Digital Divide Institute formulates strategic alliances that bring broadband meaningfully to the “next two billion” in emerging markets.
First Asia, then the World
“Meaningful Broadband is Digital Divide Institute’s new model for bridging the digital divide with far-reaching implications throughout Asia and the rest of the developing world.”
— Andrew Harris, Senior Telecoms Analyst, The Economist Intelligence Unit
 The Indonesian/Silicon Valley Connection | |
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No longer using Singapore as their bridge to Silicon Valley, Indonesia’s ICT stakeholders now have their own ties to the Valley’s foremost innovators. One of these power players happens to be an Indonesian billionaire: Dr. Sehat Sutardja, whose company, Marvell Semiconductor, has chips in smart devices that are revolutionizing Asia. |
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Pictured here (Nov 8), Dr. Sutardia and co-founder Weili Dai hosted Minister Hatta Rajasa, the architect of Indonesia’s economic reforms. Two weeks earlier, Sutardja hosted DDI’s Dr. Craig Warren Smith for a four-day marathon of discussions. Smith and Ilham A Habibie, chairman of Indonesia’s Meaningful Broadband Working Group, also visited IT professors at Stanford and UC Berkeley and they chatted with top execs of Google and HP. The outcome: a plan to tap Silicon Valley’s next-generation innovators to bring meaningful broadband to Asian mass markets. |
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| The Taiwan Factor | |
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Atop global supply chains, Taiwan's Device-makers Do Biz with DDI. Last week in Taipei, Digital Divide Institute led a delegation representing two ASEAN nations. These discussions led to proposals for how Taiwan-made tablets, PCs and netbooks could bring “meaningful apps” to low-income users in Asia. Read More. |
| “Broadband for All” Gains Political Traction | |
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DDI Helps Asia’s Intergovernmental Agencies Reach Broadband Targets. Though Asia’s intergovernmental agencies have put “broadband for all” onto their lists of top causes since 2008, few took notice since their proclamations were not tied to specific action plans. |
But now, the cause has gained political traction and is being operationalized through new reports shown here from ITU, APEC, ASEAN, ADB --and Digital Divide Institute is advising each of them. Read More. |
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| Meaningful Mekong | |
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ASEAN Asks DDI for Broadband Plan for Endangered River Ecosystem. In high-powered gatherings in Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Honolulu, Silicon Valley and Washington, DDI founder Prof Craig Warren Smith, will soon present a plan to bring broadband meaningfully and rapidly to 60 million low-income farm families along the shores of the endangered Mekong. Read More. |
| A Tablet to Close Digital Divide | |
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While campaigning to be prime minister of Thailand, Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, holds up a Samsung tablet computer while she declares that a massively distributed tablet for school kids will be a cornerstone of her new government. Now that she is elected, Thai officials asked Digital Divide Institute to integrate the tablet project into a comprehensive roadmap for the |
new Thai government to generate demand for broadband in the general population. To learn DDI’s early plans for Thailand’s new government. Read More |
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| Indonesia Signs On | |
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$9.2 Billion Meaningful Broadband Plan Announced. Top leaders of government, business and academia sign declaration for massive deployment of “meaningful broadband” to fulfill goals of the government’s new Master Plan. |
Chaired by Ilham A Habibie, leader of Digital Divide Institute in Asia, it includes a $3.4 billion network to give broadband access to the masses, combined with a $4.9 billion plan for devices and apps. Read More |
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News Wrap |
Broadand Plans Proliferate: In the past year the number of nations that have "broadband master plans" has doubled. Here's an up to date list of web links that describe broadband policies in 36 nations, assembled thanks to Detecon. Why so many policies? "Developing nations now recognize that they cannot just delegate their broadband polies to ICT ministries but they must create a coherent interministerial broadband master plan under the direct oversight of a prime minister," says Paul Budde, a leading ICT consultant. "It has become a major new trend in governments worldwide" he said. Here's an up-to-date list. |
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What is digitaldivide.org |
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Events |
December 16, Bangkok, The UN’s Asia Pacific division (UNESCAP) hosts Prof Craig Warren Smith for a debut lecture: “A New Social Compact for the Broadband Era.”
December 14, Jakarta, GSM Association, DDI Chairman, Prof Craig Warren Smith's keynote: "A Methodology for Predicting Benefits of Meaningful Broadband".
November 24, Jakarta, Republic of Indonesia (Detiknas) hosts Meaningful Broadband Working Group worksession led by IGADD co-chairs Ilham A Habibie and Craig Warren Smith and Mastel Chairman, Setyanto P Santosa.
October 24-25, Institute of Information Industry, Taipei, In discussions brokered by DDI, officials from Thailand and Indonesia open negotiate with executives of Taiwan's multinational corporations regarding their possible participation in device/app deployments for Meaningful Broadband.
October 18-22, Silicon Valley, Ilham A Habibie and Craig Warren Smith discuss Meaningful Broadband deployments with professors at Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, and multinational corporations and investor institutions. Contact Us for schedule details.
October 11 - 14, University of Washington, DDI Founder Craig Warren Smith conducts seminars and discussions with academic programs in several departments, introducing Meaningful Broadband to faculty members and considering UW partnerships in DDI's deployments in Southeast Asia. Contact Us for schedule details.
In the Meaningful Broadband framework, politicians must turn to the private sector to deliver benefits to their nations that are faster, better and cheaper than efforts to achieve the same benefits via sluggish, corrupt and out-of-date government bureaucracies.
