newspeak

Yet more on the issue, first raised by Moglen in a _NY Times_ article. Now this, and then also the _Le Monde_ cartoon. Moglen’s point was that operations affecting the public should–must–be open to that public, as otherwise one is trusting in the good faith of those companies which are constituted to maximise their profit. Companies like Exxon, BP, and of course, Volkswagen; but it’s hardly alone. Japanese auto makers have acted with contempt for their buyers time and again in the last few years. All of which is to suggest that, as we seem unlikely (or unwilling) to rid ourselves of this arrangement, that we need systems of regulation.And it is not the business of the people to do what government is entrusted to do; that is a version of blaming the victim. Open data policies do not mean that the people must be vigilantes.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act can protect automakers from scrutiny.

Source: A story of dirty emissions … and copyright law | Marketplace.org

An interesting and useful article. But the quoted paragraph below says it all, and also points to the use of “Big Data” or just data—evidence. That is: it can be used to subvert the normal ways in which decisions are made, which appears to be without regard to actuality (the data). The point is not to come up with novel questions leading to novel discoveries, or at least, not here. It is to use the same old questions, and to substantiate the conclusions with data that can be validated. That’s fairly powerful. But, as the question’s tone suggests, it’s also by no means certain that the powers that be will attend to the evidence. And if they do, whether they won’t, as Canada, Australia, or as several states in the US have done, simply stop gathering evidence that would counter the persistence of the desired if not actual world.

Perhaps the next steps are asking how governments who are leading the way in making data-driven decisions can learn from each other, and challenging the perceptions that ‘government’ is resistant to change.After all – government officials, just like us normal folk, are a mixed bunch. Let’s make sure we work with the champions that are there.

Source: Data Driven Decisions: Connecting vulnerable women with health services in Pakistan – Making All Voices Count

I confess I use Slack, like it and feel guilty about all that. I also use more than enough Apple devices and used to feel guilty, until one day, I noted at an Oscon nearly all—!!—the open source developers there were on MacBook Airs. Yes, Oscon is expensive. But it was not the only one. Developers are pragmatic. In fact, that’s why so many like open source and open standards. Makes life easier and also more interesting.

Still, it’s good to see open source alternatives to Slack. Having used nearly all of these, and rather liking IRC, I have to say that Slack is still better. it is less obtrusive, its UI is a pleasure to behold—-and these are not trivial aspects.

Need a team chat application as a part of your collaboration tool suite? Here are five open source chat applications that will help your team stay connected.

Source: Open source chat applications for team collaboration | Opensource.com

Rather more realistic than “psychopath” Hintjens and certainly less self-aggrandising (what is it with these open source mavens?), a piercing look at claim vs reality in Kenya.

From the blurb:

Researcher Nyambura Salome asks whether Kenya’s new e-government platforms have helped to increase citizen engagement with the state – or is it all politics for show?

e-Government platforms for citizen engagement with the state in Kenya

Source: e-Government Platforms Kenya

Source: Ten Rules for Open Source Success – Hintjens.com

The Global Innovation Competition 2016 is calling for entries until October 4th and offers the chance to win a grant from a pool of £450,000.

Source: Global Innovation Competition

*Risk* is central here, and the technological bridge offered by mobile payment reduces the out-of-control risk characterising corrupt and otherwise textured political landscapes. In effect, the pick up of M-Pesa and its ilk trump claims for the cruciality of community—itself a vagueness more satisfying to anthro-nostalgic rich nations than practical actuality.

Source: Mobile money, trade credit, and economic development | VOX, CEPR’s Policy Portal

A good article with pithy quotes from Eben Moglen on the dangers of secret, proprietary software. The VW software was (and is) protected by the DMCA, and it was only because of naïve testing by academic engineers hired to prove the environmental worthiness of diesel engines to Europeans that the cheating was discovered. The underfunded EPA, which can only sample randomly and must rely on the good faith of those whom it regulates, did not find the deception and would not have. And this is but one item in a vast array of things using secret, proprietary software. The question, likely to be raised by defenders of the practice: Would we be safer, as a populace if we could inspect, if not alter, the source code running the world of things? If we knew what was in our food and, more to the point, had the ability to access that information? Defenders would say, No: that revealing the source code would invite sociopaths and industrial spies, even aid terrorists; it would also diminish the value of intellectual property and thus weaken the entrepreneurial drive. I’m sure they could come up with better arguments, for none of those is remotely persuasive and one need not even look to hypotheticals.

via Volkswagen’s Diesel Fraud Makes Critic of Secret Code a Prophet – The New York Times.

Perhaps relevant: I live in Toronto and am usually aware of local events. This event received some but hardly a lot of advertising or community news. The _Guardian’s_ account, cited here, is probably the most interesting. (The author is also one of the drafters of the manifesto.) Toronto’s regular newsites are appallingly lame. Even the more recent entrants, like iPolitics, seem so woefully understaffed and under financed that in reading them I wonder if this is the last time. Why is that? Even this: I go to the gym, where the cardio machines have tv monitors and most are tuned to CNN, the American goodspeak channel.

A lot is going on in Canada right now. There’s even a federal election in about a month, and its outcome is not guaranteed (though pessimism is not irrational here), and yet…. The only thing that Toronto seems to have found of interest is the safe thing, the movie festival. It’s not bad to be starred up. It’s alarming that there’s not more, beyond the stars.

A powerful movement in Canada, animated by a compelling and positive vision for the climate and economy, can force the hand of whichever government comes to power

Source: The Leap Manifesto isn’t radical. It’s a way out of Canada’s head-in-the-sand politics | Martin Lukacs | Environment | The Guardian

Source: Can the promise of open data be fully realized? | Jason Hibbets | LinkedIn