Kelvin Watson, American Libraries; Libraries on Call
Ethically-tangled aspects of 21st century societies and cultures. In the vein of Charles Darwin’s 1859 “entangled bank” metaphor—a complex and evolving digital ecosystem of difference and dependence, where humans, technologies, ethics, law, policy, data, and information converge and diverge. Kip Currier, PhD, JD
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Libraries on Call; American Libraries, March 1, 2023
Sunday, April 11, 2021
He built a website showing open Covid-19 vaccine appointments across the US. Some call it a lifesaver; CNN, April 11, 2021
Christina Maxouris, CNN; He built a website showing open Covid-19 vaccine appointments across the US. Some call it a lifesaver
"For weeks, Nick Muerdter had been hearing about his coworkers' concerns and frustrations as they tried to navigate complicated and evolving Covid-19 vaccination systems to land an appointment for their parents...
In mid-February, Muerdter began creating a tool in his free time that scanned local pharmacies' vaccine appointment availability and gathered all that information in one place -- allowing users to view nearby available appointments just by plugging in their zip code and how far they were willing to drive.
Coworkers that had been searching for weeks found appointments for eligible family members in just days, he said, with the help of the new website.
"This just really sort of tried to automate what you would have to do if you were to go the websites and enter every single zip code or ... check every single store in your area," he said.
And soon, what started off as a small side project became an "all consuming" job, outside his full-time job. Muerdter's website now covers all 50 US states, plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
He calls it: Covid-19 Vaccine Spotter."...
"The feedback has really been sort of amazing and positive and so many people seem to have found this useful," he said. "That's just sort of what makes me happy."
And knowing he's helping is reward enough, Muerdter says.
But flooded with offers of donations, Muerdter created an option to contribute to his efforts, money he says goes toward covering website costs. Whatever is leftover, he gives to charities like UNICEF and Direct Relief.
"I'm not trying to make money off of this," he says. "I'm just happy to help people.""
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Student tracking, secret scores: How college admissions offices rank prospects before they apply; The Washington Post, October 14, 2019
Sunday, July 8, 2018
FCC Refuses to Back Down From Plan to Strip Phone and Internet Subsidies for American Indians; Gizmodo, July 7, 2018
FCC Refuses to Back Down From Plan to Strip Phone and Internet Subsidies for American Indians
"Late last year, the Federal Communications Commission under Ajit Pai voted to make it harder for American Indians to receive subsidies for broadband internet service. Despite legal challenges, the commission decided this week not to reverse its position, opting instead to continue to deny expanded assistance for phone and internet access...
The FCC under Ajit Pai has taken particular interest in dismantling much of the Lifeline program, which helps to make broadband internet and both landline and mobile phone services available to low-income Americans."
OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong; The Verge, April 16, 2018
[Kip Currier: Very interesting April 2018 article in The Verge about the One Laptop Per Child initiative.]
"Thirteen years ago, OLPC told the world that every child should get a laptop. It never stopped to prove that they needed one."
Thursday, February 8, 2018
The least connected people in America; Politico, February 7, 2018
[Kip Currier: A must-read primer on the State of the Digital and Tech Divides in America AND a compelling call for long-promised, long-overdue action on Broadband Internet access for all Americans.]
"As broadband internet becomes more and more important in the U.S. — the way Americans do everything from apply for jobs to chatting with their relatives to watching TV — one gap has become more glaring: the difference between those who have broadband and those who don't. An estimated 24 million people, about 8 percent of Americans, still have no home access to high-speed internet service, defined by the Federal Communications Commission as a download speed of 25 megabits per second. (That's what the FCC says allows telecommuting or streaming high-definition video.) The overwhelming majority of those people live in rural areas, like farms or in big, poorly served areas like this one.
The shorthand for fixing this problem is “closing the digital divide," and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says it's his top priority. But it has been a high-priority problem for years and remained persistently out of reach for reasons rooted in the structure of our telecommunications system itself. Internet access in the U.S. depends almost entirely on private companies; unlike other crucial services like postal delivery or electric power, it isn't considered the government's job, and isn't regulated as a public utility. But the limits of that system have become painfully apparent: Companies can't make money by running expensive wires to few customers, and a complex tangle of incentives offered by the government hasn't solved the problem in towns like Orofino.
Nowhere is the lack of broadband access more acute than in places like this: Rural Indian reservations have lower rates of coverage than anywhere else in the nation. About 35 percent of Americans living in tribal lands lack broadband access, according to the most recent report by the FCC. In Idaho, the FCC estimates that 83 percent of the tribal population lacks broadband, making the Nez Perce tribe among the least-connected groups in the country."
Sunday, March 27, 2011
A Girl’s Nude Photo, and Altered Lives; New York Times, 3/26/11
"Around the country, law enforcement officials and educators are struggling with how to confront minors who “sext,” an imprecise term that refers to sending sexual photos, videos or texts from one cellphone to another.
But adults face a hard truth. For teenagers, who have ready access to technology and are growing up in a culture that celebrates body flaunting, sexting is laughably easy, unremarkable and even compelling: the primary reason teenagers sext is to look cool and sexy to someone they find attractive."