whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1. Apple, the destroyer of comfort-zones
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ven't altered much in the past decade. We use them for phone calls and to send short messages via SMS. Outside of South Africa the growth of cheap bandwidth means that people enjoy watching tele...

2. The war of informal markets against central states; a bellwether of support
(Analysis/Analysis)

...as often as they can. Modern telecommunication systems allow them to send foreign currency via email, SMS or even money-wire services. Gideon Gono, the Zimbabwe finance minister, can raise interest ...

3. "Be sure, we will be watching you," the other GB and the pursuit of social justice
(Analysis/Analysis)

Evolutionary pressure is stimulated by great events. Cataclysms, in particular, let the strongest shine. South Africa has, for centuries, been the social equivalent of a violent tidal coast filled w

4. Internet Bubble 2.0: the future of dotcom depends on the mobile phone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...do more to democratise the Internet.”  I enquired as to what his children use:  “SMS and MXit,” he responded.  In other words, what a democratically elected leader sho...

5. The Jimmy Wales interview: Wikipedia and Lessons in Globalisation
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ent-rich site like Wikipedia is difficult.  Mobiled, a South African initiative, allows people to SMS keywords to Wikipedia and the service will then read back relevant entries. At this point, as...

6. Development organisations need to engage with ratings agencies
(Analysis/Analysis)

... and ensure that managers run companies in everyone’s best interests through a variety of mechanisms.  Independent auditors check that the finances are being handled appropriately and repor...

7. Aggregation and collaboration: a guide to making money and doing good in poor nations
(Analysis/Analysis)

... that, by its very nature, requires a large pool of subscribers to be popular.  MxIt offers cheap SMS communication by utilising 3G and EDGE communications available from modern cellphones. ...

8. The Last King, the Centralised State, and Democracy
(Analysis/Analysis)

... will be incompetent, corrupt and dangerous if left to their own devices.  A wide range of mechanisms are in place to move power around so that dangerous quantities never collect in any one place...

9. Rating to create a market; questions and answers
(Analysis/Analysis)

... see who delivers better profits.  The purpose is not to compare approaches, or define the mechanisms by which these results are delivered, but to analyse the final results achieved in an objecti...

10. Coffee, the miracle of poverty, and other wonders
(Analysis/Analysis)

...of the most rapidly deployed technological innovations of all time:  the cell phone. A number of SMS markets work to ensure that farmers know the latest auction prices for a range of products an...

11. Government rewards the worst schools for poor performance
(Analysis/Analysis)

... in dire straights, but also that the state seems woefully unprepared to introduce creative new mechanisms to improve standards.  The matric results indicated a number of ((school))s who failed t...

12. The poor have never had it so good ... now what?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... dictatorships (like Ethiopia's). The future of development relies on teaching the poor the mechanisms of a market economy, not simply the appearance of one.  And this requires that we modern...

13. "Madiba's children" failed by their government
(Analysis/Analysis)

...o accept more non-paying students, it is time for the Department of Education to adopt the same mechanisms of the private sector and give our children hope for employment and success.     ...