Had to recognize a milestone for Kiva, as it celebrated quite the achievment recently. They hit the magical $100 million mark. Founded four years ago, Kiva.org “has brought together 573,000 lenders (people like you and me putting in $25 or more towards a specific project), and 239,000 entrepreneurs.” It is a simple, yet brilliant model. In addition, it’s altruistic.
“Kiva creates a personal connection between lenders and recipients. Each entrepreneur has a profile page with a picture and description of what they plan to do with the loan. Then every month you get an update on how much of the loan has been repaid. For instance, I joined other Kiva donors to give this furniture maker in Afghanistan a $1,075 loan a year ago. So far, he’s paid back 61% of the loan without ever missing a payment.” You can also create or join a lending team on Kiva. “Once a loan is repaid, you can plow it back into another loan.” It’s not precisely a charity, but it is much like charitable giving. This is really a genuinely sweet, heart-warming story. It allows people to help themselves, builds innovation, and allows the loaners to feel good, too. It’s truly a win-win for all, and it’s a delightful commentary on humanity that the company has been so successful.
As we approach the Holiday season of giving, if you’re looking for a way to give something back, Kiva is a lovely idea.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Down goes Yahoo mail
On Monday, October 26, disaster struck for users of Yahoo's e-mail system; the system went down like a punch-drunk boxer. Predictably,this sparked both outrage and widespread panic and emnity. Fascinatingly, this follows on the heels of Google Mail's similar outage recently. It just illustrates, yet again, the jeopardy of these systems. It also proves our own dependence on them. When they work, which is nearly all the time, life is blissful and easy. But, when the operation happens to go to hell, even for a brief period of time, we go to pieces.It shows how fragile we all have become in this technological world.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Google's gift to flyers
Google has built their empire primarily on giving goodies away for free. Most of their stuff is freely provided. And, counterintuitive though it may seem, it has paid off handsomely for them. It 's been wildly successfull. They are going back to that well yet again. From Nov 10 through Jan 15, Google will foot the bill for WiFi on all Virgin America flights. Normally, each passenger has to cough up $13 for WiFi. As the author on techcrunch notices, this is a genius marketing move by google. It is fabulous marketing; it shall engender goodwill for them. It's also a pretty sweet deal for Virgin America. I know I'd be more willing to fly their airline for free internet access.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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