I just wrote a series of posts for the BRAC blog to build awareness and excitement for our upcoming Frugal Innovation Forum: Scaling Digitally.
The first looks at digital financial services and the cool ways in which people are leveraging it for development, and beyond. In Bangladesh, mobile money (transferring money from cell phone to cell phone) is definitely picking up speed. My friend's father (who is in his 70s) suggested that he just send him some money via bkash, since otherwise he has to wait for my friend to visit at the beginning of the next month. So much for the young adopting the technologies first! But, a big problem in Bangladesh that others have researched in more depth is that most people, friend's father included, can't manage the whole transaction on their own. The prompts are in English, require multiple steps, and you've got only 90 seconds to finish the whole transaction, or it resets. So they take it to an agent instead, with introduces all sorts of new problems. Agents are supposed to charge just 1.85% commission for a cash-out, but monitoring systems are still a bit weak. And using one's pin code in a crowded area means there's a good chance someone else could snatch your phone and empty your e-wallet. Is this better or worse than the problems of cash? You tell me.
The second post (and the better one in my opinion) looks at data. This has unfortunately better sitting in that "important but not urgent" quadrant for several years, and it's catching up with us. There are a lot of assumptions and poorly informed decisions being made in development, at many levels, and too many hours of people's lives spent writing things down and calculating them manually. Cool innovations are emerging at both ends of the spectrum---people are coming up with shorter survey collection tools to conduct at scale, and also figuring out ways to use data sets beyond their initial purpose, yielding cool insights.
Again, sometimes it's the older generation that gets this right--maybe they are less immune to the shiny trends. I have a colleague here who bought an ipad to play scrabble with his nephew, who lives in London. Through the nephew's activity, he tracks his whole schedule--when he's awake, how productive he is at work, etc. Similarly, when I forget to email my grandmama for a few weeks, she tracks me on twitter to see if I've posted. It's her way of confirming that I'm alive and doing okay. Pretty genius, if you think about it.
Should make you wonder, is there data you access regularly that has deeper meaning that is initially apparent?
Teasers from each article here, in case you're the kind of person that needs an extra nudge to follow a link:
2014: time to scale digitally
The first looks at digital financial services and the cool ways in which people are leveraging it for development, and beyond. In Bangladesh, mobile money (transferring money from cell phone to cell phone) is definitely picking up speed. My friend's father (who is in his 70s) suggested that he just send him some money via bkash, since otherwise he has to wait for my friend to visit at the beginning of the next month. So much for the young adopting the technologies first! But, a big problem in Bangladesh that others have researched in more depth is that most people, friend's father included, can't manage the whole transaction on their own. The prompts are in English, require multiple steps, and you've got only 90 seconds to finish the whole transaction, or it resets. So they take it to an agent instead, with introduces all sorts of new problems. Agents are supposed to charge just 1.85% commission for a cash-out, but monitoring systems are still a bit weak. And using one's pin code in a crowded area means there's a good chance someone else could snatch your phone and empty your e-wallet. Is this better or worse than the problems of cash? You tell me.
The second post (and the better one in my opinion) looks at data. This has unfortunately better sitting in that "important but not urgent" quadrant for several years, and it's catching up with us. There are a lot of assumptions and poorly informed decisions being made in development, at many levels, and too many hours of people's lives spent writing things down and calculating them manually. Cool innovations are emerging at both ends of the spectrum---people are coming up with shorter survey collection tools to conduct at scale, and also figuring out ways to use data sets beyond their initial purpose, yielding cool insights.
Again, sometimes it's the older generation that gets this right--maybe they are less immune to the shiny trends. I have a colleague here who bought an ipad to play scrabble with his nephew, who lives in London. Through the nephew's activity, he tracks his whole schedule--when he's awake, how productive he is at work, etc. Similarly, when I forget to email my grandmama for a few weeks, she tracks me on twitter to see if I've posted. It's her way of confirming that I'm alive and doing okay. Pretty genius, if you think about it.
Should make you wonder, is there data you access regularly that has deeper meaning that is initially apparent?
Teasers from each article here, in case you're the kind of person that needs an extra nudge to follow a link:
2014: time to scale digitally
By the end of 2014, there will be more mobile phones than people in the world!
As if that’s not enough, there will be substantial growth in the number of people online. Google is hoping to create access for 50 million women in India alone. Most of this won’t be through computers. The “one laptop per child” mantra has given way to a “one affordable, probably made-in-china smart phone per child” approach. Read more
In advanced economies, digital finance also brought about a data revolution. Like never before, companies have been able to see how consumers were behaving and create increasingly valuable products and services. These “big data” techniques are increasing applied to development fields–identifying epidemics, improving education, conserving energy, making buildings safer, the list goes on. Read more
Finance and Mortgages, a legitimate, reputable Charity Organization. We are a company with financial assistance. We loan funds out to individuals in need of financial assistance, that have a bad credit or in need of money to pay bills, to invest on business. I want to use this medium to inform you that we render reliable beneficiary assistance and we will be glad to offer you a loan. Services Rendered include; *Refinance *Home Improvement *Investment Loan *Auto Loans *Debt Consolidation *Business Loans *Personal Loans *International Loans. DO contact us via;isaloanfirm@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for excellent information I was looking for this information.
ReplyDeleteIndependent Financial Adviser Bristol & Annuity advice Bristol