Alpaca Farming is the focus of the initial examples of Bizomat. Partnerships are being sought to provide advice and information. This links to the Home Page of Bizomat's Alpaca Farming.

Biz-o-mat has joined the NetSquared Mashup Challenge!
Software to be mashed with Biz-o-mat’s existing suite of features are:

• Machine-translation software linked to the wiki of phrases
• Software that delivers web-page sizes, so that users can estimate page upload time
• Simple interface for cell-phone upload and download
• Enrich existing user profile features to integrate with other social network softwares
• Online auction software for allocation of franchises
• CSS files that integrate softwares with clear, simple interfaces, working in all browsers and all fonts
• Talking avatars that can read the words on a page with mouseover, so illiterate people can understand the information

The virtual community is based on 7 kinds of information:

• Discussion Forum
• Internet Links
• People and Organisations
• Books and Publications
• Events, Exhibits, Awards
• Courses and Training
• Surveys and Polls

The range of topics is comprehensive, including, for example:

• Chicken Farming and Production
• Recycling Business
• Cake Making and Cake Decorating
• Ornamental Fish Exports
• Basket and Hamper Business
• Cloth and Sewing Business
• Dairy Farming
• Coconut Products
• Hair Dressing and Beauty Salons
• Food Stall Business
• Bicycle Repair

It assumes that entrepreneurs have to organise everything themselves, including:

• production
• finance
• transport
• packaging
• marketing
• licensing

On the first level, the system is run by moderators who assure some quality control like moving inappropriate information.

Also, the system is highly interactive, with several feed-back mechanisms for ratings and reviews, assuring maximum quality control by the whole virtual community.

Who will put public domain information about business-related documents, procedures and regulations on the Internet in developing countries?

There is much information in the public domain that matters very much to small business: how to obtain a business license, regulations about VAT, customs tariff rates, documents for rebates on employee training, demurrage fees, and so forth.

Many people may say that the responsibility for putting that information on the Internet lies with the respective authorities that issue the documents, procedures and regulations.

Also, many people may say it is important that this information be put on the Internet, for two reasons.

1. It helps to enable a vibrant private sector.
2. It helps transparency, because the information is made unequivocally public when it is put on the Internet.

Many governments and statutory bodies that issue the information (documents, procedures, and regulations) do not put it on the Internet. There are many obstacles that include money, skills, authority, computers, logistics. So, the governance issues need to be sorted out.

But until then, what about the small businesses? Who will put the information on the Internet?

Chambers? how, what, and will they charge for the information?
Private websites - will they charge?
What about keeping the information updated - who is responsible?

There are many questions.

NetSquared Mashup Challenge will help Biz-o-mat with new software Biz-o-mat is the successor of the CyberInstitute website, a 2004 Stockholm challenge finalist, and Petersburg Award nomimee.

The CyberInstitute bridged the digital divide with:

• no graphics
• no cookies
• no frames
• (and almost) no javascript.

Now technologies have changed so much and so fast that it is appropriate to relaunch the concepts in a different format: Biz-o-mat.

Tacit knowledge is information people have inside their heads, like the expertise of a craftsman. Often it is difficult to access this knowledge. That accounts for some of the success of apprenticeship systems through the ages.

Discussion forums on the internet have been found to be valuable tools for recording tacit knowledge, since much of the exchange is based on rather unstructured questions and answers.

Biz-o-mat is becoming a fully-fledged turn-key business-format franchise

Nearly 1,000 languages have been added to Biz-o-mat. The criteria was that there are at least 150,000 speakers of the language. The Summer Institute of Linguistics lists were used to select the languages.