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From ‘A-Ha’ to Impact: Making it to Market
But like many “breakthrough” innovations such as digital cameras, tablets, and Apple’s pinch-and-zoom screen function (born in 1983), social impact technologies often languish before really reaching the market.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
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MobiPrize: Moving Minds, Moving the Urban Poor
If you are a social entrepreneur who has an innovative and replicable solution to local and global transportation challenges, you are eligible to win the MobiPrize: US $5,000 and a trip to Rio+20 (the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, June 20-22, in Rio de Janeiro) and top-notch mentorship sessions with global experts in sectors relevant to transportation, livable and sustainable communities, business and social enterprise.
- Categories
- Technology, Transportation
- Tags
- transportation
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Big Idea: Why Hands-On Regulation of Mobile Money Could Be Dangerous
There’s a very simple imperative driving the tariff structure and every other decision that determines access to mobile money: cost recovery. This is more than a cold-hearted calculation by mobile network operators’ accountants. If rural mobile money agents, who generally operate as independent contractors, cannot profit from this role, there will be no rural agents and no mobile money service.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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The Big Idea: Taking Mobile Money Forward
The excitement of mobile money has been dampened by an inability of deployments to take hold outside a handful of successful markets. Driving the enthusiasm forward is the opportunity to bridge the gap between one billion people in emerging markets who have mobile phones but no bank account. On Tuesday, McKinsey & Company released a report “Mobile money: Getting to scale in emerging markets” seeking to cut through this excitement and identify critical success factors for implementation.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Mobile Money Payments: Why It’s Time to Move From P2P to Me2Me
Mobile money providers should embrace Me2Me systems, that is, easy-to-use commitment savings platforms that help map how people think about their long-term needs and money. In the customer’s mind, each date would be associated with a purpose, such as paying off school fees, rent, farm equipment or other long-term purchases and expenses.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Weekly Roundup – 11-13-11: Technology’s Equalizing Impact
The need for inclusive health programs has been an active part of the development conversation for years. Daniella Ballou-Aares, the founder of the Global Health Practice group at the strategic consulting firm Dalberg points out, the means to do so on a large-scale has been elusive. However, technology has become the great equalizer.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
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CSR Fail: Why It’s Time for a BoP Tech Revolution
It’s up to all of us to change the tide and think about the intersection of technology inclusion and education more critically. It’s time for corporations to stop giving away their scrap computers to the developing world and calling it CSR. It’s time for NGOs to be more judicious about the hand-outs they accept and the indirect costs endured.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Housing Series: The Power of Collecting Accurate Data
Many companies applying market surveys for middle/upper income consumers to the BoP market have failed. We employed slum residents and community workers to get honest answers, and to use cell phones and tablets to gather and send data for analysis. The result: specific guidance for architects and developers on target markets and ideal customers.
- Categories
- Technology
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