blogs

Two on Tuesday, 3/4/2008

By Alanna Shaikh | | 1 Comments |

Two on Tuesday: Two blogs I’ve been reading lately

1) Technology, Health & Development. I always love to find blogs which cover a wide range of development topics in the hands-on way I enjoy, and this one is great. The current posting is about a health insurance scheme for Indian farmers that seems almost too good to be true. The THD sidebar is a treasure trove of interesting links.

2) Jeremiah Owyang’s web strategy blog. I am in love with this post, called “Stop fondling the hammer.” It’s about not confusing your web strategy tools with your web strategy. I think it points to a larger problem that afflicts many otherwise competent organizations; a new technique can be so exciting you want it to do everything.

How to read this blog

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

You should read it every day. No, seriously. Every day. I point the way to a lot of interesting things, some of which have obvious connections to international development and some of which don’t. If you read this blog long enough, it should, I hope, give you by reading (and more importantly me by writing) a better understanding of the issues that impact international aid and development, and ways to make development programming work better.

Two on Tuesday – Meaty arguments

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

Two on Tuesday is a new feature where I find a couple examples of a phenomenon or issue that I find interesting, and try to learn something useful from them.

What I’ve found for you today is two blog postings that were hotly contested by their commenters. In other words, two interesting arguments. The real-time community knowledge aspect of blogs is one of my favorite things about this form, and a blog with passionate commenters is its epitome. There aren’t just two sides two every story, there are more like nine, and commentary from intelligent, passionate people is a great way to sort it out.

I therefore bring you:

1) Joshua Foust and Ann Marlowe continuing their ongoing feud on Registan.

2) Abu Aardvark and a bunch of commenters on the Anbar Awakening in Iraq.

A nice pair of postings that cast some light on the two major wars our country is fighting. (Some commenters are more worth reading than others, I admit.)

 

The Nonprofiteer

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

I love The Nonprofiteer. She is full of useful advice on running a non-profit organization. At lot of her ideas apply as much to a major NGO doing international development work as they do to the kind of domestic nonprofits she focuses. I especially love her advice column, and they way her answers are detailed plans you could act on. This post, on finding board members, is especially helpful.