What Technology Can and Cannot Do In the Fight Against Corruption
BY David Eaves | Thursday, January 3 2013
There are a slew of newly organized and emergent efforts to tackle various forms of corruption, particularly by using new technology, from the global — such as the Open Government Partnership, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Transparency International — to the very local — such as ipaidabribe and its various clones. These efforts have also benefited from a number of traditional players, like state and independent regulators, apparently becoming more aggressive in enforcing laws. There's a lot to celebrate. But there are a few words of caution I would like to add to the conversation. Read More
Police Surveillance in Sao Paolo is at All-Time High, as Crime Wave Shocks City
BY Julia Wetherell | Wednesday, January 2 2013
A military police officer with a camera-mounted EagleEye backpack, from BBC Future Video.
BBC Future has a look into the Orwellian surveillance technology that police in Sao Paolo are using to monitor crime in the metropolis of 41 million. An integrated network of databases, tablet technology and mobile cameras are giving law enforcement officials an unprecedented eye on activity in the city streets. Read More
Putting Rights Violations on the Map in Iran
BY Julia Wetherell | Wednesday, January 2 2013
Screengrab of the Mapping Iran's Human Rights, from iranhumanrights.org
A new interactive map from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran will track rights violations in the country by region. The Mapping Iran's Human Rights project geographically situates violations in four categories — perpetrators, victims, prison corruption, and regional trends — while generating new knowledge about corruption from sources in Iran. Read More
Cambodia Could Worsen Its Digital Divide By Banning Internet Cafés Near Schools
BY Julia Wetherell | Friday, December 21 2012
An order from the Cambodian government to keep students out of Internet cafés could spell inaccessibility for many in a country where few have personal computers. Read More
Twitter Could Stop the Next Great Fire of London
BY Julia Wetherell | Friday, December 21 2012
Screengrab of the London Fire Brigade's official Twitter page
London emergency responders are piloting the world’s first Twitter-based fire reporting program, the city’s Fire Brigade announced earlier this week. While officials cautioned this is not a replacement for dialing 999 – that’s British English for 911 – Rita Dexter, the Deputy Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, explained that implementing social media-based emergency calls is simply looking forward. Read More
The Ayatollah Is On Facebook, Even If Iran Isn’t Supposed to Be
BY Julia Wetherell | Thursday, December 20 2012
Screengrab of The Ayatollah Khamenei's new Facebook page
A Facebook page for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini,appeared online last week. The apparently state-sanctioned page has garnered over 18,000 likes, though the popular social network has effectively been banned in the country since dissidents gathered online to power protests after the 2009 reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read More
Questions of Privacy, Politics and Murder in Lebanon Text-Message Row
BY Lisa Goldman | Wednesday, December 19 2012
In the wake of a high-profile car-bombing in Lebanon, text messages might finger the killers — or they might just be a useful diversion. Read More
EU Data Retention Laws May Be Illegal, Rules Austrian Court
BY Julia Wetherell | Wednesday, December 19 2012
On the tails of the U.K.’s deliberation on the Data Communications Bill , an Austrian court has ruled that the E.U.’s data retention policies could be illegal. Read More
EU Fines Turkey for Blocking Google Sites
BY Julia Wetherell | Wednesday, December 19 2012
An EU court has ruled against a blocking of the Google Sites service in Turkey, in a case filed by a Turkish citizen. A 2009 ruling by a regional court in the southwestern city of Denizli blocked all pages hosted on sites.google.com, apparently after a single page was found to insult Republic of Turkey founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Defamation of Atatürk or Turkish identity is illegal in the country. Read More
Years In the Making, India Delivers an Open Data Portal
BY Julia Wetherell | Tuesday, December 18 2012
Screengrab of Data Portal India homepage
India has joined in on the open data movement with Data Portal India, an initiative to provide transparency across a diverse array of governmental agencies. The new site comes on the tails of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, which was announced by the nation’s Department of Science and Technology earlier this year, and the 2005 Right to Information Act, a transformative piece of legislation that made government records accessible to ordinary citizens. Read More