Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Web/Tech
-
A Sticky WCIT Indeed
The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) recently debated the future of Internet governance, exposing divergent global views.
-
Online Higher Education
I think this is time of profound change, of punctuated equilibrium when the confluence of technologies, social expectations and economic pressures will necessitate substantive change in our university structures and how we deliver educational materials. We must move carefully and thoughtfully, embracing opportunity while diligently preserving that which we cherish and value.
-
My Big Scientific Data Are Lonely
An old joke defines data mining as (insert possessive gesture here) data are mine. Sadly, this hoary saw is more often truthful than humorous. We must find a new way forward that defines the principles and processes for protecting intellectual property while also creating appropriate cultural and economic rewards for data sharing and sustainability. This…
-
Digital Inclusion
An economic and cultural chasm, a digital divide, separates the digitally connected from those who lack the ways or the means to join the digital community. In a knowledge economy, the separated are cut off from a plethora of services, educational materials, and business prospects.
-
Information Privacy: Changing Norms and Expectations
That picture of you at a family reunion, squinting into the sun, can rarely be delimited by a physical location. Instead, information flows freely and often globally. We need to rethink our notions of information privacy, moving beyond concepts rooted primarily in person and place, and considering logical privacy.
-
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Had Thoreau had a smartphone, he would not have been texting his best bud, Ralph (Waldo Emerson), about the joys of solitude, nor would he have been tweeting or posting photos of his house construction. I am rather more confident he would have espoused the healing virtues of periodic digital seclusion and contemplation.