1st July 2016
As Facebook changes its algorithm , publishers who rely on this platform for a good deal of exposure, are worried. Whatever the outcome of this ‘tweak’, what is interesting here, is our increasing reliance on algorithms to run our lives. If we think they are always equitable, then we should think again.This from MIT – Why we should expect algorithms to be biased. It is all down to who created the algorithm, and in most cases this is a well educated, white man.
How Edward Snowden travels more widely now, than he did before he went into exile. Welcome to The Snowbot.
The above story chimes with a piece I covered last year, but is so wonderful I can’t help mentioning again. This is about the remarkable Stuart Turner, a paraplegic, who has used technology to travel the world using drones and robots. Fabulous. This is what he calls, His Extensible Self.
Great stuff for fans of Ridley Scott , Philip K. Dick. and Tech Noir. Here is an in-depth look at the typography and design of Blade Runner.
An interesting perspective on creativity and imagination. This (after Maslow) and from Patti Brennan is the Hierarchy of Imagination – Reflex, Problem Solving, Creativity and Imagination.
Amongst all the talk of crowd sourcing and crowd funding, an interesting perspective from NESTA – ‘When Is The Crowd Wise?’. ‘This remains a field of huge promise. But the claim that crowds are always wise has turned out to be only half right. We need to get better at knowing how to help crowds make the most of their wisdom. That will require a bit more humility, honesty and willingness to learn.‘
From @smithsonianmag -The Surprising History of the Infographic. ‘Early iterations saved soldiers’ lives, helped Americans settle the frontier anddebunked myths about slavery.‘
This how we got to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’. ‘The habit of always saying “please” and “thank you” first began to take hold during the commercial revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — among those very middle classes who were largely responsible for it. It is also merely one token of a much larger philosophy, a set of assumptions of what humans are and what they owe one another, that have by now become so deeply ingrained that we cannot see them.’
How Sentiment Analysis Helps Brands sell. From @emarketer – ‘At the Cannes Lions international advertising festival in June, data visualisation technology provider Buzz Radar conducted an experiment that took sentiment analysis further, diving deeper into different types of emotional nuances.’
17 commercial failures from Brands with spectacularly bad ideas. Remember some of these ?
…..And 17 years to the day after making the first ‘900’ at the X Games, Tony Hawk does it again at 48. This could be the last time he does it.