The document summarizes the opportunities for digital entrepreneurship in the Caribbean region presented by the growing digital economy and emerging technologies. It discusses how individuals can develop digital businesses by exploiting niches in e-commerce, software development, mobile applications, and virtual/digital experiences. The document also outlines strategies governments can take to facilitate ICT development and encourage entrepreneurship, including improving infrastructure, policies and regulations, and skills training. Overall, the document presents an optimistic view of the potential for Caribbean entrepreneurs and governments to participate in and benefit from the expanding digital economy.

1. The 2nd Biennial Conference Scientific Research Council
&
The 3rd International Conference Caribbean WELCOME Project
Theme: Science & Technology Driving Development: Competitive Edge for Caribbean
The Digital Entrepreneur: Finding your Niche in the Emerging Digital Ecosphere
Phillip Jackson
(pcjackson@gov.vc; phillip.c.jackson@gmail.com
Government of St. Vincent & the Grenadines and CCST
The Grand Ballroom, Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Kingston
November 7 -8, 2012

2. Entrepreneurship me say!
Click to Play
Link to Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/damianmarley/setupshop.html

3. It pays to watch TV – other news on Nov 6th 2012
Halo has earned $3 billion for
Microsoft in the past decade.
2011 Total Consumer Spend On
All Games Content In The U.S.
Estimated Between $16.3 To
$16.6 Billion
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/halo-4-game-predicted-to-earn-morethan-james-bond.html
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/pressreleases/pr_120116/
Sorry Americans NO Voting on your Laptops
nor Smartphones just Yet. But that was
before Obama said of long voting lines: “We
have to fix that!”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/obama-long-linespolls_n_2086291.html
http://www.kctv5.com/story/20012374/why-you-can39t-voteonlineyet?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#.UJlIi2fTyKo.fa
cebook
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/its-the-21st-century-whyarent-we-voting-online/

5. The Opportunity…
Key statistical highlights: ITU data as at the end of 2011 - released June 2012
Mobile cellular:
Total mobile‐cellular subscriptions almost 6
billion = global penetration of 86%.
Developing countries, accounted for more than 80% of the 660
additions
million new
105 countries with more subscriptions than Inhabitants.
Mobile broadband:
>1 billion mobile‐broadband subscriptions worldwide.
Most dynamic ICT service reaching a 40% annual subscription growth in 2011.
Mobile‐broadband penetration: developing
world (51%).
(8%) and the developed

6. 144 million mobile‐broadband subscriptions were added in the BRICS (Brazil, the
Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa), accounting for 45% of the
world’s total
subscriptions added in 2011.
Internet:
2.3 billion people were online.
70% of the total households in developed countries had Internet, whereas only
20% of households in developing countries had Internet access.
Total international Internet bandwidth increased seven‐fold over the last five years
reaching 76’000 Gbit/s by end 2011. This equates to 34’000 bit/s per Internet user
worldwide.
On average, a user in Europe enjoys 25 times as much international Internet
capacity as a user in Africa.
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
© 2012 International Telecommunication Union, All Rights Reserved.
Available at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/material/pdf/2011%20Statistical%20highlights_June_2012.pdf
See also: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/facts/2011/material/ICTFactsFigures2011.pdf

7. J.P. Morgan expects business-to-consumer e-commerce (excluding
travel) to jump from $572 billion in 2010 to over $1 trillion by 2014.
The size of total worldwide e-commerce, when global business-tobusiness and consumer transactions are added together, will equate
to $16 trillion in 2013 – IDI.
The global market for digital products and service estimated at $4.4
trillion in 2013 - IDate,
Total size of digital economy is estimated at $20.4 trillion, equivalent
to roughly 13.8% of all sales flowing through the world economy.
The United States remains the world’s single biggest e-commerce
market, IMRG says, followed by the United Kingdom and Japan but it
is only a matter of time before China, the Asian giant, becomes the
single largest market in the world.

8. Source: Engman 2010 Exporting Information Technology Services: In the Footsteps of India
Chapter 7 of http://ipc.umich.edu/books-monographs/pdfs/stern-international-trade-servicesdeveloping-countries.pdf

9. The Mobile Market
With smartphones and tablets providing new platforms for software
developers, an entire new class of software entrepreneurs has
emerged.
In April 2011, Forrester projected the mobile application market size
to be $54 billion by 2015. Of this, $17 billion was for mobile
application development services.
Research conducted by ACT and Microsoft's TechNet shows that the
app economy has created between 400,000 and 600,000 jobs.
In fact, the majority (78 percent) of U.S. mobile app companies are
small businesses, according to a survey conducted by the
Association for Competitive Technology (ACT.

10. The Rationale
2B+ Internet users worldwide
Internet accounts for
3.4% of GDP
21% of GDP growth in the last 5 years
2.6 jobs created for 1 job lost
75% of Internet impact arises from traditional industries
10% increase in productivity for small and
medium businesses from internet usage
They grow and export
2x as much as others
Up to €20 per internet user per month of consumer surplus
Source: McKinsey and Company
http://www.mckinsey.com/features/sizing_the_internet_economy

11. Our ICT Standing in the World? – We are loosing ground!
Name of Index - Source
Year
Current Rankings / Previous Rankings
Jamaica
St. Lucia
ICT Development Index - ITU
2011
89 (3.49)
84 (3.42)
64 (4.49)
61 (4.36)
Trinidad and
Tobago
61 (4.57)
60 (4.42)
Digital Economy Index - EIU
2010
44 (5.21)
-
48 (4.98)
Networked Readiness
Index - WEF
2012
74 (3.86)
73 (3.78)
-
60 (3.98)
63 (3.83)
E-Government
Development Index - UNDESA
2012
108 (0.4552)
89 (0.4467)
90 (0.5122)
88 (0.4471)
67 (0.5731)
67 (0.4806)
Digital Opportunity
Index - ITU
2007
55 (0.51)
52 (0.47)
73 (0.46)
68 (0.43)
59 (0.50)
57 (0.45)
Source: Compiled by Author from following sources
EIU: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/eiu_digital-economy-rankings2010_final_web.pdf
ITU: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/material/2012/MIS2012_without_Annex_4.pdf
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007/WISR07_full-free.pdf
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2006/world.pdf
WEF: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf

12. Figure 1: The Evolved Networked Readiness Index structure
Source: WEF: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf

13. Snapshot
Source:WEF: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_IT_Report_2012.pdf

14. The Digital Economy and the Digital Entrepreneur
The digital economy is the global network of economic and social
activities that are enabled by platforms such as the internet, mobile
and sensor networks.
—Executive Summary, Australia's Digital Economy: Future Directions.
Digital Entrepreneurship encompasses the diverse opportunities
generated by the Internet, World Wide Web, mobile technologies,
and new media, such as: dot-com companies [that boomed then
busted after the Internet was opened for business]; the fluid army of
“ebay entrepreneurs”[and now “Qbidders” who traffic their goods]
with little overhead cost by using the digital infrastructure…; the wave
of “web 2.0” initiatives where companies or individuals develop new
business models based upon the growth of social networks and
mobile technologies; and, the development of weblogs (“blogs”) that
have credibly begun to rival traditional media firms.
http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/117681/DIGITAL_ECONOMY_FUTURE_DIRECTIONS_FINAL_REP
ORT.pdf
http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/bp43/IN6.pdf

15. The Possibilities Matrix

16. The State as Entrepreneur
How governments can facilitate ICT convergence:
• Reform policies to promote competition and remove investment barriers: —remove
restrictions on foreign ownership of licenses; —adopt rules to provide for infrastructure sharing
of towers, ducts, and support facilities; —add mechanisms for managing radio-frequency
spectrum; —encourage wireless broadband providers to enter small local service areas; —
streamline the process for accessing rights of way and pole attachments; and —monitor
dominant operators.
• Provide government incentives to firms that deploy advanced ICT services, such as: —interestfree credit; —subsidies, attractive loans to compensate providers who deploy networks in
unprofitable areas; and —preferential tax rates.
• Invest in infrastructure and services: —fund the construction of open-access fiber optic
networks; —fund digital education initiatives; —include network conduits in road projects or
incorporate cable arrays in new electrical grids; and —support local community initiatives to
provide broad-band access. - The Global Information Technology Report 2012
The Australian Government recognised the need for action to position Australia as a global
digital leader. Their National Digital Economy Strategy is worth a study.
http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/what_is_the_digital_economy
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GITR/2012/GITR_Chapter1.2_2012.pdf

17. Further Insights
Only strong internet ecosystems can capture maximum value. The best
performers focus on four critical areas:
Promote human capital
Ease access to financial capital
Develop infrastructure
Create an attractive business environment
Public decision makers should act as a catalyst to unleash the internet’s growth
potential
All business leaders should put the Internet at the top of their strategic agenda
All stakeholders should take part in a fact-based, public-private dialogue
- Internet Matters: McKinsey and Company
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/in
ternet_matters

18. Three Critical Areas for Policy
Focus
INFRASTRUCTURE
LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

19. Ideas Factory – some possible ideas for the digital entrepreneur
The whole gamut :
From Webpage Developers and Facebook Managers to
Virtual Tourism – Hikes, Bike Rides, Jogging, usain bolt country training
ground – virtual run
Mobile Payment
NAMIS + - National Agricultural Marketing Information system
GFNF – mFisheries – success story in TnT
Emergency Recovery Data Centre – Trinidad – traditionally outside
hurricane belt, cheap energy to power data centres, very good
broadband infrastructure, capacity to train himan resource
Preventative health app – broadcast daily reminders and tips that
encourages healt-related actions based on health profile of user:
exercise tips; food suggestions; water breaks; medication reminders,
doctors and dentists appointments, healthy recipes; health
programme schedules (on in 15 minutes) etc
Caribbean Itunes – music and lyrics

20. Welectricity – energy conservation meets social networking
Fundraising agencies via SMS
Caribbean crowdfunding for locals and Diaspora
News and Entertainment App for Caribbean Diasporas
Pay per View Cable Channel for local content providers and
producers
Moko Jumbie and the Young Bob Marley Music Show for kids
Video on Demand Dance Classes
Virtual Steel Pan and Band
SMS Tests for evaluation of uptake of learning objectives of
media campaigns
All sorts of games from SMS-based to fully immersive virtual
environment experiences
Animations – Caribbean tales – music, cricket etc

21. Conclusion
The Digital Economy presents tremendous opportunities for the digital entrepreneur
to exploit. The emerging paradigm may be described as Society 3.0: Digital
Democracy and the Rise of the Mobile Majority. From enhanced web presence and
e-commerce; e-government and m-government; to software, mobile apps and
virtual experiences – there is a gamut of products and services with the potential for
multiple iterations serving an increasing number of sophisticated, diversified and
segmented consumers. The individual, project teams, businesses and governments
should and must conceptualize and equip themselves as entrepreneurs in this multidimensional digital economy. The new I-Entrepreneur would be competent,
connected, collaborative and co-creative. The challenge to the various types of
entrepreneurs, including governments, is to acquire and enhance the various
technical and business skills that allow them to sustainably exploit the emerging
possibilities while at the same time identify the best niches for exploitation. The
most interesting thing about the digital enterprise is that not only are there
opportunities to satisfy current and emerging needs and desires but the real
potential also exist in satisfying latent desires and more importantly create products
and services that persons do not know they wanted.

22. Thank You!
Set up Shop!
Digital Shop