[wsfii-discuss] Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless (sorry had to resend due to incorrect hyperlink)

Mon Apr 2 13:44:51 UTC 2007

Lindsey, Jeff, Ian
      I completely agree  with your observations.
 I pointed out in our panel Discussion on: Business Models for Community
Wireless Networks held at Dharamsala .  about India's early 1980s experiment
in bringing the telephone penetration into rural area.  The trick was a
simple  business model of  " Public Call Office " ( PCO ) .

A simple 'plug and play '  telephone instrument &  billing machine  did the
trick in exponentially increasing the telecom reach.

The community wireless can easily repeat the story provided  you make
participation in network simple , prosperous & address some immediate needs.

Best wishes
Ashish Saboo
Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider
URL : http://www.apiap.org
Blog: http://apiap.blogspot.com
News: http://internetcafenews.blogspot.com
alt email : apiap at rediffmail.com

On 3/30/07, Ian Howard <ihoward at netdotworking.com> wrote:
>
> Lindsey, Jeff,
>
> Indeed, I would like to second what Jeff suggests, though there are
> differing view within the community for the role of business in free
> information infrastructures, there is at least a consensus that
> sustainable models are required to support these infrastructures. There
> is also, I might add, a vast difference in the interests (at least from
> an economic perspective) between groups who are focused on community
> networks in developed economies, to those who are working in developing
> economies. I suggest that we not try and lump them together, as the
> strategies and economic foundations are completely different, IMHO.
>
> In the upcoming release of the WNDW book, we intend to add in this
> section, that is an "Economic Sustainability" section of the book. This
> is a topic that we have been dedicated to for the past number of years,
> since our time at Geekcorps Mali. There is a growing interest in this
> topic and generally in the economic models to support free
> infrastructures. This chapter will, of course, focus on developing world
> applications.
>
> Ian
>
> Adapted Consulting
>
>
> jeff buderer wrote:
> > Lindsey,
> >
> > One related issue may be a misconception by some that WSFII is
> > anti-business. Several have commented on this to me personally. It may
> > be that many of us are anti-corporate status quo but that does not mean
> > we are anti-business or anti-corprorate. Most of us here (it seems) do
> > want to find a viable way to do what we are doing as it relates to
> > wireless and so that means business/social enterprise development. Some
> > of us are even open to in the right conditions working with corporations
> > to get our work more widely known and to provide funding to sustain our
> > work.
> >
> > It was my uderstanding that a focus point/goal for the Air Jaldi Summit
> > was to investigate sustainable business models for wireless networks.
> > However it is not clear to me what was actually gained on a practical
> > level and what if there was any exploration in terms of how to build
> > economically sustainable wireless networks particularly in emerging
> > markets.
> >
> > Apparently very few people attended Laura Drewett's Workshop "Economics
> > of Small Wireless Networks
> > http://summit.airjaldi.com/home/program/workshops/economics-for-small-se
> > rvice-operators/" (also some great resources here
> > http://resources.airjaldi.com/?page_id=23)at AJS.
> >
> > Possibly there is a bit too much focusing on the engineering and
> > technical solutions and not enough on making the business model work.
> > This complements an effective strategy of promotion. Furthermore we need
> > a "complete ecosystem approach" that combines the best of breed
> > technologies and approaches to develop networks that can be scaled and
> > replicated moving the whole network forward in terms of as you say
> > "hitting the mark".
> >
> > The three main considerations I see are:
> > 1. Economic sustainability - Enable weaning off of grants and towards
> > incuation of local ICT related ventures esp in emerging markets 2.
> > Social infrastructure -  Social/technological/economic infrastucture
> > integrated is necessary to ensure network sustainability. 3. Technology
> > innovations - with good integrated with the economic and social
> > innovations in the network (1 & 2)
> >
> > I would like to see the Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless as
> > a major theme at the WSFII Africa 2007 Summit. I will begin work to
> > incorporate the issue  of economic sustainability and (complementary to
> > this marketing) into our planning for the Summit.
> >
> > Possibly we could use the materials in your email as a starting point
> > for planning a session on the effective promotion of community wireless
> > networks.
> >
> > A capstone session could include people getting together in a workgroup
> > (along the lines of what I had proposed for AJS
> > http://summit.airjaldi.com/wiki/index.php/Integrated.Development.Approac
> > h) and looking at the best practices in wireless network with an eye for
> > integration. We can then consider as part of the workshop not just a
> > peicemeal approach but consider how we can effectively integrate all the
> > pieces to great compelling projects that speak for themselves. This
> > would include consideration of how to build business models to maximize
> > the replication of these wsfii projects.
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > This post, combined with the previous one about creating video footage
> > about wsfii type projects, are of great interest to me personally as
> > they have cropped up in UK conversations for several years, and
> > particularly recently.
> >
> > It has always seemed to be one area where community wi-fi/broadband
> > networks haven't always hit the mark - whether with governments,
> > funders, local authorities, establishing credibility with consumers etc.
> > Mainly, it has seemed, cos we are so busy trying to get the solutions to
> > work, that there is little time for self-promotion.
> >
> > In each community, and globally, we have a mix of skills. Techies,
> > support, coders, promoters, grant seekers etc.
> >
> > I would like to propose, in light of the posts about case studies and
> > video footage, that we get together those who are very interested in the
> > marketing and promotion side of community broadband networks, and talk
> > amongst ourselves. Just from last week's talks with Freifunk and
> > Funkfeuer for some EU research for the rural broadband conference in
> > Brussels in May, we have found that we have contacts between us covering
> > most of the EU, and then some in US, Asia and Australia. Errr... in
> > fact, global contacts!! After all, this community broadband world is not
> > very big, yet. ;o)
> >
> > If everyone could decide which event to go to this summer in EU (!),
> > perhaps we could have one track for those of us interested in promoting
> > community broadband activity, and tie it in with the amazing work coming
> > from the other side of the Atlantic through Sasha, Alison etc, and in
> > Asia, and start making a much bigger impact by working together.
> >
> > Or just start it all online through a separate list about promotional
> > activity to get the word out about the grassroots' efforts ongoing
> > across the world?
> >
> > I'm happy to be amongst the UK/EU contacts more than happy to get
> > involved in that type of work, and push to get together TV/video
> > footage, and publicise the case studies etc created by us all wherever
> > we are.
> >
> > Let's JFDI?!
> >
> > ATB
> > Lindsey Annison
> > l.annisonatgmail.com
> > Co-founder, Access to Broadband Campaign
> > http://www.ABCampaign.org
> > Founder member, Community Broadband Network http://www.broadband-uk.coop
> >
> > Author: JFDI Community Broadband: Wennington
> > http://www.lulu.com/content/488550
> >
> >
> >

-- 
Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider
http://www.apiap.org
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