[FutureCom Brazil] The Free Wifi revolution, an opportunity for telcos to stay in the game
The population requires Free Wifi, everywhere and anywhere. And Paul Milkessen, COO at Aptilo, claims that this trend is going to get even stronger with the years. Companies such as Wigo in Peru are developing quite an interesting business model entirely based on giving free access to wifi in public places. Telcos cannot ignore for […]
MOOC – Beyond Silicon Valley #2: Role of philanthropy
Last week, we began to follow Coursera’s new MOOC « Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies » and wrapped-up the first lesson on the role of government. This week, we tackle another topic, with the Role of philanthropy and donors: why do they get involved, how different are they from invests and governments? US laws allow […]
MOOC – Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies by Professor Michael Goldberg
I just began this week a new MOOC on Coursera, named « Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies » by Professor Michael Goldberg from the Case Western Reserve University. The course starts with the case of Cleveland, and how the American city did reboot its economy by fostering an innovation ecosystem. Here are my notes on […]
A night at La Paillasse, Europe's largest biohacking and open science space
Coming to Paris, I attended La Paillasse inauguration night, organised as part of the Nuit Blanche, a yearly event mixing culture, arts and party, when many museums, labs and other creative places open their doors for a full night of demos, exhibitions and music. La Paillasse is Europe’s largest biohackerspace, although it has recently gone […]
INRIA Chile: a case study on how Chile attracts top R&D innovation centers
Chile and its tech ecosystem has been gaining quite some exposure, and if the most famous reason is its Startup Chile program (a visa + $40 000 starting-up package), a lot of other ways to foster a culture of entrepreneurship happen. In a more traditional fashion, but with results, the country has signed a series of […]
Palestinian startups in Chile: from the diaspora to the investments
Back in the late 1910’s and early 1920’s, the collapse of the Ottaman Empire generated waves of mass migration from Palestine to some friendlier place. Chile was chosen by many of the migrants, mostly from Belen, for it has a similar climate to Palestine and its locals are rather welcoming to foreigners. 500 000 Palestinians […]
Open-data in the Philippines: best practices from disaster relief and transportation mapping
While attending Geeks on a Beach last month, we also spent some time in Manila to visit a few labs and agencies, and had several discussions on the state of open-data in the Philippines. Quick reminder: open-data is a recent trend for government, companies and institutions to release their datasets freely, so that users, developers, […]
A visit at Awesome Lab and By Implication, two creative agencies in Manila, Philippines
After the Geeks on a Beach conference in Cebu Island, I took some time to visit Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, and meet a few creative agencies there. Not expecting anything in particular and leaving wide open my radars, I visited two creative agencies – for sake of a better word – which […]
Coins.ph, a Bitcoin startup to reach the unbanked in the Philippines
While at tech conference Geeks on a Beach on Cebu Island, Philippines, we’ve met with Coins.ph founder Ron Hose, as well as a few other players of the local digital currencies scene. Even flying in to Cebu, a geek on the next seat was coding on his own bitcoin project. Light financial regulation + remittances […]
The Philippines and Social Enterprises: a future global hub?
A common trait of emerging markets lie in the high share of people living in the “base of the pyramid” (BoP), with less than $8 per day. Social enterprises are usually defined as “organisations that applies commercial strategies to maximise improvements in human and environmental well-being, rather than maximising profits for external shareholders” (Wikipedia), and […]
