Sri Lanka is changing
I’ve just returned from a fantasic holiday to Sri Lanka. We’d heard about the the incredible beauty of the island and were attracted by this and the charm of Sri Lankan culture. We had a great trip and were looked after by most most courteous fun loving people. As soon as our South African nationality was known smiles appeared and cricket conversations blossomed.
We passed through many military checkpoints and it’s clear that the country is just beginning to emerge from 30 years of civil war. As Naomi Klein explained so well in her book ‘ The Shock Doctrine’ the island is experiencing radical socio-economic change in the aftermath of war and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
In addition to the charm of Sri Lankan people the environment and sport are two major drawcards for this country. I hope they are able to develop these resources wisely.
Sri Lanka has a strong tea growing tradition and the deforestation affects of this are well known.
My hope is that the leaders of Sri Lanka are able to move out of the mentality war and the colonial tea growing mentality. Focus now needs to be placed on the countries emerging economic strengths. These include environmental tourism and sporting events like one day cricket internationals.
Stewart Copeland – The Rhythmatist
In 1985, Stewart Copeland released a solo album, The Rhythmatist.
This track from that album ‘Koteja’ is my favourite. I love the tribal trance blending with Copeland’s drum skill.
I’m not sure what the song is about and the video doesn’t really have a definite message. It sounds good though..especially the voices at the beginning.
How texting and GoogleMaps helped Kenyans survive crisis: Erik Hersman on TED.com
‘At TEDU 2009, Erik Hersman presents the remarkable story of Ushahidi, a GoogleMap mashup that allowed Kenyans to report and track violence via cell phone texts following the 2008 elections, and has evolved to continue saving lives in other countries during the crucial first three hours of any crisis.’ – TED Talks
Clay Shirky: How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history
‘While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.’
Minimally Invasive Education
A set of experiments that set out to investigate the processes by which children self-instruct each other in skill areas. The experiments involve constructing outdoor Internet kiosks in rural and semi-urban areas, particularly where economically disadvantaged children live. The children are exposed to the technology with no instruction whatsoever. It is observed that they reach close to the levels of city children with no difficulty. Additional effects such as management skills, social skills, behaviour changes and acquisition of the English language has been observed as well.
This work is continuing. – http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/staff/profile/sugata.mitra
economics internet open source: new economics open source
by mark herringer
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Yochai Benkler: Open-source economics
we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for..
economics entrepreneur environment internet new media: london new economics social innovation
by mark herringer
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Social Innovation Camp II, Dec 2008
London, E2 9PF
Social Innovation Camp II, Dec 2008 from The People Speak on Vimeo.
Guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional system of promotions, running on a very low budget, by relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets. Typically, guerrilla marketing is unexpected and unconventional, where consumers are targeted where they would not be expecting, which can make the idea that’s being marketed memorable, generate buzz, and even spread virally. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary to also describe aggressive, unconventional marketing methods generically. – wikipedia..Guerrilla marketing
a wealth of nations
2009 is going to be a challenging year. the global economy has hit a serious speed bump. how will the economies of tomorrow work? maybe now more than ever there’s an opportunity to create a wealth of nations.