Copyright Monopoly – Johnny Olsson: I’ve followed and participated in the copyright debate for years, and I’ve come to realize there are certain patterns that repeat themselves. You can roughly say there are three lines of defense: One that appeals to emotions, one that appeals to pragmatism, and one that appeals to a sense of responsibility. I’m going to take this opportunity and try to break them down.
The following is a draft “Code of Conduct” that seeks to provide guidance on best practices for resilience building projects that leverage Big Data and Advanced Computing. These seven core principles serve to guide data projects to ensure they are socially just, encourage local wealth- & skill-creation, require informed consent, and be maintainable over long timeframes. This document is a work in progress, so we very much welcome feedback. Our aim is not to enforce these principles on others but rather to hold ourselves accountable and in the process encourage others to do the same. Initial versions of this draft were written during the 2013 PopTech & Rockefeller Foundation workshop in Bellagio, August 2013.
1. Open Source Data Tools
Wherever possible, data analytics and manipulation tools should be open source, architecture independent and broadly prevalent (R, python, etc.). Open source, hackable tools are generative, and building generative capacity is an important element of resilience. Data tools that are closed prevent end-users from customizing and localizing them freely. This creates dependency on external experts which is a major point of vulnerability. Open source tools generate a large user base and typically have a wider open knowledge base. Open source solutions are also more affordable and by definition more transparent. Open Data Tools should be highly accessible and intuitive to use by non-technical users and those with limited technology access in order to maximize the number of participants who can independently use and analyze Big Data.
The more fragmented (or widely dispersed) a company’s data is, the harder it is to control who can access it. The problem lies largely in the cloud, but also with information distributed across a company’s network. Complicating the issue are workers who skirt their IT department and its fussy rules, storing data however and wherever, they see fit. Revden explains:
“Ultimately, the employee is at the heart of this issue; using multiple applications and devices, often without the IT manager’s knowledge. You can understand why they do it; they want to be able to use the same applications and embrace the same ‘sharing’ culture at work that they do in their personal lives. They also sometimes feel forced to use consumer-grade tools because of the restrictions placed on them by IT, including the size of files that can be sent via the corporate email system. Of course, most employees are not conscious of the risk – they just want to use a fast and easy service which will help them get their job done. As well as identifying the potential third-party services used, IT managers need to educate users on the risks involved, in order to ensure corporate policies are respected.”
The interview discusses the business and security risks of fragmentation, the roles cloud services and email play, and steps businesses can take to fight the problem (including educating workers to the importance of the issue). It even touches on the responsibility of cloud vendors. The piece does conclude with a plug for Mimecast, but that should not deter one from reading the article. Check it out for more information on this uniquely modern issue.
The Shire is a local community of Hobbits seemingly disconnected from the systemic changes taking place in Middle Earth. They are a quiet, self-sufficient community with high levels of social capital. Hobbits are not interested in “Big Data”; their world is populated by “Small Data” and gentle action. This doesn’t stop the “Eye of Sauron” from sensing this small harmless hamlet, however. During Gandalf’s visit, the Hobbits learn that all is not well in the world outside the Shire. The changing climate, deforestation and land degradation is wholly unnatural and ultimately threatens their own way of life.
. . . . .
There’s been push-back of late against Big Data, with many promoting the notion of Small Data. “For many problems and questions, small data in itself is enough” (1). Yes, for specific problems: locally disconnected problems. But we live in an increasingly interdependent and connected world with coupled systems that run the risk of experiencing synchronous failure and collapse. Our sensors cannot be purely local since the resilience of our communities is no longer mostly place-based. This is where the rings come in.
Local communities in Uganda send UNICEF some 10,000 text messages (SMS) every week. These messages reflect the voices of Ugandan youths who use UNICEF’s U-report SMS platform to share their views on a range of social issues. Some messages are responses to polls created by UNICEF while others are unsolicited reports of problems that youths witness in their communities. About 40% of text messages received by UNICEF require an SMS reply providing advice or an answer to a question while 7% of messages require immediate action. Over 220,000 young people in Uganda have enrolled in U-report, with 200 to 1,000 new users joining on daily basis. UNICEF doesn’t have months or the staff to manually analyze this high volume and velocity of incoming text messages. This is where advanced computing comes in.
Here at Mindjet, we think visualising information rocks — but more importantly, there’s a whole load of scientific proof as to why people find it so much easier to digest and work with information that’s displayed visually, rather than in traditional formats such as documents and spreadsheets. I’ve scoured the Web to find you these 10 great reasons to hop on the information visualisation train.
1. 93% of communication is non-verbal.
Or at least that’s what top psychologist Albert Mehrabian says, who argues in his Silent Messages research that the non-verbal elements of communication are particularly important for expressing feelings and attitude. It seems people tend to pay more attention to and trust the tone of a voice and visual cues, rather than the actual words being spoken.
Click on Image to Enlarge
2. Almost 50% of your brain is focused on visual processing.
And that’s according to research by David Van Essen. That’s a large part of your brain power going towards extracting information about the world with your eyes.
3. 70% of all your sensory receptors are in your eyes.
Sensory receptors are the nerves which respond to a stimulus in your internal or external environment. The fact that so many of these receptors are in our eyes makes it clear why we find it so much easier to absorb information visually.
People everywhere have been organizing a more ethical economy, but they work in relative isolation, fragmented by geography, sector, and even organizational form.
Many organizations collect information about a small piece of these efforts. In every situation, there is another organization for which that information overlaps. In every case there is an opportunity to share that will strengthen all the organizations participating.
Sharing requires effort, it requires trust, and it requires infrastructure. The Data Commons is a cooperative of organizations that are sharing – sharing the costs of this effort, trusting each other with their information, and building infrastructure to make sharing is easy.
Members of the Data Commons Cooperative are principled economic organizations that want it to be easy to share with each other, and with the world, in the movement for a more ethical economy.
