Group items tagged

I found this article and its links really interesting - it discusses the fusion of the city and technology, and uses the concept of ubiquitous technology/urban informatics to explain and describe 'smart cities'. Also, it raises the idea of the 'searchable city' and that cities need to be considered on earily they are searchable. This raises the issue of reputation - which is referred to here: not only consumable items being reviewed by the citizenry and available on iphone apps, but also traffic routes, places to live etc.

Google wants to install Google Fiber in some small US cities. These Googlevilles, although experimental and in a small scale, could foreshadow some potential repercussions of the digital divide. Would you like to live in Googleville?

Also "Directors of the UK's biggest 350 listed companies should also stand for re-election every year, instead of at least every three years, to increase accountability under recommendations in the revised code." Frequent re-election should keep directors more or their toes, or will it make them spend more time trying to defend their positions instead of doing their jobs? Time will tell.

Sydney gamers protest the lack of an R18+ classification in the city centre on Saturday, dressed as Zombies from the controversial game Left 4 Dead 2, which has been censored for release here.

Good article on the social and political uses of social media (sic.) in Indonesia. There have been attempts to filter/censor content, but so far they have been avoided. Uses of Twitter, Facebook by politicians is also described. 

This was another source used for my blog entry on aspects of the digital divide in the situation in Thailand. This gave a some context to my discussion and clarified the details of the damage done to major cities.

And I thought the 'Fusion Powerplant" in Sim City 2000 being a peak accomplishment of the game was enough of a green message. Choose your industry and try to be a 'good' CEO. It seems like a kind of layman's e-learning on social responsibility for managers, or perhaps is the ideal way to train us MTV-generation managers of the future.

SeeClickFix is a free mobile phone and web app that enables citizens to take care of their neighborhoods by seeing non-emergency issues in their neighborhoods, clicking to create 'tickets' describing the issue and how to resolve it, and fixing the issue or reporting it to whoever can. This article discusses the technology and tools working to help citizens get involved in their communities and their governments. It also discusses the Gov 2.0 Expo held recently in the US. I found the discussion of mobile citizen governance apps particularly interesting, as it would be something that could be rolled out fairly easily.

For anyone interested.... Tues 11 May @ 6:45-8:30pm The City Recital Hall Angel Place (2 Angel Place, Sydney)

Manuel Espino, leader of the PAN, Mexico's conservative party, twitted that Diego Fernandez de Ceballos, the politician who is missing, had been killed. He later said sorry and admited the information was not confirmed/true. But was it? Twitter's immediacy can put politicians in the spotlight even if that is not their intention.