Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO, visited Jakarta to attend the launching of Twitter’s official office in the city. During his visit, he announced partnership with Pulsa Lab Jakarta, Faculty of Computer Science – University of Indonesia (CSUI), SMEs, and NGOs. Twitter also launched scholarship program which will be undertaken for the next three years to UI’s students as a token of its support towards the women’s role in tech.
Costolo was really fully booked. Prior attending the lunch with media, he met Vice President Jusf Kalla and joined an event attended by UI academicians. There, he was given a tour to see a handful of researches and thesis that utilized the data from Twitter as their reference.
Apps developed by Univ of Indonesia stud using Twitter data. So much energy and hope #soinspired @FASILKOM_UI @dickc pic.twitter.com/8dyT7zF5o7
— Shailesh Rao (@shaileshrao) March 26, 2015
Twitter Scholarship for UI students
One of Dick Costolo’s visit highlights was Twitter Scholarship, its very first time worldwide, which is intended for second year students (bachelor degree) of the Faculty of Computer Science of University of Indonesia that come from unfortunate families or excel in academic. This #Twitter4WaniTek will last for the next three years.
The role model to this program, as Costolo claimed, was Twitter’s support to Girls Who Code.
The Faculty’s Dean Dr. Mirna Adriani stated that five female students will get the scholarship, while Twitter’s VP for Asia Pacific, South America, and developing countries Shailesh Rao ensured that 15 female students will have the chance to being awarded the scholarship, means five female students every year.
Excited bc @dickc announces fellowship – 15 comp sci female students U of I @twitterid @fasilkom_ui #twitter4wanitek pic.twitter.com/tq97MjyaoE
— Shailesh Rao (@shaileshrao) March 26, 2015
Dr. Adriani stated in her press release, “Through #Twitter4WaniTek, Twitter helped our mission to discover highly talented women or those from poor economic condition and put them to learn computer science at UI. One of the faculty’s vision is to provide equal computer science all over Indonesia in order to serve better future through better communication and information technology.”
She ensured that Twitter had always approached the program from the very beginning. She further added that her team are planning to expand this partnership with Twitter to enable them accessing Twitter’s data freely for the sake of scientific researches.
#AwalBaru Visit
While patenting collaboration in education, Costolo also emphasized that Twitter is available for various segments during his time in Indonesia. Thus, Twitter dedicated its data to support Pulse Lab Jakarta (PLJ) in gaining insights on social development and humanity issues.
As for supporting the SMEs, Twitter is planning on launching a solution that facilitates SMEs in connecting and doing sales to their followers in Indonesia and all over the world. Twitter is currently testing its e-commerce capability by purchasing directly on Twitter in the U.S since last year.
Twitter also used #Twitter4Good campaign to understand the social issue and trend better, as well as partner with Indonesian SMEs, such as Akademi Berbagi, Girls in Tech Indonesia, ICT Watch, and Onno Centre.
This is part of Twitter’s attempt to contribute in developing Indonesian. Costolo ensured that Twitter will bring its advertising solution here, as Facebook and Google did when they first opened their representative offices in Jakarta.
Twitter’s office in Jakarta, which is led by Rick Mulia, is located at One Pacific Place and got introduced earlier this month through @TwitterID.
