On this, the last day of the NetHope Summit, I wanted to share this vid about one project where NetHope member NGOs are doing great work. The person I spoke with about the project (I promised not to attribute agencies or organizations as part of my agreement to be authorized to blog while attending the conference) characterized this work in Panama as a classic example where technology enables people to rise from poverty. I agree. By the way, the project’s Internet connectivity comes courtesy of Intel’s Rural Connectivity Platform, which is beaming the signal from a local hotel to the jungle-ensconced computer lab. RCP is cool technology.
Indeed the whole project is really cool. Two of my Intel colleagues, Meghan Desai and Jeff Galinovsky traveled there to install the project’s RCP component and they reminisce about the good times they had. But the video doesn’t tell the whole story. It touches on the collaboration between the NetHope member NGO, Intel and the Peace Corps. It talks about educating kids and women. Fair enough. But what it doesn’t show is how smart the indigenous peoples’ are and how quickly they’ve figured out how to use the technology to their advantage beyond education, Internet access and women empowerment (not that I’m diminishing the importance of these, especially women empowerment).
I’m in day two at the NetHope summit and I’m fickle and in love. More on that last part later.
My new main squeeze. Isn’t her display gorgeous?
Where do you think the NGO community that is NetHope is focusing most? Can you guess? That’s right: Africa. In yesterday’s session representatives here voiced the same thing: Africa is the number one focus of their humanitarian and other efforts. Africa is getting a lot of attention these days and it’s not just the NGO NetHope community paying attention to the continent. I’ve heard economists talk about how low-end manufacturing (textiles and the like) will soon be shifting from Asia to Africa as infrastructure builds out there. That bodes well for the continent and its people. More affordable broadband access is in the works there too I hear. And to my eternal happiness, Intel too is finally beginning to increase its activities there (although it took us a while to get our focus focused).
Innovative, young change agents. They are gathering to change the world for the better and collect a chunk of change to help pay their way to college. That’s what’s happening at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) May 11-16 in Atlanta, GA.
It’s world’s largest annual international pre-college (grades 9-12) science competition where some 1,500 high school students from over 50 countries are showing their research projects and vying for more than $3 million in awards and scholarships. Voice of America just aired an informative audio report about the science fair.
Greetings from the 2008 NetHope Summit. I’m standing on probably some of the most valuable realestate in the technology universe – San Jose – at the Cisco headquarters. Virtually every big tech player is within eyesight here, but, not being a tech spazzo groupie – and I’m sure you’re not either – I won’t blog you to death about the companies I drove by on the way here. Instead, I’ll blog about the summit. I joined approximately 100 people this morning representing some 20 NGOs from as far as Finland, the Philippines, Bangladesh, the UK and other locals. Their intention: meet, greet and build collaborations leading to more and better results in the development and aid industry.
Socially-minded grass roots organizations like media darling Kiva.org and virtual networks such as NED are changing the development and aid industry. Is your company thinking about extending its CSR activities to include these upstarts? We are. I’ll tell you more about that, but first allow me defend my assertion that a sea-change (that link is only for those who lean towards the literary) is occuring in the development and aid industry.
Next week I’m off to the technology mecca (uh, that’s Silicon Valley, Ca) to rub shoulders with IT representatives of 20 NGO organizations belonging to NetHope. I swear it’s not a boondoggle. Intel is sponsoring the organization’s spring summit this year and we’re going to showcase a number of our technologies designed to address the needs of emerging markets. There’s one particular piece of technology we’re showcasing that I’m all ablaze about. I’ll post more about that later, but what I’m really looking forward to is meeting the member NGO representatives.
I wanted this post’s headline to be a play on words using the word “roots.” But changed my mind on the premise that some (most?) blogospherians* who read these posts 1 – probably aren’t from the U.S. and 2 - aren’t old enough to remember the sensational 1997 TV mini series “Roots” that made LaVar Burton famous and Alex Haley rich.
Just like Intel squeezing 47 Million transistors into one Intel Atom processor, we sent just one man to the White House to represent our 84,000 employees being honored today for Intel’s commitment to volunteerism. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080429-5.wm.v.html
Paul Otellini — our CEO and driving force behind our One Million Hour commitment in honor of our 40th birthday year — accepted the President’s Volunteer Service Award in a National Volunteer Week ceremony celebrating the American spirit of volunteerism supported by the Freedom Corps.
Wasn’t the headline you were expecting was it? Was the farthest thing from my mind as well as I set out on a week and a half in Asia. I typically go to Asia a couple of times a year to visit our manufacturing operations and meet with colleagues and government officials. In my 13 years at Intel, I had never visited our India operations, largely because it is a series of office buildings and there is not much to do from an environmental standpoint, or so I thought.
“What has your company done to pave the path toward going green?”
“How have your actions helped the greater community?”
“How has going green saved you money, jobs and improved lives?”
These are 3 questions I’ve been asked to answer at an event the Congresswoman is holding at the Tech Museum of Innovation in Silicon Valley Monday morning. Several other companies will also be participating – Google, Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials, Echelon, Adobe, Xilinx as well as the City of San Jose and the County of Santa Clara, CA.
del.icio.us