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Showing posts from April, 2007

Kiva is working and working well

Here's the latest note I got from Kiva about my borrower I'm funding in Kenya. I just wanted to show that the Kiva system for helping entrepreneurs is working: Dear Darian Hickman , The business you have loaned to, Elizabeth Wambui Njoroge , has made a repayment of $240.00. The total amount repaid up to now is $720.00. The payment was collected and deposited by Women`s Economic Empowerment Consort. This repayment will be divided amongst all the lenders who helped to fund this business, depending upon the percentage each lender contributed. Note that you cannot actually withdraw or reloan these funds until after the loan term is complete.Comment: scheduled repayment To view your Kiva loan portfolio go to: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=account ______________________________ Loans that change lives http://www.kiva.org/

Very Cool and Uplifting News from Acumen Fund

Social Entrepreneurship is a quickly growing phenomenon.     Dear Acumen Fund Friends, Greetings to you in this season of renewal. I hope this finds you well. I've just returned from Nairobi, the last in our series of visits to cities in the U.S., Pakistan, India and Kenya to interview final candidates for the 2008 class of Acumen Fund fellows. The experience has been exhilarating and humbling. We've met truly extraordinary individuals from all over the world. From a pool of 500 candidates from 60 countries, we now have to select eight fellows – a difficult task to say the least. -- Darian Hickman | +1 (650) 464-5342 | Palo Alto, CA | Pasadena, CA Play the world of social enterprise: www.VillagetheGame.com Village the Game Alerts: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/villagethegame

Get a Wii

I just played Wii. This is true innovation in gameplay and if it takes off it will solve America's obesity problem. If you need more exercise and for some reason can't leave the house, get a Wii and play the sports games. They're awesome.

Groupbuy and Grouprent

Along time ago, 2000 AD I think, I got curious about building software to make group purchases and group rentals ridiculously easy. For example: one neighborhood should only need to own one leafblower, one snowblower not several. Or a group of yuppies could own a yacht together. What beyond existing group tools like Google Groups, Groove, or Spreadsheets would a group need? They would need several capabilities: Finding, Storing template documents for contracts, insurance policies, user agreements. Timesharing calendar to manage when someone used the leafblower. Membership signup. Accounting, tax document preparation, splitting repair/maintenance bills. Voting capabilities for electing management and officers. Social networking tool to keep track of who is in the group and also referrals for new members. Member credit ratings: [how well do people take care of the group stuff, do they pay bills on time?] I'm guessing that right now there's all kinds of proprietary solutions t

Send a missions team to Kenya

Hey party people! As you may know, I am a filmmaker. My desire is to capture incredible stories from around the world and bring them back home to inspie people. Many of you supported my trip to Cambodia in July of '06. Here is a link to the trailer and another one to some of the photos I shot while I was there. Take a look - the team and I are pretty proud of the work we captured. Well... I'm at it again. This time its a new continent with new faces and new stories to tell. I am stoked to fill you in on my next big adventure. I'm going on an AIDS relief trip to Kenya in Africa in a couple weeks. This will be a two week trip where I'll be spending most of my time working in a massive slum called Kibera just outside of Nairobi. It's the world's largest slum with over 1 million people living there. It's also in the film "The Constant Gardener." I'll be directly involved in working with AIDS affected orphans and widows. I will also be filmin