One of the hardest lessons and ongoing challenges in digital disaster and humanitarian response is how to connect with a local population. While many digital response groups deal with this by waiting for official actors (like the affected nation's government, or the United Nations) to activate them, this doesn't always sit well with my political viewpoints. Some of these affected nations have governments which are not in power at the consent of the governed, and so to require their permission rankles my soul. But to jump in without request or context is also unacceptable.

A realização do II Seminário Governana das Redes e o Marco Civil da Internet: Globalização, Teccnologias e Conectividade foi um sucesso: mais de 45 trabalhos apresentados, 11 painéis de temática variada e uma média de 230 participantes, entre ouvintes, painelistas, autores, coordenadores de grupos de trabalho, apoiadores e comissão organizadora. Foram dois dias de apresentações, intensos debates, e muito conhecimento.

(I promise this is one of the only two blog posts I will publish using primarily the first person.)
I am an activist, and technology and media are my favorite pretexts to start conversations about the core of our human experience. I love reflecting about concepts and their underlying ideologies, but asking teens whether they know someone who decided to untag themselves from a photo on Facebook is still my favorite way to ignite discussions on privacy.

Anne-Marie Slaughter in Foreign Affairs: “Foreign policy experts have long been taught to see the world as a chessboard, analyzing the decisions of great powers and anticipating rival states’ reactions in a continual game of strategic advantage.

Nikolaos Aletras  et al at Peer J. Computer Science: “Recent advances in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning provide us with the tools to build predictive models that can be used to unveil patterns driving judicial decisions. This can be useful, for both lawyers and judges, as an assisting tool to rapidly identify cases and extract patterns which lead to certain decisions.

Ruth Kinna et al in The Conversation Global: “Western democracies are in turmoil. From Brexit to Donald Trump, to a general lack of trust in politics, disillusioned voters are expressing their frustration in strange ways. In Iceland, they are taking a more proactive, hopeful approach – and it’s a lesson to the rest of the world.

Fusce et leo sed dui auctor dignissim sit amet at magna. Nam in tincidunt nibh, at hendrerit lorem. Praesent pulvinar risus ac velit imperdiet tincidunt

IDEO: “The Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit gives teachers the tools and methods they need to apply design thinking—discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation and evolution—in real-world scenarios….

Why design thinking? Hear firsthand stories about how design thinking can apply to education.

...

On October 2, the Bangladeshi government inaugurated Smart National ID cards (NID) as part of their Digital Bangladesh initiative, aiming to distribute the cards to 100 million people in Bangladesh.

The campaign, which allows users to send Modi quotes on themes like Ayodhya and the perfidy of the Opposition, raises questions about the boundaries between government, party and personal promotion.
The article by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty was published in the Wire on October 29, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

This Diwali is going to be a cracker of a festival for Nisha Chanderwal, a second year BA student.
The article by KumKum Dasgupta was published in the Hindustan Times on October 28, 2016. Pranesh Prakash and Rohini Lakshané were quoted.

Paper by Tanja Aitamurto that: “… examines the impact of crowdsourcing on a policymaking process by using a novel data analytics tool called Civic CrowdAnalytics, applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods such as concept extraction, word association and sentiment analysis.

Paper by Alessandro Acquisti et al: “Advancements in information technology often task users with complex and consequential privacy and security decisions. A growing body of research has investigated individuals’ choices in the presence of privacy and information security trade-offs, the decision-making hurdles affecting those choices, and ways to mitigate those hurdles. This article provides a multi-disciplinary assessment of the literature pertaining to privacy and security decision making.

Thesis by Yiftach Nagar: “This dissertation consists of three essays that advance our understanding of collective-intelligence: how it works, how it can be used, and how it can be augmented. I combine theoretical and empirical work, spanning qualitative inquiry, lab experiments, and design, exploring how novel ways of organizing, enabled by advancements in information technology, can help us work better, innovate, and solve complex problems.

Jenna Wortham at The New York Times: “…“Fixing” problems with technology often just creates more problems, largely because technology is never developed in a neutral way: It embodies the values and biases of the people who create it. Crime-predicting software, celebrated when it was introduced in police departments around the country, turned out to reinforce discriminatory policing.

Report by Jean-Gabriel Bankier and Promita Chatterji: “It is time to reassess how we talk about the impact of open access.

Thomas Kohnstamm on Alberto Cairo, Power BI & the rise of data journalism for Microsoft Stories: “From the election of Pope Francis to the passing of Nelson Mandela to Miley Cyrus’ MTV #twerk heard ’round the world, 2013 was full of big headlines and viral hits. Yet The New York Times’ top story of the year was the humble result of a vocabulary survey of 350,000 randomly selected Americans conducted by a then-intern at the paper.

Entre el 7 y 11 de noviembre se realizará la segunda versión de este cónclave científico coorganizado por nuestra Casa de Estudios, donde se abordarán ámbitos del quehacer científico que van desde la astronomía, biología, matemáticas aplicadas, ecología, ciencias sociales, acuicultura, minería y metalurgia, sismología y desastres naturales, entre otros.Más de 200 científicos de las principales universidades de Chile y Japón participarán en el encuentro Chile-Japan Academic Forum 2016, segunda versión de este encuentro bianual organizado por

Last week, a seven Judge bench of the Supreme Court commenced hearing the much-anticipated appeals to decide the scope of Sections 123 (3)  of the Representation of People Act, 1951 (“RPA”), arising out of the “Hindutva cases”. However, on Tuesday, the Constitution bench caused a stir by stating that it will not reconsider its 1996 […]