"We know from human history that developments in technologies over the centuries, ranging from the Industrial Revolution through to the invention of the automobile, then airplanes and so forth, the landscape of progress is littered with human casualties. People die because of these things being tested."
A provocative statement, the first thing you hear in episode 1 in the third season of the Digital Download podcast that I did with host Paul Sutton last month in which we discussed emerging … [Read more...] about Emerging tech:
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Ethics
Emerging tech:
SDF Podcast 18: Inertia, ethics, and breaches of trust
Data, data everywhere, but ethics in short supply. The latest episode of the Small Data Forum podcast follows the classic narrative arc of a three-act story. Beginning, middle, and end. The set-up, the confrontation, and the resolution. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. And although our wide-ranging discussion did run the risk of leaving all three co-hosts in the depths of despair, Neville Hobson, Thomas Stoeckle, and I end up hoping that the asteroid NASA predicts is hurtling towards earth ca … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 18: Inertia, ethics, and breaches of trust
Exposing the realities of our relationships with Facebook and other social platforms
This week has been an extraordinary one, not only for Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and members of the US Congress but also for users of Facebook and other social networking platforms wherever they are in the world. Indeed, it has been a week of revelation and food for considerable thought on a grand scale. During two days, on April 10 and April 11, the Facebook co-founder and CEO appeared before members of the US Senate and Congress to answer questions about Facebook and how it handles … [Read more...] about Exposing the realities of our relationships with Facebook and other social platforms
SDF Podcast 17 – “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it”
The SmallDataForum convened in late March, and as for our big story, we had several candidates and angles on the same theme of the use and abuse of data. This episode's show notes were written by Thomas Stoeckle. Sam is now a newly published author of a book about how to tell powerful and purposeful stories with data, Narrative by Numbers. A very timely (and equally timeless) topic and title. A recently published study in Science about the velocity and spread of true and false news … [Read more...] about SDF Podcast 17 – “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it”
What next for Facebook?
Even if you're not interested in nor a user of Facebook, you'd have been hard pressed indeed to have avoided the blaze of publicity about the social networking site every day this past week. That blaze has been white hot in its ferocity and intensity on alleged wrong-doing by the American firm, and by a British political consulting and data mining company called Cambridge Analytica, over the mishandling of data related to more than 50 million users that allegedly played a significant role in … [Read more...] about What next for Facebook?