Guatemala Wants Citizens to Pick Up Slack on Sky High Crime Rates
BY Jessica McKenzie | Monday, May 12 2014
To say Guatemala struggles to curb crime rates would be an understatement. Per the official numbers, only two percent of crimes are prosecuted (meaning a whopping 98 percent are not, not at all). Could a new citizen-driven crime reporting tool help change that?
Read MoreWeekly Readings: Joining the Amish
BY Antonella Napolitano and Rebecca Chao | Monday, May 12 2014
A roundup of interesting reads and stories from around the web. Read More
First POST: Nerds Biting Back
BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, May 12 2014
The latest on the FCC's rulemaking on net neutrality; tracking the details of the USA Freedom Act; Ecuador's push toward a commons-based peer production economy; and much, much more. Read More
Diversity, Credit and Hashtag Activism: How a Nigerian Movement Got Hijacked
BY Zeynep Tufekci | Friday, May 9 2014
This is not how #BringBackOurGirls began (credit: Xavier J. Peg)
How and why did the Nigerian movement #BringBackOurGirls end up being credited to an American mother of two in Los Angeles? Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who studies how activists and politicians use technology, weighs in. Read More
First POST: Beware the Ides of May
BY Micah L. Sifry | Friday, May 9 2014
The net neutrality fight is getting hotter; the absurdity of the NSA's new policy on not talking about what everyone is talking about; how "civic" crowdfunding projects are Kickstarter's best category; and much, much more. Read More
Pakistan's National Assembly Unanimously Agrees YouTube Ban Should Be Lifted
BY Jessica McKenzie | Friday, May 9 2014
Pakistanis who want unfettered access to YouTube caught a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel this week when a resolution to lift the ban passed unanimously in the National Assembly. At the end of April Pakistan's Senate Human Rights Committee also unanimously passed a resolution to lift the ban.
Read MoreNYPD Among First To Release Detailed Accessible Local Collision Data (Updated)
BY Miranda Neubauer | Thursday, May 8 2014
NYC Collisions hotpots visualization by Andrew Hill (screenshot)
The New York Police Department has published long-sought motor vehicle collision data in a machine-readable format in connection with the launch of BigApps 2014, the city's annual application development competition that will place a focus on Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities, setting an example for other cities, according to open data advocates. Read More
SF Faces Regulatory Duel Over Short Term Rentals
BY Sam Roudman | Thursday, May 8 2014
Regulating the so-called sharing economy is not impossible, just very hard. And David Chiu, president of San Francisco's board of supervisors is learning just how difficult it can be. Read More
First POST: Battle for the Open Net
BY Micah L. Sifry | Thursday, May 8 2014
Start-ups and big tech alike are speaking out against the FCC's draft net neutrality proposal; activists start an "Occupy FCC" protest outside its DC HQ and promise to spread it; a House bill to end some dragnet surveillance advances; and much, much more. Read More
First POST: Where's the Outrage?
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, May 7 2014
Is a populist revolt against the loss of net neutrality on the horizon?; how the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag took off; a close look the SF Gives tech anti-poverty initiative; and much, much more. Read More