Gold Rushes and Good Deeds

As 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.)

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. 

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.

Educating parents on the educational value of the Internet

by Karen Coppock
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Students in Mauritania fully understand the educational value of the Internet, their parents do not according to a recent article in Balancing Act's newsletter (issue #501). Since most of these students do not have access to PCs at home, they need their parents to give them money to use cyber cafes. Parents are skeptical, at best.

I observed a similar dilemma in Uganda - students and youth fully understood the wealth of educational and other opportunities that the Internet provided, their parents, largely agricultural workers, did not. In China, the situation appears to be similar - a Vital Wave Consulting analyst mentioned that computers are forbidden in some Chinese dorm rooms as administrators fear that the children will play video games and not study.

Often times there are two types of buyers of educational materials - the economic buyer (the one who pays) and the end-user (the one who receives the service). In schools the economic buyer is often the government and the end-user are students and teachers. The IT industry is adept at marketing to governments for large-scale public school technology deployments. Marketing to parents of children in rural areas of Africa may be a bit newer.

Firms could consider partnering with non-profit organizations, schools and even cyber-cafe owners to promote awareness on the educational-value of the Internet. Firms could also leverage traditional media such as radio, TV and perhaps mobile-phones to tout the educational value of the Internet and help children convince their parents to open up their wallets to enhanced educational opportunities.

Planning for the Future: Latin America Leads the Way on Laptops for Kids

What started as a trickle three years ago in Uruguay is turning into a flood. That nation's decision in 2007 to purchase 100,000 ultra low-cost OLPC netbooks has created a domino effect across Latin America. Peru recently announced a deal to buy another 260,000 OLPC units for primary schoolchildren, bringing its total to 590,000. Argentina, meanwhile, took delivery of the first of 250,000 Intel Classmate PC laptops for technical high school students and the mayor of Buenos Aires announced an initiative to buy 190,000 laptops for primary school students. Brazil has also jumped in, launching a bid in February to acquire 1.5 million low-cost laptops. Latin America now leads the developing world in efforts to provide laptops for every student, with Uruguay becoming the first to give every child in primary schools their own computer for use at school and home. The Inter American Development Bank estimates that the number of children in the region covered by these programs will jump from 1.5 million to 30 million by 2015.

The move by Latin American governments to provide laptops to the region's children (and its primary schoolchildren in particular) is notable for several reasons. It marks an increased commitment on the part of these governments to raising educational performance, one of the factors many experts cite as a reason for Latin America's economic underperformance relative to Asia. It also signals that the region's governments are serious about building a tech-savvy workforce in order to better compete for knowledge economy jobs in the future. Yet these deals also demonstrate that governments believe that providing children with these computers will at the same time build local technology ecosystems in the here and now. All of these elements mean more work and skill development for local companies and workers.

These developments also present an opportunity for multinational firms. One-to-one computer deployments are enormously complex undertakings, requiring comprehensive plans for capacity building, teacher training, technical support and repair services in order to succeed. Many countries hope to build that capacity locally, but in the short term companies willing to partner with local enterprises might find numerous opportunities to provide products and services. Getting in early might also position firms for the future, when the tech-ready workforces produced by these programs enter the consumer base and workforce. Spotting the early signs of a blossoming tech economy can pay big dividends down the road.

Raising the Bar on the PC Price Debate

Microsoft and AMD teamed up last week to launch the IQ PC, a desktop computer targeting the education market in India. Using local partners such as Zenith Computers to produce and distribute the hardware, the PC is being piloted in select Indian cities with plans for a national rollout later this year. The computer comes equipped with a basic version of the Windows Vista operating system, an assortment of educational software such as Encarta and Student 2007, and an online content repository. The PC appears to be a well-designed education solution, but with a $513 price tag, Microsoft’s latest effort to join the low-cost PC race is being criticized by bloggers and the press for being too costly for developing countries.

Increasingly, media and online coverage of PC initiatives for education in developing countries have focused disproportionately on the price tag of the computing device. Dell’s EC280 sells for $336; Intel’s Classmate PC is coming in at $249; and the One Laptop per Child program’s XO computer (formerly called the $100 laptop) costs $175. Attention on the price of the PC, however, may ultimately be misleading buyers. The total cost of PC ownership (TCO) also includes standard costs such as support, training and installation as well as often-overlooked expenses such as electricity consumption and insurance which can be significant in an emerging-market setting.

For price-conscious customers in emerging markets, understanding the real price tag of technology purchases requires an assessment of costs over the life span of the product. With more comprehensive TCO analyses, buyers are better equipped to make informed decisions. Corporations seeking to combat apples-to-oranges comparisons between education computing solutions will deepen the discussion to one of total cost of ownership. It is only then that the public discourse will address the true cost of computing devices for the classrooms of developing countries.

Also in the news:

• AMD Builds Ultra-Mobile PC with Chinese Company
• Financial Services See New Markets in the Developing World
• Intel Inside the Third World