Congratulations Elia! Your comment was the winner of the Dani Rodrik book. Conveniently, I had six commenters, so I used the random.org die roller and it chose #3. Send me an email with your name and address, and I’ll put the book in the mail.
Everyone else, stay tuned for my next giveaway, on Tuesday the 22nd.
The Toronto Star has a nice article about the complexities of aid to Burma.
APP+FRICA has a great post up about CARE’s new social network. This is exactly the kind of constructive criticism and innovative thinking that NGOs need.
Social media presents an amazing opportunity for international NGOs to tell their stories in a detailed, authentic way. But to use this opportunity well, they need to take social media seriously, and use it like the new form it us. They have to be brave.
I’ll be doing some book giveaways over the next few months, featuring books on various international development topics. Just comment and I’ll enter you into the drawing. I’ll use random.org to generate a number and pick the winner.
I’m kicking it off with a short book by Dani Rodrik, a hero of mine and an international economist, Harvard professor, and superhero. (It’s possible I made up the superhero part.) He’s also an excellent writer with a gift for making difficult topics understandable.
I’ll be giving away “Has Globalization Gone Too Far?” published by the Institute of International Economics. Leave a comment below to enter the drawing. I’ll ship anywhere in the US and Canada, but we’ll have to talk if you’re on another continent.
ETA: It occurs to me I should have a closing date for this – I will close the comments on Friday the 18th and pick a winner then.
Jargon: Desecularization
Translation: When a formerly non-religious society grows more religious.
Today’s Jargon: Alternative Conceptualization
Translation: Another way of thinking about things. Sometimes I understand why people use jargon – it seems more specific, or has special nuance. This one is just baffling.
I was recently led to the WASH news Africa site via a Google Alert. It turns out to be an aggregator of news articles on water and sanitation in Africa topics. It’s a nice resource for people interested in the topic.
What’s even more interesting is that the site, and a host of sister sites, was set up by the International Water and Sanitation Centre. It serves to collect articles for their use as well as inform others. It looks to me like they were already distributing a weekly digest of water and sanitation news, and set up these blogs as a way of sharing all the articles that don’t make it into the digest. Based on my browsing of their site, I think the idea must have come from Cor Dietvorst, their information specialist.
I love it. It’s such a beautiful example of sharing work they are already doing in a way that benefits others. I bet it was also quick to set up, and they are using free blog hosting. They include links back to their main site, since people at the WASH news Africa site are pretty much guaranteed to be interested in water issues, but they don’t make a big showy deal about it. They just position them selves as a generous and knowledgeable partner.
I wish I had an award to give to sites like these.