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!)

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.

Links I liked

1. Great Entrepreneurs should build "tribes."

2. Seriously cool workplaces, and 12 ways to pimp your office .

3. Floating wastewater treatment plants for floating villages in Cambodia.

4. Slums as a model for development??

5. Evidence is showing that open access is the way to truly enhance development. Others agree as well.

6. I just loved this growing idea of Science Cafes.

7. Twipple: Twittering with Loving Acts of Kindness