WiHood

Norway

Project Summary

Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

WiHood is a virtual PC service that utilizes existing old PCs to provide serveral hundred students with their own PC desktop from this one old PC. WiHood includes software, services, games, and storage so students only focus on learning, not purchasing or maintaining software.

WiHood also comes on a USB bracelet which is a virtual laptop on a bracelet. We created the USB bracelet so children felt empowered and equal to other children who have the latest cool toys and gadgets. With a WiHood USB bracelet, all children are equal when it comes to a future of possibilities.

About You

Location

Project Street Address

Eddaveine 28A

Project City

Oslo

Project Province/State

Oslo

Project Postal/Zip Code

0772

Project Country

Your idea

Country your work focuses on:

Developing countries

Website URL

http://www.WiHood.com

What stage is your project in?

Operating for 1-5 years

YouTube Upload

What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?

<$10

Innovation

Describe your idea in fewer than 50 words.

WiHood is a virtual PC desktop service for children. It provides a complete PC desktop including PC applications and online storage for children in developing countries. We are providing WiHood PC desktop to children in Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.

WiHood is made for children who have never seen or used a PC before. We want every child to benefit from PC and internet technology.

What makes your idea unique?

Our service provides every child with their own virtual PC desktop. We provide an entire schools with a PCs for each student. These virtual PCs already include software for leaning,

This lowers the cost of providing a modern education with PCs by over 99% and eliminates local PC maintenance and problems.

WiHood allows people to benefit from PCs, not spend time learning how to fix them.

What is your area of work? (Please check as many as apply.)

Children & Youth , At risk youth , Boys' development , Child protection , Education , Education reform , Girls' development , Youth development , Youth leadership , Development & Prosperity , Adult education , Business , Communications , Community development , Corporate social responsibility , Economic development , Globalization , Information technology , Infrastructure , Networking , Philanthropy , Rural development , Social Enterprise , Technology , Energy conservation , Health education , Women's issues , Democracy and voting , Women's Issues , Youth leadership.

What impact have you had?

In April, we began a project in Kenya to supply 465 girls in an all girls school with WiHood's virtual PC desktop service. The school has 5 old PCs that utilize WiHood to provide each girl with their own virtual PC desktop.

In May, we partnered with HopeRuns (HopeRuns.org) to provide WiHood to 400 AID orphans in a school in Kenya that HopeRuns works closely with.

We are currently talking to other organizations in Africa to supply WiHood to thousands of more students in different African countries and other developing communities.

Describe the primary problem(s) that your project is addressing.

WiHood bridges the digital divide by providing a virtual PC desktop service that functions on any old PC with an internet connection. This one PC can provide hundreds of people with a personal and customized PC.

WiHood complements the OLPC project by making the OLPC much faster, easier to use and include more programs with no additional cost or maintenance.

Describe the steps that your organization is taking to make your project successful.

WiHood is providing its service for free to large groups of users like our project in Kenya with the all girls school. We continue to look for more groups that wish to use WiHood's service for free.

We are also speaking to companies to fulfill their CSR by branding the WiHood service with their own name and subsidizing the service so that more people can receive WiHood's services for free.

Impact

What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Success in Year 1:

In year 1, we define success in being able to have the service functioning reliably and have our first customers. This is the year that we learn everyday as to what people want versus what we thought they wanted. We also hope to sell enough WiHood USB bracelets to fund our philanthropic projects in Africa.

Success in Year 2:

In year 2, we define success in having a marketing and business plan that increase the quantity of users and begin generating re-occurring income so the service can continue functioning.

Success in Year 3:

In year 3, we define success by having tens of thousands of users and the WiHood brand being recognized for its commitment to helping others and willingness to provide its service for free while still breaking-even.

Do you have a business plan or strategic plan? (yes/no)

Yes, I do. I also have a 3 year Pro-Forma in the form of a Excel spreadsheet.

What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 1:

1) Market attention is the most critical. The more users we have the greater our cost but also the greater the potential income we can earn.

What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 2:

2) Funds to pay for the cost of operating the service. The WiHood service does have a cost of operation and we need funds to keep it functioning long enough until we are generating enough revenue to be self sustaining.

What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 3:

Credibility, as a startup, we know we are professional but the world does not know that yet. We seek to establish global credibility so that users, supporters, and partners truly feel safe in supporting WiHood's mission of bridging the global digital divide.

Describe the expected results of these actions.

The result would be that WiHood is defined as the company that provides an immediate global digital divide solution for everyone, immediately and this generation of WiHood users are employable, well educated and are providing for their families.

What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?

When my daughter came home from school and told me that her classmates could not do there homework because they did not have a PC and internet connection. I thought that after 15 years of IT and Telecommunications experience, that I can do something about it.

Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.

My name is Thomas F. Anglero. I have over 40,000 Goggle references to the different accomplishes I have accumulated over the years. In 2001, CNN interviewed my live in their NYC studio to discuss my innovation in creating a new telephone company using the internet. I have received a international patent of my previous innovation.

I am an American (NYC) living in Oslo, Norway with my wife and three kids.

How did you first hear about Changemakers?

I received an email from Ashoka's email newsletter and it provided a link and description of the service.

Sustainability

What would prevent your project from being a success?

Not having the funds to continue providing our WiHood IT service. We provide all the WiHood desktops from our servers and this has a cost to operate monthly. As long as we can pay the monthly cost of our service, we can continue providing our service.

Financing source

No, we are not. We are self financed.

If yes, provide organization name.

No, but we are an established corporation in Norway as "WiHood AS" and are also incorporated in the US as "WiHood LLC".

How long has this organization been operating? (i.e. less than a year; 1-5 years; more than 5 years)

WiHood has been functioning since August 2007, so we are less then two years old.

Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?

Yes, we have two people in our BoD.

Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs? (yes/no)

Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses? (yes/no)

The Story

Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government? (yes/no)

Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.

We would like to have partnerships but do not have any.

We can fulfill corporations CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) by providing WiHood's service in their corporate name. The local community would think more positive about the corporation and how much it cares about the young people in the community.

How many people will your project serve annually?

We project our growth to be between 1,000 - 10,000 WiHood users annually. We would like to grow much more and can handle more users.

What is the total number of employees and total number of volunteers at your organization?

We have one full-time employee, Thomas F. Anglero, founder.

What is your organization's business classification?

For-profit

Have you received funding from any of the following groups? (Please check as many as apply.)

None of the above.

	Strength	Need Improvement
Clarity of model
Financial Sustainability
Idea Originality
Impact Measurement
Impact Potential
Partnerships
Scalability
Team
Understanding of Marketplace

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Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.