TechPlus+ | Technology & Development Redux
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Best Films – 2017
Read more: Best Films – 2017Travel and work got on the way big time this year. Watching films on the big screen thus became a bit more challenging. Here is where online streaming and, to a lesser extent, DVDs come to the rescue. In the past, missing a film implied waiting for months if not years to play catch up.…
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Identifying the Displaced
Read more: Identifying the DisplacedAfter remittances and land titles, refugees are perhaps one of the primary targets of blockchain technology (BCT) initiatives promoting development or social impact. Bitnation, Aid:Tech and the UN World Food Programme, among many others, are good examples. Last month, at a BCT meeting in New York, UN Women shared its plans to launch a blockchain…
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Identifying the Unidentified
Read more: Identifying the UnidentifiedIdentity access and management (IAM) is perhaps one of the areas where Blockchain Technology (BCT) could make a real difference. Research I am currently undertaken indicates that over one hundred BCT startups around the globe are focusing on this area. Add to this number the many other startups and organizations who have been engaged with…
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Social Innovation Redux
Read more: Social Innovation ReduxContext I was invited to the Social Innovation – Driving Force for Social Change (SI-DRIVE) final conference, which took place earlier this week in Brussels. SI-DRIVE is a four-year project funded by the EU and launched in 2014. The project has undertaken comprehensive research on the topic. It has also managed to create a network…
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Blockchain Technology and Human Development
Read more: Blockchain Technology and Human DevelopmentThe blockchain tsunami has reached the shores of all seven continents in the world. It would be fair to say most Capitals have been flooded, slowly coming to terms with the new technology’s potential impact. Cryptography, hashing, Merkle trees, peer-to-peer networks, distributed trust and governance, proof of work and stake algorithms, and smart contracts are…
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From MDGs to SDGs
Read more: From MDGs to SDGsAn unexpected abundance of acronyms seems to be one of the traits of the UN. Having worked at the organization for (too) many years helped corroborate this fact. Yes, the UN is not the only entity with such a trait, not by a long shot. However, the UN has formal global scope and thus acronyms…
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Internet Access and Human Development
Read more: Internet Access and Human DevelopmentA recent news article nicely summarized efforts by Silicon Valley tech giants to close the so-called digital divide in developing countries. Not that this kind of initiatives is new – not at all. In fact, a plethora of projects and programs with a similar goal have been launched since the mid-1990s, with mixed results at…
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Blockchain ICOs Revisited
Read more: Blockchain ICOs RevisitedA couple of weeks ago, Coindesk launched an ICO tracker which seems quite comprehensive and includes data starting in 2014. It has information on 164 ICOs1 I downloaded the data on 18 August but was unable to replicate some of the charts Coindesk has on its web site. The data I downloaded ends on 27…
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Evolution of Global Internet Access – 1990 – 2015
Read more: Evolution of Global Internet Access – 1990 – 2015No doubt Internet access has come a long way in the last 25 years. The latest estimates for 2016 show that 3.45 billion people have access to the Internet. That is 47% of the world’s population. The flip side of this number is perhaps more revealing: more than half of the world is not connected to the…
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ICOs: Crowding-in Blockchains?
Read more: ICOs: Crowding-in Blockchains?Nowadays, ICOs (or Initial Coin Offerings) are all the rage. Unlike traditional IPOs, ICOs allow startups to streamline the capital-raising process while at the same time enhancing the number of potential investors. While venture capital is still part of the equation, other non-traditional investors and stakeholders are more than welcome to join. How is this…
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Cryptocurrencies and WannaCry
Read more: Cryptocurrencies and WannaCryI have been doing extensive research on Blockchain Technology (BCT), focusing on its potential impact in developing and emerging economies. I am particularly exploring BCT’s role in tackling the most vexing socio-economic gaps in these countries. One of my early findings suggests that BCT usability might prove to be a formidable challenge for the billions…
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Blockchain Mining: Competition and (de)Centralization
Read more: Blockchain Mining: Competition and (de)Centralization“One-CPU-one-vote.” 1 CPU stands for Central Processing Unit, nowadays also known as a microprocessor. From a governance perspective, this is perhaps one of the most interesting phrases included in the original Bitcoin paper penned by a still anonymous author. Could we then say the goal is to build a democracy of devices, a CPU-democracy where…
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Tax Season 2017
Read more: Tax Season 2017Spring finally arrived but today feels more like summer. Not sure it will last but in I know New York Springs usually tend to be relatively short. Summer seems to always be extremely eager to enter the scene. In any event, the arrival of Spring is always associated with the US deadlines for submitting taxes,…
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Wealth and Income Inequality Data
Read more: Wealth and Income Inequality DataA new version of the World Wealth and Income Inequality database has been available online since last January. The new website has a new slick look. It also offers an interactive tool to view and visualize data on a global scale or by country. For those who love to poke around, looking at the raw…