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thinkahol *

World | David Graeber: The Shock of Victory - 0 views

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    The biggest problem facing direct action movements is that we don't know how to handle victory. This might seem an odd thing to say because of a lot of us haven't been feeling particularly victorious of late. Most anarchists today feel the global justice movement was kind of a blip: inspiring, certainly, while it lasted, but not a movement that succeeded either in putting down lasting organizational roots or transforming the contours of power in the world. The anti-war movement was even more frustrating, since anarchists and anarchist tactics were largely marginalized. The war will end, of course, but that's just because wars always do. No one is feeling they contributed much to it.
thinkahol *

Letter from Cairo - Infoshop News - 0 views

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    To all those in the United States currently occupying parks, squares and other spaces, your comrades in Cairo are watching you in solidarity. Having received so much advice from you about transitioning to democracy, we thought it's our turn to pass on some advice.
thinkahol *

Citizen Scientist 2.0 - 0 views

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    What does the future of science look like? About a year ago, I was asked this question. My response then was: Transdisciplinary collaboration. Researchers from a variety of domains-biology, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, economics, law-all coming together, using inputs from each specialized area to generate the best comprehensive solutions to society's more persistent problems. Indeed, it appears as if I was on the right track, as more and more academic research departments, as well as industries, are seeing the value in this type of partnership. Now let's take this a step further. Not only do I think we will be relying on inputs from researchers and experts from multiple domains to solve scientific problems, but I see society itself getting involved on a much more significant level as well. And I don't just mean science awareness. I'm talking about actually participating in the research itself. Essentially, I see a huge boom in the future for Citizen Science.
Johann Höchtl

Open Data Has Little Value If People Can't Use It - Craig Hammer - Harvard Business Review - 1 views

  • the hard reality is that much of the public has been left behind, or tacked on as an afterthought
  • So how can we support "data-literacy" across the full spectrum of users, including media, NGOs, labor unions, professional associations, religious groups, universities, and the public at large? Here's one approach. It's time and resource intensive, but crucial — institutionalizing data literacy across societies.
thinkahol *

Information is Worthless | UnCollege - 1 views

  • There is so much raw information in the world today, spending middle and high school memorizing random snippets of it seems incredibly useless for most students.
Johann Höchtl

Open Data Business Models | Jeni's Musings - 0 views

  • I find business cases for data publishers much more compelling than examples of how open data can be used. For a start, I don’t think it’s possible to predict how open data will be used or what that will mean in terms of economic or societal impact: the wide world into which it’s released is just too complex to know.
  • One argument I’ve heard made about government open data is that releasing it can help organisations avoid the costs of Freedom of Information requests.
  • The reverse of cost avoidance is finding sponsors for open data publication.
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  • The freemium model has been used with some success for web-based services; it might also work for open data.
Parycek

Der EuGH, Google und das Vergessen: Was sagt das Urteil wirklich? - 0 views

  • benfalls inexakt ist Mathias Müller von Blumencron, wenn er  ebenfalls in der FAZ schreibt, dass es nun „doch ein Recht auf Vergessen werden im Internet“ gibt. Nein: das gibt es nicht.
  • Dieses Recht des Einzelnen ist  abzuwägen gegenüber den wirtschaftlichen Interesse des Suchmaschinenbetreibers und „dem Interesse der breiten Öffentlichkeit daran, die Information bei einer anhand des Namens der betroffenen Person durchgeführten Suche zu finden“
  • utocomplete-Urteil des BGH keine Klagswelle gegen Google gegeben habe, wie die FAZ einen Anwalt zitiert.
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  • atlicher Regulierung rief, begann eine doch bemerkenswerte Diskussion um die Rolle von Google in der Informationsgesellschaft. Überschriften wie „Angst vor Google“, „ Google ou  la route de la servitude“, „Warum wir Google fürchten” , „Die Google-Gefahr“, „Dark Google“ schafften ein Klima, in dem nur schwer sachlich argumentiert werden konnte.
  • Google neo-absolutistische Machtfülle vor und schrieb „[o]ur demands for self-determination are not easily extinguished.  We made Google, perhaps by loving it too much.”
  • chtung der Privatsphäre wies der EuGH Google an, erforderlichen Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um bestimmte personenbezogene Daten aus dem Index der Suchmaschine zu entfernen und den „Zugang zu diesen Daten in Zukunft zu verhindern“
  • keine Daten verarbeiteten, da sie nicht zwischen personenbezogenen Daten und anderen Informationen unterschieden
  • und deshalb hätten Suchmaschinenbetreiber in ihrem „Verantwortungsbereich im Rahmen [ihrer] Befugnisse und Möglichkeiten“  dafür zu sorgen, dass grundrechtliche Garantien ihre volle Wirksamkeit entfalten können (Abs. 38).
  • Es reiche aus, wenn der Suchmaschinenbetreiber aus wirtschaftlichen Erwägungen eine Zweigniederlassung oder Tochtergesellschaft gegründet habe, „ deren Tätigkeit auf die Einwohner dieses Staates ausgerichtet“ sei
  • Suchmaschinenbetreiber dazu verpflichtet werden können, Links zu Webseiten Dritter mit Informationen zu einer bestimmten Person zu entfernen, auch wenn Name und Informationen auf dieser Webseite nicht vorher oder gleichzeitig gelöscht würden
Johann Höchtl

Facebook's friendship trap | Eleanor Mills - Times Online - 0 views

  • Last week my vague feelings of unease about social networking were fanned by a fascinating study by the Mental Health Foundation, which blamed high levels of loneliness among young people on their use of virtual, rather than real, communication. Dubbed the “Eleanor Rigby generation”, those aged 18-34 (84% of whom use the internet regularly) are the most likely to be lonely, according to the report. And 31% admitted that they spent too much time online rather than face to face.
  • The psychologist Dr Aric Sigman says that social networking sites undermine social skills and the ability to read body language.
Johann Höchtl

Wiki:Government 2.0 | Social Media CoLab - 0 views

  • Internal (intra or inter-government) collaboration. Institutional presence on external social networks Open government data Employees on external social networks 
  • Increased government efficiency Increased government accountability Increased citizen engagement and participation Increased innovation
  • Potential loss of privacy Invalid data
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  • 1) what data should the government share and 2) how does data influence the public sphere
  • The optimists decry the modern instantiations of bureaucracy and policy in which democratic governments operate as the source of democratic ills and support the normative idea of an informed and engaged public.  Pessimists counter that the normative model of democracy most accepted in the literature is a novel construction that is not grounded in the natural behavior of citizens.
  • The innocence of Americans is either explained as a rational choice under the principle of rational ignorance (Downs, 1957) or explained as something inherent in the lack of mental sophistication in humans.
  • Government 2.0 attempts to correct the problems of information diffusion by assuming that people are simply unable or unwilling to find information in the offline world.  If the barriers to information acquisition are lowered then, the theory goes, people will be more likely to find, synthesize and use information in decision-making processes.
  • Feedback loops: Who will be active in these loops? How will the public respond? 
  • People usually think about explicit citizen participation, but some of the most pwrful Web 2.0 tools aren't about that: it's about ppl who are participating w/o knowing they are participating. Google is actually one of the great engines of harnessing participation, anyone who clicks on a link is participating, a link is a vote, meaning hidden in something they're doing already. Wikipedia isn't the only place where people are contributing.
  • The amount of data being shared/collected about people is growing exponentially, old notions of privacy need to be replaed by ideas of visibility and control: give more control over who gets to see it. We are better off with more visibility and control than stopping people from collecting data. The data is incredibly useful, applicaitons depend on data, people willingly giving up that privacy about where they are all the time.
  • many programs go wrong, generically, (what worries me) government is still very much an insider's game, we have not yet really built a system that allows real participation
  • Another gov 2.0 observation: it's very hard for a government agency to start over, it's not like private sector, where companies with bad ideas go out of business. Government agencies don't go out of business. (consumers benefit from newspapers going out of business) We don't have creative destruction in gov't, the basic machinery of it just gets bigger and more entrenched. Need to figure out how to start over: what not to do
  • The toughest part about Web 2.0, Gov 2.0, etc, might be the role of management. It used to be about defining the outcome and monitoring the progress towards that outcome. In Web 2.0 you don't know what that outcome is, it's a huge leap of faith, and takes a tremendous amount of adjusting to that approach. Do we need a different set of metrics? Yes. Media is intersecting with technology, technology is a new channel for media, even Hollywood is changing: oh my goodness, we have to create entirely new financial models!
  • "The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed." It's a cultural issue here, people are stuck in the past and we need a new wave of innovators or we should just expect slow results.
Parycek

The Impact of the Internet on Institutions in the Future - 0 views

  • While their overall assessment anticipates that humans’ use of the internet will prompt institutional change, many elaborated with written explanations that expressed significant concerns over organization’s resistance to change. They cited fears that bureaucracies of all stripes – especially government agencies – can resist outside encouragement to evolve. Some wrote that the level of change will affect different kinds of institutions at different times. The consensus among them was that businesses will transform themselves much more quickly than public and non-profit agencies.
  • Many selected the “change” option, but said they were not sure drastic change will occur in organizations by the 2020 time frame. They said the most significant impact of the internet on institutions will occur after that. Some noted this change will cause tension and disruption.
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    Most surveyed believe that innovative forms of online cooperation could result in more efficient and responsive for-profit firms, non-profit organizations, and government agencies by the year 2020.
Parycek

You Can Learn From "Dell Hell." Dell Did | CustomerThink - 0 views

  • Learning from Dell
  • Customers are in control. Work with them and learn from them. Real conversations are two-way. Think before you talk—but always be yourself. Address any form of dissatisfaction head on. Be aware that any conversation can become global at any time. Size doesn't matter—relevance does. Just as one journalist can trigger a newscycle, one blogger can do the same. Don't be afraid to apologize. Develop direct links to customer community (IdeaStorm for Dell), listen for how we can improve. One customer is part of many communities. Teamwork, transparency and frequent consistent communication are key in this new world. No shortcuts are possible. Implementing business change requires much effort across departments.
  • Engage our people to make it work
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  • Tools are important but people drive processes. Feedback digital media tools for email and chat, inside and outside of Dell, are becoming as vital as call data and traditional online support. Working globally means anti
Johann Höchtl

Study links online transparency efforts, trust in government - Nextgov - 0 views

  • The first-ever quantitative assessment of online open government efforts has concluded that the perceived transparency of federal Web sites drives trust in government.
  • The longstanding approach to quantifying transparency has been, "well let's measure how much data they put out there," said Larry Freed, ForeSee Results' president and chief executive officer. "To me, that's not measuring transparency. That may be measuring confusion."
  • "If citizens find e-government transparent, they are more likely to return to the site, recommend it, and use it instead of a more costly channel," the study found. "They even express more trust in the government agency."
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  • Citizens who believe a site is highly transparent are 46 percent more likely to trust the overall government, 49 percent more likely to use the site as a primary resource and 37 percent more likely to return to the site, according to the study.
  • McClure also noted that a site's perceived transparency can save the government money by encouraging citizens to access services online, rather than through less efficient channels.
  • Other departments that want to make their sites more transparent "should stand firm when those at the helm pressure them to ignore what the audience wants, and instead design for the internal audience,"
Johann Höchtl

Senate Passes Landmark Patent Reform Bill - Datamation.com - 0 views

  • The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved landmark legislation to overhaul the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a reform effort more than half a decade in the making that aims to improve the quality of patents and curb frivolous litigation.
  • Excluded from the bill was a controversial amendment, backed by many tech companies, that would have eased the process for initiating an in-house administrative review process at the Patent Office for challenges to patents that have been granted, a measure billed as a less costly alternative to private litigation.
  • The Senate bill would transition the Patent Office to a so-called first-to-file system, bringing the U.S. system in line with the patent regimes of much of the rest of the world. The shift would confer patent rights on the first inventor or company to file an application, rather than the current first-to-invent system
Johann Höchtl

Agile will fail GovIT, says corporate lawyer - Public Sector IT - 0 views

  • The Agile methodology is meant to deliver IT projects flexibly, in iterations.
  • But the lack of clearly defined project roles and requirements is a problem for Agile.
  • There are four clear reasons why Agile won't work in government ICT. The most obvious is that government customers want to know up-front how much a system will cost
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  • Departmental budgets are managed very tightly, and they must be approved
  • Agile is fourthly not suited to public sector management structures.
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