Internet Innovation: Empowering Citizens in the Developing World

Editor's Notes

1. Transition : Previous centuries saw industrial infrastructure such as rail, roads, and telephone lines paving the way for new cities and new connections. What’s different today, what’s driving these changes? Much of it … being driven by the global network … everything is becoming connected In 2001… 300 million devices connected… Primarily what you’d expect… computers, cell phones, PDAs By 2010, in just two years… predicted that 14 billion things will be connected Not just talking cell phones anymore… Cars, buildings, hospitals, security cameras …everything is connected The Internet has expanded into an “Internet of Things” beyond traditional computers and mobile devices.
2. In emerging countries, ICT has been hailed as “great equalizer… a fundamental stepping stone in achieving a better quality of life “. T here are indeed many examples of successful use of ICT – frankly, a private sector company can “make virtually anything work once” by throwing enough resource on it. The core problem is finding approaches which are not only sustainable, but also scale up. No one has “cracked the code” on mass adoption (other than mobile phone). Cisco realizes that to have an impact on poverty, corporations like ours need to think about impacting tens of millions of people, i.e., ways to create demand and viral approaches to the poor gaining ICT skills and the ability to use technology to solve their top problems (empowering people to solve their problems, not solving for them) This isn’t about what we or public sector “do” for citizens, but rather how we help them to help themselves in advancing economically and socially. It’s a given that no single sector can solve poverty (wicked) problems – takes a multi-stakeholder approach. We advocate that the community members/citizens themselves need to be in more of the driver’s seat and empowered to make informed decisions to improve their lives.
3. Kangundo, a small town of 10,000 in Kenya, would at first glance seem an unlikely candidate for a serious Cisco business venture. It is a cash-strapped place with more than 60 percent unemployment and significant youth crime as a result. While the town is only about 35 miles away from Nairobi's greater opportunities, the poor condition of the roads makes frequent travel back and forth prohibitive. And yet here, in a modest building of less than 400 square feet known as the Blossom World cybercafé, Cisco has helped launch what it hopes will be the start of big things in terms of getting all of Kenya more fully tapped into the digital age. Blossom World is the first of six pilot "pasha centres" that Wynn has been steering, along with IBSG teammate Peter Drury and Michele Castegnaro of Emerging Africa Business Development as part of a Digital Villages Project in Kenya. The word "pasha" means "to inform" in Swahili, and the goal of the centres, explains Wynn, is to provide a ready source of vital information to Kenyans in the areas of basic education, vocational training, health knowledge, and government services. Pasha Potential If the Digital Villages Project takes off according to plan, there will be approximately 3,500 pasha centres scattered across Kenya within the next three years, according to Wynn. Every Kenyan citizen will be within walking distance of the connectivity provided by a pasha centre.
4. Cisco Networking Academy is Cisco’s largest CSR program, with a expansive global presence. To give you perspective, the UN recognizes approximately 190 countries. Networking Academy has at least one academy in approximately 80% of the UN countries. Cisco has offices in fewer than 100 of these same countries. To put this more into perspective, Cisco has offices in only approximately 50% of the number of countries where Networking Academy is present. We educate over 750,000 unique students within a given year. This means we count the students only once within a given year, not by each time they take a class. To compare in the US, it means we are larger than the California University system in its entirety. Over the course of our 12 years we have taught over 2.7 Million students and are proud to say we have 400,000 CCNA 4 graduates. Networking Academy is incredibly diverse: Students are of all ages, with a strong female contingency and coming from very diverse backgrounds and circumstances Students range in age from 12 to over 60. There is a healthy mix of women and men, even though we want to increase the number of women. People range from those trying to work their way out of the slums in their region, to physically challenged students, to people in prison planning for their future outside Our communities are equally diverse, including both developing and mature countries, organizations providing a second chance, and a combination of schools ranging from public schools to advanced education institutions Upper Secondary schools represent approximately 15% 2-3 Year Institutions, such as community and vocational schools, 34% 4 Year Institutions/universities, 46% And the remaining schools for 5%
5. Exciting ICT career paths are open to students globally Information Technology is a solid and promising career path and IT industries are numerous and varied Air Traffic Controller of Finance the person managing the flow of critical data across the enterprise, or across the world Maitre d’ of Entertainment the person in charge of ‘serving up’ content of all kinds to different audiences, over the network We are challenging our student to consider their career goals in a new way. We consider them to be the Architects of the Networked Economy. They are building the platform for life’s experiences , for us all.
6. Building on Cisco’s past success in education, the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute represents a new model for knowledge sharing Practical workshops include content from Partners, premier business schools, and Cisco technology content Web 2.0 technology is used extensively to enrich the participants experience, provide valuable content on demand, and to facilitate a community of business people and entrepreneurs and encourage the collaboration and exchange of ideas. Users also contribute to the Institute by sharing their own authored content, their successes and their challenges.
7. It is an ecosystem approach comprised of partners coming from educational institutions locally, national and local government, corporations, and NGOs. Cisco provides curriculum, instructor training, assessments, and equipment at cost, to name a few contributions. The ecosystem partners provide additional funding, building space, and people and other forms of support.