A 2013 project to create a digital Library for All platform in Haiti has now put books at the fingertips of up to 2,000 school-aged kids, many of whom are former child slaves living on less than two dollars per day. The Respire Haiti school in Gressier served as the pilot for the program. One […]
Digital Library Connects Haiti’s Poorest Kids to World of Books
Posted March 13th, 2015 at 2:30 pm (UTC-5)
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ITU: No Deadline Extension for Africa on Digital Switch
Posted February 27th, 2015 at 2:48 pm (UTC-5)
African countries that fail to make the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting beginning in June will not get an extension and will lose international protection rights, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies. While the deadlines were reached consensually in 2006 and some African […]
New Tools Heat Up Censorship Arms Race
Posted February 20th, 2015 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
Online censorship may be as old as the Internet, but in today’s high-tech world, it is increasingly a perpetual arms race between censors looking for better ways to probe and muzzle, and a circumvention community looking to help the censored get and send information while protecting their digital identity. Circumvention Aids Flashproxy makes it easier […]
UNDP Eyes Ukraine’s Damaged Buildings With Crowdsourcing, Mobile App
Posted February 13th, 2015 at 2:37 pm (UTC-5)
The crisis that plunged east Ukraine into war in November 2013 has damaged or destroyed critical infrastructure and limited access to areas caught up in fighting between Ukraine’s government forces and pro-Russian rebels. In order to assess damage, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) turned to crowdsourcing to help restore social infrastructure as part of […]
White Space Gives Ghanaians Affordable Broadband Access
Posted February 6th, 2015 at 2:17 pm (UTC-5)
Broadband Internet access can be expensive, even prohibitive in some countries, if it’s even available at all. To remedy the situation, tech giant Microsoft, among others, has turned to unused, unlicensed spectrum on VHF and UHF bands, also known as White Spaces, to deliver affordable high-speed Internet connectivity in Ghana. The program provides students at […]
Crowdfunding Helps Singapore Literature Put Roots in New York
Posted January 30th, 2015 at 2:18 pm (UTC-5)
Crowdfunding, both charitable and for-profit, has financed everything from struggling arts projects to an Oscar-winning film to (absurdly) a batch of potato salad. Some of the grassroots money-raising platforms charge a percentage for facilitating the donations. Others do it for free. Donors get discounts and other gifts in return for their generosity. When the Singapore […]
Apps That Connect, Apps That Help
Posted January 23rd, 2015 at 3:02 pm (UTC-5)
There is a mobile app for everything these days — from chatting to gaming, from learning to health and fitness. More recent apps glean users’ tastes to match them with others like them or parse their language to connect them with people they might be looking for. And then there are apps for emergencies that […]
Help! I’m a Pirate and I’m Stuck in the Game!
Posted January 16th, 2015 at 1:00 pm (UTC-5)
Piracy accounts for 43 percent of all software installed on PCs, or about $62.7 billion in commercial value, according to BSA | The Software Alliance 2013 figures. And while developers have been using Digital Rights Management (DRM) tools to thwart pirates, some have taken a less-traveled anti-piracy path. Among them is Croteam, an independent game developer […]
2014: A Wearable, Heartbleed, Sony-esque Kind of Year
Posted January 2nd, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
2014 saw Artificial Intelligence, 3-D printing and wearable technology expanding into new areas and new gadgets. It marked a turning point with increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. It was a year of upheaval that cast doubt on the viability of cryptocurrencies even as new methods of digital payments were born. And 2014 continued the lack of diversity […]