Marketplace of Ideas

Prof. Alex (Sandy ) Pentland

Juan Carlos Barahona

MIT Digital Nations Consortium

Ideas, productivity and technology

• Almost all telecenter projects have great difficulty with sustainability. I believe we have to revisit the basic idea.

• Sustained economic growth is driven by higher productivity

• Sustained increments in productivity are driven by continuous innovation. (Porter 1984, WEF 2002,Mokyr, 2003)

• So shouldn’t our goal be encouraging the flow of innovation rather than simply providing information and communcation services?

Should the basic

concept of the

telecenter be

revised?

Yes.

Our approach

We encourage for-profit services that upgrade the social networks of the community, permitting a better flow of ideas.

The main goal is to build the social capital required to boost entrepreneurial efforts and the pace of innovation.

The new digital services should also reduce the cost of existing transactions, so that they are sustainable.

Digital Weaver: Strengthening the Social Fabric

Original LINCOS was a telecenter. The new LINCOS is an incubator to start local `connector’ businesses

LINCOS provides training and support of ICT for entrepreneurs and community organizations

Example LINCOS businesses: PakNet: eBay + DHLVoIPBanking and remittances

MIT Digital Nations Ventures

http://www.dimagi.com/ http://www.firstmilesolutions.com/

http://www.wayinc.com/

blueEnergyhttp://www.blueEnergy.org

These companies

are spin-offs of

MIT Digital Nations

and are some of

the `connector’

businesses that

the Digital Weaver

can deploy

First Mile Solutions’ PakNet: Picking Up and Delivering Bits and Atoms

Provides

asynchronous

broadband

services: VoIP

email

Browsing

eBay + DHL

X10 cheaper

than other

technologies

http://www.firstmilesolutions.com

Reaching Out Into The Community

Handheld service

delivery provides

x10 community

penetration, x10

cost reduction

Like Grameen

Phone, but

asynchronous and

so cheaper

http://www.dimagi.com

Way Systems: Banking for the Village

Provides x10

cheaper point-of-

sale and banking

services, plus

greater

transparency

and security

http://www.waysystems.com

blueEnergy

•blueEnergy produces and installs micro wind turbines in local economies in Central America and Mexico.

•A enterprise for village entrepreneurs

http://www.blueEnergy.org Contact: Mathias Craig -- mjcraig@blueEnergy.org

Power to the People

Conclusion

Our goal is to enable communities to build social and financial capital needed to for sustained innovation

ICT is critical for weaving together community, surrounding communities, and diaspora..our role is that of a weaver, rather than a communications service provider

ICT also helps by enabling more efficient supply chains, thus lowering costs of existing interactions, providing new financial possibilies.