The company BCom has adopted the “1% digital solidarity” Michel Skaf, talks about his collaboration with the DSF.

According to its director, the first operation that BCom – a company based in Geneva and Beirut which specialises in satellite services – carried out for the DSF was a real challenge. In 2005, it was commissioned to install, with the collaboration of the DSF, satellite antennae on the sites of the first pilot projects in Burundi and Burkina Faso. The BCom engineers had just two months to set up the infrastructure required to get the projects up and running. Indeed, the feasibility of the solution promoted by the DSF was to be demonstrated at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. “We were sorting out problems right up to the last minute”, he recalls. “It was a real relief when we managed to establish the link with the Burkinabè child protection association, shortly before the official presentation.”

After that, Michel Skaf had several opportunities to offer marginalised communities “a window on the world”. Thanks to his company, populations that were completely cut off from the world can now ”surf“ the Internet. “When we install an antenna, the whole village comes out to watch, wondering what this technology’s for. That’s a chance for us to present content that, responding to the main concerns of the villagers, helps us demystify the concept of the information society. The culture shock resulting from the intrusion of this new technology is offset by the immediate benefits that it brings to those people.”

BCom was the first digital company to individually adopt the “1% digital solidarity” principle. Its director is often questioned about the initiative by suppliers. “We try and explain that thanks to this principle, we’re moving towards allround success, a fusion of commercial success and actions that foster the development of the global community.” BCom also reminds people of the dual advantage of this financing mechanism: strengthening the information technology sector (as the funds collected open up new markets) coupled with a beneficial effect on the ‘global village’.

“We were won over by the DSF’s approach”, he continues. “It gives meaning to our actions as a company in the telecommunications sector. Our collaboration with the DSF is very stimulating, as we look for solutions adapted to communities in developing countries. Before coming across the Fund, we’d heard about the digital divide many times. The DSF was the first organisation to propose a sustainable, global approach that involved all the stakeholders. We realised that it could develop into a real movement.”

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