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Nice but out of reach: popular multimedia platforms

Netflix was reported last year to be the source of nearly 30% of the North American internet backbone traffic. Well that’s impressive, but that’s something that many non North Americans can’t understand … and there’s a simple reason for that: the service is not available in many countries. Several well known and well received services are restricted to a range of IP adresses that are considered in a geographic location where users have access to this services. Here is a small but still interesting list of services that have obviously impact on the usage of the internet, but cannot be accessed in many European countries.

• Netflix – major video streaming service (subscription based)
• Pandora – music streaming service / adaptive online radio (ad supported)
• Hulu – major video streaming service of already aired TV content (ad supported)
• Vevo – music video streaming service (ad supported). Most of the music videos on Vevo are available on YouTube for Austrians, but most of these music videos are not accessible of Germans.
• NBC - video streaming service of already aired NBC TV content.
• ABC - video streaming service of already aired ABC TV content.

Micro Loans with Kiva

Yesterday Markus Strohmaier pointed me towards Kiva, a microloan page. I think this is a great way to help people!

Choose an Entrepreneur, Lend, Get Repaid

The below diagram shows briefly how money gets from you to an entrepreneur, and back.

1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide.

2) Kiva’s microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur’s chances of success.

3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them.

4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.

via Kiva – How Kiva Works.