This blog hopes to channel the interaction among the participants in the CBS Fall 08 course on Business Innovations in International Development. Don't be shy and share your thoughts!
I thought you might find this website of interest http://www.unitedvillages.com/ The video provides a good explanation of the service.
The United Villages approach appears to provide a way around the massive expense of building internet infrastructure in rural India. They store data for transmissison on a static computer in the village, which while it can't access the internet directly, can link wirelessly to a computer unit on a passing public bus. Once the data is on the unit on the bus, the bus can transmit the data to the internet once it reaches the city where it can access the internet through a wifi set up. Basically, it's a digital pony express :)
While I'm not sure believe the closing line of the video ("The smiles on these people's faces is proof that United Villages is making a big difference in their lives" - I'm sure they smiled from time to time before UV) I thought it was an interesting approach to the lack of infrastructure proble we discussed in class.
This interview with the founder http://www.gartner.com/research/fellows/asset_168587_1176.jsp is the best explanation of UV's business model. The cost of setting up the infrastructure for each village is $100 - imagine how much less that is than setting up broadband or cell towers...
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Hey guys,
I thought you might find this website of interest http://www.unitedvillages.com/ The video provides a good explanation of the service.
The United Villages approach appears to provide a way around the massive expense of building internet infrastructure in rural India. They store data for transmissison on a static computer in the village, which while it can't access the internet directly, can link wirelessly to a computer unit on a passing public bus. Once the data is on the unit on the bus, the bus can transmit the data to the internet once it reaches the city where it can access the internet through a wifi set up. Basically, it's a digital pony express :)
While I'm not sure believe the closing line of the video ("The smiles on these people's faces is proof that United Villages is making a big difference in their lives" - I'm sure they smiled from time to time before UV) I thought it was an interesting approach to the lack of infrastructure proble we discussed in class.
This interview with the founder http://www.gartner.com/research/fellows/asset_168587_1176.jsp is the best explanation of UV's business model. The cost of setting up the infrastructure for each village is $100 - imagine how much less that is than setting up broadband or cell towers...
Cheers,
Luke
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