Sharing Nicely

It seems (excuse my ignorance) one big issue with remittances is that the financial transaction costs are too high, because sending small amounts of money is very expensive (comparably) and some of the intended recipients live in remote places…. so rather than focus on local loans and saving, the could consider their potential role in the global flow of remittances.Also, mobile telephones are emerging as a new financial transaction instrument.

The project facilitators from afrISPa just presented some of the impact their work has had over the past 3 years, and they used the decreasing cost of access (more than 50% reduction of international traffic via the SAT-3 cable as well as end-user prices) and the increase in local traffic (up to 400% in some countries)…. Bottom line is that the Internet is still too expensive for most Africans, but it’s good to see that some initiatives are able to convince policy makers of the wide benefits that bringing down cost and increasing access can have for local development.

A first step could be to design incentive schemes that focus on interim outputs and progress of PhD students rather than exclusively acknowledge the completion of degrees or the amount of publications by Professors themselves (regardless of involvement of their students).A recent investigation by the Council of Graduate Schools discovered that after 10 years of study, the completion rates were only 64 percent in engineering, 62 percent in life sciences, 55 percent in physical sciences and social sciences and 47 percent in the humanities…. is 7.6 years – a figure that has been rising steadily over the last 30 years.(…)Since training doctoral students is a time, money and labor-intensive proposition, such data are profoundly alarming.True, some students will drop out or fail to meet required academic standards, but research shows that significant numbers of doctoral students who do not complete their degrees are performing well academically yet are alienated by poor social and academic integration into their programs, poor mentoring practices, and other factors.

In a recent study of 30 undergraduate students, researchers from the University of Chicago and New York University said the tone of an email message was only correctly interpreted 50 per cent of the time…. The senders of the messages expected their partners to correctly interpret their tone nearly 80 per cent of the time, but in fact they only scored just over 50 per cent, said the report.

But I agree that creating podcasts, even simple ones, takes considerable time and effort.FYI, I just recorded a brief interview with Luc Soete (Dutch site) about the merger of UNU-INTECH and MERIT, including some thoughts on the work we will do in the future, and implications for the PhD programme. It will go online later this month.WIRED article on “podfading” (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70171-0.html?tw=rss.index)Some snippets:Podcasting has drawn thousands on the premise that anyone can create an audio program, build an audience online and even vault to stardom.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do…. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

This could have huge implication for telecommunications companies scrambling to keep the lid on open networks.Good description of how it works, by David Weinberger (who also sits on the board):The aim is to provide enough incentives, and make it easy enough technically, that thousands of people will start providing Fon hotspots…. You cannot roam the Fon network for free.If you’re an “Alien,” you register with Fon (for free) and then can use Fon hotspots wherever you find them for a rate far lower than you’re paying T-Mobile or Starbucks, etc. Fees have not been finalized, but it’s going to be way under the $6/hour typical in the US.More background on Martin Varsavsky’s (FON’s founder) blog.

Today the face of a small girl looks at me from an online advertisement and says (not literally), “You can save me if you donate money to Worldvision”…. We consume misery in small, multi-medial and digestible portions and donate money to keep it far enough away from us (and “them” from our countries) to not spoil the celebrations.