prod & ponder

Although I’ve been a supporter of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, I was frustrated and annoyed when I read this account of how Nicholas Negroponte is negotiating with potential markets for the laptop:

At a meeting this month in Cambridge, Mass., with representatives of Macedonia’s government, Mr. Negroponte balked at authorizing a pilot project there after learning that officials wanted to consider testing the Classmate. He told them he didn’t want to participate in a “bake off.”

Negroponte made comments in a similar vein at an Inter-American Development Bank meeting.

“The [developing nations] need to do things which isn’t futzing around and moving deck chairs. And they can spend the next five years planning. But that’s not what they should do. They have to take action. They have to take big action. To do a pilot project is ridiculous!”

The international development community has been fighting an uphill but worthwhile battle to instill a culture of assessment and evidence-based public policy in developing nations. It was refreshing to hear Macedonia, which by the way has done an exemplary job of building its internet access and infrastructure, request pilot test comparisons of different computer options was refreshing and encouraging. To hear Negroponte refuse and dismiss the request was disheartening, at best.

The researcher in me is an enormous fan of evidence-based decision making and an appreciation that statistical analysis of large pools of data can be mighty useful. With that in mind, let me recommend FareCast as useful tool for making better travel decisions.

You’re going on a trip, and you want to quickly find the least expensive fares that fit your travel itinerary and preferences. We’ve got sites like Expedia and Travelocity that do that. But that’s not your only concern. Should you buy your ticket now, or wait and see if the price goes down?

FareCast not only searches out the best fares, it uses historical flight cost data to predict whether or not the price will go up or down in the next seven days. What really impresses me about the site is that it also computes and reports a confidence level for each prediction. Enjoy.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2007 Common Ground awards:

Senator Roméo Dallaire: Humanitarian, advocate, and retired general, his experiences during the Rwandan genocide led to his committed activism to eliminate genocide around the globe. Senator Dallaire leads SFCG’s Child Soldiers Initiative to eradicate the use of child soldiers as weapons of war.

Charlie Rose: Veteran newsman, interviewer, and host of the Charlie Rose Show, seen nationally on PBS. His program bridges ideas and views from across political and ideological perspectives.

Ishmael Beah: Author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a personal story of redemption and healing.

Combatants for Peace: Former Israeli combat soldiers and Palestinian fighters who have joined together to work for peace in the Middle East through non-violent action.

Little Mosque on the Prairie: This popular Canadian TV sitcom defuses hate by promoting understanding through humor.

Health Care Coverage for the Uninsured: HCCU was a 2 year consensus process with major healthcare stakeholders, that resulted in a historic agreement to reduce the number of uninsured in the U.S., starting with children.

I can’t decide what I find more out of place, that the Washington Post, a media outlet that has been molasses-uphill-in-winter slow about understanding blogging, would run a “how to” article on blogging, or that said article would include in its top ten blogging tips to “Widget your Page.”