7.24.2007
twittering our way to prosperity
Prosper facilitates direct people-to-people lending. Twitter facilitates direct people-to-people social networking and microblogging. Mash them up for direct lender-to-borrower social networking and microblogging. Add Kiva for networking and microblogging between developed-country lenders and developing-country borrowers. So Ms. Lender can see that in the course of taking a yoga class, going to the farmer's market, having lunch with a friend, and picking up the kids from soccer practice, Ms. Borrower has walked to the stream to wash clothes and walked back. Yes, this is crudely stereotypified. And yes, if only Ms. Borrower could twitter in the first place. But it may have something to do with the singularity.
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3 comments:
I heard that same article on NPR! You really are an addict ;-)
Before I heard about Kiva (or Twitter) I wanted to do something similar with NamasteDirect. I thought it would be really cool to tie the lender directly to the borrower. I thought it would be really cool to know exactly who got your money. Unfortunately their business model doesn't allow for that and group lending makes it even more difficult not to mention the technological hindrances. Still, I think it's a really cool concept. I think bringing people closer together in the world counters the dehumanizing forces of globalization and opens up opportunities for personal and financial growth from both parties.
In this day and age of connectivity and forthcoming transparency who wants to blindly donate $200 to pay for Red Cross stationary when they can loan money directly to a person in need.
Interesting series on transparency article that you won't be able to find the time to read:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/ (click the picture of the girl holding the sign)
what? i never heard an article about this on NPR. but nice to know i'm riding the same collective consciousness as...um...the mainstream media ;) anyways, this was the idea behind the film i wanted to do for namaste in guatemala. but like you said, there wasn't much of a lender-borrower relationship. and then when i discovered twitter, voila.
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