Number station broadcast 8/12

  • ThinkerToys : “As a designer and engineer, I asked myself what should I do, I do not have political or economical power enough to make a difference. eWaste and kids not interested in education. What should I do? Ah! there there, eWaste = partly functional gadgets at no cost and kids = maybe fun interactive toys made from those gadgets? With that thought, ThinkerToys started, converting eWaste into educational fun interactive toys. Tinkering was a central part of coming up with new toys, and these toys were made to make the kids think, and yes that’s where the name comes from, Thinking X Tinkering = Thinkering.”
  • Death of a data haven: cypherpunks, WikiLeaks, and the world’s smallest nation : “A few weeks ago, Fox News breathlessly reported that the embattled WikiLeaks operation was looking to start a new life under on the sea. WikiLeaks, the article speculated, might try to escape its legal troubles by putting its servers on Sealand, a World War II anti-aircraft platform seven miles off the English coast in the North Sea, a place that calls itself an independent nation. It sounds perfect for WikiLeaks: a friendly, legally unassailable host with an anything-goes attitude.”
  • Are libraries resisting open source? : “My husband and I are librarians. We were talking recently about library training, the library profession, the open source movement, and how open source digital content is being distributed today in public libraries. We were struck by the way that open source thinking has infiltrated many areas—but not yet the profession or institution of librarians.”
  • Occupy Tracking : “Major advertisers and corporations have been quietly tracking the online movements of those visiting “Occupy Wall Street” related sites for months. They have have used this data to create detailed portraits of the lives and interests of potential protestors. This data is then sold in unregulated markets and retained indefinitely in databases that may be subject to secret government subpoena. The most shocking thing about this is who is ultimately responsible: the self-proclaimed revolutionaries who run the sites.”
  • How Inequality Threatens the Promise of Big Data : “This year, the health team’s research has focused on big data and the world of innovation that it will open up. But while emerging technology will give us much more comprehensive data than we’ve had in the past, it won’t be perfect. Inequality will probably create significant data blind-spots/gaps in the future, because it does in the present and it has in the past.”