How can we use mobile money to serve the unbanked?

by Caetano Notari August 23, 2012 Digital Inclusion

Mobile banking is always one of the hottest topics in any digital inclusion discussion. The possibility of offering banking services to people that currently do not have access to them is enticing, as the number of unbanked people in the world justifies the current initiatives.

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How can we engage with the new digital customers?

by Caetano Notari August 16, 2012 Digital Inclusion

I have daily fights with my email inbox. It seems that the messages have a life of their own; they keep coming back. I implemented filters, SPAM control tools, but nothing seems to be effective, and I started to see email as a cold and sinister tool. As my colleagues and friends share the same opinion, email seems to be the worst possible tool to engage with your customers. But, bring in a lot of creativity and even this tool […]

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Helping people to go online: beyond the cost issue

by Caetano Notari August 9, 2012 Digital Inclusion

As I mentioned before, almost two-thirds of the global population is not yet using the Internet. Despite several digital inclusion efforts, penetration has not reached over 90% in the majority of the countries in the world. Looking at the reasons why a person is not connected to the Internet yet, we see some interesting trends.

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Is privacy in a digital world a utopia?

by Caetano Notari July 26, 2012 Digital Inclusion

One of the topics that is quickly raised when we bring up the digital inclusion challenges is privacy, or the new lack of privacy. My generation, X, grew up in an almost offline world. In Brazil phones were limited and extremely expensive, we had stores that rented them for a high monthly fee, and a line could easily cost you 3,000 to 4,000 dollars. Pictures had to be developed and used to cost a lot, camcorders started in the 80s […]

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Are Brazilians adopting the mobile internet?

by Caetano Notari July 20, 2012 Digital Inclusion

The year 2000 was a fascinating one for me: I joined the Telecom world and moved to Rio de Janeiro. After almost five years, I moved back to São Paulo, and I have been a heavy user of the Metro since then. I always say that if you have the consultant DNA, you will find yourself often looking at people’s behavior, trying to understand what drives them and how the use tools and technologies. So, I was always looking for […]

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United Nations: Internet access is a human right

by Caetano Notari July 12, 2012 Digital Inclusion

Over the last weeks, I have posted on the benefits of the Internet and how that spurs positive changes in our society. Education, democracy, and communication: everything is done more efficiently and cheaper. I am pleased to see that, in the last week of June, the United Nations made a bold move and pushed digital inclusion in all countries.

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Remote learning done properly – KahnAcademy

by Caetano Notari June 28, 2012 Digital Inclusion

Being born and raised in Brazil, I have always witnessed the damaging effects of the lack of proper education for the majority of the population. Here, unfortunately, public schools are not good, with few exceptions. If you want to provide your kids with a decent education, be ready to place them in private schools and dedicate a large part of your monthly budget to cover for the education fees. This is also a reality in almost all other countries in […]

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RIO+20 and the importance of ICT for a sustainable green future

by Caetano Notari June 22, 2012 Digital Inclusion

RIO+20, one of the most respected environmental summit in the world, happened last week, but some discussions are not closed yet. Among the critical debates held, one is particularly related to this site: how ICT will help us not only to reduce our carbon footprint, but will also help us to reduce poverty and to secure that democracy is a right for all global citizens. I will address only the first part on this post, the other ones, later.

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Brave new Internet World

by Caetano Notari June 14, 2012 Digital Inclusion

My eldest son is 9 years old, and is studying Communication Channels… So, I took the opportunity to do a quick interview to see how they perceive communications in the modern world: Today’s homework was to describe how I would invite a friend to spend time at our house when he lives far from us. And what did you say?

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How can digital inclusion support the growth of a country?

by Caetano Notari June 7, 2012 Digital Inclusion

Whenever I start to talk to someone about digital inclusion, I always get the same initial questions: “Isn’t digital inclusion a social activity that governments do? Is that relevant in the current global economic crisis? Why should we care about it?”. I believe that people are not seeing the full picture, and I want to explain why.

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