Willingness to pay

The project is designed to navigate the essentially uncharted transition between conventional information products, desired by known markets, to unconventional information services responding to the changing needs of emerging markets. In this context the "willingness-to-pay" of any particular, possibly as yet undefined, niche cannot be effectively determined in an economically uncertain environment. What degree of confidence it is possible to place in estimates of usage and payment five years hence for a service defined today?

Reviewer 1: While it is perhaps less critical to the success of INFO2000, a detailed business plan and marketing strategy which includes an assessment of user needs and "willingness-to-pay" are an essential prerequisite to technical implementation of the INTERCEPT project and should be given more emphasis.

Other points in this comment are covered through the remainder of the document (see, in particular, the section "Economic Aspects"). Notably the marketing strategy and our approach to a business plan, are ***. Here we deal with user needs.

Current needs

Reviewer 1: Key concerns exist about the financial sustainability of this venture and how these can be reconciled with the development objectives of infoDev.

It is not clear from the reviewer’s comments precisely why or how concerns about the financial sustainability of this venture and the development objectives of infoDev may need reconciliation. The concern over financial sustainability of the project is addressed later on. First we deal with compatibility of objectives.

We understand that the development objectives of infoDev to be to:

We found little need to clarify reviewers’ comments in the sections "Strengths of the Proposal", with which we largely agree. This document responds to comments in the sections "Weaknesses of the Proposal". The reviewers’ comments in original order are annexed. We have grouped and reordered the points in this response for ease of continuity.

Activity-ID: #980327-267

PROPOSAL FOR infoDev ACTIVITY

INTERCEPT

The table below provides a break down of the sources of funds for the INTERCEPT project. The following table is a corresponding break-down for the combined INFO2000/INTERCEPT activities.

Source of Funds: INTERCEPT Project

The following table provides the unit costs (in $US equivalents) on which the budget is based.

On the following page is an estimated task schedule for joint INFO2000/infoDev project activities. This chart was prepared for the INFO2000 project and has been adapted to the requirements of the infoDev extension.

The activity funded by infoDev would ideally commence in the second half of 1998 and continue through to the end of 2001 (coincident with the completion of the DAINET development). We have scheduled it to commence in month 10 (October 1998). It would then interface with the INFO2000-funded activities, with an overlap zone of 15 months.

The broad roles of the partner organisations in the joint INFO2000/infoDev activities are that UIA, DA, WCMC provide the information content, communications technology and management expertise; AIDE /IEEP and NMS are advisors in their specialist areas of expertise. The project partners are all established institutions and have been in existence for a minimum of 14 years. Their regular sources of funding vary, but are reliable and reasonably predictable in the medium-term.

Yes, the activity does involve the creation and acquisition of physical and intellectual assets.

If yes, explain how ownership and property protection issues will be addressed.

The participants in this project believe in the principle of open access to data, and support the increased mobilisation of policy-relevant environmental information to support the conservation and sustainable use of the world's living resources.