Category: microfinancing

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Freedom Box: The Short Pitch as of March 2011

Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), microfinancing, Mobile, Peace Intelligence, Privacy, Real Time, Reform, Technologies

FreedomBox right now as I see it

by James Vasile as posted to HackerVisions, a blog at the intersection of Freedom, Technology, & Community

People have been asking me for a short description of the FreedomBox that doesn’t get too technical but also gets into some details. So here’s my capsule pitch, a short form version of how I see the FreedomBox right now:

The FreedomBox just raised $80K in donations via Kickstarter (the campaign is still going on, if you want to donate) on the strength of positive press in the NYTimes, WSJ, Wired and CBS Evening News. We’re at the very beginning of putting together a team to build this thing. This week we will announce our tech lead, an A+ name with the experience and contacts to lead our architecture design.

Continue reading “Freedom Box: The Short Pitch as of March 2011”

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Reference: Crisis Mapping

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Autonomous Internet, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Maps, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Mobile, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Threats, Tools
Michel Bauwens

Recommended:

see http://p2pfoundation.net/Crisis_Mapping,

part of http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Geography

and updated via http://delicious.com/mbauwens/P2P-Mapping

See Also:

Autonomous [Free, Distributed] Internet

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Assisi, Egypt, US Hypocrisy, Global Revolution

About the Idea, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Autonomous Internet, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Mobile, Officers Call, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Real Time, Reform, Strategy, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc)

This is the one link to share if you wish to have a consolidated view on these topics.  The Tiny URL for this consolidated posting is http://www.tinyurl.com/Assisi-Egypt-USA.

Phi Beta Iota: Egypt is a lever for the Assisi Peace Summit.

1)  Against dictators and corruption, inter-faith dialog and coordinated action is HAPPENING.

2)  The connected young are the antidote to radical violent Islamic fundamentalism.

3)  Muslim demographics must be understood by all Catholics and Protestants

4)  The Church can be a central force for Open Spectrum, Open Source Software, Open Source Intelligence, and Open Society–imagine, in a revolution, all churches and mosques as sources of wireless solar and wind-powered information that cannot be shut down, that collaborate to avoid inter-faith violence and promote non-violent “presence” in the streets to overturn the 44 dictators and demand the withdrawal of all foreign military forces….

5)  Revolutions are no longer national–the diasphoras matter–the global presence of the Church matters from local to national.

6)  The hypocrisy of the USA is now fully revealed–Barack Obama made 500 promises to the American people he has not fulfilled, and he dares to suggest to anyone that they honor their promises?  It is time for the Church to recognize that the people are the sovereign power, not governments, and that the Church can profit much more from a free people creating wealth than from absolving corruption by governments and corporations and crime families.

7)  Liberation Theology is back–it must be elevated by the Most Holy Father NOW.

2012 is not the year of apocalypse, it is the year of awakening when the meek inherit the earth.  The time between now and Assisi and from Assisi on is strategically priceless, in our collective view.

Below the line:

On Assisi Peace Summit and Inter-Faith Intelligence (7 Links)

On Egypt as Awakening (14 Links)

On Revolution in & Hypocrisy of USA (10 Links)

Direct to the Core Revolution References (8 Links)

Continue reading “Assisi, Egypt, US Hypocrisy, Global Revolution”

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45 Social Entrepreneurs Showcase at “Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace”

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Education, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 11 Society, 12 Water, Academia, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Gift Intelligence, microfinancing, Technologies
Explore the projects

http://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org

January 20, 2011

The Unreasonable Institute Empowers the Public to Choose the Next Wave of High-Impact Social Entrepreneurs

Global donations will determine which entrepreneurs gain admission to esteemed mentorship program

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Starting Jan. 20, 45 social entrepreneurs will showcase their ventures in an online platform called the Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace (http://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org/). For 50 days, people from around the world are invited to vote with their wallets on the most viable ventures. The first 25 of the 45 finalists to raise $8,000 in the Marketplace will earn access to the highly acclaimed six-week mentorship program at the Unreasonable Institute. At the Institute, these social entrepreneurs undergo rigorous training sessions, including personal and entrepreneurial skill development, intensive workshops and hands-on guidance from leading thought leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors.

The 45 finalists were selected from more than 300 applicants in 60 countries. Each applicant had to present a financially self-sustaining venture that has the ability to scale to serve the needs of at least 1 million people and demonstrates customer validation through sales or pilots. The finalists this year include a Chinese engineer with a prototype for waterless composting toilets; a 2010 CNN Hero from Kenya who has distributed over 10,000 solar lanterns; and an American inventor with a water purification system that can roll up to the size of a ruler.

Continue reading “45 Social Entrepreneurs Showcase at “Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace””

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Reducing Afghan Corruption Through Mobile Payments to National Police

08 Wild Cards, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, microfinancing, Military, Mobile, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Non-Governmental, Open Government, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

M-Paisa: Ending Afghan Corruption, one Text at a Time

Monty Munford Oct 17, 2010

Afghanistan supplies 92% of the world’s opiates. According to the latest available figures, the country produced 8,200 tons of heroin in 2008, more than double the the amount three years earlier.

But even being the heroin capital of the world, bringing in more money than most Afghans can dream of, the on-going war and rampant corruption means the money goes to the wrong people and the country has no infrastructure. There are no decent roads, no railways… But they do have mobile phones.

Four months ago, the Afghan National Police began to pay salaries through mobiles (using a text and Interactive Voice Response system), rather than in cash. The platform used was based on the M-Pesa service that has become highly successful in Kenya. Branded M-Paisa in Afghanistan, it was introduced by the operator Roshan in partnership with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and had an immediate effect.

Full article

Thanks to Vinod Khosla via his Twitter feed.

Related: Could Tiny Somaliland Become the First Cashless Society?

Also see: Afghanistan War Wealth + Corruption Cycle (Opium, Hashish, Minerals, Past Pipeline Attempts)

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Journal: Eradicating Poverty One Micro-Job at a Time

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Geospatial, Historic Contributions, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Maps, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Open Government, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Reform, Research resources, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Working for change: Samasource redefines international aid

December 10, 2010

On Need to Know, we do a lot of reporting about the world’s problems. But we’re premiering a new series about people coming up with creative solutions — it’s called “Agents of Change.”

Click on title to read short intro and option to view video….

9 minutes — summary

Social entrepreneur challenging conventional wisdom

Samasource–microwork (small digital tasks that can be done on an inexpensive computers).

Building 21st Century assembly line that can break down massive tasks (e.g. updating addresses for Google maps, or translating emergency messages from Creole to English).  Won contracts with Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft.

15% premium for socially-conscious companies, AND competitive on cost, quality, and turnaround time.

Small scale digital tasks did not exist before.

Transforming lives, especially women, young men, and refugees.  $5 a day is very much better than local norms, and buys an active English-speaking brain with hands able to do quality work.

IMPORTANT:  Developing world is out-pacing USA and West generally in extending Internet infrastructure to the poor–centers created, humans come in, also doing viewing (Gorgon Stare, take note!), creating logs of store videos on shopper buying habits, anything that can be noticed and logged by a human–$5 a day.

Phi Beta Iota: We could not, in a million years, have found a better “off-set” to the USAF Gorgon Stare program.  This micro-tasking, combining human brains and hands with Internet access, is one of  the most profoundly intelligent and socio-economically useful ideas we have seen in our lifetimes (there are 800 of us here).  BRAVO.

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Journal: GroupOn’s Potential Part II

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Mobile, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Strategy, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Not many know that GroupOn, Andrew Mason‘s initiative funded by Eric Lefkofsky, started as Policy Tree “Taking People Out of Politics”.  Citizens were not interested in Policy Tree back then for two reasons: the outrage at mortgage fraud, Wall Street derivatives fraud, and Federal Reserve fraud had not peaked yet, and the power of GroupOn to move markets and nations had not been demonstrated.  Now that GroupOn has turned down Google's offer of six billion, there is no doubt.

Put simply, GroupOn now has more power than George Soros, to take one example.  GroupOn can:

1)  Publish true costs for any product or service that is seriously harmful to all of us, and kill it.

2)  Publicize a product or service that is good for the community, and make it a standard.

3)  Organize micro-giving across an entire nation (e.g. Haiti) using a Global Range of Nano-Needs Table.

4)  Organize citizens to do participatory legislation and participatory policy and participatory budgeting and participatory regulatory and propriety oversight in relation to specific issue areas, zip codes, countries, or states, and empower them as a group that cannot be ignored.

GroupOn has done what all others have failed to do: harnessed citizens in the aggregate.  They have just begun.  When combined with the emergence of digital natives as a political force whose outrage is now maturing (see Jon Lebkowsky's “The Kids Are All Right“), GroupOn is the game changer–not MoveOn.org, not No Labels, not Americans Elect, not IndependentVoting.org–all “old” models dominated by apparatchicks and not at all open to the collective.  GroupOn.  As in Group ON, dude!

See Also:

Journal: GroupOn’s Potential Part I