Notes from Latin America & China
April, 2006
Dan Shine, 50x15 Program Director

While Digital Inclusion is an elegantly simple concept, the right perspective and knowledge of regional landscapes are critically important to its success. This notion of "geo-sensitivity" is one of the core principals of AMD's 50x15 Initiative. In the August 2005 issue of 50x15 Connections, I wrote about the perspective of a group of students at the University of Texas who saw the digital divide as "an enmeshed network of small fissures that separate(s) people locally." I think they were on to something important.

In this first full 50x15 Connections issue of 2006, you read about how AMD is working to close these regional fissures. In China, we have worked diligently for more than a year with our partner Lenovo to connect literally millions of students to the Internet. In doing so, we have been able to validate one of the key postulates of 50x15. Generating revenue by serving people in high-growth regions is no longer just a goal we're striving to reach. It's now reality.

You also read about the work we're doing in Latin America - a region that is particularly appropriate to consider as we approach the World Congress on Information Technology 2006 meeting, scheduled for May 1-5 in Austin. The lessons we've learned in Latin America are helping to accelerate 50x15 everywhere around the world. More importantly, our work in this region has given us an opportunity to innovate along the way. Confronting challenges in real-time on the ground has allowed us to develop new and unique ideas and solutions that would not have been possible within a more traditional office environment. In April, 2006 50x15 Connections, AMD's Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Vice President for 50x15 and Innovative Systems, Billy Edwards, talked about the notion of "innovation along the way" and focused on new ideas we have introduced in Latin America that will allow us to accelerate 50x15 in new, and perhaps even surprising ways.

Dan Shine
50x15 Program Director