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Digital Dividend Digest vol. 54
November 3, 2004
CONTENTS
1. Virtual
Conference Enters Second Week
2. "Eradicating Poverty
Through Profit" Features Connectivity Sessions
3. New in the Digital Dividend
Clearinghouse: Personal Internet Communicator, Kisan Smart
Cards, The Sustainable Village
4. Special Opportunities:
Stockholm Challenge Award, Reminder for ELAC-W.K. Kellogg
Foundation Contest on Experiences in Social Innovation
1. Virtual Conference Focusing
on Profitability, Sustainability, and the Private Sector
After a week-long discourse on whether technology and
a business approach can make globalization work for the poor,
the Virtual
Conference on GKD's
list-serve now turns its focus to the relationship between
profitability and sustainability. Social
Edge’s bulletin board, meanwhile, continues to debate
the role of the private sector in development.
The Digital Dividend team encourages all Digest subscribers
to engage in the online discussions, which will continue through
November 22. This week GKD examines profit and the functional
or dysfunctional role it can play in promoting activity that
provides real value to the poor. On Social Edge, participants
debate whether selling to the poor enhances opportunity and
improves quality of life, or exploits already vulnerable populations.
Make your voice heard – log onto the Virtual Conference
and post.
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. BOP Conference Blends ICT with Business Models
The "Eradicating Poverty through Profit" conference
will highlight innovative business service models using ICT
platforms in three unique sessions during the program under
the umbrella track, "Connectivity." To view the
preliminary program, click
here.
The first will explore how cellular phones are being transformed
from a Western convenience into a linchpin of BOP communications.
The cellular session features speakers from the Grameen Foundation,
Smart Communications, and Vodacom.
IT platforms will be the focus of the second session, with
practitioners from Covelix, First Mile Solutions, Microsoft,
and Intel sharing their experiences in developing BOP business
models using ICTs.
The final Connectivity session is devoted to off-grid platforms;
innovators from Bolivia's Prodem, as well as Hewlett-Packard
and Visa International, will explore the ways off-grid communities
can be served using a variety of innovative technologies ranging
from handhelds to smart cards to wireless.
For more information on the Conference and to register, click
here
3 . New in the Digital
Dividend Clearinghouse: Personal Internet Communicator,
Kisan Smart Cards, The Sustainable Village
Nine new projects have been entered since the last
Digest. Among the highlights:
Personal Internet Communicator
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. has designed a lightweight,
compact personal computer complete with a user-friendly word
processor, spreadsheet, and other application programs to
bring low-cost computing and Internet access to India and
China as well as Brazil, Mexico, and Russia. The effort marks
the company's progress toward its 50x15 goal: bringing Internet
connectivity for 50 percent of the world's population by 2015.
Kisan Smart Cards
Government-owned Indian Bank is planning a commercial launch
of chip-based smart card versions of its Kisan Credit Card
(KCC), pending success in pilot projects in Kanchipuram and
Cuddalore. Such a move will give farmers greater financial
flexibility, enabling their purchase of farm inputs and equipment
and availing loans, compared to current KCCs that provide
only revolving credit.
The Sustainable Village
A self-proclaimed social enterprise, the Sustainable Village
connects Third World entrepreneurs with the resources they
need to establish microenterprise solutions for global problems.
The Sustainable Village web site networks these microenterprises
with like-minded organizations, providing the capital, know-how,
technology, and renewable resource equipment developing countries’
entrepreneurs need.
4. Special
Opportunities: Stockholm
Challenge Award, Reminder for ELAC-W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Contest on Experiences in Social Innovation
Stockholm
Challenge Award 2006
The Stockholm Challenge Award, pioneer among global
ICT competitions, has opened its 2006 edition. Innovative
teams from all over the world, who use ICT to improve living
conditions and economic growth, are now invited to register
their projects in the Challenge. Projects compete in six categories
and the winners will receive the prestigious Challenge trophies
at a beautiful event in the Stockholm City Hall, venue of
the Nobel Prize ceremonies, in May 2006. The deadline is December
31, 2005.
Deadline
Approaching: ELAC-W.K. Kellogg Foundation Contest - November
12
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC), with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is
taking applications for their Experiences in Social Innovation
contest. Applications may be made for innovative projects
whose main purpose is the good of the community, which are
designed for disadvantaged communities or groups, and which
create conditions for the development and strengthening of
full participation by citizens. 20 Prize winners will be given
grants of varying amounts and the top five finalists will
receive extensive exposure in Latin America. The deadline
for the submission of application forms is November 12, 2004.
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