BRICS and mortarboards

This week in Around the World, the innovation that could bring computing within reach of the world’s poorest, and the innovator setting out to prove the case for online learning in Nigeria. News of an infrastructural leap forward in Africa and what some Europeans might see as a giant leap backward: plus, an invention that could even take you even further into the past, all the way to the quiet bliss of the letter-writing age – read on, below…

15.05.2014

KENYA: now on trial in Nairobi: the Keepod – a deceptively-simple USB stick which promises to bring computing into the hands of those who cannot currently afford it. Hidden inside the Keepod is an entire operating system, offering the experience of personal computing at a fraction of the price (BBC)

AFRICA: with a strong foundation laid down in submarine and terrestrial Internet cables, Africa’s infrastructure pioneers are looking to the next step: setting up nodes to host more content in Africa itself. “This will support the many organisations striving to roll out services such as e-learning, e-health, entertainment, and more, for a pan-African audience,” SEACOM’s Mark Tinka says, in (BIZTECH AFRICA)

UK: business students can tell you all about stocks and shares, bulls and bears – so why do none of them know what a MOOC is? (FINANCIAL TIMES)

BRICS: everything you ever wanted to know about these surging economies’ games market, but were too afraid to ask… (DEVELOP)

NIGERIA: there aren’t enough spaces at Nigeria’s brick-and-mortar universities to satisfy the demand for higher education – each year many hopeful students are turned away. Gossy Ukanwoke, a 25-year-old eLearning aficionado, is offering a solution (HOW WE MADE IT IN AFRICA)

EUROPE: it’s a bad week for the continent’s Internet libertarians. The European Courts of Justice have rules that individuals can demand for “irrelevant or outdated” Google search results to be deleted (BBC)

and in other news…

USA: if you’re looking to get away from the stresses of modern life – your constantly buzzing mobile phone, for example – then your change of scene could just be a change of clothes away… (FUTURE TENSE)