Language learning and translation

Just saw a TED talk from Carnegie Mellon, about work being done on large scale human computing....  Okay, that part was interesting too....

But what caught me is a free way to learn a new language.  They are in beta testing at http://duolingo.com/.  The idea is to learn a new language by translating words.  The original learn to do by doing...  But structured so that what you are doing is something that also helps translate web pages.

Here's another book that sounds like it's worth looking up when i've got a few hours....



http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/11/23/f-vp-stewart.html

Samantha Nutt and the 'Damned Nations' of guns and aid

By Brian Stewart, special to CBC News 

Posted: Nov 23, 2011 8:09 PM ET

Every so often a new book arrives with the force of a much-needed whack over the head.

That's the jolting effect of Samantha Nutt'sDamned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid, which is causing a sensation within the increasingly troubled world of humanitarian aid.

Written by one of Canada's most influential humanitarian activists, it's the clearest examination I've read in quite a while of the economic incentives — and our own Western inadequacies — that fuel the seemingly intractable violence in so many war-torn countries, particularly in mineral-rich Africa.

A medical doctor and the co-founder of War Child Canada, Nutt is someone who speaks with remarkable moral authority, after spending more than 16 years struggling to help the most vulnerable targets, children and women, in the world's most dangerous conflict areas.

A different take on the Pareto principle

Okay, here's a different thought. You've probably heard of the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule.  The original idea came from the observation that 20% of the people in Italy owned 80% of the land, and that in a certain garden, 80% of the peas came from 20% of the pods.  The general concept is that most of the productive output is the result of relatively few of the input factors.  In business it is generally considered that one should focus on the 20% that are causing the large effect, in order to achieve significant improvement.

Abe Lincoln made an interesting comment:

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax”

This suggests that most of the 80% "non-productive time" he would spend on preparing well for the actual productive time he did spend.  It seems he was aware of the need to prepare well, so that when the time came for the 20%, he was ready and could work effectively.

Okay, that's enough for a late night musing....

Lighting Africa

Here's a fast company article about an organization that is helping with the marketing of solar powered lights in parts of africa..

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/157/lighting-africa-solar-power-sub-sahara

the world peace game

One to watch: John Hunter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_UTgoPUTLQ

World peace game. Movie called World Peace and other 4th grade achievements.

http://theworldpeacegame.com/

Can't wait to see the game and the film.

Thoughts on the role of religious groups in development.

So, I just got back from a day at the Canadian conference of Engineers Without Borders (conference site).  It was interesting to see the assumptions in development about how it should be governments leading the infrastructure building in developing communities.

I think it is worth noting that in North America, as we were developing, a significant portion of our infrastructure was initially build not buy local or foreign governments, but rather local and foreign religious groups, particularly Christian groups in the case of North America.  It was these religious groups that saw the needs of the people, looked on them with compassion, and organized to build those things that were needed and did not exist, not out of a patriotic duty or political will, but rather out of a loving heart.  The examples here i refer to are the schools and hospitals.

In Ontario, where i'm from, the Catholic church set up schools, and the protestant churches set up schools.  Then, the protestant churches got together and said, hey, we can be more effective if we agree and work together, so they did and that became the public school system.  Later the government took over funding both the Catholic and the Public (protestant) systems through taxes.  (If I understand correctly, part of the curriculum for becoming a teacher in Ontario is to study this history, so any teachers out there paying attention can correct me.)

Many hospitals, and medical clinics around the world were started by religious organizations as well. This pattern continues around the world.  In the case of libraries, it was often wealthy philanthropists that funded the building of the first community libraries, believing in the importance of ongoing education opportunities for the general population, not just those that could afford it. Then these were turned over to local governments to support.

I think it is important to recognize that religious groups can still play an important roll in development in the modern world.  Many of those that are passionate about development or certain sectors with in  development, are passionate about it because of their religious beliefs, and bring a suitable compassion, humility and hope that are clearly necessary to do development work successfully.

Looking at the example of libraries, and that many of those philanthropist that funded them were the captains of industry at the time, leads me to think that in the current case, there is also a roll for corporations to play in development as well.  That idea will need further exploration, since there are issues there, just as there are issues with religious groups in a development context as well. There certainly are issues with governments involvement in aid; the very existence/ubiquitousness of the NGO term shows that there are some things the government should not be doing.

Anyway, that's enough for now....

Agriculture policies and ideas...

Another one to look up sometime: International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) from 2008.  It's a report reviewing what's working in world....


Keeping an eye on the nourishing the planet feed from the worldwatch institute....


article

Most Effective Micro-finance

If you are getting involved in anything, it always makes sense to figure out who's the best in that field and keep an  eye on what they are doing.  You may chose to be different, but it's still important to know what's going on.  With that in mind, in the micro-finance world, Accion are one of those organizations to keep an eye on. They've been named the most effective microfinance non-profit by Philantropedia.  Fast Company had this article about it.

Vegetable Varieties

From worldwatch institute, an article that talks about two organizations that are working on maintaining seeds and the culture of growing in african communities.

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center develops seeds
Developing Innovations in School Cultivation Project, or DISC teaches children about growing traditional vegetables

Peanut sheller by Full Belly Project

Here's a You Tube video of a peanut sheller design being used in Uganda.  It's a part of the Full Belly Project http://thefullbellyproject.org/.  This could be very useful.  The organization suggests training before giving out the technology, and setting up a local business to produce them. (see the FAQ section).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Nut_Sheller

Family connections

So, i've been talking to my mom recently, and re-realized that i have relatives that i hardly know that have been doing work in Africa since i was a kid...

Here's the organization that my cousin Roxanne's husband Jimmy is currently working for http://www.watermissions.org/ These guys are relatively new to the disaster relief and development field, but are working in water and sanitation with their water filter system, and a few associated parts.

Water treatment and storage

another one for the file: Scandinavian water technologies http://www.scan-water.com/home.php

They make portable water treatment, storage and distribution systems.  the one that caught my eye, giant water beds (they call them pillow tanks), for storing potable water, one model for stationary storage, another to be loaded on a flatbed truck.

I've been looking at the pool in the back yard, and thinking that would be a cheap way to have a cistern/water storage tank... similar system could be used for irrigation water as well.

got there via this link

Canadian Play: The Monument

I was just reading the Sept. 2010 issue of readers digest, and found an article about a play written by Canadian Colleen Wagner, and how it is being performed in Rwanda, to help with the healing process there.  If the performing arts can help with the healing process by telling a powerful story, then that's a good thing.  The story sounds pretty harsh, but it connects with people that have lived through very difficult times.

Large maps

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make large maps from google map data... may be useful..

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1073912/google_maps_hack_how_to_save_large_maps/

Support systems...

Here's an article recently published in the ontario society for professional engineers news letter. (link) It talks about how important it is for the local system to be in place to support infrastructure development.  Things like management, construction standards, accounting systems must be in place for large infrastructure systems to work.  Even for relatively small systems, if the support structures are not there, the projects will eventually fail.  This means its not just the technology, its the people and how they relate, the responsibility and social structures that are as important as the tools....

Maker Faire Africa and MultiMachine

This one is very exciting... The guys involved in TEDAfrica and Ushahidi are organizing and event for people from Africa to get together and display their inventions and exchange ideas.

http://makerfaireafrica.com/

If you are in Nairobi this August 27 or 28, you might want to head over to the university and see what's going on.  I want to see pictures and stories when it's over...

another man to watch: Al Hammond

Working in rural india, but planning to scale much larger, Al Hammond is developing a way to make affordable medical care in remote areas.  Local staff trained to run equipment and tests, tele-connected to doctors in urban areas, they can provide doctors visits or diagnostic tests for $1.  The local clinics also provide clean water at a reasonable price $1.50 for a month's supply.

Fast company article

Youtube video describing and demonstrating how it works.

Starting and growing a business

Okay, so this one is a little off of my usual topic.  But maybe there's something here that can scale down to small businesses as well....

Found a couple of blogs via a fast company article here, that are by some venture capitalists in Silicon Valley i think.  They talk about business models and scaleable companies.  Stuff that is way out of my league, but might be useful if it can be distilled.  The first one is by Ben Horowitz, and one blog entry of his talks about the roll of a CEO in terms of passing on bad information and getting help solving problems...

Some how, from the comments of one of Ben's blogs, I came across this article by Steve Blank. Steve also seems to be one who knows a lot about building businesses, so it's worth following some of the posts he puts up...

Peace Dividend Trust

Okay, last one for tonight....

Link from fast company. com  article about a new initiative to help aid $ get spent locally rather than in the usual rich places that donated it... building local economies as they are being helped through gifts...

The idea is to deliver 5 services:

• Training local entrepreneurs on how to find and bid on international contracts
• Translating and distributing international tenders locally
• Maintaining an online database of local entrepreneurs who we have personally verified
• Matchmaking large scale international procurement needs (like bottled water for a big UN mission) to local vendors
• Advocating for the concept of buying local with our "Buy Local - Build Afghanistan (or Timor or Haiti) campaigns

So, the key is linking local people with the contracts to be fulfilled, hiring local people to help their neighbours.  It's one of those "why didn't I think of that sooner" ideas...

The Peace Dividend Trust website looks to have a large data base of reports and papers about development and peace building ideas... maybe another night i'll dig into it more...

The Peace Dividend Market site links local businesses with international contracts, and currently is operating in Afganistan, Timor and Haiti

New Cassava Varieties

From the Worldwatch Institute, this article talks about some new varieties of cassava that have been developed in Zanzibar.  For those similarly geographically challenged, Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean, just of the coast of Tanzania.  Apparently there have been some bad diseases affecting the cassava crops across Africa in the last few years, but these varieties are resistant.