Is it cloudy where you live?

Some last thoughts about cloud computing

This picture was compiled by NASA a few years ago and shows which parts of the world have sufficient money/infrastructure to keep the lights on at night and which ones are not there yet.

 

Compared with this one which shows global facebook connections.

 

I would submit that there is a high correlation between lack of lighting and people logging onto to facebook. More interesting are places that have lights but no facebook. Some have regulations which prevent access to the service, others just don't seem to be interested in it.

What I really want to know though is how people in the Philippines are powering their computers.

1 response
Louis-David TEXIER

KENYAN FARMERS GET INFORMATION (AND MICRO-INSURANCE) THROUGH MOBILE PHONES :

"A recent article in The Economist weekly magazine brings attention to the expansion of a new microinsurance scheme in Kenya, known as Kilimo Salama, or “safe farming,” which uses mobile phones and automated solar-power weather stations to provide crop insurance to low-income farmers. The scheme began as a trial program last year, serving 200 farmers, and is expected to reach 5,000 Kenyan farmers this year. It was organized by UAP Insurance of Kenya; Safaricom, a mobile-nework operator, and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, part of a Swiss agribusiness group.

To participate in the program, farmers pay an extra five percent to insure products such as seed, fertilizer or herbicide against crop failure. Their policies are then registered and confirmed via mobile phone. A weather index-based system estimates the extent to which crops have been damaged and how much money should be paid out. Lastly, payouts are made directly to farmers’ mobile phones."

By Stefanie Rubin, Research Associate

http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-uap-insurance-of-kenya-safaric...

THE HIDDEN RISKS BEHIND MICRO-FINANCE SECURITIZATION:

... whereas Indian economists fear that these integrated networks providing information to farmers (and, sooner or later, micro-insurance and financial products?) might lead to another huge financial crisis, if "non-banking companies" and MFI take advantage of the institutionalization (securitization, etc.) of this vast "market" of un-educated farmers, and don't comply with strict rules.
Things seem to have evolved since July 2010.

http://www.microfinancefocus.com/news/2010/07/06/the-hidden-risks-behind-micr...

http://www.microfinancefocus.com/news/2010/10/22/microfinance-towards-a-finan...