October 2010 - change - Mailing Lists

Internships with Jolkona - Small donations having measurable impact
by Yaw Anokwa 06 Oct '10

06 Oct '10

Jolkona (www.jolkona.org) is a start-up non-profit organization that lets people choose how to impact the world through small donations (starting at just $5!), and unlike other micro-giving websites, they provide tangible proofs of impact for every donation. For example, if you spend $40 to educate a girl in Afghanistan for 1 year, you will receive a photo of the girl being sponsored by your donation and at the end of the year receive a copy of her report card, all done over the web on their platform. Their mission is to connect people with global philanthropic opportunities and show the impact of one’s donations. They launched their website to the public in June 2009 with a goal of making giving more fun, transparent and engaging for all donors, regardless of age or income. Today they have over 75 projects in more than 35 countries around the world and leverage the support of over 20 skilled young professional volunteers who are passionate turning Jolkona's mission into reality. I recently spoke with Jolkona's co-founder, Adnan Mahmud, and he has got a ton of great ideas for possible internships with Jolkona. They are looking for very motivated students who want to apply their technical skills for social good. Jolkona is building a giving platform that shows donors tangible proof of impact for what is happening to their donation dollars. Ideal candidates will be self starters and interested in working in a startup mode. They have opportunities in the following areas: · Database · Mobile · Visualizations · Experience design · Web development If this sounds interesting to you, please don't hesitate to contact them at volunteer(a)jolkona.org. You can also check out www.jolkona.org for more information.

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This Thursday: Introduction to ICTD Faculty
by Eleanor O'Rourke 06 Oct '10

06 Oct '10

This Thursday at Change, we will be hearing introductions from the UW faculty members involved in ICTD research. Each faculty member will give a short overview or his or her current work, and will take a few questions. This will be a great opportunity for us to hear more about ICTD projects on campus, and to learn about the various departments involved in this research. Participating faculty include: Beth Kolko, HCDE Chris Coward, iSchool Gaetano Boriello, CSE Ricardo Gomez, iSchool Richard Anderson, CSE Please come by to learn more about current ICTD research at UW! What: Introduction to ICTD Faculty When: Thursday, October 7 at noon Where: Paul Allen Center, Room 203

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Sana (from MIT)
by Gaetano Borriello 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/itw-sana-0927.html

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Exciting new research seminar with TASCHA
by Melody Clark 01 Oct '10

01 Oct '10

Need 2 credits for Autumn 2010? Check out the exciting new offering from TASCHA! TASCHA Research Seminar Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) research seminars offers students an opportunity to gain practical research experience with one of our many projects investigating the design, use and impact of information and communication technologies in communities facing social and economic challenges. The Fall 2010 section (INFX598g/h) focuses on the Global Impact Study of Public Access to Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs), a five-year, $7.2-million international research project sponsored by the Global Libraries initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The goal of the study is to generate evidence about the scale, character, and impacts of public access to information and communication technologies. Looking at libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés, the study investigates impact in a number of areas, including communication and leisure, culture and language, education, employment and income, governance, and health. This course will bring students together to help with the development of a web application and database of an inventory of public access information and communication technology (ICT) venues in Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Lithuania, and the Philippines. The inventory is an activity within the study and has collected location, classification, and other descriptive data associated with each venue. As a part of the study's open access research approach, we have developed the site to publicly share the inventory data and to add power to the user viewing experience by providing mapping and data visualization tools. You can see the current version of the application here: http://database.globalimpactstudy.org/. Students will work with a team to enhance web access to the Global Impact Study data. Student Expectations Students may contribute by doing research, software or database design, software implementation, or a combination of these tasks. Students will define a specific project in the second week of the quarter, with a rough schedule and definition of deliverables. During the quarter students are required to submit weekly status reports; deliverables are due at the end of the last week of classes. Students may propose a longer-term project if they wish to enroll for multiple quarters. Alternatively, students may participate as a junior developer by implementing new features and bug fixes. While students will gain new skills in working on this project, this seminar is not intended primarily to be a learning experience but rather an opportunity to apply and enhance skills students already have. Another primary goal of the class is to produce tangible outputs for the project. Potential project ideas: The following are potential student project topics based on priorities of the study. Students may propose other projects based on their skill sets and interests. The project manager and lead developer will review student proposals and help to define a specific task that will be useful for the project as a whole. . Devising a generic data model for hierarchical administrative districts in geographical data . Integration with third-party data analysis tools . Refactoring code for localization, to offer a multi-lingual UI . Improving the implementation of map marker "clustering" in the mapping user interface . Implementing a user administration and activity tracking UI for project admins Necessary skills for the course Skills required will depend on the task proposed. Some tasks may be only research and analysis with written deliverables, but most will require software development skills. As for more general skills, you should have at least some of the following experience: . Web application development using PHP . Use of web application frameworks- Symfony preferred . HTML and styling/layout using CSS . Javascript and use of third-party widget libraries like Dojo/Dijit, YUI, or similar . Database/SQL - basic concepts, relational modeling, complex queries - MySQL preferred . Object-relational mapping - Doctrine preferred . Taxonomies and other forms of information modeling . Basics of web server administration (Apache) . Linux or Unix - basic skills, shell scripting a plus . Familiarity with software engineering process and the use of standard development tools - revision control (cvs), bug tracking, documentation In addition, familiarity with quantitative social science research is a huge plus. For questions or more information on the seminar, including registration, contact Chris Rothschild (chriskr(a)uw.edu) Melody Clark Research Coordinator | Global Impact Study Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA) melclark(a)uw.edu | 206.685.7819 globalimpactstudy.org Twitter: @ictimpact

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Fwd: Commercial Microcredit = Just Profit or Unjust Profiteering?
by Yaw Anokwa 01 Oct '10

01 Oct '10

yael's message didn't go through, so here it is... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yael Schwartzman <yaelsf(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 09:41 Subject: Re: [change] Commercial Microcredit = Just Profit or Unjust Profiteering? To: Colin Dixon <ckd(a)cs.washington.edu> Cc: Yaw Anokwa <yanokwa(a)gmail.com>, Change Group < change(a)change.washington.edu> I've been talking to a few microfinance institutions here in Mexico, where this debate has been going on for a while<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/business/worldbusiness/05micro.html> . Here in Mexico we have talked to Compartamos, that had a very successful IPO<http://www.nextbillion.net/news/compartamos-ipo-sparks-ideological-debate-o…>and has around 1 million clients and no longer needs non-profit seeking funding. We have also talked to a few other MFIs who still need external funding. Their main problem is that they need proof of social impact to continue getting money from this non-profit seeking investors. However, how are they going to get that data if there's very little record-keeping going on in their client's businesses? Tools like ODK are a great way to help! We're also trying to help through our software <http://www.frogtek.org/>;) I can't decide which way is better.. there's certainly a lot of benefit of having money when you want it without having to collect data or proof anything beyond profitability. However, this always comes at the expense of higher interest rates for the MFI clients so... -Yael On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 11:16 AM, Colin Dixon <ckd(a)cs.washington.edu> wrote: > Having just listened to the podcast, it sounded like a big part of making > the bank model work was the cost of banking computers and software. > > Is this a big chance to do an OpenMRS/ODK-style thing for banking? > > --Colin > -- Sent from my Palm Pre > > ------------------------------ > On Sep 30, 2010 8:50 AM, Yaw Anokwa <yanokwa(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Say you want to make loans to millions of poor women in the developing > world, to help them climb out of poverty. Is it OK to raise money from > rich investors, who expect to make a profit? > > Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance, says no. If you have > investors who expect profits, you'll ultimately turn into something > more like a loan-shark than a do-gooder. > > Vikram Akula, founder of SKS Microfinance — a company that had an IPO > earlier this year — says raising money from profit-seeking investors > is the only way to spread microfinance quickly around the world. > > NPR's Planet Money did a great podcast on the different viewpoints at > http://is.gd/fCo5h. You can also watch the video of Clinton Global > Initiative debate at http://is.gd/fCnWl. > > _______________________________________________ > change mailing list > change(a)change.washington.edu > http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change > > > _______________________________________________ > > change mailing list > change(a)change.washington.edu > http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change > >

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