Young, urban African consumer generation on the rise.
There is tremendous potential in Africa and most investors and businesses know this by now. Africa is the world’s second fastest growing region, second to Asia. And it may come as a surprise to most that Africa’s single-largest business opportunity is the rising consumer market.
Continue reading… “The rising consumer markets in Africa”
Suneet Tuli with the Aakash 2 tablet.
The 44-year-old CEO of UK/Canadian/Indian startup Datawind, Suneet Tuli, is having a taxing day. He says he is “underwater” as he struggles to find a cell signal outside a restaurant in Mumbai. On Sunday Nov. 11, the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, will unveil the seven-inch Aakash 2 tablet computer Tuli’s company is selling to the government for distribution to 100,000 university students and professors. (If things go well, the government plans to order as many as 5.86 million.) In the meantime, Tuli is deluged with calls from reporters, and every day his company receives thousands of new orders for the commercial version of the Aakash 2. Already, he’s facing a backlog of four million unfulfilled pre-orders.
Continue reading… “Aakash 2 – The $20 tablet that could transform computing as we know it”
Pebble watch has been wildly successful.
People hoping to get their business ideas funded by peers are posting their projects on Kickstarter more and more. But that doesn’t mean their ideas are finding any more success on the crowdfunding site.
Continue reading… “How many Kickstarter projects are funded successfully: Chart”
Mobile health becoming more popular among smartphone owners.
Mobile health is starting to become popular in the U.S.. In 2010, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that just 17 percent of cell phone owners used their devices to look up health information. But the organization said that figure has climbed to 31 percent in a new study released last week.
Transplanting some leafy green seedlings at the grand opening of Singapore’s first commercial vertical farm.
Singapore is taking local farming to the next level by opening of its first commercial vertical farm.
Vertical farming is like skyscrapers with vegetables climbing along the windows or like a library-sized greenhouse with racks of cascading vegetables instead of books.
Continue reading… “Singapore opens world’s first commercial vertical farm”
Futurist Thomas Frey: It may sound silly to walk into a bar and order up a beer with a weed chaser or to open a late night box of cereal called “Weedies” to help you sleep, but that is exactly the era we’re entering.
Taiwanese entrepreneurs have begun to seek market opportunities outside the U.S. in the phenomenon called the reverse brain drain.
Many foreign entrepreneurs clamor at America’s gates to get a piece of the innovation incubator of Silicon Valley. But Jerry Chang, a serial entrepreneur and Taiwanese immigrant, has done what most hopeful incomers would consider the unthinkable and taken his business offshore. In 2009, he established mobile payment company Mobile Radius. Rather than found the company in the U.S., let alone his native Taiwan, Chang decided to take his business to China. To many, his decision is a surprising one. Chang does not face the typical obstacles most immigrant entrepreneurs encounter. He acquired U.S. citizenship over two decades ago and has significant experience in the tech field. His first company, Clarent Corp., had boasted a client list of big-named companies like AT&T Worldnet, China Telecom, and Telstra.
Tomorrow’s IT department will likely look very different to today’s.
Meeting business demands to save money while supporting delivery of better products and ways of working will be key to the future of IT. The IT department is under pressure to change if it is to meet conflicting demands to support innovation while also saving cost.
Continue reading… “Four possible roles of the IT department in the future”
Airbnb is living up to its potential as a community-powered hotel. Today they changed their policies to allow do-gooders to offer up their spare spaces free of charge to displaced victims of superstorm Sandy.
Continue reading… “Airbnb helps Hurricane Sandy victims find free temporary housing”
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/52954702[/vimeo]
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In an introductory article on Ruby, creator Yukihiro Matsumoto said, “For me the purpose of life is partly to have joy. Programmers often feel joy when they can concentrate on the creative side of programming, So Ruby is designed to make programmers happy.”
Happy computer programmers?
In this interview, world renowned futurist Thomas Frey talks to Yukihiro Matsumoto, or “Matz,” as he is known online, about how and why he created the Ruby programming language, what interested him in creating a programming language rather than creating video games, plus what it means to bring the languages newest version, Ruby 2.0, to the programming community.
If there is anything that the Silicon Valley worships it is the network effect. Startups are plucked from obscurity and elevated to fame and fortune. The list includes nearly every technology success story of the past 15 years. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, eBay, and PayPal. Each have soared to multi-billion-dollar valuations on the power of the network effect.
Continue reading… “The network effect is not what it used to be”
The process of getting a visa is slow, expensive, time-consuming, and often unsuccessful.
It seemed like all of the stars were aligning for Jay Meattle in early 2010. He had raised several hundred thousand dollars from investors in Boston for his start-up, Shareaholic. And the company, which enables people to easily share online content they find interesting, had just passed the milestone of 1 million users.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.