Researchers show maps can be powerful tools in fighting poverty
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network and the World Bank have produced “Where the Poor Are: An Atlas of Poverty,” a series of maps detailing spatially referenced data on hunger, child mortality, income poverty and other related indicators at the global, regional, national and local scales.
[Note: here is a link to this collection of maps; and here is the Poverty Atlas Order Form, a page from which you can download the whole atlas -- or order a copy.]
Source: The Earth Institute at Columbia University, September 28, 2006
Keeping citizens in touch with local decision-making
Falling voter numbers in elections across the European continent suggest people are increasingly disenchanted with the political process. Could an enhanced webcasting system, tested by local authorities in four countries, solve this ‘democratic deficit’ and help to bind communities together?
Source: IST Results, October 3, 2006
Bugging offices is not a crime (in UK)
Bugging offices in the UK is not a criminal offence, according to surveillance and legal experts speaking to OUT-LAW radio. While recording a phone conversation is a criminal offence, someone could place a recording device in an office legally, they said.
Source: OUT-LAW, via The Register, October 5, 2006
First Responders Can Tag Victims For Tracking
The governments of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany in the last few weeks have been reviewing a system to wirelessly track disaster victims from the scene of the incident to the hospital. Only Belgium has been piloting a customized version of the Victim Tracking and Tracing Systems (ViTTS) that includes RFID technology.
Source: Claire Swedberg, RFID Journal, October 6, 2006
Standards to stimulate e-voting?
The government was quick to trust the Internet with tax returns, but it still has not managed to organize a paperless voting system. What’s the holdup?
Many voting citizens, whether they consider themselves red, blue or green, have been asking that question since the 2000 election shed light on how inconsistent, and often low-tech, the voting systems are in the United States.
Source: Candace Lombardi, CNET News.com, October 6, 2006
A movie library in your living room
When Mike Poindexter joins his wife and daughter on the couch, he pulls out a touch pad and scrolls through a list of 622 movies. With a single tap, he sorts his movies by director, genre or lead actor. Once he selects a title, a DVD menu appears on his movie screen, but the DVD itself remains on a shelf somewhere. An exact copy of each of Poindexter’s DVD’s has been loaded onto his Kaleidescape server, an array of hard disks capable of holding more than 5 terabytes.
[Note: I doubt that many smartmobbers can afford such a beast: the starting price today for such a system is starting price of $27,000.]
Source: Wilson Rothman, The New York Times, via CNET News.com, October 7, 2006
