Categories
-Updates 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 9.3 Internet Issues: Ethical and Political Dilemmas 9.4 From Cyberspace to Infosphere

The Activist in Your Pocket

buycottDid you ever wonder who gets your money when you go shopping? You may, without knowing it, be donating your hard-earned cash to people and corporations who use it to fund campaigns that go against your beliefs and values. This Forbes article describes Buycott, a smart phone app that can instantly reveal the secret origins of the items in your shopping cart. Whether you’re concerned about a cleaner environment or a more equitable society or something else, technology can help you vote with your wallet every time you shop.
forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/05/14/new-app-lets-you-boycott-koch-brothers-monsanto-and-more-by-scanning-your-shopping-cart/

Categories
-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.4 Education in the Information Age 11.5 High-Tech Schools 11.6 Technology and School: Midterm Grades

Digital Help for Indigenous People and the Planet

A few short decades ago the Surui tribe lived a stone-age lifestyle in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Encroachment of modern civilization into their forest threatened their homeā€”and their very existence. But today the tribe is using digital technology to help preserve the rainforest, the people that live there, and the health of our shared planet. This unlikely story is described in this NPR piece and the accompanying YouTube video.
npr.org/2013/03/28/175580980/from-the-stone-age-to-the-digital-age-in-one-big-leap

Categories
-Cross Currents 1.3 Computers Today: A Brief Taxonomy Working Wisdom: Green Computing

Can a Laptop Be Too Cool?

wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/opinion-apple-retina-displa
Apple’s latest laptop announcements offer consumers a clear choice. According to this Wired opinion piece, consumers will be choosing between cool and green, and the choices they make may have profound environmental implications.

Categories
-Multimedia 11.5 High-Tech Schools 11.7 The High-Tech Home 5.4 Beyond the Printed Page 6.3 From Hypertext to Interactive Multimedia

A next-generation digital book

Most of the e-books published so far have been on-screen versions of paper books. In this short TED presentation, Mike Matas gives us a peek at the possibilities when digital books combine state-of-the-art interactive multimedia with compelling text.
[ted id=1134]
View at TED site
Categories
-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 2.3 The Computer's Core: CPU and Memory

The Green IT Movement has lost the plot

The computer industry is trying to green up its act by creating more energy-efficient products. But according to David Moschella in his Computerworld column, computer manufacturers need to take a hard look at what happens to our tech tools and toys when we discard them and move on to newer devices.
The_Green_IT_movement_has_lost_the_plot