RE: report on Leveraging ICT for the Base of the Pyramid

Hi.


Thanks for posting the url of the report.


1.  The full report (http://www.hystra.com/opensource/Hystra_Rapport_ICT_for_the_BoP.pdf  
as opposed to the executive summary) took a bit of time to download -- I thus expected it to be more comprehensive.  But it was not. (Maybe it's my mini mini or my network of course, but I use a wi fi and it's slow to download anywhere I go.)
2.  I note your objection to making commercial sustainability (profit) a criteria.  However I (personally) imagine that the phone projects that work with small businesses (such as Village Phone, Zain, Madagascar; and the Djaama Phone Orange system develolped my MNO Orange) are the way to go, mainly because these businesses have other revenue, they don't depend on the phone; so when people get individual phones the businesses do not die; they just have to find a new market, which they are quite used to doing.  Of course the business should be small, should feed back to, hire from the community.

I do agree that focusing on customer needs will bring some profit though; but individuals without much capital &/or with limited business experience may not have the ability to shift gears when markets change.
3.  Regarding how to best reach rural, international farmers, I don't quite agree with you that SMS text broadcasts of crop prices for different markets, if encoded with symbols in a graph-like format, would be much less accessible to rural farmers than voice information. 
(You say under "Technology,""E.g. a sms-based agriculture service in ‘Direct Access’ is unlikely to reach all farmers given the ability of farmers to use SMS") * * *My Example (a possible way to reach farmers via SMS):


RICE  (currently the only suitable symbol is U+1F35A at http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf which might not be supported by the SMS system so a pix of rice might have to be broadcast before the SMS data; this is a drawback): 


$(or any currency symbol; again a drawback if these symbols not in use on SMS) Per Kilo:


1. City-Name1  $.59 $.59 $.59 


2.  City-Name2  $.69 $.69 $.69 $


3.  City-Name3  $.59 $.59 $.59 


4.  City-Name4  $.49 $.49 $


5.  City-Name5  $.59 $.59 $.59


* * *
Following or preceding the above, a rough map showing approximate location of cities could be texted too:


       ^
       |
     North
(U+2B06 of course is the up arrow; my up arrow is grotesque; could not get it to line up in display)




               5                3


   4                 
                                            1




                                  2


* * * * * * * * * * * * 
SCALE:  ---------- = 10 Kilometers




(Note:  I'm relying on the "white spaces" here to approximate the distance; feel free to object to this way of doing the map)


The above would take 2-3 message spaces I think including the "bar graph" (those who want the image of each crop as an image file would have to pay something -- perhaps would be charged units) + 2 more to include the map, if you don't use special symbols (double this I guess if you use special symbols).
Thus I think unlike you that, if done right, SMS data or mixed SMS data with pictures (for rural farmers) is workable.

If broadcast the SMS-part (though not any images of crops of course) is free. 
(In addition, the above SMS info could be obtained on demand; the user might call in, access a voice recording allowing him/her to choose the crop[s] he/she wants data for, and whether an image of each crop should be sent, and would then get the relevant text messages and images back.  I would hope that the billing could be instant; I am charged airtime instantly now and in spite of the high price for the airtime tend to prefer that to a system where a bill comes in every month -- there were so many surprises before; the report says that, and I too expect that people on a budget will react the same as I to the surprises unless the total monthly cost no matter what comes out very cheap).

4.  Another note -- if it's allowable to take this space to describe an "ideal project" instead of just comment on the report: 
the report mentions the paucity of enterpreneur-type health and education projects; I personally am interested in seeing cell phones provide data (including crime statistics: image maps showing violence/shootings/murders; gang violence that occur[s] that day, that month, etc; statistics are a great way to introduce math concepts too); also maybe anti-drug messages (perhaps video ads with music, rap music, pop music that are anti-drugs; in the U.S. which is not your focus I'd like to see info about border violence associated with drugs, perhaps a "don't give them your money; don't become their pawn" announcement to go with that ).  
The latter I'd like to see since cell phones are abused in the drug trade.  (I think that maybe the governments could help support this if they wished to; as you have noted, it's ofteh but not always the governments that support education.  However, my idea is that the businesses that provide cell phones should make this kind of information available, perhaps with the phones; that is the video would be something you could play when you bought the phone; downloading videos can be slow so I'm not sure whethere it should already be loaded into the phone or something available by download; the latter is a problem if the end-user pays for it; of course they will one way or another but I think the video should be downloadable free at least once/week, plus the user should know if he/she is accruing charges for it; for U.S.-based users with monthly plan the video ads can be downloaded and, if the limit, is exceeded charged to a user's monthly plan)



Best,
--C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar@hotmail.com


> Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:32:13 +0200
> From: boyera@w3.org
> To: public-mw4d@w3.org
> Subject: report on Leveraging ICT for the Base of the Pyramid
> 
> Hystra and Tno just published an interesting report with the title: 
> Leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the Base 
> of the Pyramid
> URL: http://www.hystra.com/opensource/ICT_for_the_BoP.html
> 
> If you are interested, i just blog about my opinions and comments: 
> http://www.webfoundation.org/2011/09/leveraging-information-and-communication-technology-ict-for-the-base-of-the-pyramid/
> 
> steph
> -- 
> Stephane Boyera		stephane@w3.org
> W3C				+33 (0) 5 61 86 13 08
> BP 93				fax: +33 (0) 4 92 38 78 22
> F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex,		
> France
>