Hong Kong ICT4D PhD Fellowship Scheme

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)

Graduate students and practitioner with evidence of academic excellence, research ability, good communication skills, and interest in pursuing their dissertation in the field of social entrepreneurship and ICT for development are invited to apply for Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme.

The Fellowship provides monthly stipend of HK$20,000 and travel allowance of HK$10,000 per year. In addition, each awardee will also enjoy tuition fees waiver for a maximum of three years.

Hong Kong serves as an excellent hub to access China, South-East- and South-Asia, dynamic social innovations space. To understand how social entrepreneurship is helping solve social issues, PolyU has recently established three centers: Sustainability Research Management Center; Design Institute for Social Innovation; and Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development.

For additional information on PhD fellowship see (http://www.polyu.edu.hk/ro/hkphd-fellowship/)

For any clarification about application process: contact Ms Martha Hui (martha.hui@polyu.edu.hk)

For information on ongoing research projects on social entrepreneurship: contact Dr. Israr Qureshi (israr.qureshi@polyu.edu.hk).

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-Sameera.

New Businesses for the Sustainability of Telecentres

“My farther reads the news paper online, now he does not want to buy the papers” – some anecdotes tries to prove that Telecentres are fully integrated with rural societies and they depend on the Telecentres for various services.

In fact, if a person in rural Sri Lanka tries to read a news paper on line, he has to pay at least $ 0.5 whereas he can buy the new paper for around $ 0.25. It may be worth for a busy executive to read the online version of a news paper but may not be for rural folks.

Telecentres made the technology available for rural communities. So what?

The real issue was we didn’t have applicable content and services to deliver through Telecentres. So services such as Dialog tradenet (www.tradenet.lk) can make a real difference in terms of providing relevant services to the community while sustaining Telecentres with incremental revenue.

Three potential roles

1. Finding products or services at cheaper rates for the community in the area (used products, etc.). That could be even finding the raw materials for SME businesses.

2. Help entrepreneurs to find the market. Exploit the free advertising opportunity in tradenet. There is a potential of reaching a huge market of nearly seven million people (customer base of Dialog).

3. Playing the role of an intermediary/Broker. Most of the rural products and service sellers find it difficult to interact with modern markets. So telecentre operator can play the role of intermediary to bridge the gap.

-Sameera.

Sustainability of Telecentres

Note: My intention is not to promote any product, brand or company, but to promote sustainability of Telecentres.

On my way to Hambantota (A district in the deep south of Sri Lanka), I could see many Telecentres (Nenasalas). Out of those Telecentres some of them were with billboard as shown in the above image. Some others, which did not have those kinds of billboards, were closed and not operational.

I don’t try to come to the conclusion that those were closed simply because they did not have billboards provided by a private company.

But those billboards show us how far they have got integrated with other systems, for their own sustainability. Most of the Telecentres initiated with public funds or with funding from development organizations could be sustained through the involvement of the private sector.

Fortunately in Sri Lanka, the macro level policy decisions also have contributed towards the sustainability. Making a competitive environment within the telecommunication industry, adoption of new technologies such as Wi-MAX and HSPA are favorable for sustainability of Telecentres.

-Sameera.