technology

From The Conversation, written by Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A home solar panel system is a consumer product like few others. Because the alternative choice — electricity from the grid — is almost universally available, relatively inexpensive and has no up-front cost, potential buyers of solar systems require other incentives. These can range from government rebates to credit for energy sold back to the grid to the warm feeling one gets for doing a good deed — in this case, for the environment.

The Issue: Need directions? Or a restaurant recommendation? These days, you’d probably seek help on your smartphone — a handy know-it-all device that can spit out answers to almost anything anywhere at any time. But a mere ten years ago, you may have asked someone — a neighbor, a stranger — for help. A new paper looks at the unseen social costs of this change in how we obtain information and interact with others.

This tip sheet is designed for journalists with no experience reporting abroad who want a primer on how to prepare. At the bottom of this page is a list of resources that could be useful to any journalist looking for international data.

A May 2014 White House report on “big data” notes that the ability to determine the demographic traits of individuals through algorithms and aggregation of online data has a potential downside beyond just privacy concerns: Systematic discrimination.

The global relationship between the Internet and democracy has become a subject of great scholarly interest and debate. Prior research has focused on national Internet penetration, usage rates, and changes in the way government works and how public institutions operate.