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PROPOSING A PEOPLE-‐CENTERED INTERNET APPROACH FOR FUTURE PROJECTS IN CONNECTIVITY, ICT AND BEYOND
Introduction
1. Globalization, the changing economy, and the Internet itself are factors in an emerging low-‐employment economy. Over 1 billion young people will be seeking jobs in the next decade, and only 40% will find jobs that exist today.
2. Increasing the reach of the Internet, extending connectivity requires complementary digital apprenticeships.
3. A People-‐Centered Internet approach shifts emphasis in Internet projects from technology implementation, toward creating and tracking desired outcomes for people and in building community capacity.
4. We propose building the data collection, closed feedback loops and analytic techniques into all new Internet and connectivity programs to simultaneously enrich the lives of those we connect and use the evidence to continuously improve the effectiveness of those programs.
5. We propose an approach to building and delivering the values of a People Centered Internet.
The difference the People Centered Internet can make in outcomes You are familiar with the problems of a jobless youth, millions without education, employment or training. You know that company formation is stagnant. You know the risks attendant with these issues. You know how the Internet has the potential to ease these.
“The Internet has already become the most important infrastructure of the world. And that's just the beginning. Soon it will also be the infrastructure of all of our other infrastructures… Within half a decade it's likely that 90 percent of the population of the world will be covered by wireless networks with higher capacity than we have in most of the U.S. and Europe today. And it is highly likely that 90 percent of young people all over the world will have a smart device to connect into all the global networks.”1
The People Centered Internet would shift emphasis away from pure technology implementation toward assuring and measuring project success in terms of the human outcomes that are achieved with each project. With the Internet we learn to systematically apply evidence-‐based approaches to a broader spectrum of human outcomes using closed feedback loop modeling and implementation. Such techniques now are commonplace in optimizing ad revenues and engagement outcomes in
1 Carl Bildt former Swedish Prime Minister http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-‐bildt/who-‐govern-‐internet_b_7922948.html
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wealthy societies. We propose to build on these approaches to engage and enrich the lives of billions more. Real-‐time quantitative data analysis of social behaviors is at the heart of such services as Google Maps, Amazon, Netflix, and insurance, mortgages, and credit card offerings. Let us use the same Internet-‐centered data reporting and analysis techniques, like Bayesian analysis to enrich work to support underserved US populations, and the global next billions. The focus shifts from ad click-‐throughs, toward understanding access to shelter, food, water, physical safety, access to health care and education – and the effectiveness of the projects intended to deliver these. Two examples of domains in which this would work to create radically improved outcomes are healthcare and education.
The principles of the People Centered Internet The People Centered Internet is creating those principles that are essential to enable this new level of data collection and analysis, which must be accountable to the people, transparent and working unambiguously to the benefit of the people. Our principles:
• Complete universal Internet coverage that enables functionality that is otherwise unreachable or ineffective.
• The Internet is affordable, open, available and accessible to all. • Fosters digital literacy, local content in local language to achieve widespread usage and
increased value to people, families, communities and countries. • The system achieves a level of trust that meets the users’ expectations of affordability,
privacy, safety • The quantity and quality of educational and information services is increasingly available
to families and communities. • Anyone can contribute to improvement of the utility of the global Internet. • Personal information in the digital environment is protected by law and controlled by
the individual.
Developing the People Centered Internet: Lessons from CRM Our proposal draws directly from recent work in the IT industry. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software transformed sales and marketing; today it's a $27B industry. At first, CRM tracked existing activities within companies, focusing on efficiency and productivity. However, customers saw that service suffered, putting revenue at risk. The next phase of CRM was the response relevant to the People Centered Internet: CRM evolved to look “outside” the company, using the Internet and social media to track what was happening with customers and markets, and big-‐data analytic tools to project outcomes. “Customer centric” CRM now aims to track customers holistically, focusing on drivers for
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engagement, satisfaction and future revenue. Done well, this enables identification of leading indicators in time for users to take steps to grow their businesses. Many firms add to their direct data about customers leading indicators found on the Internet – social media gives early notice of new trends and alerts users to take fast, corrective action. Internally, real time tracking and feedback systems allow agile organizations to monitor their objectives and make adjustments quickly. The success of new-‐generation CRM also requires cultural adaptation: the best outcomes occur only when the social and business processes are in place, with recognition for people. Partnerships for the People Centered Internet Our goal in the People Centered Internet is to move this approach forward as a philosophy – and invite partners in many sectors to join for their own enlightened best interest.
• Government – the US White House and State Department can lead with political support, and adopt as it can the principles of the People-‐Centered Internet to increase digital literacy, grow digital enterprise and accelerate improvement in social outcomes
• Governments – regional and national – for the areas to be supported: be they impoverished communities in the USA, or refugee camps , or an emerging economy, the principles and tools must be appropriate and supported. Indeed, the tools must have flexibility that enables each person to better do their own jobs, to be empowered rather than marginalized.
• Technology firms –in parallel to engaging political support, can form consortia for outcomes tracking and advocacy for effective digital policy making and to develop and support the tools for digital transformation in cities, towns, villages.
• NGOs – field workers and analysts of key NGOs by participating, will see that the closed loop feedback of the People Centered Internet can amplify their work by helping enable improved outcomes, focusing funding growth towards proven successful approaches.
• Multinational finance –we will partner with the World Bank and large donor agencies to leverage the data tools and People-‐Centric approaches to provide evidence-‐based refinement of lending in order to offer greater economic opportunity for the most vulnerable and neglected.
Each of these classes of organization has much to bring in capability, and key voices to be heard.
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