Paul, Have you considered mobile payment systems such as M-Pesa - that gives you your electronic credits in a sense. If so, and it doesn't work for you, why not?
Adam On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 7:00 PM, Adam Monsen <[email protected]>wrote: > >>> ( Please follow up to mifos-functional list only, and Cc > [email protected] ) <<< > > Paul (one of the co-founders of OpenMRS) is looking for help! Initially, > he needs help answering some questions, but see below for what sounds > like an interesting opportunity in Kenya. > > Can anyone answer his questions? > > If you can, would you please stop by our IRC channel? He's currently > hanging out in there. Here's some of our recent chatter on IRC: > > > <docpaul> so, one of my jobs is to direct a program called AMPATH.... > Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare > <docpaul> it's really where OpenMRS was born > <docpaul> it manages upwards of 2 million people's healthcare > <docpaul> they provide very comprehensive services, including nutrition > support and vocational training > <docpaul> a "catcher's mitt" of sorts for the poor.. :) > <docpaul> one of the initiatives that we've been talking about relates > to how we provide nutrition support > <docpaul> today, AMPATH maintains over a dozen farms and has a fairly > massive food distribution program > <docpaul> so that HIV positive patients have food to eat... as drugs > alone don't make people well. :) > <docpaul> but we've been thinking about moving to a model where instead > of AMPATH providing food to the community, we'd create an "economy" of > sorts around letting community farmers provide this > <docpaul> so, the model we've considered is to give patients electronic > "credits" which could be redeemed in the community... > <docpaul> food producers could accept these credits > <docpaul> and then convert them to cash that was held by AMPATH > <docpaul> does this make sense? > <meonkeys> I follow so far > <docpaul> so, given what I've described, it seemed that there were many > parallels to what is happening in the microfinancing world > <docpaul> with the primary exception that AMPATH is the "bank" so to > speak > <docpaul> we centrally hold the "credits" > <docpaul> but an infrastructure needs to be put into place to allow > individuals to monitor and distribute credits > <docpaul> and allow food producers to "bring" these credits back to > AMPATH to convert to $ > <docpaul> if you were in my shoes, and you were naive to this world, and > wanted to take a crash course on the state of the art open soruce > technology in support of > <docpaul> i could go on more to give thoughts about where we could go > with such a credit "economy", but suffice it to say, I think there are > many other use cases that go beyond the simple food distribution problem > <docpaul> i see it as a way of ultimately incentivizing good health > behaviors > <meonkeys> sure, makes sense > <docpaul> but i know you all are friends to our ethos, and i know you've > developed software that integrates with microfinance banks > <docpaul> but unclear whether our use case fits the kind of model you've > designed towards > <docpaul> i'm not certain that we need to integrate with a traditional > "bank" at this point > <meonkeys> are you looking for feedback on the credits model, or > wondering if Mifos can be used to manage the credits? > <meonkeys> or something else? > <docpaul> both... and i'm also looking for people that can help me > understand what open source technology is out there in this space > <docpaul> and what's passed quality muster > <docpaul> can mifos be used in this way? > <docpaul> hah, sorry if I've hit you with too much at once > <meonkeys> :) > <docpaul> it's how my brain works > <docpaul> what do you do for mifos? > <meonkeys> I'm a software engineer, and I do much of the technical side > of community collaboration > <meonkeys> I work for the Grameen Foundation. > <docpaul> excellent > <meonkeys> So, these are great questions. :) > <docpaul> and it's unlikely that any of them have simple answers... haha > <docpaul> that's why i came to ask the favor. : > <docpaul> have you ever heard of a model where a system maintains and > replenishes the finance centrally, and then tries to maintain an > independent "credit" economy around goods and services within a > community? > <docpaul> aid is what replenishes the finances... it's not a loan in > this case > <meonkeys> I don't think so... > <meonkeys> sorry, I think these questions are a bit over my head. > <docpaul> i just want to make sure we're leveraging the good work that > groups like you have already done > <docpaul> instead of starting from scratch once again > <docpaul> fwiw, we have funding to do this work > <docpaul> from the world food program > <docpaul> so if there are geeks in kenya that want to work in one of the > coolest environments i've ever been in > <docpaul> send them to me. :) > <docpaul> especially if they know java. :D > <docpaul> just trying to fact find, and i havent found a "pattern" that > what we're doing closely aligns with > <docpaul> closest is microfinance, which led me to you > <docpaul> any designers at grameen that'd be sympathetic to someone who > co-founded openmrs and wanted a favor? :) > <docpaul> perhaps this in some way could help integrate openmrs and > mifos more closely together as software products > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Return on Information: > Google Enterprise Search pays you back > Get the facts. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/google-dev2dev > > _______________________________________________ > Mifos-functional mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mifos-functional > > -- Adam Abate Managing Partner Apposit LLC mob: +251 (0)91 342 8686 email: [email protected] www.apposit.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Verizon Developer Community Take advantage of Verizon's best-in-class app development support A streamlined, 14 day to market process makes app distribution fast and easy Join now and get one step closer to millions of Verizon customers http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-dev2dev
_______________________________________________ Mifos-functional mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mifos-functional
