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Digital Dividend Digest vol. 58
March 8, 2005
CONTENTS
1. "Eradicating
Poverty through Profit" Conference Track Summaries Released
2. Insights from the World
Economic Forum: AMD's 50X15 Personal Internet Communicator
3. New Content Posted to the
Digital Dividend and Development Gateway Special Report
4. Special Opportunities:
Development Gateway Award, Alcan Prize for Sustainability
2005
1. "Eradicating Poverty through Profit"
Tracks 1 through 4 Now Available
In response to strong demand among attendees and other
interested parties, WRI has released narrative summaries of
the "Eradicating Poverty through Profit" conference
concurrent sessions. These summaries are not transcripts;
written by WRI staff and partners who attended the conference,
each summary explores conflict, consensus, key findings, and
next steps identified during the concurrent sessions. Now
available:
Track
1: Getting Started Doing Business with the Poor
Track
2: Financial Services
Track
3: Connectivity
Track
4: Energy for Economic Vitality
Browse the full conference
program here.
2. WEF Report: AMD’s 50X15 Personal
Internet Communicator
At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland,
chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) demonstrated a new,
low-cost Internet access device called the Personal Internet
Communicator. Digital Dividend Program Director Allen Hammond
was on-site for the demonstration, and has this report:
Part of what interesting about the Personal Internet Communicator
is the price - US$185 for a small, sealed device (no fan,
so relatively dust-proof) that (with monitor and keyboard)
supports e-mail, web searches, and music, photo, and video
downloads. Its main limitation is that you can't load your
own software on it; but that's also an advantage, since maintenance
and technical support costs are minimized. It reboots in 20
seconds, and can be remotely updated with new software by
the ISP that deploys it. It's a Windows CE machine, but can
run open-source word processors and spreadsheets and e-mail
programs. The device is being manufactured around the world
by a contract manufacturer and rolled out by major ISPs as
part of AMD’s 50X15 initiative. The company projects
that the second generation device will be even smaller, cheaper,
and will have built-in voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP)
capability. I think it has potential to serve as a community
kiosk device, micro-banking terminal, classroom terminal,
or health clinic terminal.
To read more about the Personal Internet Communicator in the
Digital Dividend Clearinghouse, click
here
3 . New Content Added to Development Gateway’s Special
Report
Development Gateway’s Special Report on Foreign
Investment and Development has posted a variety of new content
to its homepage. Expert interviews with Professors John Dunning
(University of Reading, UK) and Ted London (Director of the
Base of the Pyramid (BOP) Learning Laboratory) are now available.
Also look for content produced by the Digital Dividend Team.
To date, over 100 Digest subscribers have read the Special
Report. Join other Digest readers in examining this wide-ranging
content special by clicking
here
4. Special
Opportunities: Development
Gateway Award, Alcan Prize for Sustainability 2005
Development
Gateway Award
The Development Gateway Award will recognize the most
exemplary contribution in the field of information and communication
technologies (ICT) for development during the last 10 years.
The winner will receive a financial award of $100,000, and
will be encouraged to use at least $50,000 in one or more
of the following activities: Further promoting the activity
described in the nomination; Mentoring prospective leaders
in the field of ICT for development; Helping to disseminate
lessons learned in implementing the award-winning entry. The
extended deadline for entry is March 15.
Alcan
Prize for Sustainability 2005
This US$1 million Prize is awarded each year to any
not-for-profit, civil society or non-governmental organization
based anywhere in the world for their contributions to addressing
and progressing economic, environmental and / or social sustainability.
The Prize recognizes past performance and helps winning organizations
continue to contribute to and impact on sustainability through
their ongoing activities. Entries are due by March 31st 2005.
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