Or: Part of my learning journey as regards Artificial Intelligence. I cannot imagine that there is anyone capable of using a computer and the internet who has not been subjected to some Artificial Intelligence add-on. It is definitely a worthwhile endeavor to spend some time and play with AI tools – Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, CoPilot, […]
Category: Learning
I am getting increasingly irritated with the “enshittification” of so many things tech – closely linked to the subscription model – of everything. Very tiring. With that inspiration, I am taking a cautious, and deeper, dip into the world of free and open source software. This month that meant purchasing a second hand computer (Dell […]
It is official, after a few months of sitting on the sidelines to see what would or would not happen, I decided to accept the so-called Deferred Resignation Program 2.0. This means that I am now effectively retired. As a consequence, I will now devote this blog to mostly my ruminations on intersection of project […]
Data, Data Analytics, ML, NLP, AI, and Efficiency Data, Data Analytics, ML, NLP, AI, and Efficiency Self-Directed Learning Author Omar Hopkins Published December 18, 2024 I recently changed my focus from water supply and sanitation to digital development projects. This is an exciting change for me, not so much because I am expert in this […]
Wrapping up a super intense week of interviewing candidate fellows this week – I think we had nearly 30 in total. This is definitely an annual highlight in my calendar. A lot of upfront planning, coordinating with those units within the agency that have already had fellows and are looking for more and outreach to […]
Bottom Line Up Front: Development Professionals (myself included!) need to reconsider the role of arts and creative clusters in development. I have spent a good portion of my professional career in international economic development and much of what I have observed is a tendency for sector specialists to stay close to their domain. Engineers (yours […]
Bottom Line Up Front: Art and culture have an important role in economic development. I believe that we can, and we must, learn from across contexts and disciplines. Consider a recent evaluation produced by the Kresge Foundation on the Findings from a Multi-Year Evaluation of the National Fresh, Local, and Equitable (FreshLo) Initiative. This is […]