Links I liked

I'm in the middle of reading through my blogroll after a very long time. I've just been inundated with work, and am finally able to make the time to catch up on my reading. Here are some of the best of the links I've seen so far:

1. Interesting Q&A session with popular development economist and author of "The End of Poverty", Prof Jeffrey Sachs

2. Diagnostics continue to be the bottleneck for most healthcare in the developing world. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that this particular cheap diagnostic test out of Vietnam is causing ripples.

3. Around a fifth of global science papers are now freely available online, a study finds, with Latin America and India leading the pack!

4. Ask a garbologist questions. Fascinating potential discussion and amusing writeup.

5. Belgium is considering resomation...would you want to be resomated after you die??

6. How "easy" do you think this award-winning "easy latrine" is??

7. Alaskan water being shipped to India...(seriously!)

Email of the Future

If you are passionate about efficiency, as I am, then you will love this innovative new tool that Google's genius web team came up with. The brains behind the wildly successful "Google Maps" concept (that I live by now) brainstormed about what email would look like if they had to come up with something from scratch. Enter "Google Wave."

You can watch the demo here. Its a little long and bandwidth heavy, but if you can afford to watch it, its certainly worth it.

Free online University for Disadvantaged Groups of People

Self-made millionaire, Shai Reshef (left) is starting an online university that offers free tuition for disadvantaged groups of people called University of People.

I've posted before on the goodness of open source education. It seems like you don't have to pay the exhorbitant fees to get an education from world class institutions like MIT, Stanford, and even the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Many universities are taking to posting their best classes online for everyone's benefit.

So in the midst of this economic crisis, I liked that Shia Reshef started a free university online called the University for People. Here's the beginning of the article:

Shai Reshef, a self-made millionaire, has a lot of experience starting businesses. In 1989, he helped to transform a small Israeli test-prep company, Kidum Group, with only $100,000 in yearly revenue into the largest for-profit educational services company in Israel. Reaching nearly $25 million in revenue, the company was snapped up by the larger test prep giant Kaplan in 2005. Reshef is also credited with starting the first online university in Europe in 2001. The venture, based in the Netherlands, wasn't very successful but was acquired by Sylvan Learning Systems, now Laureate Education.

Reshef has now turned his sights to starting the first tuition-free online university for disadvantages students. The new school has opened its doors, figuratively speaking, and is open for enrollment beginning this week. Reshef, the founder and president of The University of the People (UoP), visited Inc.com's Nicole Marie Richardson in New York City to discuss his new venture and its intriguing tuition-free business model.

Read more here.

Sita Sings the Blues

(photo from Ninapaley.com)

I came across this extraordinarily creative endeavor by chance (and through a friend). Nina Paley is a gifted animator who took her personal story and layered it with the Hindu epic, the Ramayana to make a phenomenal story called Sita Sings the Blues. It brings together beautiful animation styles, blues music, shadow puppetry, and humor into a modern version of the ancient epic.

There are a few inaccuracies in the story of the Ramayana, but by-and-large Paley gets the point across very well; and I greatly appreciated the creativity and art of her final product.

Probably most impressively, Paley has released the entire length of the film under a "creative commons" License so that anyone anywhere can view it. You can also download pictures and make your own merchandise out of it. Unfortunately I can't embed the film. But you can view it in its entire length here.

I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend watching it.

Finally, here is Paley's personal website and the Sita Sings the Blues website. A teaser is also embedded below.



(Hat tip to Chickpea at the Garbanzo Bean)

The 1 Second Film Project

A week ago, I met filmmaker and animator Nirav Mullik who has a great idea called the 1-second film. I'm now a producer of the soon-to-be international collaborative (and so can you!)...having given him the $11 I had in my pocket that evening. Check out the concept here:



On his blog, Nirvan explains:

The 1 Second Film (the1secondfilm.com) is a non-profit collaborative project I started while at CalArts. The idea is to use art to bring people together and make a film from the ground up. All profits from the finished film will be donated to charity. So far, over 10,000 people have joined.

The 1 Second Film project is built around one-second of experimental animation (made of 12 giant paintings). Anyone can produce the film by donating $1 or more; Producers get their name in the credits listed in order of amount. With over 10,000 Producers and counting, the credits will be an hour long. We're making a feature-length documentary about the film that will play alongside the credits. We're also building an online community for our crew.

The project has received a ton of support, and continues to be an incredible journey. The film is ultimately about the process of making art, and the power of collaboration.