Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum Video The Innovation Based in Rio de Janeiro, the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization with the mission of fostering the social inclusion of less-privileged social groups by using information and communication technologies as tools to encourage active citizenship. CDI works in low-income communities and with institutions assisting individuals with special needs including, among others, the physically and mentally disabled, the visually impaired, homeless children, prisoners and indigenous populations. Learning new technologies not only creates job opportunities, but also expands access to knowledge and encourages social interchange. CDI believes this initiative contributes to changing the lives of individuals and has a profound impact on community development. CDI developed a socio-educational approach to teaching information technology. Students learn how to use computers and software while discussing issues of particular interest to their community, such as human rights, environment, sexual education, health and nonviolence. Furthermore, the model is based on the concept of helping people help themselves. CDI trains future teachers who, in turn, will train others in their communities. The CDI network can be understood as a complex learning system. It has expanded nationally and internationally, with regional offices in nineteen Brazilian states and in eight countries on three continents. CDI headquarters has developed a social franchise framework that defines quality standards. It has an important role representing the network, in which it updates CDI’s educational model, validates and shares best practices, and continuously fundraises, trains and periodically follows-up with regional offices. CDI regional offices are self-managed, reporting to CDI headquarters. Their mission is to replicate CDI’s methodology and educational model in new schools. Background Brazil is one of the largest markets in Latin America for information technology, software and services. Government initiatives regarding ICT and the diffusion of the Internet date back to 1988, and development of the ICT industry has been a high priority. Since 1995, nearly all Brazilian universities and research centers have been interconnected. International census show that Brazil ranks in the top twenty for the number of hosts. Yet despite enormous promise and important advances, Brazil faces significant obstacles in the equitable application of information technology. While international companies are targeting Brazil as a new market for ICTs and ICT services, employment prospects for the vast majority of the population may actually decline in the country’s new information economy due to lack of access and training in ICT. Many have noted that the Internet could erect social barriers unless substantial and rapid improvements are made to provide the skills needed to use computers. This is the challenge that CDI is addressing. Strategy Baggio's initial idea was to set up a Bulletin Board System (BBS) on the Internet so that rich and poor children could join in debates and exchange ideas. The BBS failed miserably because poor children never participated in the discussions since they had no access to computers. With the help of volunteers, Rodrigo started collecting used computers, mostly from small firms, and donating them to community centers and neighborhood associations in low-income areas. IT, Baggio realized, could be used not only to increase job opportunities for poor youth but also to broaden their minds, help them understand their reality, point them in new directions and raise their self-esteem. Thus, he conceived CDI to meet those challenges. CDI opens Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools in partnership with community-based associations, providing free computer equipment and software and implementing educational strategies for continuous training of local instructors. Through periodic visits, CDI coordinators monitor their performance and identify key challenges and opportunities. School coordinators work together with CDI representatives to find creative ways of addressing problems, formulating and sharing solutions. Each school is an autonomous unit, self-managed and self-sustaining through symbolic contributions collected from its students. This fund covers maintenance costs and payment of instructors in an authentic "social enterprise." In a recent evaluation conducted by an external consultant group, 87% of the students said that CDI schools had a positive impact on their lives, including regular school attendance, better job opportunities and avoiding criminal offences. The Entrepreneur Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigo Baggio was first exposed to computers at the age of twelve at a firm in which his father directed the department of information management, and he acquired his first computer that same year. During the same period, he mobilized people to work in a day nursery at Rocinha, a Brazilian favela, and also did volunteer work with street children. Throughout his adolescence, he participated in social, student and environmental movements. Today, Baggio continues to be recognized globally by many diverse organizations. He was granted an honorary doctorate from the School of Computer Science at De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois, and in 2005, he was recognized by the Skoll Foundation as one of its award winners. “One must believe in the power of communities to transform their social reality by mastering new information and communications technologies. It is critical to help them develop processes that will strengthen and expand their economic activities, organizational skills, self-esteem, educational level and ability to communicate with others about their own social projects. If we enable these things to happen, we will be contributing to a better and fairer world where there is more equality, freedom and solidarity”, says Rodrigo Baggio.