1. Daniel Kaufmann and Mushtaq Khan debate the role and importance of tackling corruption as part of a development strategy – Development Drum podcast. Also see this discussion of the podcast on the Aid Thoughts blog

2. Dating and the facebook

3. What your phone might do for you two years from now. H/T Marginal Revolution

4. Thinking about evolution

5. Banking – science or art? – Gillian Tett

6. Wall Street Bonuses: Culture, Identity, and Crisis – Karen Z. Ho

7. Why Africa welcomes the Chinese – Paul Kagame

The rapid development of global communications today contains within its movement a far-reaching transformation of world society. ‘Anthropology’ in some form is one of the intellectual traditions best suited to make sense of it. The academic seclusion of the discipline, its passive acquiescence to bureaucracy, is the chief obstacle preventing us from grasping this historical opportunity. We cling to our revolutionary commitment to joining the people, but have forgotten what it was for or what else is needed, if we are to succeed in helping to build a universal society. The internet is a wonderful chance to open up the flow of knowledge and information. Rather than obsessing over how we can control access to what we write, which means cutting off the mass of humanity almost completely from our efforts, we need to figure out new interactive forms of engagement that span the globe and to make the results of our work available to everyone. Ever since the internet went public and the World Wide Web was invented, I have made online self-publishing and interaction the core of my anthropological practice. And recently I have stumbled into what may turn out to be the most powerful vehicle for this project yet: the Open Anthropology Cooperative.

It matters less that an academic guild should retain its monopoly of access to knowledge than that ‘anthropology’ should be taken up by a broad intellectual coalition for whom the realization of a new human universal – a world society fit for humanity as a whole — is a matter of urgent personal concern. Read in full.

Last week we commissioned Akin to do a review of the coverage of the Nigerian re-branding excercise by bloggers and he delivered a really beautiful post. Please go over to NigeriansTalk.org to have a look at it. Probably the only group of people who have covered the re-branding excercise very well are bloggers. There are probably are reasons for that, but that is not the point of focus at the moment. If you are interested in hosting a review – a copy each on your blog and NigeriansTalk.org – please send an email to loomnie-at-loomnie.com or nnwachuku-at-gmail.com.

And the guys over at Turenchi.com are doing a really beautiful job. Their site indexes news sources and lists the news stories as they are posted on the original sites. Part of the beauty of the site is that it is uncluttered and very easy to navigate. Plus there is a mobile version at www.turenchi.com/mobile They promise that it will soon move to www.m.turenchi.com News buffs and junkies, a site to bookmark.

Nneoma of Pyoowata and I have started a blog review – NigeriansTalk. It is going to be a weekly review of blog posts on Nigeria/ blogs from Nigerians. From the introductory post:

NigeriansTalk is a weekly review of posts written by bloggers of Nigerian extraction, bloggers living in Nigeria and bloggers who blog about Nigeria. NigeriansTalk seeks to cover the wide spectrum of perspectives on various social, political, and personal issues, issues that affect Nigerians at home and abroad. We would like to recognize those bloggers who through their efforts sustain a much needed dialogue on the state of the nation. We hope that through our collective voices, we will bring about the future we seek for our country.

It is a collaborative project. This means that we will regularly invite bloggers to review blog posts that they find interesting during the past week. It could be themed, in which case a reviewer could choose a certain topic of interest to them – say technology, music, education – and review blogpost on the topic. It could also be about the coverage of a particular news event by bloggers. Or just about the issues that bloggers found interesting during the past week. Reviewers have a certain level of freedom in choosing the topic and the format. Again, from the site:

We hope to involve as many Nigerian bloggers in this pan-Nigerian blogging project. If you are interested in becoming a regular contributor for NigeriansTalks.com, please email (Loomnie at loomnie-at-loomnie.com or Nneoma at nnwachuku-at-gmail.com). Becoming a contributor for NigeriansTalk requires a minimal time commitment as contributors will at most post about once a month.

One of its ambitions is to become a site through which people can network: Reviews written for and posted on the NigeriansTalk site will also go on your blog.

The first post, from Nneoma, is going to be on the site on Monday. We look forward to having your contributions.