marizannek:

amatsuki:

Search giant Google is intending to build huge wireless networks across Africa and Asia, using high-altitude balloons and blimps

This is so cool.

With more than a billion people, Africa is home to 16 of the world’s 30 fastest-growing economies. Yet the continent is often overlooked, which we believe is related to a lack of advertising around its own potential. But with a rapidly improving business infrastructure, a booming stock market, and a young and ambitious population, there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and in the African people February 17, 2013 at 10:17AM

The hut became a focal point for the town’s children, and the kids loved their tablets so much that they slept with them. One kid would learn how to launch a Disney movie and the others would follow. Another kid learned how to unlock the built-in camera. It was a form of viral education that we see, under the surface of many childhood interactions, every day. They learned without learning. November 06, 2012 at 11:01PM

So while much of the rest of the world, including Canada and Sweden, looks to credit cards as the key to a cashless economy, Africa has – out of necessity – leapfrogged this step all together and tapped into the power of the ubiquitous cellphone. These services are changing people’s lives and countries’ economies, as well as underpinning a thriving startup community across the continent developing an eco-system around these payment giants. October 29, 2012 at 11:52PM

sub-Saharan Africa is much wealthier than it was ten years ago. As The Economist points out, most of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies both to and since 2010 lie south of the Sahara. October 13, 2012 at 02:39PM