Thanks to Dana Bushell for sending along this link to a story on Kiva, an online clearinghouse for matching individual lenders/donors with budding entrepreneurs around the world. Kiva dispells the myth that you have to have a lot of money to make a difference- all they solicit is $25 toward the entrepreneur/project of your […]

(hat tip - Bart Victor)
In a front page article for the Wall Street Journal, the author describes the the process and the problems (subscription required) of building out the mobile phone network in rural India. The promise: a template that can be applied to other regions.
India, with most of its people living in villages in […]

(hat tip - Ryan)
When Nicholas Negroponte announced the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative in early 2005, everyone thought it was wonderful. However, according to articles in the Boston Globe and New York Times (which should work if the Times’s no subscription policy has taken affect), orders for the XO Laptop have been falling below […]

The Bottom of the Pyramid class had an opportunity to hear from Cal Turner, former CEO of Dollar General. Cal’s grandfather and father started Dollar General when they pioneered the idea of a general store selling everything for less than 1 dollar in 1939 in Scottsville, Kentucky. The idea quickly caught on and […]

A news story broke today that is tied to a product created specifically for the BOP. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), an organization founded by MIT Media Lab founder and former director Nicholas Negroponte, has created a laptop suitable for distribution and use at the bottom of the pyramid. Their mission, according to […]