Category: Advanced Cyber/IO

Visualizing Political Bias with Greasemonkey – Waxy.org

A little technically complicated to install, but this filter is an example of the kind of crap-detection/information-evaluation filters that the infotentive will be able to use as filter-tech becomes more user-friendly — Howard

“With the help of del.icio.us founder Joshua Schachter, we used a recommendation algorithm to score every blog on Memeorandum based on their linking activity in the last three months. Then I wrote a Greasemonkey script to pull that information out of Google Spreadsheets, and colorize Memeorandum on-the-fly. Left-leaning blogs are blue and right-leaning blogs are red, with darker colors representing strong biases. Check out the screenshot below, and install the Greasemonkey script or standalone Firefox extension to try it yourself.”

Learn more.

Spectrum is infinite – do not trust anyone who hypes scarcity

David Isenberg explains that spectrum for various forms of wireless transmission and communication is treated as scarce, similar to real estate, because a scarcity model works for “cellcos” (cellular communication companies, former telcos) In fact, spectrum is infinite. [Link]

The core of the story is whether or not spectrum is a rival good. A rival good is something that when it’s used by one party can’t be used by another. The cellcos say it is. Current FCC regulation does too. But David Reed has repeatedly pointed out that physics — our understanding of physical reality — says otherwise. The article paraphrases him: electromagnetic spectrum is not finite. Not finite. In other words, infinite.

See Also:

THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust

Can images stop data overload?

I use mindmaps with my students so they can literally see the information they read in the texts in a visual, connected, lateral form. “In a lab in Sussex a group of people have had their brainwaves scanned while completing a series of tasks, individually and in groups, to see if data visualisation – presenting information visually, in this case a series of mind maps – can help.

The results showed that when tasks were presented visually rather than using traditional text-based software applications, individuals used around 20% less cognitive resources. In other words, their brains were working a lot less hard.

As a result, they performed more efficiently, and could remember more of the information when asked later. Working in groups, they used 10% less mental resources.”

Source Article:  Pretty pictures: Can images stop data overload?

Phi Beta Iota:  “Data Visualizations” is a better term.  Data visualization in context is even more useful.  Images alone are a form of data pornography.  Data visualization in the context of the intelligence process — requirements analytics, collection management, source discovery and validation, multi-source fusion, compelling timely presentation, and elicitation of feedback from the supported decision-maker(s) is a whole new ballgame.  We still do not do this because no one from CIA to Google to IBM to etcetera has been serious about analytics.  All the “smart city” stuff is still at the granular level of data and no where near the meta level of intelligence.

Huh?

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin

Exclusive: Threats range from governments trying to control citizens to the rise of Facebook and Apple-style ‘walled gardens'

• Ian Katz
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 April 2012

The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were “very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world”. “I am more worried than I have been in the past,” he said. “It's scary.”

The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of “restrictive” walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Google Co-Founder on Web Freedom Facing Greatest Threat”