big ideas – Page 33 – purple motes

mobile financial services for low-income persons

Mobile phones have experienced astonishingly rapid take-up in low-income countries. For example, the number of GrameenPhone mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh grew 105% in 2005 and recently surpassed 10 million subscribers. The telephone coverage rate in Bangladesh, however, is still only 12%. Coverage rates and demographics imply that, globally, almost all mobile subscriber growth in … Continue reading mobile financial services for low-income persons

web servers don’t fill up: the Great Russian Novel (unfinished)

As a young child, I remember pondering with my brothers the idea of digging a hole to China. We considered this to be possible. After all, we understood that the earth was round like a ball. But we figured that digging a hole to China would be too much work. We settled on digging a … Continue reading web servers don’t fill up: the Great Russian Novel (unfinished)

ponder your underwear

too many words

Some friends and colleagues that I’ve tried to cajole into reading my work have gently complained that it has too many words. I said, “I will watch my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will set a curb on my mouth.” Dumb and silent before the wicked, I refrained from any speech. But … Continue reading too many words