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Showing posts from November, 2011

Bowling in Afghanistan

I found this image on Boston Big Picture . This woman's name is Meena Rahmani. At age 26 she is the owner of Afghanistan's first bowling center. I admire ventures like these because while they seem like far-fetched bets, they make a statement that quality time spent with loved ones has a meaning that cannot be always accounted for in "development" interventions. I wish Meena all the best and hope I can stop by someday to bowl a few.

TEDxDar today

I'm watching it live, and so far there have been some interesting speakers! Many thanks to all the social media enthusiasts for making sure us folk who are away from home also get involved. This year's theme is: Who Killed Zinjanthropus ? Stream it live here . Other useful links: TEDxDar homepage TEDxDar on Facebook TEDxDar on Twitter Mikocheni Report updates The WayWard Press updates Vijana FM on Twitter

Deliberation

It seems easier to attack than to defend. This applies to physical actions, spoken words as well as intangible sentiment. Does this have to do with preconcieved knowledge? That is, are you more able to "attack" after having a reason to? At the same time, when you defend do you always have knowledge of why you are defending?

A political ghost lingers

This is a follow-up from this post ( Goodbye Mubarak ) and this post ( Better, worse or no change? ).

On Wikipedia and financing

"Wikipedia has just 78 full-time staff (due to reach 117 in 2012) and 370 servers, against some 60,000 for Facebook and over 1m for Google. Unlike other internet giants, its content comes from unpaid editors. It spends 44% of its income on technology (including programmers); other administration costs make up just under a quarter. Fund-raising takes up 8% of the budget. It accepts no advertising." Read the full article here . What does all of this mean for Web 2.0 information systems? Specifically, what kinds of revenue models should be explored, considering that knowledge is public domain? One possible alternative to advertising would be to work with educational institutions (schools, universities, think tanks, etc.) that (1) have endowments that are meant for research and (2) need reliable, every-day data. But is this realistic?