‘Small’ ICT business innovation still big in Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific is still proving to be the centre of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) innovation in small business, with the release of 2009 figures showing the sector is surging. APNIC’s Chief Scientist, Geoff Huston’s report, 2009 in Review – the IP Address Registry Perspective, shows despite a 5% global downturn, the Asia Pacific accounted for nearly half of the IP addresses allocated in 2009. Small business is leading the way in innovative approaches to the extension of infrastructure in the Asia Pacific. This approach requires flexible and timely funding strategies to support technical research and implementation, such as the assistance provided by funding programs such as ISIF.

The Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) is a small grants program
aimed at stimulating creative solutions to ICT development needs in the
Asia Pacific region. The program was established in 2008 through a
partnership between the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC),
the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the
Internet Society (ISOC), and with generous support from the dotAsia
domain registry.

The 2010 ISIF program received its greatest number of applications so
far with 207 submissions received from 25 different economies. The
competition was very tough, comprising a strict set of selection
criteria and a rigorous process followed by the Grants Evaluation
Committee (GEC), to finally select 8 projects from Australia (to be
deployed in Timor-Leste), Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The successful projects showcase innovation, cooperation, and technical
knowledge, and have the potential to create social change in their
communities in areas such as IT infrastructure, health, or
multilingualism. The projects also reflect current issues in technical
and social discussion, including two projects that focus on IPv6
research and deployment; exploring the opportunity for developing
economies to get ahead in the IPv6 challenge. Two other projects focus
on the deployment of wireless technologies to serve isolated communities
providing alternative services thus making communications cheaper and
more accessible.