IMTFI First Annual Conference

UC Irvine’s Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion will be holding their first annual conference November 4th and 5th:

Please join IMTFI for the First Annual Conference for Funded Research. This conference brings together the Institute’s inaugural set of award recipients who will present their preliminary findings based on research in 14 developing world countries. As more and more philanthropic, industry and development actors ask whether mobile technology can help provide access to needed financial services like savings and money transfer, these projects look to the experience on the ground of existing, traditional money systems and financial practices, as well as the potential and real impact of new technology in providing access to finance for the world’s poor.

• See schedule for IMTFI First Annual Conference
• Download Conference Flyer
  

The conference is open to the public November 4-5, 2009 at the University of California, Irvine in the Doheny Beach Conference Room, first floor of the UCI Student Center. Parking is $7. Registration is free, but space is limited. To register, please email imtfi@uci.edu or call (949) 824-2284 by Oct. 26.

For hotel accommodations you may contact Ayres Hotel & Suites of Costa Mesa and ask for IMTFI First Annual Conference rates. The nearest airport is John Wayne (SNA), but you may also fly into Long Beach (LGB) and Los Angeles International (LAX).

To read more about IMTFI’s currently funded projects, see Funded Research.

*photo courtesy of Melissa Cliver

The Bottom of the Pyramid in Practice

I’ll be a discussant next month at a workshop co-sponsored by PaPR and IMTFI:   The Bottom of the Pyramid in Practice (Doheny Beach conference room, UC Irvine Student Center, June 1&2, 2009; http://www.imtfi.uci.edu/imtfi_bopworkshop):

The term “bottom of the pyramid” (BoP) refers to the four billion people who live on less than $2 per day in developing countries who have been recognized as comprising a large market for productivity-enhancing goods and services.

 

In recent years, interest this group has grown substantially, with the understanding that increasing the well-being of the poor while increasing the profits of the private sector can simultaneously be a sound development and business strategy. However, while much has been written on the BoP, the claims and assumptions behind variations on this model and the pathways through which it works on the ground remain unclear. There is surprisingly little research on how, and for whom, the principles of development-through-entrepreneurship work “in practice”.

 

This workshop will bring together leading social scientists and scholars from academia and industry in order to provide a more informed understanding of the bottom of the pyramid as a development and business strategy, particularly through the lens of information and communication technologies. It will explore BoP opportunities, practice, and criticism by looking at a variety of services including: the implementation of financial services, education, health and governance services for the poor. In particular the mobile phone and ICT telecenters have taken a prominent role in delivery strategies.

 

The event is free and open to the public, but please email imtfi@uci.edu or call (949) 824-2284 by May 27, 2009 to register.

An Industrial Workers of the World poster, 1911

Everyday Digital Money

Anthropologist Bill Maurer at UC Irvine and I are holding a workshop on how information and communication technologies are changing everyday experience and practice of money. It’s titled Everyday Digital Money: Innovation in Money Cultures and Technologies, and we are pleased to have Keith Hart and Jonathan Donner as plenary speakers.

The workshop is at UC Irvine on September 18 and 19, 2008.  Please see the workshop website at www.anthro.uci.edu/emoney and interactive program/blog at emoney.typepad.com for more information.