Project PM Africa Development Program

We've finally gotten our ducks in a row on Project PM and specifically the two programs we'll be launching to begin with, those being the science journalism project and the Africa project to which you've contributed thus far. In addition to the dozen or so folks whom we've chosen to work on Africa, I've also managed to put together an informal network of charitable organizations and individuals with relevant expertise and resources, including a couple who operate on the continent itself. If you're still interested in pursuing this with us - and I hope that you are, as your contributions to the shared document were particularly helpful - then let me know when you get a moment, and I'll have you added to the e-mail discussion list that will begin about two weeks from now and which will produce a firm idea of what information and design schemes would be most useful for a sort of pamphlet for distribution on the local level, as well as what sort of incentive program or other spur to action would best encourage recipients to share this information with neighboring communities. Having gotten a better sense of how we would proceed on that front, we'll begin taking a look at what methods would have the highest dollar-to-benefits impact in the region, as we plan on providing free consultancy to donors and charities once we've gotten to the point at which we're confident that our collective membership is such that they'd be able to produce better plans for development than those which are currently pursued by NGOs, governments, etc. We have a sort of process in mind for making that determination which I'll discuss with you and everyone else in greater detail soon. Meanwhile, I've also been setting up the rudiments of a fundraising network that I'm now confident will provide us with resources sufficient for us to implement fund-dependent programs on our own, although it's still likely that we'd fund existing programs instead, at least in part.