I have just spent three days in Washington DC discussing with the World Bank the completion of the major study project which we have been undertaking for infoDev on open public local access networks and their relevance and potential impact in the developing world.  I am pleased to say that  this Study in an interactive, searchable form will soon be available on this OPLAN website – so keep an eye open....

It is now several years ago that I first heard Peter Cochrane (member of the Foundation’s Council of Reference) make reference to C2B ….the potential for “consumer-to-business” services.   Interestingly, during the dot.com boom, there was talk aplenty about “B2C” and “B2B” but nobody, as far as I can recall, talked about C2B - that is to say “individual end users” at the periphery of the net, developing and providing services for “corporates” at the center.  At the time, he illustrated the argument with the legendry cult movie, “405”  - made by a couple of Californian teenagers.  “Why” argued Peter “would anyone want to pay through the nose for a Madison Avenue advertising  agency to make your TV commercial, with talent like this available?”...

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”

As ever, great words of wisdom from the word of God!  And it looks as if Bell Globe media,  Canada’s premier multi-media company with ownership interests in Canada’s leading media including: CTV Inc., the number-one private broadcaster, and The Globe and Mail, the leading national daily newspaper is certainly not letting the left hand know what the right is doing. ...