For a continent that has historically been largely unconnected via land-based telecommunications, mobile telephony uptake over the last few years has been nothing short of a revolution on the African continent. In 1995 there were an estimated 600 000 mobile phone subscriptions in Africa. A decade later this number rose to 87 million and in 2012 it […]
Tech
Posted inNews/Politics, Tech
The importance of technology for education
In a globalised economy with a high degree of competition among countries, the success of a nation depends on the educational level of its workforce. This is true not only for those just entering or already integrated into the labour market but also for the unemployed, who may lack the qualifications required by the growing […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
The importance of financial inclusion in the developing world
Financial inclusion poses policy challenges on a scale and with an urgency that is unique for developing countries, which house nearly 90% of the world’s unbanked population. Developing country policymakers have recognised that complex and multi-dimensional factors contribute to financial exclusion and therefore require a comprehensive variety of providers, products and technologies that work within […]
Posted inTech
Tech spreads slowly
This is a story of how my ego taught me a hard lesson in entrepreneurship. I used to work for some really big publishing companies, till in 2006 I left them to co-found an ebook production company. I thought ebook technology was moving fast, and that I was just in time to catch the ebook […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
The importance of technology in economic and social development
Technological innovation and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) represent a way for developing world nations to foster economic development, improve levels of education and training as well as address gender issues within society. Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic development around the world. In countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia, micro-entrepreneurs generate 38% of the gross […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Twitter won’t give you Aids but…
Twitter is not the healthiest of habits. It sucks hours. It sucks days. It requires dedication. It requires long stretches of inactivity. It makes you lie to yourself. It makes you tell yourself that you are learning something by continuously refreshing your feed to read the latest article or tweet from such and such opinion […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Imagining web 3.0
This is an extract of a keynote presentation I gave at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre on Thursday, June 21 2012. The advanced development of the internet and the cornucopia of information it provides has only been in existence for just over 18 years. The internet at its current growth rate and development stands to be […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics, Tech
The promise of technology in South Africa
The pace of change and technological evolution has accelerated greatly over the last decade. It’s not only remarkable how dramatically the technologies in everyday use has changed, but also how easily society as a whole has adopted these innovations. The adoption of these technologies has been unequivocally positive – for individuals, the business environment and […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
Nuclear is so Third World
Our government, it seems, may be dangerously close to repeating the e-toll fiasco with nuclear energy. As with e-tolls, by the time the pubic wakes up to its implications and how it effects them, the contracts are signed and the citizenry is on the hook for billions. Bad planning in energy needs is not unique […]
Posted inTech
One hell of a Journey
You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little out of it. I’ve just had my brain scrambled. I’ve just finished a videogame called Journey, which is a downloadable game on the PlayStation network. Journey is as simple as Tetris. Simpler, in fact, because while Tetris was a basic concept, it required far more mental […]
Posted inLifestyle, Tech
Do you let your children talk to strangers online?
Sometime around the age of six (or even earlier, if there are older siblings involved) children stop nagging for Hot Wheels and Bratz Dolls and start nagging for a Club Penguin or Moshi Monsters account. The reasons they give for this are as follows: 1) EVERYONE else at school has a Moshi Monsters / Club […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
See ya, Mr Jobs
I have never really used PCs. Except in an internet café in Thailand or India or some other place. So what I am going to say about them comes from a place of ignorance. They suck. They don’t work. They are ugly. They make computing feel like something that only accountants do. No disrespect to […]