Davos' Worldwide Web
How Davos networking brought Martín Varsavsky's Internet educational system to children around the world
BY JENNIFER L. SCHENKER
Davos is not just about plenary speeches and breakout sessions. Sometimes it's an idea hatched in the Congress Center corridors and stairwells that has repercussions around the world.
Take Martín Varsavsky and his plan to catapult Argentina's educational system into the Internet age. At last year's meeting Varsavsky, the 40-year-old founder of six companies — including Spain's Jazztel and Germany's EINSTEINet — came up with an idea in conversation with Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa. Varsavsky, who lives in Madrid, fled Argentina at age 16 after his father Carlos, a Harvard-trained astrophysicist, was forced into exile by the military regime. About the same time, a cousin was kidnapped and murdered. In the hope of building a better future for his native land, Varsavsky, through his foundation, gave $11.2 million — $1 for every student — to Argentina's Education Ministry to create an online portal called educ.ar containing content tied to school curriculums. It is working with the government to help get schools wired and to train teachers in the use of technology for education.
Five months later, Varsavsky talked about his program at another World Economic Forum event. That inspired Gaurav Dalmia, 35, director of the Indian conglomerate Dalmia Group, and his wife Sharmila, 34, an Internet entrepreneur and clothing and furniture exporter, to launch a similar project in India (www.shiksha.org). "I thought the problem was too big for someone in the private sector. But then we heard Martin speak," says Dalmia. "And Sharmila said, 'We can do this in India. What are we waiting for?'"
The concept then spread to Chile. Varsavsky persuaded Swiss industrialist-turned-environmentalist Stephan Schmidheiny to make a $250,000 donation in Chile, which the Varsavsky Foundation matched in order to fuse existing online educational portals into one national site (www.ie2000.cl).
In January, Varsavsky helped broker a treaty between Chile and Argentina ensuring that the Spanish-language online content now in development will be shared at no cost between the two countries. He is talking with government officials in Spain about including them in the treaty. Varsavsky's foundation is also considering making a donation in Costa Rica for an educ.ar project there.
At Davos this year Varsavsky discussed launching an educational portal in Bolivia with Vice President Jorge Quiroga. He also met with financier George Soros to discuss the possibility of a project like educ.ar for Russia. Meanwhile, the Dalmias were raising $60,000 for their pilot project in India from a Forum sub-group called the Global Leaders of Tomorrow. Networking, it seems, is key to bridging the digital divide in more ways than one.
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