Telecom & Technology

Welcome to our weekly series, highlighting the most newsworthy events under the Open Technology Initiative’s three key areas: Freedom of Expression, Spectrum Policy, and Privacy and Security.

During the past month, a handful of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate reached across the partisan divide to introduce the Startup Act 2.0, a bill to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs in the United States by easing restrictions on immigration. It's a great bill, but it could be better. In addition to its immigration measures, it should also advance a plan to boost entrepreneurship and technical skills at home. Here's one important way to do that: Encourage public schools to teach American children how to code just after they learn to multiply.

On Thursday May 24th, the corner of 16th and Newton Street NW became the eighth node in the growing Mount Pleasant Community Wireless Network. Several folks in the neighborhood and a few team members from the Open Technology Institute (OTI) joined forces with members of HacDC, a community hackerspace, to install a Commotion-powered wireless router on the roof of St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church.

Long known for its work in the world’s most devastated regions, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is now developing a reputation for pragmatic and thoughtful use of technological tools, from SMS messaging to mapping tools and open-source software. In a recent discussion with OTI, Robert Whelan, a communications delegate for the ICRC, talked about how the Red Cross uses the different technical tools available to today’s aid workers to further its goals in some of the most dangerous, impoverished, and remote regions of the globe.

Welcome to our weekly series, highlighting the most newsworthy events under the Open Technology Initiative’s three key areas: Freedom of Expression, Spectrum Policy, and Privacy and Security. Contact us with story ideas: blog@opentechinstitute.org

As the United States develops its broadband policies, we can look abroad for examples of digital expansion efforts that have had a positive impact on community health and wellbeing. One such example is Taiwan’s Digital Opportunity Centers (DOC), which are equivalent to public computer centers in the U.S. DOCs mitigate the digital divide, help in post-disaster reconstruction efforts, and enhance community development.

One 26-year-old says more than half his memories come from his online life. A Japanese man marries a voluptuous digital avatar. A corporate laboratory implants memories in 7-year-olds, convincing them they swam with dolphins. In their minds, they even got wet.

Every era comes with a vision of global peace, usually named for the reigning hegemon of the time. Pax Romana during the Roman era, Pax Mongolica when the Mongols ruled so much of the world, Pax Brittannica for many years, and Pax Americana today. None of these were particularly peaceful periods, of course. The great power enforced their dominance through, among other things, advances in military technology, which intimidated its enemies but spurred arms races and competition.

The word “technology” combines the Greektekhne and logos, symbolizing that technology, like language, is as intrinsic to the human condition as speech. Language, though, does not stand alone; it is part of a larger cultural system. Hence the German word Technik, which denotes not only technologies themselves, but also the skills and processes surrounding them. A century ago, leading Western philosophers appreciated the promise and peril of mass industrialization technologies.