Smart Clicking in Batanes
Posted Monday, April 10th, 2006 6:54 am by Edwin "ka edong" Soriano
Viewed 2026 times | Related entries: Tech News
Smart Communications recently launched a service dubbed “Smart Click – Internet and more”.
The shops will provide the common internet shop services such as web surfing, chat, printing, network games etc. The difference is the location of these shops. Smart Click aims to bring Internet-shops-in-a-box (more precisely, in container vans) to the remote towns of the Philippines.
Smart Click started out in the remote island of Basco, Batanes. Smart will soon set-up in places such as Aurora, Tarlac, Zamboanga, Palawan and more.
I’ll give it to Smart, it is a great idea!
I just wonder if they can follow it through for long-term sustainability, relevance and positive impact to the remote communities.
Question is: Will these Smart Click Internet shops actually earn money? Or is it even designed to earn money? Is just an exercise in public relations or corporate social responsibility?
What will it take to make these Smart Click internet shops successful in a market frontier like the remote islands of Batanes and Palawan?
ka edong
(More Smart Click articles on Technobiography: conceptualization, branding, business model, community e-centers, relevant content etc.)
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7 Responses to “Smart Clicking in Batanes ”
Nice service there! Hopefully, it will also help our far-flung areas participate in e-trading more, which we are sorely lacking the support for.
“The shops will provide the common internet shop services such as web surfing, chat, printing, network games etc..”
is it just me, or are we looking forward to a bunch of probinsyanos spending their precious time just chatting and network gaming..?
i just hope they brought (or will bring) an instructor at least to educate the users..
wrencelot,
Playing solitaire, playing ragnarok, chatting with friends — these are all part of the learning. That’s where the amazement for the PC/Internet is fed. What is important is that these newbies are given more relevant tools to move on to.
shinrai,
I agree. e-trading will be one of the relevant services they could offer. I’m writing about that on Technobiography tomorrow.
i guess its just me then..
It’s not just you, wrencelot. I dunno what these people will do besides chatting, friendster-ing and playing ragnarok. To bring the Internet to the countryside will not have a positive impact until someone educates and tells them what useful and positive things they can do with it, like for research, homework, entrepreneurship, etc. If Smart really wants this project to be meaningful, they should have kept this in mind. I think it would be better if they just donated their money and set up computer labs for public schools and libraries. Coz the way I see it, this is only a publicity stunt (visual: Smart logos/ads on vans for everyone to see).
Well said, andrew!
Smart has the technology expertise to setup Smart Click. They have the media savvyness to put up a show. But I don’t think Smart can sustain an education program at the remote locations.
What is needed is for local partners (schools, organizations, NGOs, civic groups, barangay officials) to step up and help educate their own community with the benefits of the web. … (without all the politics that ruins everything)
Ask IanDexter, he has many stories to share
.
ka edong
ka edong, that’s precisely the problem with us filipinos, we tend to do our own things on our own whereas we have all have common goals… i think its inherent in our culture or something… but hopefully, and we are starting it with ptb and anyone interested to join to pool our energies and spirits and resources and brains to move forward…
if all stakeholders, including the government and big companies such as telcos unite, we would have a shot of being the premier IT hub before the end of the year… well, okay maybe a little too ambitious… by 2007..
keyword/s: unite and collaborate.
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