Tapping into youthful creativity and lateral thought processes may leave Motorola with several new ideas for implementation over the next few years. The wireless telephony company has kicked off the South African leg of its international education and skills transfer programme.
The Explorations 2000 Camp challenges a group of 30 children between the ages of 12 and 16 to design a cellular phone targeted at youth in developing countries, and to devise an accompanying marketing plan.
The initiative has been underway since 26 September and will run until Friday, 29 September at the Motorola Cellular Training Institute in Midrand.
In addition to previously disadvantaged children from schools in Soweto, participants include children of Motorola employees, as well as children of executives of the Department of Communication and the Independent Communications Authority of SA.
"An internationally developed programme, Explorations 2000 is adapted to meet specific local needs," says Dave Reddy, chairman and MD of Motorola Southern Africa. "Over the week, specially trained facilitators - one from the US and two from SA - will equip the children with the knowledge and skills required to solve this challenge.
"Contributions will be evaluated by Motorola for future development. The children will also post their solutions on the Internet and share their work with youth at the 20 other participating sites around the world."
Motorola added its integrated FM radio feature to the V.2288 cellular phone on the strength of a previous Explorations idea.
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