Hi John, We do run the Indian Asterisk User Community forum on http://asterisk.pbx.in/ and are located in Mumbai.
I would like to discuss with you as to how we can work togather. Kindly reply me off the list with your detailed project description. Thanks & Regards, Mitul Limbani, Founder & CEO, Enterux Solutions, The Enterprise Linux Company (TM), www.enterux.com Quoting John West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi everyone, > > > > I'm travelling to India next week and would love to meet an Asterisk > development company to discuss a project. We're a non-profit based in France > (www.internews.eu) but are funded to set up a pilot project to launch > business news services aimed at the SME sector and microfinance borrowers. > The mobile phone is going to be the biggest single (though not only) > platform to distribute these news services, and we aim to set up 50 > autonomous mini-news agencies in a franchise arrangement with a wholesaler - > each with the ability to populate their own IVR menus, SMS in-out etc. > > > > A Delhi or Kolkota meeting would be ideal as I will be there anyway. But I > could probably also make Chennai, or Bangalore. > > > > Please note: we're *not* talking here about providing a full-service call > center, rather the tech development and support to allow a bunch of small > businesses run their own phone apps. > > > > Please contact me off list. I paste a fuller description of the project > below... > > > > Thanks > > > > John West > > > > *** > > > > MYSMENEWS - A NEWS AGENCY FOR SMALL BUSINESS > > > > Over two years, Internews Europe and its partners in India will innovate > business news services in print, radio and mobile phone for some 300,000 > recipients of microfinance loans, and for small and medium enterprises in > the Indian state of West Bengal. The project comprises three elements: > first, a series of personalised and customisable news services called My SME > News that keep small businesses abreast of their existing and potential > future markets; second, broadcast programs that will reach > microentrepreneurs and SME owners with business information and spread > awareness of small business services and the microfinance movement in the > broad population; third, detailed research, from a baseline through the life > of a pilot, and dissemination across the microfinance sector in India, > Nepal, and other Asian countries. > > > > It has long been recognised that information improves markets. Business news > companies such as Reuters, Boomberg, and Dow Jones are multi-billion dollar > enterprises which shape the flow of international capital and commodities. > The microfinance sector is growing rapidly across Asia in part due to the > increasing availability of information that allows even the relatively poor > and isolated to identify markets for their goods and services, and negotiate > with wholesalers and middlemen. > > > > But so far, this increase in information flows has happened largely as a > by-product of a growth in infrastructure of the Internet and the mobile > phone . My SME News will be the first service to target specifically > microfinance borrowers and SMEs in developing countries as a natural market > for business news and information. It will explicitly exploit falling > barriers to entry to media and information systems to target the tens of > millions of small businesses which represent the single biggest sector > contributing to the reduction of poverty across India and the rest of Asia. > > > > The news services will dovetail with a microfinance institution that runs a > network of 204 branches across West Bengal. An editing operation in Calcutta > will create a bank of news relevant to small business, then create > individually customised versions for each of 15,000 self-help groups, > available both on paper and by mobile phone. Subsidised in a promotion > period, the services will gradually be converted to fee-paying. > > > > Radio programming over state and commercial radio in West Bengal and Nepal > will reach the wider microenterprise and SME community with broad issues of > small business development, cross-marketing the customised services. A > baseline study of information use among the target demographic will be > constantly updated through the two year pilot. The publishing platform will > be developed with open source software, and all editorial and business > methodologies explained for possible wider adoption.The editing service will > be structured to facilitate full commercialisation at the end of the > project. > > > > Different models will be examined for replication elsewhere in India both as > product differentiation offered by microfinance NGOs, and as standalone > businesses, either as start-ups or by existing media groups, and also as > franchises at the micro-level affiliated to regional networks. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
