Mobile crowdsourcing

While microfinance continues to get a hammering in the press due to charges of abusive practices, techno startups may be paving the way for a fresh new approach to help the abject poor devoid (maybe) of endemic institutional corrupting influences.

Nathan Eagle here presents an innovative way to harness leading-edge mobile innovation on the phone to empower the poor in developing countries, starting with Africa. This will be a binary outcome - either hugely successful, a gamer changer and startlingly disruptive or be killed by self-serving market forces that perceive it to help the poor.

He launched his company txteagle last year and initial news is positive - a space to watch.