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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Innovation is getting a lot of attention at the moment in development and humanitarian work. Many, including myself, see this as long overdue. But, according to an article in this  weeks Economist, this attention may be misplaced. The piece makes a strong argument for the importance of imitation  in business, and its advantages over innovation. [...]

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This is the text of an article in the Washington Post by Dominic Basulto about last week’s events in the financial markets. Great stuff. When news first broke Thursday that JPMorgan’s credit derivatives portfolio had sustained a loss of $2 billion, and potentially as much as $5 billion, on trades gone awry, there was an [...]

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The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis. This New Scientist ‘Science in Society’ Briefing examines the issues. What is a complex network? Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s [...]

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Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard and Cesar Hidalgo of MIT (whose work I have blogged about previously here) have just published the deeply impressive Atlas of Economic Complexity. It is built around an innovative, network-based methodology for understanding economies and their potential for  growth. It represents perhaps the most systematic and in-depth application of the ideas [...]

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Expanding Paradigms In my first post in this two part guest series, I presented an account of the contrast between ‘things’ and ‘people’ as it was framed in my 1997 book Whose Reality Counts? and as many people in the development sector still perceive it. As numerous responses – both here and on other fora [...]

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When does crowdsourcing work best? New research from the Institute for Human Development provides answers which may be of relevance for aid projects and programmes. There has been a lot written, spoken and blogged about the power of crowds in making decisions. In James Surowiecki‘s bestselling Wisdom of Crowds, published in 2004, the central thesis [...]

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Complexity scientists have long argued for the use of concepts such as nonlinearity and interconnectednesss to better understand economic phenomena, including growth, market failures and crashes. Ongoing research at the Harvard Center for International Development is taking this area of work forward in very promising ways. In some ways, as Tim Harford has argued, the notion [...]

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Stuart Kaufmann, evolutionary biologist and an early recipient of a McArthur genius grant, was closely involved in the origins of the Sante Fe Institute – ground zero for many of today’s leading complexity theorists. Earlier this year he was interviewed by Joshua E Brown, and his thoughts make interesting reading for all those with an [...]

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Last weeks editorial on SciDev, the leading source of authoritative information on science and technology for development, focused on the need for ‘holistic approaches’ in development. Specifically, it argued that developing countries need more joined-up systems thinking to promote growth and reduce poverty, and that donor agencies needed to find ways of supporting such efforts. One positive move [...]

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This week’s presentation is a thought-provoking, visually stunning video from Jane at Resonance Blog, entitled Complexity and Humanity 2.0. Enjoy.

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