Kiva Student Microloans
Kiva extends its global microlending marketplace to education by adding student microloans; http://j.mp/binhgb
Updates from September, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
Gerrit Eicker
Gerrit Eicker
Animated Print: Ombro Cinema
Wallpaper* and Dentsu create animations on cover and within the editorial of the printed magazine; http://j.mp/d5yLOZ
Gerrit Eicker
WordPress.com Goes Social
WordPress.com added Zemanta, Jabber, subscriptions and social sharing via Facebook, Twitter, others; http://j.mp/buZXJg
Gerrit Eicker
Colours of the Web
The most powerful colours in the [Web] world: Colors of the top 100 Web brands; http://j.mp/aHmXeB #Blue vs. #Red
Gerrit Eicker
Das Internet: mobil, lokal, sozial
Das Internet auf dem 2. Branchenkongress Motorgeräte (BuFa-MOT, VdM): Zukunft der Branche; http://j.mp/MobilLokalSozial
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Gerrit Eicker
To Allow or to Deny?
Twitter permissions: How much do you trust your apps? To allow or to deny? http://j.mp/cezE11
Gerrit Eicker
Citzalia
The European Parliament goes Metaverse: Citzalia is its virtual world and social networking forum; http://j.mp/b1N3gh
Gerrit Eicker
This is Winning
Schmidt on China, DOJ, Facebook, Apple: If we were losing, we would not have these problems; http://j.mp/cHNKmg
Gerrit Eicker
Counter-revolution
Economist: The internet has been a great unifier. Powerful forces are threatening to balkanise it; http://j.mp/a3Rwse
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Gerrit Eicker
Economist: “The first internet boom, a decade and a half ago, resembled a religious movement. Omnipresent cyber-gurus, often framed by colourful PowerPoint presentations reminiscent of stained glass, prophesied a digital paradise in which not only would commerce be frictionless and growth exponential, but democracy would be direct and the nation-state would no longer exist. One, John-Perry Barlow, even penned ‘A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace’. … First, governments are increasingly reasserting their sovereignty. … Second, big IT companies are building their own digital territories, where they set the rules and control or limit connections to other parts of the internet. Third, network owners would like to treat different types of traffic differently, in effect creating faster and slower lanes on the internet. – It is still too early to say that the internet has fragmented into “internets”, but there is a danger that it may splinter along geographical and commercial boundaries. … China is by no means the only country erecting borders in cyberspace. The Australian government plans to build a firewall to block material showing the sexual abuse of children and other criminal or offensive content. … Discussion of these proprietary platforms is only beginning. A lot of ink, however, has already been spilt on another form of balkanisation: in the plumbing of the internet. Most of this debate, particularly in America, is about ‘net neutrality‘. … If, however, the internet continues to go the other way, this would be bad news. Should the network become a collection of proprietary islands accessed by devices controlled remotely by their vendors, the internet would lose much of its ‘generativity’, warns Harvard’s Mr Zittrain. Innovation would slow down and the next Amazon, Google or Facebook could simply be, well, Amazon, Google or Facebook.“
Gerrit Eicker 13:58 on 22. September 2010 Permalink |
Wired: “Crowdsourced microlending service Kiva has begun offering educational loans to students in three countries around the world, with the objective of expanding its successes with small businesses into encouraging the spread of learning. – Students in Paraguay, Bolivia and Lebanon are now able to apply for loans that will be used to fund their studies. All they need to do is upload a picture and write a small piece about what they plan to do with the money, and then it’ll appear on the website.”
FC: “Kiva learned extensive lessons in its early years in Africa and made mistakes along the way, which is part of why the organization is especially strong right now and ready to take this next step. They know that reliable, trustworthy partners are critical, for example, and that’s why the three initial countries – Lebanon, Paraguay, and Bolivia – were chosen. … Of course money and loans are just part of what is necessary to help individuals learn and grow, and even education itself is just one part of the quest toward global poverty alleviation. Shah agrees that an entire ecosystem must be in place for the full benefits of education to be actualized. OLPC received massive criticism for thinking it could drop computers off into villages without a comprehensive system of trained teachers and formal classrooms in place. Families, teachers, classrooms, and access to funds all form part of the ecosystem that allows individuals to benefit from higher education.”