Key Concepts (the Openworld "Glossary")
Below are key terms useful in understanding the approaches described in this portal, and the supporting strategies of Openworld, Inc. and the Openworld Institute.
General Terms
Challenge grant: Contingent offers made by donors to leverage additional resources, with release of the grant linked to moves by recipients to mobilize further resources for sustainability.
Community association: Contractual associations formed via deed-based agreements committing members to fund agreed infrastructure and services improvements. More than 200,000 are now operating worldwide, with proven ability to sustain a full spectrum of local services. They are normally set up in advance by private developers of new residential areas, and are also now emerging in free economic zones. Creation of new deed-based associations in older neighborhoods can be encouraged through tangible inducements, including offers of digital donations and/or tax relief for residents who join them.
Digital donation: Grants of funds, vouchers, services, or digital products that are offered and delivered via the Internet. Paypal or other online payment solutions are frequently used to avoid delays and bypass intermediaries.
eGovernment: Online systems for issuing licenses, permits, and other approvals that yield greater business climate transparency than paperwork systems.Their application typically raises the value of lands (including land grants) benefiting from the eGovernment-improved environment for entrepreneurs. Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong have used eGovernment to create high trust environments for investment and job creation.
eLearning: Internet-based courses and certifications that enable learners to gain needed skills on demand. Contents can be easily updated so that learners stay current with globally valued technical and market skills. Leading universities (e.g. MIT) and some K-12 providers are now offering thousands of online courses without charge or at low cost.
Entrepreneurial School: A school launched and run by educational entrepreneurs in poor communities who provide alternatives to schools dependent upon taxpayer funds.
Flexiwage: System pioneered by Singapore to encourage greater transparency and efficiency in public sector operations. Flexiwage bonuses are paid annually to all public sector employees, including public school administrators and teachers, in proportion to the growth rate of the private sector in the free economic zone environment during the preceding year.
Free economic zone: An increasingly-preferred method of bringing rapid free market reforms to emerging economies. Incentives are typically applied to in designated areas with liberalized tax, customs duty, and/or regulatory conditions. Free zones led moves towards economic liberalization in Ireland, Taiwan, Korea, and China, and remain among the fastest growing parts of the global economy. Labor-intensive information industries are joining electronics and apparel operations as leading sources of job creation in free zones. At no cost to governments, private zone developers (e.g. Freeport in Bahamas and ZonAmerica in Uruguay) build infrastructure and provide ongoing services valued by occupants. Profits rise as high land values result from the advent offree market environments. Success-sharing Free Zone: A new generation of free zone promoted by Openworld and FLOW that seeks to popular support through inclusion of local and global good causes, zone workers, and/or surrounding community residents as stakeholders in free zone land value gains.
Good causes: International, national, and local civil society organizations that work to promote Openworld-aligned ideas and/or to apply technologies in ways that create opportunities for broadly-shared economic growth and sustainable development.
Land grant: A site conveyed free of charge, or at nominal price, by an original public sector or private sector owner to a beneficiary through an outright deed transfer or long-term lease. It is based on precedents set by over 80 land grant colleges and universities in the United States, Thailand, and the Philippines, and more recently by local microscholarship initiatives associated with internet centers in Kyrgyzstan.
Microscholarship: A small stipend (typically $5 to $50) that allows users to cover internet access fees for free online learning and certification experiences. It can also be applied to reimburse students for tuition and certification fees, and/or to compensate for the completion of work-study projects.
Microvoucher: Used interchangeably with “microscholarship,” "microvoucher" also can apply in the case of telemedicine services (such as using internet centers to research family health care concerns, and/or obtain fee-paid second opinions from remote physicians).
Online telework market: Global free markets offering telework projects to jobseekers. More than 50 such markets are now offering upwards of 60,000 small freelance project opportunities daily. [Examples include Getacoder.com, Rentacoder.com, and Guru.com.] One variant is the Job Board Telework Market, equivalent to a virtual Help Wanted ad in whichservice buyers post open positions and tasks and service providers submit resumes and portfolios for individual evaluation. Another variant is a Reverse Auction Telework Market where freelance service providers bid — typically in a decreasing-cost fashion — on potential projects and service buyers use bids, along with reputations and user ratings, to choose a provider.
Online work-study engagements (“microprojects”): A set of small research, transcription, or other telework tasks offered to students and aspiring freelancers who seek to build experience and references prior to entering competitive global free markets for telework.
Public/Private Partnership (PPP): An agreement from the government to engage risk-taking private sector partners for development of publicly owned assets, including under-utilized lands. The approach is also being used with software providers who develop eGovernment solutions at their own expense and receive a share in user fees. “Build-Operate-Transfer” PPPs: A partnership in which the private risk-taker turns over a progressive share of its land development interest or software license earnings to pre-agreed beneficiaries over time.
Private lands registry: Neighborhood association-prepared maps and statements regarding valid land ownership claims in a neighborhood. Can include web-based registries with digital photos of lot boundaries and/or brief video clips of residents confirming uncontested ownership claims or willingness to arbitrate disputes.
Types of Openworld-Assisted Projects
The following kinds of grassroots-initiated projects in poor areas are the focus of Openworld development toolkits and support systems.Areas that have Openworld-assisted projects in planning or implementation stages are referred to as "Openworld Communities."
Learning Circle: A local working group formed to explore Openworld ideas and opportunities, and their applicability to existing or potential entrepreneurial schools/internet centers. Participants will receive microvouchers after completing an online Openworld orientation course and doing work-study projects to assess potentials for “quickstart” eAcademy and/or eCenter activation opportunities.
eAcademy: An entrepreneurially run school equipped with internet access that offers language, business, and ICT skills development opportunities for success in online telework markets. eAcademy onsite course and certification offerings are supplemented with online courses/certifications, virtual tutoring, and introductory work-study projects.
eCenter: An entrepreneurially run cybercafé or internet center that goes beyond conventional access offerings (email, web browsing) through the promotion of access to online learning and freelance telework opportunities. eCenters connect users to online eAcademy-style learning resources, to virtual business incubators (similar to the Openworld-prepared VirtualMarket Opener forEastern Europe), and/or to telemedicine services.
Innovation Park: A privately developed land grant area benefiting from free zone-style incentives. It is launched by an Openworld-affiliated local eAcademy or eCenter. Innovation Parks feature creative use of affordable technologies and service delivery solutions based on inputs from Openworld teams drawn from university campuses and social networks. Innovation Park sizes are expected to range from 5 to 500 hectares. Once free market incentives have been applied to promising sites, international tenders for Innovation Park development concessions can be held to attract diaspora and private investors to develop a range of information technology-enabled varieties of Innovation Parks, including business and technology parks, ecotourism and cultural tourism areas, farming projects, and residential developments depending local economic potentials. The selected private developers will set aside pre-agreed shareholdings for a Community Trust that benefits the founding stakeholders, including “quickstart” eAcademy/eCenter entrepreneurs; global Openworld teams active in site assessment, planning and market studies; providers of land grants; community-based microvoucher programs, and other good causes chosen by local allies.
World Cities: Large-scale free economic zone projects, comparable to Dubai, Singapore, or Freeport Bahamas in size, that offer unsurpassed free market policies. The World Cities incentive package will include liberalized work permits and visas for jobseekers who are vouched for by Openworld-affiliated global good causes based on the quality of their eLearning and telework achievements. World Cities will vest infrastructure and service responsibilities to private deed-based Community Associations rather than place expenditure burdens upon the national and local governments of the host country.