TechPlus+ | Technology & Development Redux
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Private Sector RM Strategy
Read more: Private Sector RM StrategyYesterday, Sarah and I met with Casper Sonneson from BRSP to discuss the above. BRSP has some resources and consultants that can work full time on this. They are planning to do a pilot on two practice ares, ICTD and Energy. The consultants are former McKinsey staff that left the company to create their own…
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NetAid
Read more: NetAidYesterday afternoon I met with Bea Bezmalinovic, NetAid Online Volunteer Programme Manager. For the last 18 months or so, we have had several discussions with NetAid reps on how to bring their initiatives closer to developing countries using some of the successful SDNP networks. The latest proposal is to have a two country pilot where…
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Wireless Internet Institute (W2I)
Read more: Wireless Internet Institute (W2I)Yesterday I had a rather longish lunch with Daniel Aghion, Executive Director of W2i. Wi-Fi is exploding all over the place given both its low costs and easy access to the networks. It has a lot of potential in developing contries also for this reasons, potential that fits within the context of a sound last…
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Ecuador
Read more: EcuadorLack of both time and connectivity prevented me from using the Net more effectively in Quito. The recent volcano eruption was also to blame, at least partially. I could neither connect from the hotel room as the UNDP SITA config had changed and I was not aware of it. At any rate, the hotel was…
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HP MD Finance Follow-up
Read more: HP MD Finance Follow-upSpoke to Janine earlier today. She is excited after the summit last week in NY. They found out that a) they need to be more proactive in developing “the solutiton” instead of waiting for the industry to come up with one; and b) they are glad to report that Mckinsey will become a full partner…
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Nokia/Brigde-IT MoU
Read more: Nokia/Brigde-IT MoUThe MoU was signed earlier this morning by IYF, Pearson and Nokia. Due to a breakdown in communications last week, we did not get the revised and final MoU from Nokia until this morning. Since we had to a) clear this with UNDP legal and b) get permission from BRSP to allow the RR to…
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Mozambique VI
Read more: Mozambique VIThe trip back was even longer than the one going there. I have done this before but somehow keep forgetting about it… The public meeting for the presentation of the UNDESA/Italy e-gov mission, held at the luxurious Polana Hotel, was well attended. I would guess about 40 to 50 people were there. The session was…
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Mozambique V
Read more: Mozambique VToday we had UNDP day. Early in the morning we had a debriefing with the DRR before the UNDESA/Italian mission arrived. The big idea here is to make UNDP the coordinator or facilitator of all e-governance activities by integrating the two areas within the office and use this externally to advice others such as DESA.…
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Mozambique IV
Read more: Mozambique IVOn Wednesday morning, the mission heads went to see the MZ PM. The PM thanked UNDP for helping field this mission. No substantive issues came up nor any funding details, luckily… The rest of the mission started the 2nd work session on Govnet. When we arrived at the the ministry’s conference room, we found out…
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Mozambique III
Read more: Mozambique IIII am running two days behind due to the digital divide at work, i.e., lack of easy and speedy access to the Internet. Tuesday was basically spent in two long sessions. In the morning, the mission along with the Policy Commission and UNDP sat down to hammer out the final agenda details. In the end,…
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Mozambique II
Read more: Mozambique IIA series of interesting meetings on Monday with the government counterpart and the Italian delegation. There has been live discussions as to which of the e-gov priorities presented on the ICT Policy Implementation Strategy should be supported. The Italians have apparently disregarded the requests by GoM and come up with a 3rd priority (e-accounting) in…
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Mozambique I
Read more: Mozambique II arrived after almost 24 hours of travel. All well but I was told today (yes, it is Monday morning here) is a holiday and although UNDP is open for business the Gov is not. The DESA mission starts tomorrow but there is no agenda yet. We will work on that today, that is for…
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OSS Interview
Read more: OSS InterviewI received an email from a WSJ journalist on Wednesday requesting to do an interview over the phone. That happened yesterday at noon. This is one of the results of the conference we co-sponsored in DC. I was on the phone with him for almost an hour. I also gave him contact names in SA.…
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ABA/ILRC Meeting
Read more: ABA/ILRC MeetingOne of the goals of today’s meeting was to expand the services provided by the ILRC to other practices in addition to governance. Intro by ILRC a) by now they what works and what deesn’t; b)it is a global network of lawyers with local language support; not all Americans and are sensitive to cutural diversity,…
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Meeting with RR Philippines – Nokia partnership
Read more: Meeting with RR Philippines – Nokia partnershipYesterday I met with Terence Jones, RR PH, to discuss the Nokia et.al. partnership. Some joint concerns put on the table included: a) MoU signature vis-a-vis UNDP’s rules and regs and long term implications; UNDP needs to be flexible but to a point; b) role of UNDP supported Documentator as critical to assess the partnership…