“Cleansing” cyberspace: Zhuang Rongwen, recently appointed as director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, has vowed to promote “positive energy” on the Internet while suppressing “negative elements,” including “wrong ideological trends” that attack the Communist Party there, reports the South China Morning Post. Zhuang called on all Internet users to join party members to fight a people’s war to rehabilitate the “cyber ecology.”

The latest edition of  the International Open Data Conference (IODC) is just around the bend. We’ll be discussing open data during the entire week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through a series of pre-events, including symposiums, discussion panels and workshops as well as the main conference, we will discuss with open data practitioners, advocates, and researchers about the future of open data.

A “digital divide” separates the countries of the Global North and South: they are unequal in terms of access to and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) such as computers, mobile phones, and the internet. It is widely believed that bridging this divide will positively affect people in under-connected world regions: ICT are assumed to increase economic productivity and prosperity and to have a democratizing effect.The TATuP thematic issue 2/2019 offers a platform to advance a critical assessment from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Im Rahmen der von Studierenden veranstalteten Erstsemester-Arbeitsgemeinschaft für den Start in den Uni-Alltag wird es zunächst diverse Veranstaltungen in den Übertragungshörsälen der 25er- und 26er-Gebäude geben. Die Fachschaften werden sich vorstellen - anschließend wird es für die Studierenden des Erstsemesters den traditionellen ESAG Event geben auf dem Parkplatz P2 (bis in den Abend).
Im Verlauf der Woche werden die "Erstsemester" dann weiter durch ihre Fachschaftsräte betreut und auf den Studienstart vorbereitet.

Dipayan Ghosh and Ben Scott at New America: “The crisis for democracy posed by digital disinformation demands a new social contract for the internet rooted in transparency, privacy and competition. This is the conclusion we have reached through careful study of the problem of digital disinformation and reflection on potential solutions. …Digital media platforms did not cause the fractured and irrational politics that plague modern societies.

Announcement by Bob Schultz at IBM: “The talent economy is one of the great outcomes of the digital era — and the ability to attract and develop the right talent has become a competitive advantage in most industries. According to a recent IBM study, which surveyed over 2,100 Chief Human Resource Officers, 33 percent of CHROs believe AI will revolutionize the way they do business over the next few years.

By Ben Martin; reposted from Ensia.com
By requiring planners to consider impacts on society and the environment as well as economics, New Zealand is setting a much-needed example for other nations.

In 2011, a professor at Girona University set his students an assignment – to come up with a cooperative business model. A small group of friends and students used the challenge to address the lack of action on generating green energy, and thus Som Energia was founded. Today it has 45,000 members and 70,000 clients across Spain.
In Spain, two private energy companies account for 80% of the country’s energy market, and green energy suppliers are scarce. In December 2010, 157 people decided to try to produce their own renewable energy, and set up Som Energia.

Unhappy with the steps taken so far by WhatsApp, the government plans to trace the origins of incendiary messages spread on its platform.
The article by Surabhi Agarwal was published in Economic Times on September 20, 2018. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The Future of Democracy Working Group at the Institute for Public Knowledge and the GovLab at NYU kicked off its new lecture series on Thursday, September 20th with a conversation between Audrey Tang (Digital Minister, Taiwan) and Beth Simone Noveck (Director, The GovLab).

El Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas 2007 presentará a contar de este lunes 10 de septiembre en la Casa Central de nuestro plantel esta muestra inspirada en la obra del poeta Gonzalo Rojas, en recuerdo y homenaje a Salvador Allende y todas las víctimas de la dictadura.

La actividad, impulsada por el Centro de Excelencia en Geotermia de Los Andes de la Universidad de Chile (CEGA) en colaboración con el Ministerio de Energía, busca disminuir las brechas de información, generar instancias formativas en esta materia y dar a conocer los distintos usos posibles de la geotermia.

Aaron Fernando: We recently explored how blockchain is being used as a force for good and conducted a handful of interviews with practitioners in the industry.

Paper by Paul W. Mungai: “Open data—including open government data (OGD)—has become a topic of prominence during the last decade. However, most governments have not realised the desired value streams or outcomes from OGD. The Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI), a Government of Kenya initiative, is no exception with some moments of success but also sustainability struggles. Therefore, the focus for this paper is to understand the causal mechanisms that either enable or constrain institutionalisation of OGD initiatives.

Book edited by Edy Portmann, Marco E. Tabacchi, Rudolf Seising and Astrid Habenstein: “This book illustrates various aspects and dimensions of cognitive cities. Following a comprehensive introduction, the first part of the book explores conceptual considerations for the design of cognitive cities, while the second part focuses on concrete applications.

By Philine Krosse (NL)
Co-editing Kate Kingston (AUS), Letitia van der Merwe (NL), Manuela Bosch (DE) and Mich Levy (USA), republished from collaborationincubator.net

Today the Internet Society published a matrix of issues that will be discussed at the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Plenipotentiary treaty conference (PP-18) in Dubai next month.  The matrix reflects common proposals adopted recently at some of the ITU’s regional preparatory meetings.

On 22nd of September Internet Society President and CEO, Andrew Sullivan, will take the stage in New York as part of the 2nd annual Global People’s Summit, an event dedicated to bringing new voices forward on some of the world’s most pressing issues.
We invite you to be a part of it. Here’s how:
Time: 12:20 EST / 18:20 CET
Date: 22nd September 2018
URL: https://www.globalpeoplesummit.org/

Competição aconteceu no início do mês em BrasíliaDe 7 a 9 de setembro a equipe da Sociedade de Debates da FGV representou a Universidade no V Campeonato Brasileiro de Debates, realizado em Brasília. Estreante no evento, Matheus Rezende, aluno do 2º período da graduação da FGV Direito Rio, integrou a dupla vice-campã na categoria “novice”. A delegação também levou o segundo lugar geral da competição.

Hierbei untersucht ein Forschungsverbund von Heinrich-Heine-Universität, der Hochschule Fresenius – AMD Akademie Mode & Design Berlin, dem Deutschen Textilmuseum Krefeld, des Museums Burg Linn und des Hetjens – Deutsches Keramikmuseum in den nächsten Jahren Objekte und deren identitätsstiftende und selbstvergewissernde Bedeutungszuschreibungen im 18. Jahrhundert. Ein Beispiel sind etwa Stadtpalais und ihre Raumausstattungen, Porträts, Möbel, Seidengewebe oder Trinkgeschirre aus Porzellan.