What Africa’s Billionaire Aliko Dangote told the World Economic Forum in Davos

Africa has many entrepreneurial people with the capacity to be successful in business, but access to financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) remains a major challenge. So said Nigerian-born Aliko Dangote, believed to be the continent’s richest man, today during a session titled ‘Africa’s Next Billion’, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He explained that while Africa offers a large enough market for SMEs, borrowing costs are generally too high. “If you are going to borrow money at 20% and above, it might be very, very tough…

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Businesses’ biggest barrier to implementing their big data strategy is identifying what data to collect

KPMG Report: Going beyond the data: achieving insights from data and analytics Long before the term big data first appeared in 1997, organizations were already struggling to make sense of all of the information piling up in their databases and warehouses. But over the past five years, the focus on big data has started to shift: today the issue is no longer about owning the most data but rather about how to gain the most insight from that data and – in turn – how to convert those insights into…

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Wall Street: The U.S. will borrow less money this year than at any time since 2008

Wall Street Dealers See Treasury Sales Falling to Six-Year Low By Susanne Walker The U.S. will borrow less money this year than at any time since 2008, validating the nation’s decision to go deeper into debt to combat the financial crisis as faster growth shrinks the deficit, Wall Street’s biggest bond dealers say. The government will sell $717 billion of notes and bonds on a net basis, 14 percent less than last year, according to a survey of primary dealers which are obligated to bid at Treasury auctions. Issuance has fallen…

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DotConnectAfrica Trust takes its case with ICANN to Independent Review Process (IRP) Panel

The Arbitration Process between DCA Trust and ICANN (‘DCA Trust vs. ICANN’) shall be governed by the International Dispute Resolution Procedures of the ICDR and the Supplementary Procedures for ICANN IRP Process. Jan. 22, 2014 – New York, USA: On Jan. 10, 2014, DCA Trust submitted an Amended Notice of Independent Review Process (“IRP”) to the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR).  DCA Trust sent its Notice of IRP in October 2013. The IRP is a proceeding provided for in Article IV, Section 3 of the ICANN Bylaws, by which…

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Bitcoin Will Collapse In 2014 says BYRON WIEN

Blackstone Group vice chairman Byron Wien does not have a lot of faith in Bitcoin. Included on his list of annual “surprise” predictions is the possibility that acceptance of the digital currency collapses this year. “In 2½ years the price of a Bitcoin has increased from $25 to $975,” says Wien. “The supply of bitcoins is fixed at 21 million with 11.5 million in circulation. Bitcoins lack gold’s position as a store of value over time. During the year Bitcoin’s acceptance collapses as investors realize that it cannot be used…

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Microsoft Just Lost A Huge Customer To Google: The City Of Boston

The City of Boston has decided to rip out its Microsoft email technology and move 76,000 people to Google Apps. These email accounts were previously mostly using Microsoft Exchange, according to a blog post by Boston CIO Bill Oates. This is one of the largest customers that Google has swiped from Microsoft to date and is significant for a few reasons. For one, it’s another feather in Google’s increasingly impressive cap. According to Google, Boston would be among the biggest contracts it has won for Apps. Other huge ones: Roche (90,000…

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Business networks buckle as workforces gobble more data and adopt new working patterns

The Barracuda Networks study aimed to identify the issues affecting the performance of critical business applications By Sam Shead | Techworld | Published: 10:46, 20 December 2013 Research out today reveals that there is an increasing gap between the capabilities of network infrastructures and what network administrators need to do their jobs effectively. The findings, highlighted in a survey by analyst house Freeform Dynamics on behalf of storage vendor Barracuda Networks, show that approximately 52 percent of businesses are struggling with managing application performance, availability and security because of a…

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Vietnam, China and India gamers most vulnerable to cyberattacks

Video game

Summary: The number of attacks could spike as millions are expected to receive games as presents in the holiday season, especially with the launch of newer consoles like PlayStation and Xbox, says Kaspersky Lab. Users worldwide are being hit by an average of 34,000 attacks related to gaming malware daily, according to a study by Kaspersky Lab. The total number of attacks on gamers was 11.7 million in 2013, and the number is expected to rise with millions of users receiving games for Christmas, especially wih the launch of newer…

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4G-LTE Networks Set To Double In Number By 2017

When 1BN Of 8BN Total Mobile Connections Will Be 4G The number of 4G-LTE networks in service globally is set to roughly double over the next four years, according to data by GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the global mobile carrier association, the GSMA.  Some 465 LTE networks are forecast to be in service across 128 countries by 2017, which it says is roughly double the number of live LTE networks today. 4G-LTE offers a considerable speed bump over 3G mobile technologies, in the region of 10x, although theoretical peak speeds —…

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Exclusive: Inside America’s Plan to Kill Online Privacy Rights Everywhere

The United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable. The diplomatic battle is playing out in an obscure U.N. General Assembly committee that is considering a proposal by Brazil and Germany to place constraints on unchecked internet surveillance by the National Security Agency and other foreign intelligence services. American representatives have made it…

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