TED Talks Diversion
Finally started putting together the business plan to submit to 21st Century Challenge. The clock is ticking; deadline for submissions is 12 October. I've always wanted to create a business that combines luxury travel, microfinance and technology, but for one reasons or another, there wasn't any urgency until I came across the Challenge in a Skoll Foundation newsletter. Nothing like a deadline for motivation! After a great luncheon brainstorm session with IE, the whole idea seemed to just reveal itself. So now I'm getting down to the nitty gritty details, combing the internet for relevant statistics.
Was googling for companies that offer mobile phone banking/payment systems in developing countries and came across Iqbal Quadir's GrameenPhone and his engaging TED talk, which then got me side-tracked to Hans Rosling's entertaining TED talk. His Gapminder World 2006 tool (which google now owns) is super cool, great for finding all sorts of interesting statistics such as comparing the number of internet users across nations (Sweden, where Hans Rosling is from, has 756 users per 1,000 people, higher than the US's 630 users) or phone users (Hong Kong has the second highest at 1,733 fixed and mobile subscriptions per 1,000 users, just slightly behind Sweden's 1,743).
TED Talks -- Hans Rosling: Watch the End of Poverty
TED Talks -- Iqbal Quadir: The Power of the Mobile Phone to End Poverty
Obviously, looming deadlines haven't prevented me from killing a whole afternoon watching TED Talks. The dangers of youtube...
Was googling for companies that offer mobile phone banking/payment systems in developing countries and came across Iqbal Quadir's GrameenPhone and his engaging TED talk, which then got me side-tracked to Hans Rosling's entertaining TED talk. His Gapminder World 2006 tool (which google now owns) is super cool, great for finding all sorts of interesting statistics such as comparing the number of internet users across nations (Sweden, where Hans Rosling is from, has 756 users per 1,000 people, higher than the US's 630 users) or phone users (Hong Kong has the second highest at 1,733 fixed and mobile subscriptions per 1,000 users, just slightly behind Sweden's 1,743).
TED Talks -- Hans Rosling: Watch the End of Poverty
TED Talks -- Iqbal Quadir: The Power of the Mobile Phone to End Poverty
Obviously, looming deadlines haven't prevented me from killing a whole afternoon watching TED Talks. The dangers of youtube...
Labels: entrepreneurship, goodwill
posted by 10000miles at 16:20
2 Comments:
You probably know this but just in case: Jan Chipchase has some very interesting research on uses of mobile phones in developing countries, including innovative, makeshift ways of a payment system (under african presetnations)
You might like to see what rural banks participating under the Microenteprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Program have been offering to their clients by checking out the MABS Mobile Phone Banking & Mobile Commerce Solutions video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo3rXPHAzrY . There is also a new website listing all of the banks and the new services at www.mobilephonebanking.rbap.org
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