Kiva.org is an organisation that describes itself thus:

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

This seems to me like a fantastic example of how web 2.0 and the broader (and more important) ethos of openness and connectedness that it represents can make real difference in the world. In an hour or so of web surfing I can read about individual business people in developing countries. From there I pick a few individuals (who make up my loan portfolio) and transfer some funds via PayPal. Now I am a micro-lender, with a part of my tax refund cash helping entrepreneurs on three continents build up their businesses to (hopefully) lift their families out of poverty.

I don’t know a great deal about micro-lending other than snippets I’ve heard about its effectiveness (in fact I haven’t even read the Wikipedia entry yet), but this just feels right. I’ve ordered a book on the subject to try to improve my knowledge, but for now I’m happy to be an uninformed micro-lender.

Credit to the TorCamp chat swarm, Marc Rigaux in particular, for reminding me that Kiva exists, right at tax refund time too.

2007 has comes with various changes and milestones (Aimee and I planning to get married, looking for a home, 1 year self-employed and 30 years alive to name the big ones). All this has brought with is a lot of thinking, here are some of the pieces that seem like they might fit in the puzzle whose shape I can’t quite make out.

David Crow thinking about the nature of community, having kicked off BarCamp Toronto

Tara Hunt blogging about community and integrity in marketing

Indoor Playground launches, for a cool shared co-working space in Toronto

Centre for Social Innovation expands, providing shared office space for social innovators

Robert Patterson blogs with hopefulness on a huge range of things, like education, energy and wood stoves

Jevon on thinking about Enterprise 2.0 and radar

Steve Jobs on Digital Rights Management (it’s bad and we need a new, less double-speak name for the damn stuff)

Seth Godin, more integrity in marketing

TransitCamp, bringing the BarCamp ethos into the real world in Toronto

Worldchanging condensing thought about how we can best approach the possibilities and threats in our near future, with hopes for a Bright Green future

Wikinomics, telling it to business like the Web 2.0 geeks amongst us always knew it was (collaboration good, industrial age business models in the information age bad)

Unto This Last, a shop building smart furniture on site using a stack of plywood and a computer controlled machine

I’m going to try to make something more considered out of this mess of stuff, but it felt worthwhile just getting it out there for now.

2007 has comes with various changes and milestones (Aimee and I planning to get married, looking for a home, 1 year self-employed and 30 years alive to name the big ones). All this has brought with is a lot of thinking, here are some of the pieces that seem like they might fit in the puzzle whose shape I can’t quite make out.

David Crow thinking about the nature of community, having kicked off BarCamp Toronto

Tara Hunt blogging about community and integrity in marketing

Indoor Playground launches, for a cool shared co-working space in Toronto

Centre for Social Innovation expands, providing shared office space for social innovators

Robert Patterson blogs with hopefulness on a huge range of things, like education, energy and wood stoves

Jevon on thinking about Enterprise 2.0 and radar

Steve Jobs on Digital Rights Management (it’s bad and we need a new, less double-speak name for the damn stuff)

Seth Godin, more integrity in marketing

TransitCamp, bringing the BarCamp ethos into the real world in Toronto

Worldchanging condensing thought about how we can best approach the possibilities and threats in our near future, with hopes for a Bright Green future

Wikinomics, telling it to business like the Web 2.0 geeks amongst us always knew it was (collaboration good, industrial age business models in the information age bad)

Unto This Last, a shop building smart furniture on site using a stack of plywood and a computer controlled machine

I’m going to try to make something more considered out of this mess of stuff, but it felt worthwhile just getting it out there for now.