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Digital Dividend Digest vol. 55
November 22, 2004
CONTENTS
1. Lessons
From the Field: Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises
2. "Eradicating Poverty
Through Profit" Features Innovative Business Leaders
3. New in the Digital Dividend
Clearinghouse: QuipuNet, Bangladesh Telecenter Project,
Reconstruir Portal
4. Special Opportunities:
Tech Museum Awards, BiD Challenge
1. Lessons From the Field: Small-
and Medium-Sized Enterprises
The establishment of an active small- and medium-sized
enterprise (SME) sector has been identified as crucial to
attaining long-term and sustainable economic growth for developed
and developing countries alike. In emerging economies, increasing
the viability of SMEs is now central to many overall economic
development strategies. Within the context of the global,
knowledge-based economy, these countries are looking to use
information and communications technologies (ICTs) to help
initiate, support, and facilitate SME development. ICTs have
proven to be vital in improving the efficiency and expanding
the market reach of SMEs as well as in establishing new ways
for SMEs to obtain and make the most effective use of business
information.
2. Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Vodafone to Discuss the Future
of ICT4D
The "Eradicating Poverty through Profit" conference,
to be held next month in San Francisco, will be addressed
by top executives from Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Vodafone,
and other leading companies. To view the preliminary program,
click
here.
During the Conference, attendees will hear from Carly Fiorina,
Craig Mundie, Arun Sarin, and other thought leaders on how
information technology can enable sustainable community development
in low-income communities. Concurrent sessions will delve
deeply into issues ranging from identification security to
remittance technology and from low-cost transaction platforms
to rural hardware and software solutions.
For more information on the Conference and to register, click
here
3 . New in the Digital
Dividend Clearinghouse: QuipuNet, Bangladesh Telecenter
Project, Reconstruir Portal
Nine new projects have been entered since the last
Digest. Among the highlights:
QuipuNet
QuipuNet eases the geographic isolation of 5 Peruvian
communities with telecenters that provide free access to information
and global communication. The project’s benefits are
three-fold: teachers and students abandon conventional, ineffective
education methods to incorporate new information they glean
from the Internet; increased technology awareness and proficiency
slows the youth drain to the cities; and QuipuNet sponsored
virtual conferences and foreign language study programs strengthen
cultural identity.
Bangladesh Telecenter Project
The Beraid telecenter, pilot project of Grameen Cyber Society’s
Bangladesh Telecenter Project, offers men, women, and children
valuable educational and skills development opportunities.
The telecenter’s beneficiaries learn skills in various
common computer programs, educate themselves on prevalent
social issues, and receive English and Bengali reading and
writing lessons, all through specially designed computer programming.
Participant adults additionally receive career advice pertaining
to interviews and resume building.
Reconstruir Portal
Infocentros’ Reconstruir Portal increases organizational
accountability and cost reductions in the reconstruction process
of an El Salvadoran community, following the wreckage of January
2001 earthquakes. The portal centralizes and rapidly disseminates
information on reconstruction projects, allowing citizens
and NGOs to track and monitor progress. A model for cross-sector
communication among organizations, the portal additionally
increases awareness of ICT possibility among beneficiary citizens.
4. Special
Opportunities: Tech Museum
Awards, BiD Challenge
The
Tech Museum Awards
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2005 Tech Awards,
scheduled for November 9, 2005. The Tech Museum Awards honor
innovators and visionaries from around the world who are applying
technology to profoundly improve the human condition in the
categories of education, equality, environment, health, and
economic development. Individuals, for-profit companies, and
not-for-profit organizations are eligible. International panels
of judges carefully review the applications according to a
set of criteria that emanate from the Awards credo - Technology
Benefiting Humanity. At the Awards Gala each fall, five Laureates
in each category are honored, and $250,000 in cash prizes
are awarded. The deadline to submit nominations is April 4,
2005.
The
BiD Challenge
The BiD Challenge is an international business plan
competition, supporting innovative business ideas that combine
profit with the improvement of living standards in developing
countries. If you are a developing country or Dutch citizen
and have an innovative business idea that reduces poverty,
then join the BiD Challenge! A total of 10 prizes are to be
won. The prize money is intended to assist the execution of
the winning plans, and to make your great idea become reality.
The official launch of the BID Challenge will take place November
7, 2004 during the European Conference on Corporate Social
Responsibility in Maastricht, The Netherlands. From that moment
on, participants are invited to submit short business ideas
via the BID Challenge website. The deadline of this first
round is January 31, 2005.
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