Unusual after lunch break

In Finland, they believe that conferences get too intellectually heavy so as a quick break after lunch we have four a capella singers serenading us awake ;p

Updates will continue after the song,

• next up is Sultanur Reza from Grameenphone on the lessons learnt from the Community Information Centre, will they reduce proverty? How has shared information access changed the lives of the BoP? This essentially covers ICT4D initiatives from health, education, even immigration information as so many services are web based these days. Their target segments are Women, Students, Farmers, Traders and of  course the mass community. Students are of course the biggest customers for these entreprenuer owned centres.
  
  • What stood out was Mr Reza's emphatic repetition of the fact that culture was critical, local culture and issues were the biggest challenge to take into consideration when evaluating their promotion, awareness and access enabling programmes.
  • They offer an innovative solution to the "time and distance" challenge by offering billpay via the internet coordinating with the people's mobile phones as a service provided by these centres.
  • Minimizes the middleman's role and empowers the Bangladeshi migrant workers spread out in the ASEAN and the Gulf states. They've also started conducting  marriages by video over the web!

finding it easier to do live updates on twitter, try @emergingfutures to follow along the Q&A