Event in Washington DC: Launch of DAI Publication on Network Centric Development

This sounds interesting… Maybe I’ll see some of you there. The DAI invites the interested public to join them for the launching of : “Network-Centric Development: New Perspectives on Global Challenges You are cordially invited to the launch event for DAI’s newest publication, Network-Centric Development: Leveraging Economic and Social Linkages for Growth. This event will [...]

What if we’re not quite sure?

Normally the aim of research is to find things out and to present results that we are sure of and clear about. What a pain that reality is often so messy and opaque and no matter how well research is done, when it comes to social phenomena, different people might see them in different ways! [...]

“You can’t motivate anybody

[...] But motivation is something you draw out rather than put in.” (Mark McGuinness) Another great link from Viv McWater’s blog: It’s a free e-book titled How to Motivate Creative People by Mark McGuinness. I read half of it for breakfast today and had some valuable moments of understanding better how I and other people [...]

We need your help (especially if you speak French or Spanish)

I want Net-Map to be as directly available and easy to learn for anyone who wants to understand and improve social networks as possible. One issue that limits accessibility is always language. While the idea is quickly spreading throughout the anglophone world, there are now first applications in South America and francophone Africa… but alas, [...]

What others write about Net-Map at the Knowledge ShareFair

Vanessa Meadu of the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi sums up the experiences of using Net-Map that IFAD staff shared at the FAO Knowledge ShareFair in Rome: “Chase Palmieri discussed how an analysis of the IFAD Asia-Pacific network revealed a number of connections and activities that the network facilitators had not been aware of, such [...]

Moses Abukari writes: Sharing Net-Map among Development Practitioners

After Eva Schiffer gave a wonderful presentation of the potentials of Net-Map in development at IFAD in December 2007, I have been looking for opportunities to further promote Net-Map. In June 2008, IFAD organized a one-day knowledge event where I shared Net-Map based on an IFAD case study I did together with Eva and Jennifer [...]

Similar people – different people

Social network analysts find this again and again: 1. Most networks have the tendency to age towards homophily. That means: The longer a network is active, the more it tends to consist of similar people. 2. Heterogeneity and boundary spanning between different kinds of networks lead to innovation. I have been thinking about this a [...]

If only my ideas could spread like the common cold…

A contagious idea is something that I share with people who share it with other people who share it with other people and just like the common cold, my first cough might allow me to have an impact on people and places that I have never even seen before. Well, you would never know if [...]

Something more Philosophical

Another web-find that made me think beyond my everyday thoughts. How can it be that sometimes other people can explain to you how you think, even though they don’t even know you? I have often marveled at people with very precise plans and goals and also felt a slightly uncomfortable pressure to set goals, because [...]

The structural logic behind corruption

When discussing corruption, a lot of people from less corrupt systems talk about blatantly corrupt systems and you can hear a condescending undercurrent of: “These amoral corrupt people…” in their assessment of the situation. As if it was always the decision of this one corrupt individual to take or give bribes. And, understanding where they [...]