Information flows in a Knowledge Economy
March 22nd, 2009I am a huge Kiva evangelist, enabling anybody anywhere to provide micro loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. The capital flows are very neat.
Imagine though getting knowledge flowing in a Kiva like system.
You match up entrepreneurs in developing countries with entrepreneurs in the western world.
For sure there are barriers such as language, technology use (at the other end), lack of context by information providers.
However these aside I think there is a real need. The cross pollination would benefit both parties.
Imagine dedicating an hour a week to work with or chat with an entrepreneur on the other side of the world. That would be a real dream.
Oh also it would enhance the catch up effect of developing countries. Just a thought.
Tags: entrepreneurship, information flows, kiva, knowledge economy, monday ideas post
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm. 
March 22nd, 2009 at 8:43 pm
The mentoring that you’ve advocated (across geographic, social and cultural gaps) can indeed be mutually beneficial but you need to bring your “A game”.
I’ve seen well meaning mentors assume that they can apply their knowledge from their own business context without adjusting it for the constraints and opportunities of the mentoree and their business environment.
As a first step, people can mentor a student team in an entrepreneurship competition. I’ve found it to be a good low risk way to rapidly prototype your coaching, mentoring and consulting ideas and techniques.
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:32 pm
How could we then remove that from the equation? Something as simple as encouraging (or facilitating) entrepreneurs on both sides to blog about their business, the issues, etc would help each side enhance their decision making skills. Technology still an issue though.