If you’re a socially-focussed tech organisation working with refugees, it’s been a pretty tough few months. Not only have you had to deal with the ever-growing number of people fleeing conflict – now at record levels – but you’ve had to deal with the politics of the ‘humanitarian technology sector’. For those who have been working with … Continue reading A call for sanity – not innovation – in humanitarian tech.
Month: January 2016
Time for a top-down bottom-up development challenge?
Earlier last week I stumbled into a post on Chris Blattman’s website provocatively titled ‘Is this the most effective development program in history?‘ It in, he shares the story of how, in 2011, the Nigerian government handed out $60 million to 1,200 Nigerians – that’s about $50,000 each – to help them create, run and/or scale a business. “Three … Continue reading Time for a top-down bottom-up development challenge?
Revealing inside stories of social innovation
It all started as a casual conversation about a new book idea over coffee last March. Despite being self-published with no marketing budget, my first book, “The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator“, had gone down particularly well and I had been encouraged by how well it had been received, particularly in academia. It turns out there aren’t many … Continue reading Revealing inside stories of social innovation
R/T ≠ Endorsement
For pretty-much eight years now I’ve been tweeting about international development, technology, social change, innovation, technology, my work, and how we can all help make the world a better place. Some of it is pretty serious stuff. And sometimes it gets the odd retweet, too. So it’s funny that my most popular tweet so far – … Continue reading R/T ≠ Endorsement
New idea? Or old idea done better?
Last week I received my yearly mailing of Ashoka’s inspiring ‘Leading Social Entrepreneurs’ publication. It’s always fascinating flicking through the work and lives of some quite extraordinary individuals helping make their part of the world a better place. At the end, it struck me how many solutions there were between the covers of the publication, and how many … Continue reading New idea? Or old idea done better?