Mara Hvistendahl at Wired: “…During the past 30 years, by contrast, China has grown to become the world’s second largest economy without much of a functioning credit system at all. The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central banking regulator, maintains records on millions of consumers, but they often contain little or no information. Until recently, it was difficult to get a credit card with any bank other than your own. Consumers mainly used cash….

Andrea Hickerson at the Oxford Bibliographies: “Until recently, I firmly believed whistleblowers would increasingly turn to secure, anonymizing tools and websites, like WikiLeaks, to share their data rather than take the risk of relying on a journalist to protect their identity.

What happens with our central democratic values like freedom, equality and truth in the digital society?How does the public sphere fulfill its function of forming a societal self-understanding in times... MORE
The post Democracy and public sphere in the digital society appeared first on HIIG.

Symposium Paper by Dominique Boullier: “When in 2007 Savage and Burrows pointed out ‘the coming crisis of empirical methods’, they were not expecting to be so right. Their paper however became a landmark, signifying the social sciences’ reaction to the tremendous shock triggered by digital methods.

Project by WWF: “Can data on how people respond to a warming world help us anticipate human impacts on wildlife?

Index:
# COPYRIGHT AND ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION
– Directive of the European Union on Copyright in the Digital Single Market
– “Canon Digital” Private Copy Levy in the Spanish State
– Copyright exceptions and limitations in Spain
# FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND PROTECTION OF LEAKERS / ALERTERS / WHISTLEBLOWERS
– Anticorruption whistleblowing platforms
– Whislteblowers protection legilslation: Catalonia / Spain / Europe

Basándose en un análisis entre variables ambientales precedentes y la superficie incendiada desde 2012, los profesores de la Facultad de Ciencias Forestales Pablo García y Miguel Castillo, predicen una temporada de incendios severa para nuestro país. En la siguiente columna de opinión de los académicos, el llamado a las autoridades es a levantar acciones preventivas coordinadas para aminorar riesgos. Chile enfrenta nuevamente una temporada de incendios forestales. Las cifras de ocurrencia no variaron sustantivamente en la pasada temporada 2016-2017.

Colombia, Perú y Ecuador son los países de origen de la mayoría de los extranjeros interesados en estos programas centrados en la investigación.

Aaron Bastani has written a fantastic, concise analysis of the current political economy vis a vis environmental realities. While I agree that we need attractive visions of the future (see our recent Commons Transition Primer for ours) and that, yes, States and unions are key components for any realist, short-term change, I found the article’s undertones to be too growth-oriented and vanguardist – the Commons or community-led change are sadly absent.

Jerome Roos: In January 2017, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the infamous Doomsday Clock featured on the cover of its journal to 2.5 minutes before the hour — the second-closest to midnight it has been since its inception in 1947. “This year’s deliberations felt more urgent than usual,” the Board noted, citing the existential threats posed by climate change and rising nuclear tensions between the Trump administration and North Korea.

Innovative Approaches to Digital Financial Inclusion Challenges.

Three Bengalureans and two organisations from the city have been selected this year for the Helen Keller awards, given by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and Mindtree.

The article was published by Deccan Herald on November 30, 2017

Manasa Rao attended a workshop organized by Twitter titled "The Network Effort". It was an effort by the Public Policy and Government team at Twitter to enable NGOs and non-profits to conduct successful Twitter campaigns and teach them best practices.
The handbook for the workshop is here.

Love it or hate it, you just can't escape it. We're talking about Aadhaar, which is a bigger buzzword than usual in the face of the looming end-December deadline for linkages with bank accounts, PPF, insurance policies, ration card and perhaps even PAN. As India rushes to comply, there are a number of myths and half-truth making the rounds.
The article was published by Business Today on December 7, 2017.

Anubha Sinha attended a DIPP meeting with stakeholders on December 7, 2017 in New Delhi. The meeting was organized by the Government of India.
Anubha made submissions pertaining to CIS' study on lack of compliance and enforcement in respect of filing statements of working of patents:

The doctors in the phone track our cycle or analyse the blood sugar level. Have family physicians become obsolete and do digital tools turn us into hypochondriacs? On 31 January... MORE
The post Digitaler Salon: App’s Anatomy appeared first on HIIG.

The HIIG congratulates Otfried Jarren, chairman of the foundation board of the Foundation for Internet and Society, which supports the institute, for his award by the Schader-Stiftung for his contributions... MORE
The post Otfried Jarren honored by Schader-Stiftung appeared first on HIIG.

Fifteenth delegation from the Communication Management Program Chulalongkorn University visited the National University of Singapore on 19th of December 2017.

Republished from Motherboard’s Soundcloud:
The internet of things, End User License Agreements, and Digital Rights Management are increasingly being used to give electronics manufacturers control and ownership over your stuff even after you buy it. Radio Motherboard talks to Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz, authors of The End of Ownership about what we stand to lose when our songs, movies, tractors, and even our coffee makers serve another master.

El sismómetro de pozo, el más profundo en la historia del país, es parte del proyecto de monitoreo de la falla San Ramón financiado por Onemi. La principal característica de esta nueva estación sismológica es que gracias a la gran profundidad en que se encuentra ubicada, percibe las ondas de mejor manera, ya que a esa cantidad de metros el nivel de ruido, las vibraciones, es casi nulo.