Sunday afternoons and there’s nothing to do while you wait for the braai to cool to cooking temperature except sit back and read the paper or chat about the week’s events. Looking for something interesting to pass away those lazy few minutes or start a semi-cerebral chat about? Look no further.
In the first of a now regular weekly feature I’m going to round up all those fantastic and fascinating stories that have happened all over the world in the last seven days, then whittle it down to the five most interesting and out of the way pieces which are worth your time.
- Every article is just six degrees of separation from one on Massively Open Online Courses, these days, which are destined to revolutionise education for the masses or turn into an overhyped failure, depending on which side of the mortar board you flip the tassle. The Attack of the MOOCs over at The Economist doesn’t really take sides, but if you had to judge the tone you’d say it’s broadly in favour.
- This piece was actually published a few weeks ago, but in the light of yesterday’s announcement from Microsoft about the potential for TV white spaces to revolutionise the internet industry in South Africa, it’s worth catching up on Steve Song’s latest highly detailed discussion piece on the technology and why we need it sooner rather than later.
- Think Cape Town is the be all and end all of African games development? There’s a great piece over at Polygon on the Kenyan scene by veteran Wesley Kirinya. He goes in to some detail on everything from building an African Tomb Raider to Angry Matatus (Matatus being Kenyan taxis).
- This piece by Mathias Vangsnes about why Canonical doesn’t need to actually get to its ridiculous Ubuntu Edge target to have done enough for the Ubuntu Phone will have you nodding sagely. At least, that’s what it did for me.
- If you’ve never owned a motorbike but dreamed of it often, the all-chrome two wheeled wonders of the future will possibly be the push you need. Or not. They’re at The Verge, anyway.
And finally, as a bonus prize and a bit of shameless self-promotion, there’s a write up I put together of a recent conference of tech hub managers across the continent in which they talk about bandwidth being the biggest problem they face for the future.
Same time next week? Also, if anyone fancies coming up with a better and less obliquely clever header image for this section, get in touch.