Over the course of the year, we have worked closely with AIMS and a team of four statisticians, led by Dr. Siaka Lougue, to analyse primary and secondary data from across the 86 countries included in this year’s Web Index. Working with Web Index Research Director Dr Hania Farhan, Dr. Lougue and his team crunched numbers, developed regression analyses, extracted trends, and provided support and insights critical to understanding just how the Web is contributing to social, economic and political progress around the world. Founded in Cape Town in 2003, AIMS provides post-graduate education in the maths and science fields for talented students recruited from across Africa. While almost one million students graduate from African universities each year, high-level training - particularly in the scientific and technical fields - is hard to come by and, as a result, few graduates continue into higher education. Of those few that do continue on to post-graduate programmes, an even smaller number remain in Africa after graduation, leading to a decline of mathematical and scientific expertise across the continent.

AIMS is working to counter this trend. The Institute operates as a partnership between African and international universities and has already seen great success - more than 731 students (30% of them women) from 41 African countries have graduated from AIMS-South Africa, AIMS-Senegal, AIMS-Ghana and AIMS-Cameroon, and most of these alumni have gone on to Masters and PhD programmes. The team of four with whom we worked on the development of the 2014-15 Web Index come from across Africa and two of them, including Dr. Lougue, are themselves graduates of the AIMS programme. We would like to thank Dr. Lougue, Dr. Tchilabalo Abozou Kpanzou, Innocent Karangwa, Aristide Romaric Bado, and the entire AIMS team for their great work. We will be collaborating with AIMS again on future Web Foundation projects, and are glad to be part of the effort to support the development and deployment of statistical skills in Africa.

In an age when computers and the Internet rule communications, it could be that old-fashioned radios are the true tools of the New World Order. That's because if you want to collaborate with other governments to oppress the masses, it's best not to leave a digitized trail -- you never know when an Edward Snowden might unravel your conspiracy. So instead, you'd send indecipherable details of your fiendish plots via numbers stations. Since World War II, so-called numbers stations have been transmitting coded messages via shortwave radio antennas. At their most basic, numbers stations are simply shortwave radio transmitters, generally operating between 3,000 and 30,000 kilohertz. They're located in many, many countries, but no one knows just how numerous they are. They often transmit strings of numbers or numbers intoned by a computerized-sounding voice. Others send broadcasts via Morse code or they just emit various types of noise. Some stations have been airing their signals for decades, and hit their peaks during the Cold War.

Many have gone quiet since the Berlin Wall fell. Untold others continue filling the airwaves -- yet for what purpose, few know. And those that do know? You could try backtracking through a paper trail to see who operates numbers stations. But unlike most transmitters, they aren't licensed to broadcast, so you won't find any record of them in government documents. They are essentially pirate stations (meaning they operate unlicensed and illegally) but no government agency shuts them down. That's because the government most likely operates them. Of course, no organization or government officially accepts responsibility for numbers stations. They are strictly off the record. A lot of journalists have tried to untangle the mystery of numbers stations. They've found enough information that we can safely guess the purpose of these transmitters: espionage. Keep reading and you'll see why old-school numbers stations might be the greatest spy tool ever, even in the age of the Internet and satellite phones.

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