Mapping

The evaluation framework we commented on in a recent blog post is only one part of the World Bank’s series of handbooks on rethinking approaches to the use of information and communication technologies for development [ICTD].

NAF's Global Savings and Social Protection initiative is excited to release its second heat-mapping of different countries' potential to implement savings-linked social protection programs. NAF has identified 51 countries around the world that have social safety net/public benefit programs that involve cash transfers. Last week we looked at the financial infrastructure in countries with cash-transfer social protection programs - including Commercial Banks, Microfinance Institutions, ATMs and Point of Service terminals - in order to get a first glimpse of these countries’ potential to implement savings-linked social protection programs.

Developed by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers Partha Kanuparthy and Constantine Dovrolis, a new measurement program called ShaperProbe is the first of its kind to detect traffic shaping over end user connections to the Internet.

Guest post by Rob McCausland

Data visualization leverages the universal grammar of images. When it succeeds, it delivers its impact concisely with elegant design and transmits complex data with split second-efficiency. Numerous blogs are dedicated to data visualizations, such as Information is Beautiful, Flowing Data, Cool Infographics, and Visualizing Economics. The Twittersphere was buzzing last July with this striking Clay Shirky-inspired “Cognitive Surplus Visualized” representation of hours of TV watched plotted against hours spent to create Wikipedia. Companies like IBM employ researchers and computer scientists at their Visual Communication Lab, whose Many Eyes research experiment encourages the public to “upload data, visualize it, and talk about their discoveries with other people.” 

We took a week off here at MPI’s Week in Review, but we’re back now with lots to talk about. Let’s call this post a “Two Weeks in Review.”

• As part of the release of Fiona Morgan’s MPI case study on the Research Triangle, North Carolina, based on The Knight Commission Report on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, the Triangle Community Foundation hosted a forum on Oct. 8 in Durham, N.C. Moderated by MPI Fellow Tom Glaisyer, the event brought together a variety of prominent figures in Triangle media (both traditional and new) to discuss the state of Triangle media, as well as the implications of Morgan’s report.

The New America Foundation and Public Knowledge respectfully submit these comments in response to the Administration’s Public Notice seeking comment on the collection of State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program reports and ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information collected.

In the 33 months since the launch of Amazon's Kindle platform, sales of Kindle e-books have surpassed sales of hardcover books. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicts that e-book sales will surpass paperback sales within the next 12 months, and combined hardcover and paperback sales soon after that. This despite the fact that the 600,000 titles in the Kindle bookstore represents only a fraction of Amazon's inventory.

Recent natural and human-inflicted disasters, such as the Haiti earthquake and the BP oil spill, have emphasized the importance of up-to-the-minute information when catastrophic situations can change at a moment’s notice. In the Washington, D.C. area, there were none of the brutal consequences suffered in Haiti and the Gulf when a 3.6 magnitude earthquake hit at 5:04 a.m. today.

Yet there is much of the same urgent need to find and share information, and digital media tools have played a key part in providing the answers to area residents’ questions this morning.

This is a map of some of the providers of local cable access television channels in the United States, drawn from data collected by th