Category: World View
The Morality of Openness
I feel like my moral compass is broken. Like many things that break, I put the first aberrations down to anomalies, exceptions that prove the rule. But just as a real compass doesn’t point to true north but to a...
Google, Facebook, and frickin’ Laser Beams
I have such a complicated relationship with Google and Facebook that I sometimes find it hard to write about them. I don’t mean complicated in the sense of conflict of interest although it is true that one of the organisations...
The Real Reason Why White Spaces Spectrum Matters
You may have seen a resurgence of news about “Net Neutrality” in the last few weeks. This is because a US court recently ruled that the communications regulator (the Federal Communications Commission- FCC) doesn’t have the power to insist that...
Mobile — You Keep Using That Word
In his predictions for 2014, Google chairman Eric Schmidt boldly states “mobile has won“. For a man who has made some fairly ambitious predictions in the past, pundits regarded this prediction as fairly tame, perhaps even self-evident. Yet lurking beneath...
The Open Data Cart and Twin Horses of Accountability and Innovation
Let me start by saying that the ideals of the Open Data movement: transparency; accountability; and, citizen innovation, are ones that I hold near to my heart. Further, I admire and respect many of the leaders of the Open Data...