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Is Open Source Hardware An Answer?
You have probably heard of Open Source Software - software developed by hackers and released into the community under licenses that freely allow copying and modification. Linux is a good example.David Rowe, an engineer from Adelaide, South Australia and a small team of hackers around the...
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Rising Ventures: Lotus Qumicia – New Ways to Fight Water Shortages
Bloggin g to wrap up a lazy Sunday evening on a beautiful Labor Day weekend (post Ernesto that is).? Lotus Quimica- this week’s featured company is an interesting case- they also tackle the water issues I touched on earlier in the week, although at first I was a bit aprehensive about their...
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- Education
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- academia
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A Call to Journalists: Stop Writing about Microfinance
Everyone agrees that microfinance is the coolest thing since sliced bread.? That?s why in the last two months we?ve seen it covered by the Financial Times, Reuters, The Globalist, The New York Times, The Economist, The LA Times, Business Week, CNN, and The Times of London.? And in all...
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- academia
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Village: Play the World of Social Enterprise
What do you get when you mix SimCity with social entrepreneurship? Village, a multiplayer strategy game that puts the BOP hypothesis to work. According to the game?s web site, Village?s mission is...to let players practice building sustainable villages for developing nations using...
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Prahalad Responds to “Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid”
Aneel Karnani posted his paper, “Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” to NextBillion.net ten days ago, setting off a bit of a firestorm among commenters on-site. In an effort to hear both sides of the argument, the editors contacted C.K. Prahalad and invited him to submit a response...
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Leap Frog: Cell Phones are Wallets in Mexico
El Universal, a Mexican newspaper, reported yesterday that by next October Mexicans will be using their mobile phones to buy everything from fast food to newspapers. The program is called Pago-Movil?or Mobile Payment in English?and will be available from six of Mexico?s largest banks and...
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Chinese Stores Sell Phone Time
We’ve talked a lot on NextBillion about the selling and re-selling of mobile phone minutes, whether its the phone ladies of Grameen Telecom or the sari-sari street merchants of Smart Communications. Now Kevin Kelly (of Wired Magazine and Whole Earth Catalog fame) points us to a cool...
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Selling to the Poor
Today, the Financial Times covers Casas Bahia, a BOP favorite from Brazil which has also been discussed in CK Prahalad?s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.? Although the FT adds little to the debate about extending credit to low-income consumers, it still provides important...
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- Education
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- academia
