do
next to connect technology-excluded communities and create
technology-empowered communities in Uganda? Or how the Grameen
Technology Center is creating financially sustainable business
models with cellular platforms? How about what Intel has learned
from an anthropologist working on an Alaskan fishing boat?
Janine Firpo and Anand Tawker of HP, John Sherry of Intel,
Peter Bladin of Grameen, and dozens of other presenters will
be in San Francisco this December to discuss the future role
of information technology in private-sector approaches to
poverty alleviation at a conference entitled "Eradicating
Poverty Through Profit."
For more information on the Conference and to register, click
here
3 . New in the Digital
Dividend Clearinghouse: World Water Philippines, Virtual
Agricultural Product Market, Afghanistan Information Management
Services
Fourteen new projects have been entered since the
last Digest. Among the highlights:
World Water Philippines
World Water Philippines, Inc. has raised the bar for water
supply systems with its revenue-earning model that implements
solar-powered pumps and smart card technology, making it a
candidate for national adoption. Its water systems have significantly
improved the economies of the local communities and farmers
it serves by reducing water prices and generating high growth
revenues for sustainability. World Water Corporation, the
supplier of the project’s technology, conducts similar
projects internationally to solve water and energy problems
with its patented high-power solar technologies.
Virtual Agricultural Product Market
The Virtual Agricultural Market, set to begin operations in
2005, will facilitate the exchange of market opportunity information
between agricultural producers and traders in Mali. The project
will help minimize information asymmetries detrimental to
Malian farmers by serving as a virtual marketplace. The project’s
head, Moulaye Ely Diarra, is a Reuter’s Foundation Fellow
based in Bamako’s Agricultural Market Watch (OMA).
Afghanistan Information Management Services
Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS) combines
GIS technology with database management services to aid Afghani
business, non-profit, and government interests with information
management. The project designs databases to capture large
information sets, which are more easily managed and analyzed
after AIMS projects the information over GIS-generated maps.
AIMS provides consulting and training services through six
unique programs to interested private and government groups.
4. Special
Opportunities: GKP's
Yeoman's Award for Local Content, The Manthan Award, Bangladesh
ICT Internship Program
GKP's
Yeoman's Award for Local Content
The inaugural Yeoman's Award for Local Content
aims to encourage and bring to international recognition projects
and experiences which demonstrate the transformative nature
of local content, and the methodologies which are used to
achieve this in different contexts. Four Awards of USD$2,500
each will be made under the Yeoman's Award in 2004. The decision
on the winners of the Award will be made by an international
panel of judges. The deadline for submissions is October 31,
2004.
The
Manthan Award
Digital Empowerment Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO,
and the World Summit Award, in partnership with Planet Finance
India, has launched The Manthan Award to recognize and award
the best e-Content practices in India. This year's awards
will be judged in the categories of: e-Learning, e-Culture,
e-Science, e-Government, e-Health, e-Business, e-Entertainment,
and e-Inclusion. There will be three winners from each of
the eight categories. The winners will be promoted through
road shows in alliance with national and international organizations.
The top winners in each of the category will automatically
be nominated for the international award of WSA 2005 to be
held in Tunis. The deadline is December 25, 2004.
Bangladesh ICT Internship Program
In an effort to increase employment in ICT sector of the
country and to impart practical experience and real-life,
ICT-related skills to recent Computer Science and Engineering
graduates, the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication
Technology of Bangladesh has launched the Bangladesh ICT Internship
Program. Under this program, internships at different IT organizations,
especially software companies, will be granted to recent ICT
graduates and post-graduates for a period of 6 months. The
goal of this program is to expose the graduates to the practical
field as they finish their formal education, to increase the
prospect of employment, and to boost the export of software
by developing a large pool of skilled labor in the industry.
For 2004, 500 total internships will be granted.
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