tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39907693163801998662024-02-22T23:43:24.978-08:00Vital WaveDelivering digital solutions at scale in developing countriesAbout the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-53075773245868555252015-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:002015-08-05T05:00:07.821-07:00Opportunities and Responsibilities in a TPP World<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">This has been the year of international trade agreements. President Obama won fast-track authority from Congress, allowing him to push forward on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a somewhat secretive trade deal involving 12 Pacific Rim nations. Together, these countries generate 40% of the global economy. Last week, WTO negotiators from 54 nations agreed to drop tariffs on 200 technology products, which have a collective annual trade value of $1 trillion. And in Africa, three eastern and southern trade blocs moved to create a united Tripartite Free Trade Area, which will lower tariffs and streamline travel and development policies for 625 million people in 26 African nations (with a combined GDP of over $1 trillion).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">Regional trade agreements have some clear benefits: lower tariffs, expanded markets, consumer and worker safeguards, IP protections, and the promise of more trade and transportation jobs in participating countries. More manufacturing jobs in low-income countries generally lead to higher incomes and a higher standard of living. However, trade agreements also have downsides. Gains in manufacturing jobs in some countries are offset by losses in others. And new jobs are not necessarily protected by fair labor laws. IP protection can keep costs high, a particular concern for life-saving medicines. And at a recent gathering at Wilton Park in the UK, some experts argued that the high level of trade and movement between Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone probably contributed to the spread of Ebola last fall.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">President Obama will argue the TPP will increase exports and benefit US companies, workers, and consumers. And there is some truth to this narrative: past trade agreements greased the wheels of economic growth in Asia and Latin America, creating a billion potential buyers who now shop for Nautica Kids clothing on their iPhones. But analysts look at the effects on specific sectors, and both the TPP and the new WTO deals suggest pharmaceutical, software, and media companies have the most to gain. Companies in these industries can re-align their strategies and investments for a post-TPP world of lower tariffs, stronger IP protections, and larger addressable markets in Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile and Peru. However, these favorable terms also come with responsibilities. Pharmaceutical firms will have to demonstrate commitments to ensuring access to affordable, high-quality medicines in developing countries. This may include partnerships with governments and generic producers, or investment in tech-enabled supply chain solutions that deliver quality medicines, reduce stock-outs, and increase compliance. Investing in equitable access is not just a CSR play, it is a long-term business strategy to capture tomorrow's customers.</span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-4499210125035610112015-07-14T05:00:00.000-07:002015-07-14T05:00:08.061-07:00Amplifying the Utility of National IDs<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">National identification systems come in many flavors. Roughly 60% of nations have some form of national ID card, but the requirements, coverage, captured data, and advantages of possessing a card vary greatly. Some developing countries (e.g., Malaysia, Estonia) are models of multi-purpose systems that allow efficient access to a broad range of services, while helping the state manage civic and social programs. Other efforts to create a national ID system have faltered due to corruption, inefficiency, poor leadership, political in-fighting, or suspicion that the system will be used as a means of state control or oppression. Kentaro Toyama may have been thinking of national ID systems when he explained the "Law of Amplification." He states: "Technology doesn't cause a fixed benefit wherever it's used; rather, it amplifies underlying human forces. ... Democratic governments use digital tools to improve transparency, but repressive regimes censor content and track voices of protest online."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">When designed and managed well, national ID cards facilitate a number of critical functions - travel, banking, healthcare, driving, and voting, to name a few. With biometric features built in, the potential for fraud is greatly reduced, and issues such as illiteracy and mobility are mitigated. Further, a national identification system increases the potential of digital and mobile services. However, there are myriad challenges to implementing a comprehensive, efficient system. Integration with state, health, education, and financial systems is complex, and requires active collaboration among a diverse set of federal and provincial organizations. The process of developing and rolling out a comprehensive system is expensive, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. After launch, the collection, storage, and use of data require a lot of training and skilled management. And public buy-in is not guaranteed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">The development community can play a vital role in helping governments design and implement (or improve) a national ID system with the broadest positive impact. Development organizations can sponsor research, provide guidance, coordinate development efforts between stakeholders, deliver training, and measure effectiveness. Organizations can leverage long histories and influential contacts in specific verticals (e.g., healthcare, financial services) to ensure that ID systems are well integrated with their areas of focus. They can also advocate for strong privacy and security measures. For many in the development community, the benefits of a viable national ID (particularly with biometric features) are readily apparent. A reliable ID system is essential for the expansion of other ICT4D, allowing organizations to verify the identity of aid recipients, deliver and track healthcare, expand financial services to the poor, reduce elections fraud, and increase state revenues through taxation. With focus and tenacity, development organizations can ensure that national ID systems amplify the good in the countries they serve.</span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-11265742255252701662015-07-13T12:08:00.000-07:002015-07-13T12:08:01.911-07:00Innovation for Emerging Markets Done Right<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">A recent Nugget considered some of the latest innovations that would be clearly useful in emerging markets, but were being priced, marketed or distributed almost exclusively in mature markets - often for less compelling use cases like gaming, back-up power, or delivering dog food to remote Australian farmers. Perhaps a bit of balance is in order. There are many examples of novel technologies and ideas that also have a clear utility to emerging-market users, and are being marketed and distributed specifically to those consumers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">Consider the following innovations:</span><br />
<ul class="style1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">
<li class="unumberedlist" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Swiss scientists made a 1.3-ounce, foldable quadcopter that can deliver messages or take photos of inaccessible disaster areas.</li>
<li class="unumberedlist" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">What3words assigns a unique 3-word identifier (currently in 8 languages) to every 3 square meters on the planet. Companies pay to use the technology, which has been piloted in the favelas of Rio, where there are no street names or house numbers. If widely adopted, it could revolutionize navigation and delivery services throughout the developing world.</li>
<li class="unumberedlist" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The "power bank phone," with 3 SIM card slots, a brick-sized battery with connections to charge other phones, a light, and an FM radio, addresses all of the pain points of a typical Ghanaian - frequent blackouts, multiple promotions by different carriers, and increasingly power-hungry apps. It is flying off the shelves in Ghana.</li>
<li class="unumberedlist" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Facebook Lite is a low-bandwidth variation of the popular site aimed squarely at EM users who have to deal with slow, spotty 2G networks and high data costs. The new offering carefully strips back the features to offer the Facebook experience with lower bandwidth (and cost to the end user).</li>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">These innovations, created to meet specific developing-country needs, are coming from a wide range of sources (academia, start-ups, hardware companies, Internet giants). Some of these groups are better equipped than others to navigate the varied go-to-market challenges of achieving scale in diverse emerging markets, but all have the advantage of a compelling use case and swelling, increasingly tech-savvy, consumer ranks. There are many examples of viable products that started with nothing more than these basic ingredients. The emerging-markets focus and ceaseless drive to mobile and cloud technologies make these innovations - and many others - promising opportunities. Localized, social-driven marketing, together with new funding and business models, lend these opportunities an encouraging timeliness.</span></div>
About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-64280072273366615752015-06-17T08:23:00.000-07:002015-06-17T08:23:11.353-07:00The Sharing Economy and Emerging Market Development<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">Jane Donor went trekking in Nepal a few years ago, and the place left a magical impression. After the recent earthquake, she kept thinking of all the wonderful people she met - guides, inn-keepers, market vendors - who must be struggling to rebuild. She wants to help with the rebuilding effort, but wants to be sure her donation will be used for a targeted, lean, effective relief program in Nepal (rather than a bloated general fund). Jane has been a member of the sharing economy for years; she finds lodging on Airbnb, summons rides through Uber, and supports startups on Indiegogo. So, she does what she normally does to find resources and solve problems nowadays - she whips out her smartphone.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">Within minutes, she finds a long list of organizations working in Nepal. After digging into their mobile website, she weighs the merits of each program and a few criteria begin to crystalize. There has to be solid evidence that the organization is doing meaningful, long-term work in Nepal. (Some websites seem to use the disaster as a landing-page hook, but provide little information about their actual work in country.) She wants a clear understanding of how much of her donation will actually go to the specific relief program. It takes money to run an organization; a portion for overhead is acceptable, but how big is that portion? She eventually sends a donation (through PayPal) to an NGO with rich data on their medical equipment deliveries to government-run clinics in several of the villages she visited during her trip.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">New tech-enabled models are making it easier for the Jane Donors of the world to participate directly in a wide range of development efforts - from disaster relief, to small business loans, to "no-strings" cash infusions. Comparatively, small innovative organizations like Kiva, MyC4, Bondora, and GiveDirectly are taking advantage of leaner, platform-based models that challenge traditional development financing, long dominated by foundations, NGOs, banks, and MFIs. It?s unlikely that these new web-enabled technologies will completely replace the standard model of development funding. Sometimes, it takes a big organization with a sizeable general fund to steer healthcare systems, regulatory environments, infrastructure policies, and other big ships. But development organizations would benefit from integrating crowdfunding and peer-to-peer transactions into their own funding models. One option is to support an existing (or nascent) P2P funding tool that is already infiltrating higher-income groups in developing countries and regions. With guidance and investment, such a tool could be extended to poorer segments of the population. Another option is to create such a system internally, and support it with data-rich, mobile-friendly marketing. This would involve many activities NGOs already perform - awareness-raising, education, localization, record-keeping, partnerships. Would Jane Donor be more inclined to donate to an NGO that offered an in-house P2P donation service? Maybe, but if they don't adapt their operational model to this kind of funding, they may have lost Jane Donor forever.</span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-33778414115583888792015-05-27T11:31:00.000-07:002015-05-27T11:31:13.427-07:00Finally! Relief for Hungry Farm Dogs<div class="style1">
Last summer, Google introduced its developmental drone
delivery system, "Project Wing," with a video showing a dog food air
drop to a farmer in the Australian outback. This was at the height of
the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and just a few weeks after deadly
mudslides in Afghanistan and India, and a severe earthquake in Ludian,
China. Instead of highlighting the disaster relief potential for drone
delivery, or demonstrating that drones have uses beyond spying and
launching missiles, Google's marketing department promised help for
rural dog owners hoping to avoid a long drive into town. And this
spectacular marketing miss has since been repeated by other leading tech
innovators. The slick videos, launch parties, and press releases for
Tesla's home battery, Apple's HealthKit, and Microsoft's HoloLens all
suggest there is no world beyond North American and Europe.</div>
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These innovations would be
a slight convenience or a cool new gadget for developed-country users,
but a valuable necessity in developing countries, where systems of house
numbering, street naming, postal delivery, grid power, data collection,
job training, and healthcare are all lacking. Few will blame tech
giants for focusing mainly on lucrative consumer, gaming, and medical
markets in developed countries; that's where their marketing and
distribution channels exist. And of course there are considerable
challenges to launching and scaling in developing countries. But the
principle of user-centered design begins with the idea that users really
need what you're building. Do doctors in a remote relief center in
Nepal need antibiotics delivered by drone? Yes, they do - much more than
an Aussie farmer needs a bag of kibble. They also need to report and
track cholera outbreaks. And they might also have to walk a scared,
inexperienced health worker in another town through an amputation - both
wearing a HoloLens connected to a Tesla Powerwall.</div>
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The use cases for these
innovations in emerging markets are plentiful, and the utility is far
more convincing than it is in most mature-market contexts. Tech
innovators would certainly claim that developing-country consumers are
free to buy and use their new products and services, but they are being
priced too high for most people, and there has been no appreciable
effort to market or distribute them in developing countries. (Elon Musk
claims the Powerwall would be great for "people in remote parts of the
world," but China is the only developing country for which Tesla's
website has been adapted.) Tech companies that ignore emerging markets
are leaving the doors of opportunity open to low-cost imitators and
counterfeiters. Instead, they should be developing tailored, affordable
versions of these solutions for specific geographies and use cases. They
could also pair these new products (through partnership or acquisition)
with enabling innovations in payment and delivery so they can market,
sell, and distribute them anywhere in the world. Apple will make a
quarter of their income - more than $60 billion - in China this year, up
from less than $1 billion in 2009. Are tech companies doing what it
takes to realize this kind of growth in emerging markets when today's
innovations are as common as a second-hand iPhone?</div>
About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-45124803457977335622015-04-14T05:13:00.000-07:002015-04-14T05:13:21.167-07:00The Ends Justify the MenialAmong the world's most influential foundations (Gates, Rockefeller, Grameen, etc.), there's little doubt that digital financial services are a benefit to the world's poor. Local and national banks, which were stunningly slow to see the opportunity advocated by MFIs and mobile money services like M-Pesa, are now getting with the program. Government reaction ranges from actively supportive to behavior that would make an ostrich blush. But what do poor people think about digital financial services? As the MasterCard Foundation recently stated, they're "trapped in a cash economy," but are they even aware that digital alternatives are possible?<br />
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Well, sending a few mBucks back to the family in the village is certainly cheaper and less risky than taking a long bus ride with a pocket full of cash. And small-scale efforts to, for instance, deliver training per diems or pay school fees through mobile money have been well received by consumers and their institutional partners. Many such initiatives are part of a concerted effort to build a digital financial services (DFS) ecosystem that supports a wide variety of transfer, payment, savings, and insurance programs. In their 2015 annual letter, Bill and Melinda Gates made it clear they would be among the drivers of this effort. And when organizations with the power to move the needle as much as the Gates Foundation begin talking about creating an ecosystem, it doesn't take a bloodhound smell an opportunity.<br />
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A robust DFS ecosystem in Africa, Asia, and Latin America would serve three billion people who, for a variety of reasons, have been largely ignored by formal financial service providers like banks and insurance companies. People at the bottom of the pyramid are eager to smooth out the shocks of inflation, currency devaluation, political turmoil, crop-killing droughts, or monthly bus rides to the village. A healthy, comprehensive DFS ecosystem would serve this purpose, but creating it will require a lot of heavy lifting. Some members of the value chain can be relied on to pursue a profitable new market. Back-end networking and data firms, credit and payment companies, aggregators, and programmers will be on board. But the big players - government agencies, formal financial institutions, mobile operators - may need more convincing that an inclusive DFS ecosystem is in their best interest. The development community can influence this process through advocacy and by supporting research, innovation, and scale. This is not a trivial commitment. It means a whole lot of hot taxi rides, endless meetings, menial data collection, aggravating partnerships, roadblocks and course reversals, trial and error, followed by trial and success. In short, it will require all the sustained, determined effort that gets people into development work to begin with, because the result will be helpful to millions and millions of people.About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-68613936188624173552015-03-11T09:17:00.000-07:002015-03-11T09:17:44.689-07:00Markets Grow up so Fast These DaysAll eyes were on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week. The annual event has become a critical showcase for new technologies and a premier forum for lively discussions about all aspects of global mobile markets. All the key players are present - operators, handset manufacturers, platform and content companies, government and NGO representatives.<br />
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There were a number of hot topics at MWC 2015. Last-mile connectivity initiatives like Internet.org and Google's Loon never fail to garner attention, even though, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed out, 90% of the world's population already has access to mobile Internet coverage on their phones. Social media and “over the top” (OTT) apps are shifting operator revenues from voice and SMS to data, though some of the most prominent service providers are pushing for free access. (The money will come later, we promise!) Demand for smartphones continues to skyrocket, and low-cost models are flooding markets from Jo'berg to Jakarta. Creative partnerships and service bundles are blossoming in some countries, turning narrow service apps into potentially powerful, multi-industry platforms. And everyone from handset makers to app developers is going hyper-local, offering different languages, content, and business models to meet the quirky demands of local regulators, partners, and specific user groups.<br />
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Segmentation and hyper-localization are signs of market maturity, even though the global mobile market has a lot of growing up to do. This year's MWC featured a lot of jockeying for position in anticipation of a market full of people with smartphones, universal mobile broadband connectivity, and a broad range of mobile-based services. It was the digital equivalent of mourning a child's loss of innocence, while eagerly waiting for the day when he has his driver's license and you don't have to drive him around all day. The opportunity for philanthropic organizations in this environment is to facilitate the transition to maturity, especially in ways that are not obviously profitable for enterprise partners - training, capacity building, public service tie-ins to for-profit or OTT platforms, partner-driven initiatives, match-making, and entrepreneurial support. This is a critical role for the development community, aiding both end users and the companies that serve them. Jumping into maturity (or being dragged into it) can be traumatic, and every driving student can use a good co-pilot.About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-61896654827895007882014-12-10T12:31:00.000-08:002014-12-10T12:31:11.210-08:00Not so fast<div class="style1">
Anyone paying attention to the news can be forgiven for feeling
that things have been moving <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">really</span></em>
fast lately. In less than 10 years, over half the world could be connected to
the Internet via smartphones. People will order (and pay for) everything electronically,
and products will be delivered by drones. We'll go from point A to point B in
electric vehicles that drive themselves, and wear a diverse array of devices
and sensors that inform our health, manage our time, and control our
"things" (fridge, car, solar panels, etc.). Our glasses will take
videos and stream our lives on Facebook, auto-saved to the Cloud and scanned by
data-bots that mine our life-streams for marketing gold.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It's easy to feel that the current rate of change is so fast,
it's no use designing for current markets. The big winners are designing
ecosystems, not products. <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But
this would be a mistake</span></em>. Yes, mobile phones have arrived, even in
remote, rural areas of developing countries. And in some countries, they are
being used for an impressive variety of financial, health, entertainment, or
social services. But the vast majority of people in emerging markets still use
mobile phones as a tool for basic communication. Their adoption of new mobile
services is gaining momentum, but it will always be guided by the perceived
utility and relevance of the service. Feature phones are regularly used to send
or receive money because it saves people from long, expensive bus rides, or
from walking around with a pocketful of cash. But mobile money is still not
very common in mature markets. As two billion emerging-market consumers acquire
smartphones, there is no reason to believe they will use apps and services in
the same way as they do in developed countries.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Conventional wisdom says
that companies must control the platforms and onramps to the mobile web to
thrive in the global market, but there are opportunities for any company that
supports, enables, and promotes the development of locally relevant content and
services. Large and small companies in many industries can directly engage with
local content and service developers through acquisition, partnerships, and
incubation programs. As the pace of change quickens and smartphones usher in
the Internet of Things, even appliance makers need to understand the challenges
of owning a fridge in Zimbabwe.</span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-74458075036517828622014-10-27T10:16:00.002-07:002014-10-27T10:19:04.342-07:00The Tension Between Those Who Have Data, and Those Who Need It<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By David Sessions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In recent weeks, experts from all over the world have come
together to solve some very vexing issues relating to the use of data by
private institutions, public agencies, and civil society. As the sheer volume of data collected begins
to mount, and myriad sources of new data come available, questions emerge about
who should have access, under what conditions, and what role the data owner has
in governing its use. In most cases,
individuals are unaware their data is being even being collected and used
without permission. But data has
significant utility in solving social issues such as disease containment and
eradication, poverty, government service delivery, and even the creation and
timely provision of commercial products, so the issues must be resolved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
(Stanford PACS) recently hosted a conference with over an hundred participants on
the topic of Ethics of Data in Civil Society.
At the conference, scholars, activists, policy makers, and funders considered
the implications of how data are collected, stored, and disseminated, then
suggested specific actions that would promote access to data while maintaining
individual rights. Policy that governs
data in both developed and emerging markets were tested through working small
working groups and active discussions with the entire conference. The conference produced several actionable
ideas, university courses, and even a potential for a startup company to
evaluate algorithms used to analyze data.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Given the number of conversations taking place in other
venues on the topic of data ethics, the problem is growing and is exacerbated
by a wide diversity of policy. Some policies
restrict the use of certain data under any circumstances, and the liability for
misuse or loss remains with the data collection entity, regardless of how or
where the data enters the public domain. Meanwhile, policies provide little or
no protection for the individual, much less any control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Search engines, mobile phone companies, financial
institutions (largely through payment accounts like debit or credit cards), and
social websites all collect behavior and transaction data. As access to the Internet becomes more
ubiquitous, the responsibility for the ethical collection, access, and
governance of data will only increase.
These issues are complex, and the solutions will require unprecedented collaborations
across political and geographic boundaries.
Those with the most power in this conversation are those who profit from
data, and they must take the lead in providing solutions whether through the
execution of an active Corporate Social Responsibility program, or because they
understand that by improving the lives of all global citizens they create
larger addressable markets for their products.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-88285554279126419632014-10-20T06:36:00.000-07:002014-10-20T06:36:17.514-07:00Gold Rushes and Good DeedsAs articles on Myanmar (or Burma) pop up in the news like so many
mushrooms, there was some debate about whether to address the
opportunities in the country as a corporate or philanthropic issue.
(Vital Wave alternates between corporate and philanthropic editions of
the Nugget. With a business-forward approach to development, and an
emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility in business growth,
we try to provide something of value to all readers in each edition.)<br />
<br />
Most reports on Myanmar, particularly in the telecoms and mobile
services space, see it as the next big Gold Rush. Breathy pronouncements
about the untapped, 50-million-person market and the inevitable rapid
uptake of smartphones promised steep growth rates and high profits. But
in reality, the companies that stand to build an honest, sustainable,
and profitable business in Myanmar are already active in other Southeast
Asian markets, paving roads to the gold-laden Burmese mountains with
years of relationship building and regulatory battles. In short, you
know who you are, and you know what to do. <br />
<br />
Far more intriguing is the potential role of the development community
in Myanmar. The country presents a unique opportunity to measure the
true economic and social impact of mobile technology in relative
isolation. All those claims about the broader economic bump from ICT
investment can now be validated or improved. But few development
organizations will be content to stand back and observe. There will also
be a vital role to play in implementation and education. Many reports
on mobile services conclude that a significant barrier to adoption is a
lack of understanding of exactly what a smartphone can do. In most
markets, operators, handset manufacturers, and service providers are
content to let awareness grow organically. In Myanmar, however, the
technological literacy gap is likely to be wider than in other Asian
countries, particularly in rural areas. Development organizations can
steer the perceived utility of mobile phones toward self-empowering
tools and services, and away from time- and resource-sucking games and
social media sites. They can also help educate users about the
potentially negative impact of new technologies - loss of privacy,
ubiquitous advertising, and government surveillance. As the Gold Rush in
Myanmar unfolds, the development community can ensure that some of that
gold dust settles on Burmese entrepreneurs, activists, women, students,
teachers, doctors, farmers, and so many others.About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-56231205514712990372014-10-06T05:50:00.000-07:002014-10-06T05:50:00.432-07:00A Piece of the Pie a la Modi<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Last week, Adobe quietly announced it would close its R&D center in
China due to rampant software piracy, a strategic shift toward a
cloud-based, software-as-a-service business model, and China's
increasingly hostile business environment. Just a few days after Adobe's
announcement, India's new Prime Minister, Narenda Modi, was having
lunch with Wall Street's fattest cats, a cozy dinner with President
Obama, and a loud rally with 19,000 Indian-Americans in Madison Square
Garden.<br />
<br />
Modi's Magical Mystery Tour of the US was perfectly timed. As the list
of American companies being harassed, blocked, banned, investigated,
censored, shuttered, or spied on by Chinese authorities continues to
grow, few can blame them for seeking another billion-person market with
good growth prospects. Meanwhile, Modi is making all the right noises
about improving infrastructure, cutting red tape, and welcoming foreign
partnership and investment. In fact, there's a big pile of cash looking
for a home right about now. Foreign direct investment in China was down
17% in July, and 14% in August - the first consecutive double-digit drop
since 2009. The Financial Times blames China's protectionist policies,
slowed production, and distressed banking and real estate markets for
this pull-back. Business growth in India, on the other hand, has
rebounded from years of stagnation since Modi took office. Everything
from cookies to tires is selling well, riding a wave of consumer
optimism and a steadily growing middle class. One Asia-focused
investment banking company, CLSA, predicts that India's economic growth
rate will exceed China's as early as 2016. <br />
<br />
It's too soon to shift all the eggs from the Chinese to the Indian
basket. India has stubborn infrastructure, bureaucracy, and poverty
problems that will take years of focused, effective governing to
overcome. But the contrast between the current Indian and Chinese
attitudes toward partnership and investment is stark. If Modi succeeds
in reforming India's huge bureaucracy and creating honest incentives,
there will be excellent opportunities in a wide range of industries.
Modi's own commitment will be tested when foreign companies push for
lower competitive barriers (e.g., as Amazon and Alibaba battle local heroes like Flipkart and Snapdeal). But if
reality follows rhetoric (not always guaranteed), smart companies will
start throwing their nets a little wider to catch the world's
fastest-growing big fish.About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-39628131220621815742014-10-03T07:53:00.001-07:002014-10-03T07:53:48.129-07:00Into AfricaWhich area of the world boasts seven of the top 10 fastest growing
economies since 2011? Latin America - nope. Asia - so ten years ago! The
place to be for real growth is Africa, where private equity investments
have doubled in just two years, and the US, Chinese and European
governments are tripping over each other to pave inroads for their own
corporations. In fact, the World Bank says the collective economy of the
<i>entire continent</i> grew by 5.6% last year.<br />
<br />
The first US Africa Summit, held in Washington DC in August, was widely
reported as a pivotal shift in perceptions of Africa as a place of war,
corruption, and disease to a place of economic growth, investment, and
grassroots innovation. Many suspect this shift in perceptions is due to a
realization among American politicians and business leaders that China
is far beyond the US in terms of market creation in Africa. Companies in
a wide range of industries are now forging ahead in Africa despite
persistent challenges to the business environment (e.g., infrastructure,
socioeconomic inequality, corruption, and regulatory obstacles).
Technology, pharma, media, and consumer goods companies reason that the
burgeoning young, urban consumer class, though still a minority in all
African countries, has more disposable income and the tools (i.e.,
phones and Internet) to buy what they want.<br />
<br />
But where exactly are the greatest opportunities? Corporations are
approaching the market from the top-of-pyramid down to the middle class,
and the development community from the base-of-pyramid upwards. In
such an environment, the most potent opportunities are at the
intersection of corporate <i>and</i> development community interests.
For MNCs, this means designing and delivering digital and mobile
services with both a strong commercial value proposition and the
potential for social impact. As the development community seeks to bring
digital and mobile services to scale, there will be a real opportunity
for enterprise-grade solutions and platforms that deliver key financial,
health, agriculture, and public services. (At the US Africa Summit,
Power Africa was frequently cited as a model initiative.) For their
part, local governments are playing the tricky game of encouraging
investment without creating dependency or hobbling local industry.
Despite the increasing power of the consumer class, few companies will
succeed without the collaboration and support of key government and
local stakeholders. As Africa grows and flexes its economic muscle,
multinational technology companies will do better to be seen as a
partner than as a vendor. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-60507001439488079092014-09-23T15:04:00.000-07:002014-09-23T15:04:54.725-07:00Development is Dead, Long Live DevelopmentFlowminder, a non-profit based in Sweden, was lauded last month when
they partnered with Orange Telecoms to release illustrated data -
gleaned from anonymized and aggregated cell phone signals - on
population movements in West Africa. The data helped health officials
predict the possible spread of Ebola and decide where to focus medical
resources and information campaigns. Meanwhile, in India, a start-up
called Biosense is adding to its growing collection of mobile-based
diagnostic tools by building an online platform for the country's
poorest people to share ideas (particularly health solutions), create a
business plan, and raise capital through crowdfunding.<br />
<br />
On the surface, these two organizations have little in common. One is
non-profit, the other a private company. One focuses on data, the other
on devices. But they also share a few very important characteristics:
1.) their work is only possible in a world where billions of people are
using mobile phones, and 2.) they represent the future of development.
That's a big claim, but it's getting harder and harder to argue against
the transformative impact of mobile technology on traditional
development models. In the old days, an aid group or a company swept
into a developing country, identified a problem, and announced a grand
plan (preceded by a pilot project) to address the issue. Today, mobile
phones have turned every project beneficiary into a stakeholder (or a
potential customer). And the growing importance of data is transforming
measurement and evaluation, product design, and partnership equations.<br />
<br />
The transition to mobile-based, data-driven development creates myriad
opportunities for both public and private organizations - something
Flowminder and Biosense understood before the rest of us. A
faster-paced, better-connected development landscape will require
greater agility, an on-the-ground presence, and a comprehensive
approach. Funders and companies that can deliver this agility and work
well in a broad, diverse collection of public and private partners will
set the directional needle for development in the years and decades to
come. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-9181577788004388292014-08-25T05:30:00.000-07:002014-08-25T05:30:02.940-07:00It's all fun and games until someone trips over 5 million subscribersIf MobiThinking's "Insider's Guide to mobile Web marketing in India" is
accurate, 90% of the country's mobile subscribers have voted for a
reality show-based contest via SMS. Half of them subscribe to regular
SMS jokes, and nearly as many use their phones to get astrology or
sports information. This is pretty remarkable in a country where many
development organizations are struggling to achieve scale for their
mobile-based health, agriculture, and education programs.<br />
<br />
Writing for the GSMA recently, Kristen Roggeman pointed out that there
is an obvious demand for entertainment among mobile users in both rural
and urban India. She describes an innovative marketing effort by
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), whereby mobile phone users make a missed call
and receive an automatic call-back with 15 minutes of radio programming.
The service now has 5 million subscribers and sends out 25,000 hours of
programming every day. HUL has now dropped traditional radio marketing
from its advertising mix. The hunger for entertainment is not unique to
India. In Brazil, The most popular apps are for music, entertainment and
navigation, followed by photo, video and social networking. In Nigeria,
the national brewery ran a spectacularly successful SMS marketing
campaign inviting 18- to 25-year-old men to attend music concerts. The
ads had a response rate of more than 30% and a click-through rate of
almost 9%. And in the US, drug makers and insurance companies are
developing game-like apps that give points and gifts for sticking to
drug regimens. (Failing to follow drug prescriptions is estimated to
cost US employers, insurance companies and health providers around $200
billion a year.)<br />
<br />
Development organizations might take note: even for the poor,
entertainment is a central aspect of mobile phone usage. Mobile devices
are quickly supplanting radio and television as the main conduit for
personal entertainment in developing countries. Integrating
entertainment - music, games, sports, movies, and contests - into dry
but useful information campaigns is a viable way of extending the reach
and impact of programs. Also, strategic partnerships (e.g., with sports,
music, or media groups) could help defray the cost of promotion and
generate buzz. Development organizations hoping to capitalize on soaring
mobile penetration rates frequently devise SMS-based outreach programs.
Making them more fun will require a little "outside the box" thinking,
but it could be rewarded by increased awareness, adoption, and
effectiveness. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-67447954416271183012014-08-14T07:48:00.001-07:002014-08-14T07:48:06.572-07:00Trust and VerifyTwo seemingly unrelated announcements were made by a pair of tech
industry heavyweights - Apple and (eBay's) PayPal. Apple extended
two-step verification - where a code sent to an old device must be used
to change an account or buy something on a new device - to 49 countries,
including China, India, Brazil and dozens of other developing nations.
Nigeria was not on the list. This is noteworthy because PayPal announced
that tens of thousands of Nigerians signed up for PayPal in the first
week of operations there. PayPal and its partners (a prominent local
lending partner, suppliers in Dubai and China, and fast-growing online
retailer Jumia) claim that e-commerce in Nigeria has officially arrived.<br />
<br />
Of course, for consumers, signing up for PayPal or verifying a new
iPhone is only the beginning of the online buying experience. The bloom
will quickly fade from the e-commerce rose if buyers fail to receive an
order or fall victim to identity theft. The trust barrier is
considerably higher for emerging-market consumers than it is for their
mature-market counterparts. In many developing countries, people
generally mistrust banks, operators, mail delivery organizations,
foreign companies, and the legal system's capacity to prosecute fraud or
theft. It will take a concerted effort to build trust and educate new
smartphone users about risk, data protection and privacy.<br />
<br />
As smartphones and wearables are used for more and more functions, trust
and education will determine the growth rate for online purchasing.
Device makers, app developers, and service providers (including back-end
hosts) all have tremendous opportunities up and down the e-commerce
value chain. Multinational companies that build reliable public - and
private-sector partnerships (particularly with delivery services) and
implement strong, user-friendly security measures will foster trust. To
be truly effective, these efforts should accompany early and continued
investment in brand marketing via localized content and messaging that
reinforces security features. Providing a platform for user reviews and
focusing on early adopters and influencers through social media can also
validate the online buying experience and address the trust issues of
willing but wary buyers. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-43462611000870422212014-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:002014-07-22T05:00:02.243-07:00Misgivings and Missed OpportunitiesLet's face it. For all the success stories, the uplifting anecdotes
about plucky women making a living with their mobile phones, or farmers
realizing greater profits by checking prices on the Internet, there are
still many in the development community who are deeply ambivalent about
the value and impact of technology. Yes, anyone who spends 10 minutes in
Nairobi or Kuching can see the ubiquity of the mobile phone, and it's
clear that clever, resourceful people are wringing value out of the
devices far beyond simple phone calls and text messages. But a longer,
deeper look at the impact of technology on society can be troubling.
Social norms and traditions are disrupted by material acquisition. Kids
who used to kick a ball of woven cloth now play video games. And in the
most desperately needy corners of the world, clean water, food, shelter,
education and medical care are higher priorities than phones and
Internet access.<br />
<br />
Within every philanthropic organization, regardless of its mission,
there are opportunities to mitigate the negative effects of technology
and maximize the positive ones - for individuals, societies, or the
organization itself. In past Nuggets, we've considered how to <a href="http://www.vitalwave.com/newsletter/2014/4_14_14.htm">extend mobile broadband</a> and <a href="http://www.vitalwave.com/newsletter/2013/9_19_13.htm">create an environment</a> conducive to mobile-based health, finance, governance, commerce, and education. But what about smaller, local NGOs that <em>aren't</em> actively involved in this space? Or what if Internet access <em>might</em> help your programs, but isn't necessarily your core focus?<br />
<br />
The truth is, mobile and broadband adoption is continuing apace. In
Africa, which had less than 1% mobile penetration at the turn of the
century, 60-80% of all adults will own a mobile phone by the end of this
year. This means beneficiaries who once stood in line for a cash-based
training per diem can now catch the bush taxi home and receive a mobile
payment on the way. With the torrid pace of mobile and broadband
adoption, local NGOs can now achieve far more than the obvious
improvements in communication and reduced travel costs. This includes
potential co-funding through partnerships, alignment with corporate or
government priorities, better operational efficiency, and the
opportunity to steer responsible, sustainable technology usage while
it's still in its infancy. Local NGOs can also support local innovation
and technological independence by delivering on-the-ground training
programs and capacity support. Many development organizations have benefited from stepping back to re-assess their mission and program
portfolios. A comprehensive review of programs and a reallocation of
resources to maximize the benefits of the new tech reality would be both
healthy and timely, even for the deeply ambivalent. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-63459643543788544322014-06-18T07:51:00.001-07:002014-06-18T07:51:48.175-07:00The Currency of Good DataMeasurement was a hot topic at the Council on Foundations' annual
conference last week in Washington D.C. As data and evidence-based
decision making continue to wend their way to the center of today's
philanthropy conversation, funders and grantees increasingly look to
monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for proof of a solution's value and
to make programmatic improvements. Rigorous approaches such as
Randomized Control Trials are considered the gold standard of impact
measurement, and systems like the Impact Reporting and Investment
Standards (IRIS) have been developed to standardize social, financial,
and environmental performance metrics. Now, networks such as ANDE are
encouraging grantees and funders to move beyond standardization and to
integrate impact metrics with financial and operational processes, while
broadening the collection and distribution of data to benefit an entire
ecosystem or society.<br />
<br />
Despite these positive trends, M&E is still hard to do well in
developing countries. Good information is difficult to obtain, and its
collection costs time, effort, and money that many feel would be better
spent on direct beneficiaries. Furthermore, many grantees on the ground
still struggle with basic evaluations, much less the rigorous M&E
systems preferred by many funders. Grantees also frequently need help
integrating this data into feedback loops and decision processes in
order to make operational improvements.<br />
<br />
Practical M&E programs in the developing world means measuring the
right indicators with the right approach and the right amount of rigor.
For corporate funders and CSR groups, measuring the business value
alongside social impact is critical to conveying the full value of
programs and ensuring continued financial support. There is an
excellent opportunity to share the cost of collecting and analyzing
program data with other donors and private sector players. Solid data -
particularly on the opaque small-business sector - could help partners
improve programs, design products or services, develop strategies, and
create effective marketing campaigns. The collaborative approach to
development is not new, but the currency of good data has the potential
to bring a lot more collaborators into the tent. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-46163162320503188542014-05-27T07:08:00.000-07:002014-05-27T07:09:57.635-07:00Car TalkFirst came machines, then came machines that talk. Up next, machines
that talk to each other. Consider the automobile, which started out as a
fairly simple machine, then acquired more computer components and
systems, and will soon be equipped with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of
sensors integrating with drivers and passengers, the environment, and
other cars.<br />
<br />
The next wave of car technology is coming just as millions of new
drivers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America get their first cars, and the
role and function of cars is expanding beyond a simple people mover.
More and more, cars are being seen as data generators, and the data they
yield can populate an ever-wider range of databases (mapping, traffic,
civil services, planning, insurance, consumer trends, health, and more).
Given the amount of time people spend in their cars, there is already
jockeying for position among data-hungry tech companies to integrate
portable handheld devices with car systems - or better yet, to build
sensors, chips, antennae, and software right into the cars. Tech
industry giants, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and
Intel, have been making sizeable investments in car-based technologies
for several years.<br />
<br />
These companies are sensing opportunities, and rightly so. Global sales
of passenger cars will top 70 million in 2014, led by China (at 18
million units, or more than double the sales in the US). Among drivers -
even in lower-income countries - there is a clear interest in avoiding
traffic and collisions, and optimizing the driving environment with
safety, comfort, entertainment, and information. The companies behind
these technologies also understand that driving somewhere is evidence of
consumer habits and intent. In emerging markets, having capable and
reliable broadband networks, the right business models, the ability to
connect multiple device types, and tailored solutions for different
demographic segments are some of the more obvious challenges. As these
challenges are better understood, there will be openings for hardware
and software companies, mobile operators, service providers,
programmers, and many others. One day soon, you may have to squeeze your
Google Roadster between an Apple iCar and an AlibabaVan on the crowded
streets of Bangkok.About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-90621484052843551152014-05-13T05:30:00.000-07:002014-05-13T05:30:01.568-07:00Sustainable CrisesThe US National Climate Assessment and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) both recently signaled a heightened sense of
urgency for dealing with global warming. The general message was:
climate change is having very real, observable effects on the weather,
agricultural production, and important ecosystems, and we're already
paying a heavy price to fight it.<br />
<br />
A particular focus in both reports was the high cost of severe weather
events, which are increasing in number and intensity as the world warms.
And many in the development community, governments, academia, and the
private sector are turning their attention to strategies for mitigating
the costs and improving resource management after these events. Past
disasters have shown that quickly re-establishing phone and Internet
connectivity is critical to the efficient deployment of food, water,
medicine, and shelter. While some governments have increased their
investments in disaster preparedness, the ability to coordinate a
response after large-scale events is often dependent on a diverse set of
public and private service providers. Network operators are in the
best position to work with governments and aid organizations to restore
communications, locate the missing, and track relief efforts. But the
ownership and use of private data, the responsibility for rebuilding
infrastructure, and the profit motive are thorny issues that can put
operators at odds with governments and aid organizations.<br />
<br />
The development community can serve as facilitator, influencer, funder,
and lead builder of a sustainable (or at least more efficient) model for
coordinated, multi-sector disaster relief. Each of these roles demands
more resource-efficient programs, better integration, robust technology
platforms, and implementing organizations that can successfully
complete multi-dimensional projects in the field. The case for taking
these measures is heating up along with the rest of the world. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-88383199818579045262014-04-28T07:31:00.000-07:002014-04-28T07:31:14.082-07:00Money ChangersWhat are the basic tools in your personal financial toolbox? Cash, of
course. A debit card tied to a checking account. Credit cards. A
savings account. And then there are a whole bunch of comparatively
passive tools designed to stave off disaster - health and life
insurance, retirement account, mortgage, stocks, and bonds.<br />
<br />
Now imagine you were born and raised in rural Tanzania, or Thailand, or
Brazil, and you have none of the pre-conceived notions about those
financial tools. There are no banks in the village, and even if there
were, you're not sure the bank can be trusted. No one owns a credit
card, or insurance, or stocks or bonds. You're paid in cash for the work
you do. Your daughter convinced you to sign up for mobile money when
she moved to the capital to work, and it was the easiest way to send
money home. Then, it seems overnight, you could use your mobile wallet
to buy food, or pay for a taxi. Now you have a better phone, and your
daughter says you can use it to find information about the weather or
yesterday's game, open a savings account, buy insurance, apply for a
small loan, and pay bills.<br />
<br />
The fact is, the concept of money is undergoing a fundamental
transformation, and different players are stepping in to offer financial
services where there were none before. (Think M-Pesa and its
imitators, Google Wallet, and Facebook's quiet, impending launch of
mobile money in Ireland.) New financial services by any company will
have to gain the trust of wary consumers and navigate a tricky set of
regulatory and business-model obstacles. Still, the relatively open
regulatory environment, the greenfield technology and banking landscape,
and a clear willingness by consumers to adopt technologies that improve
their lives make developing countries fertile ground for the
introduction of new financial services. Emerging markets are already out
in front of a brave new financial world, and villagers in Tanzania,
Thailand, and Brazil are starting to look at our paper checks and credit
cards with a mix of confusion and humor.About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-1496731785979825042014-04-14T09:24:00.000-07:002014-04-14T09:24:28.779-07:00Net Wars - Attack of the Drones<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg urged
operators to offer unlimited, low-cost service bundles, in which free versions
of Facebook, Whatsapp, Google, Skype and other popular sites are treated like
"utilities." Experience in the Philippines and Paraguay, he said,
prove that the net benefit - typically in broader penetration, more
subscribers, and increased daily use - justifies the expense of building out a
network and offering free and bundled services. This assertion received a
polite but muted response from an audience that is all too aware of the capital
and operating costs of rolling out more, bigger, and better networks. Less than
a month after the MWC, Zuckerberg (as the figurehead and public face of
Internet.org) reiterated his intention to deliver last-mile Internet services
with solar-powered drones, satellites, and lasers. Though light on details, the
idea has generated a fair amount of buzz and only a few critical comments about
how developing countries may not be excited about a fleet of
US-company-supported drones circling their airspace. Even fewer consider the
implications of Facebook's drones (or Google's balloons) bypassing network
operators completely, and putting the keys to Internet access firmly in the
hands of advertising giants.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Day of Global Internet Coverage is coming, though no one knows the date. It's
notable that the advertising, e-commerce, and mobile phone crowd is making the
most noise about it. And why shouldn't they? They have a lot to gain from
Bushmen friending Sherpas. Someone will find a workable model for extending
Internet connectivity to every corner of the globe, by working with network
operators to reduce their CAPEX and OPEX exposure (e.g., through leasing
models, sponsored access, compressed bandwidth technologies, PAYGI or PAYGS
plans), or by floating drones and balloons, or with a combination of these and
other ideas.</span> </span><br />
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<![endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">No
single company will achieve the goal of global coverage. Internet.org, with the
footprint, depth of experience, and vast assets of all the partners (Facebook,
Qualcomm, Ericsson, Samsung, and others) could move it along significantly. But
all those assets still need to be marshalled under a clear and detailed strategy,
as surely as solar-powered drones need the sun.</span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-87894222762359639732014-03-31T11:57:00.001-07:002014-03-31T12:00:06.974-07:00Russian RouletteWhen your standard marching orders are to grow the company's emerging
market business, what's to be done with sudden political crises like
those we've seen in Russia? Since Vladimir Putin decided to help himself
to part of Ukraine, the Russian economy has seen $70 billion in capital
flight (slightly more than all of 2013), leading to stagnant growth and
fears of inflation. Investors and business managers are less concerned
with a few Black Sea ports than they are with precedents like annexing
ethnic enclaves and shutting off oil spigots to Ukraine or Europe.<br />
<br />
Seasoned emerging-market veterans will see the rising tension between
Russia and the West for what it is - part of the cost of doing business
in a market with inherent political risks. As the Russian oligarchy and
its pugnacious leader engage in riskier behavior, executives in tech,
pharma, and a number of other industries might decide to make their big
moves elsewhere. However, it's worth noting that business growth in
Russia (and other politically risky emerging markets) has been fairly
robust for almost 20 years, and though the oil-and-gas gravy train may
be slowing, most of the other engines are on track: the middle class is
growing, demand for consumer products and services is soaring, and
there's room for growth in many industries.<br />
<br />
With the exception of a few industries, business leaders who worry about
getting in bed with robber barons have a few mitigating factors to
consider. Technology has a democratizing effect, education and
healthcare help the masses, financial services spread the wealth, and
agriculture puts food on the table. By focusing on trends, not on the
crisis, companies can identify long-term opportunities that merit the
complex navigation through political storms. There will be opportunities
in Russia after Crimea, in India after the elections, in Brazil when
the debt bubble bursts. When choosing the "wait and see" approach, don't
stop asking the man on the street what he's going to do with all that
hard-earned cash when the dust settles. About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-6228362927842511822014-03-14T10:56:00.000-07:002014-03-14T10:56:32.865-07:00The Shift to Sustainability in the Post-2015 Agenda<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">From
November 2013 to February 2014, Richard Heeks at ICT4D published a series of
nuanced and well-cited analyses of the process and likely outcomes of the
post-2015 development agenda. His 4-part investigation included a graphic
history of the creation of MDGs, a review of post-MDG events, textual analysis
of the documents resulting from those events, and a comparison of new agenda
items to the outgoing goals and objectives. For anyone in the development community,
or even private sector players who understand how the global development agenda
can influence public policies and expenditures, Heeks' concise analysis is <a href="http://m1e.net/c?147056540-xnDu/8DMQ9EtI%4083633383-fqi7mCiiXFuqw">worth
a read</a>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Heeks argues
that the development agenda dynamics "reflect real-world change,"
responding to the shifting roles of aid and the private sector, the rising tide
of domestic and international migration, the supremacy of services over
manufacturing, and the ubiquity of mobile devices. According to his early
analysis, three issues will increase in importance after 2015:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Environment
and Sustainability<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Migration<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Open
and Inclusive Development<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">These three
issues are likely to cut across industry-specific initiatives, requiring
"systems thinking" as the development community moves from strategy
to implementation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Systems
thinking means the development community will need to understand not just an
isolated issue, but how that issue (and programs designed to address it)
impacts and is impacted by other elements in the ecosystem. When choosing
partners, organizations may want to consider how those partners and their
incentives will shift dynamically over time. In effect, no matter where the
compass points when the post-2015 course is set, thorough ecosystem assessment,
dynamic business modeling, and understanding links between different solutions
can help organizations implement more sustainable programs and measure
holistically their impact over time.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-18559486617932110042014-02-18T23:12:00.000-08:002014-02-18T23:12:17.296-08:00Wildflower Hunters: Take the Mountain Road to the Back Country<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">800 million people is a respectable market opportunity. Okay, it's more
than respectable - it's really big. But when gauging market potential,
businesses have to consider many things. Chief among those
considerations is, "How many people actually want what we're selling?" </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The good news for the many providers of smartphones, mobile broadband
services and applications, is that there is a potential
800-million-strong market available - and a lot of the people in that
market want what they're selling. Who are these hungry buyers? <em>Working women in the developing world.</em>
In a recent study conducted with Qualcomm and the GSMA, Vital Wave
surveyed over 1,000 employed women throughout Brazil, China, India,
Indonesia, and Nigeria who own either a feature phone or a smartphone.
The study showed that working women highly value mobile broadband for
communicating with co-workers, locating customers, marketing their goods
and services, and finding educational or job opportunities. Of those
surveyed, 77 percent already own a smartphone would not go back to using
a phone without Internet access. Two-thirds of the feature phone owners
reported that they want smartphones and would be willing to pay for a
mobile data plan, and half said they intend to buy a smartphone within
the next two years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Despite these numbers, capturing this market will not be as simple or
easy as picking wildflowers in a summer meadow. For all the programs
that currently exist to expand technology in the developing world, very
few focus on marketing, products and services to working women. In order
to succeed, handset manufacturers, operators, governments, and even
NGOs need to address the limited awareness as to the value of the
Internet and the cash-flow implications of the handset purchase - the
two most immediate barriers to smartphone uptake for women. Strategies
to address these challenges include the development of public-private
partnerships, creative financing, sponsored data schemes, and shared-use
plans. Expanding Internet access, particularly in rural areas, will
also increase women's use and appreciation for online services - a
crucial first step for women who don't see the utility or convenience of
mobile broadband. To discover additional insights, country-specific
observations, market segmentation information, and directions to the
best wildflower fields, download the full report <a href="http://www.vitalwave.com/Insights/articles/2014/Women-Mobile-Broadband.htm">here</a>. </span>About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3990769316380199866.post-1917160406313767342014-01-29T13:00:00.000-08:002014-01-29T13:00:29.559-08:00Fighting the Health War on Two FrontsAs any student of history will tell you, the surest way to lose a war is to fight on two fronts. For decades, developing countries have been fighting a war against persistent poverty, famine, and disaster-related illnesses like cholera and diarrhea. Resources were stretched to the breaking point in many countries as they struggled to build a health system that is responsive to a well-established set of health problems. So it probably came as welcome relief when economic fortunes turned rosy, and developing-country governments could allocate more resources to infrastructure and public services like health and education. Until, of course, the spoils of rapid economic development began to spoil. <br />
<br />
Health systems across the developing world are suddenly dealing with a range of health issues that hitched a ride with prosperity: diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart disease - to name only a few. It turns out that a sedentary fast-food lifestyle is as unhealthy for the Chinese as it is for Americans. In fact, the Overseas Development Institute, a UK-based think tank, calculated that the number of overweight and obese people in developing countries has quadrupled to one billion people in only 30 years.<br />
<br />
<div class="style1">
In newly prosperous countries, this is not a transition; it's an addition to the normal roster of water-borne and tropical diseases which are still thriving in remote, rural areas. The opening of a new, unfamiliar front in the health war presents opportunities for both the development community and the private sector (e.g., pharma). With many years of data on the long-term cost of chronic diseases in developed countries, there is a compelling argument for even modest investment in nutrition, wellness and preventative programs. Such modern illnesses can by addressed by mobile-based information campaigns, digital reminders, and remote reporting and diagnostics. It's not very sporting to capitalize on another's misfortune. But mature-market providers can chalk it up to helping the new kids learn from past mistakes, and giving them a fighting chance in a historically uphill battle. </div>
About the Vital Wave Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10454270987530985831noreply@blogger.com0