Technology Podcast 240: Pirate Bay Founders in the Brig, Obama's Tech Policy, and Robots, Robots, Robots!

April 21, 2009

OK, there's no messing about with Technology Podcast 240 from PRI's The World. We know what you've come here for -- robots. The BBC sent me along to the RoboBusiness 2009 Conference and Expo here in Boston recently. There were some fascinating 'bots on display, including this little number, which is called a WAM arm. There was a lot of talk at the conference about the markets that are driving robotic advances. The first is an aging world population that will need extra care, the kind of care that maybe only robots will be able to provide. The other big market driver, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the military. Robots are already seeing action in Iraq and Afganistan, and by all accounts there will be more 'bots seeing even more action in the coming years. The podcast includes an audio segment I did for The World on the conference. But you want to see the robots, don't you?

This week's podcast also includes an in-depth look at a Swedish court's decision to jail and fine the founders of a website called The Pirate Bay. We start with an explainer on what, exactly, the Pirate Bay website does and does not do, and then have analysis on the global implications of the court's decision.

And somewhere in there we also talk about President Obama's pick to be the government's Chief Information Officer. His name is Vivek Kundra, and his appointment did not come without a touch of controversy. The conversation also strays, strangely enough, into politics. Obama depended heavily on tech tools during the campaign. Now that he's in Washington, he's set up a White House blog and Twitter account. But are these technologies really making a difference when it comes to ways US citizens communicate with their leaders? We include a couple of very good clips from Phil Noble, founder of a website called Politics Online.

Technology Podcast 237: An Homage to the Walkman, Andrew Lih and Wikipedia, and Tech Helps Nab Guatemalan Criminals

March 30, 2009

It's an admittedly eclectic line-up for episode 237 of The World's Technology Podcast. But hey, we like eclectic. It gives you interesting things to talk about at boring cocktail parties. Take the humble Sony Walkman, for example. One listener wrote in and told me that his dream was to be the first person to listen to the technology podcast on an old-school cassette player. Now, I was heavy into Walkmans, and I have an attic full of cassettes, most of them featuring hair metal bands from the 80s, like RATT and Twisted Sister. I can't believe I've just admitted that publicly. Anyway, this listener only had 60 minute cassettes, so 30 minutes a side. In respect to the Walkman, I not only provide you an audio montage to start the show, but also keep the length just under 30 minutes, so it will fit on a 60 minute tape. Again, the show is ultimately yours, not mine, and this is just the kind of fan interaction I like.

Moving on to more serious matters, though. WTP 237 also features part one of a podcast exclusive interview with Andrew Lih. He's the author of The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. In part one, Lih, a new media researcher now living in Beijing, talks about what drew him to Wikipedia (he's also an administrator), and gives a nice litle summation of how Wikipedia is edited. I also shot a little video of some of the interview:

And we end this week with an update on a story that mixes technology and politics. We're sorry if that bothers you, but it's an important story, and one that I've been following for more than a year now. In 2005, officials from the Human Rights Prosecutor's office in Guatemala stumbled across a building on a police barracks in the heart of Guatemala City. The building was full of rats, bats, and an estimated 80 million moldering documents. It was the archive of the old Guatemalan National Police. Since its discovery, Guatemalan officials have been working in conjunction with professional archivists and a non-profit from California called Benetech, to clean, sort, digitize and analyze these documents. I did a television piece on the efforts for Frontline/WORLD a while back.

Now, all that effort is starting to pay off. There have been a couple of arrests in a high-profile disappearance case from the 1980s, and the Archive has just released it's initial report into significant findings from the archive.

PRI's The World: Tech Podcast 233 -- The One with Twittering Taco Trucks

March 02, 2009

OK, I love a good taco, especially one served up by a mobile taco truck in SoCal. I also love Korean BBQ. And while I have not yet consumed the Twitter Kool-Aid, I can definitely see the micro-blogging service's appeal. So, just imagine my surprise and delight when a story pitch that combines all three of these marvelous things crossed my desk a couple of weeks ago. There's no question that the Kogi Korean Taco Truck is the undisputed champion segment of this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 233). But kimchi quesadillas can't just be heard...and so here's a nifty audio slideshow for you:

Right, well you're probably too hungry now to read about the rest of the podcast, but here goes anyway. We start this week's show with a very interesting interview about how the technologies used to capture and distribute photographic images of the war dead have changed over the decades. The idea for this segment was sparked by last week's announcement that the Pentagon is reversing a ban on news media publishing pictures of the flag-draped coffins of soldiers. It will now be left to the families to decide whether the pictures can be published. We speak with documentary photographer David Perlmutter.

We also take an in-depth look at some potentially big news from Iran. The Iranian government allowed reporters inside Bushehr, the country's nuclear facility. The reporters were given a guided tour designed to showcase the beginning of some critical testing of the facility. Iran says its for energy purposes only, while many in the West aren't so sure. We hear from a reporter allowed inside the facility, and hear analysis from Ben Rhode of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

And it's been kind of a roller-coaster week and a half for the social networking site Facebook. It all started when the massively popular service announced a few "tweaks," to its terms of service. Some felt the tweaks amounted to something quite sinister, claiming that the changes meant that anything anyone posted to Facebook would be owned, well, by Facebook. In perpetuity. Even if you deleted your account. Whew. The Electronic Privacy Information Center was only one of many organizations that threw a fit. Fittingly, Facebook groups against the new terms of service formed, and quickly. Facebook then countered by revoking the new terms of service, and has opted for a more community based approach to how the site is managed and governed. We get a much-needed reality check on the Facebook about-face.

Oh, and by the way, one of the UK's leading neuroscientists, Susan Greenfield, takes a swipe at Facbook and other social networking sites, claiming that they may in fact be bad for kid's brains. Is this just the old "video games are bad for you" argument, only for the Web 2.0 set? You can decide for yourself. I offer you Greenfield's argument in the podcast, but you can get more analysis here and here.

Fittingly, you can find WTP on Facebook and Twitter. Fry your brain along with us. You can hear all of WTP 233 by just clicking below!

(Screengrab from Facebook, naturally)

Africans Search for Obama

November 07, 2008

Former VP candidate Sarah Palin may be unclear on the exact geographic status of Africa (country or continent?), but a quick spin through Google Insights for Search, reveals that Africans are more interested in Barack Obama.

I've covered the last four elections, and I've never, ever seen the kind of global interest in US politics in general, or in a specific candidate, as I have this time around. That's why the results here are not surprising, but interesting none-the-less. Just look at what happens when you gauge the global search interest in "Obama" over the past seven days.

That's right -- eight out of 10 are countries on the continent of Africa. Kenya is no shocker as the leader, considering Obama's family ties to the country.

So what do these results tell us? First, they don't imply that more Kenyans are searching for Obama than Americans. They just mean that a greater percentage of Kenyans (and Ethiopians, and Ugandans, and Cameroonians) who are online and searching are looking for information on the US President-Elect. Also, this has been the case not just in the last seven days. African nations have, according to this article, led the world in the concentration of "barack obama" searches for the past year.

Well, if you're going to name your child after the man, I guess it makes sense to know a little bit about him. For their part, the Obama team seems eager to feed its online supporters. Less than 48 hours after winning the election, Obama's transition website was up and running.

Oh, and just for fun and comparison, here's the global Google Insights results for "palin."

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PRI's The World: Technology Podcast 217, Special Election Edition

November 04, 2008

What's a technology correspondent to do when he's left off the Election Day broadcast? Why, do a special Election Day podcast, of course. Here's WTP 217, which focuses on how technology has shaped, and been shaped by, the seemingly endless campaign for the US presidency.

We begin with a report that examines how both the McCain and Obama campaigns have tried to harness the power of on-line tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The report includes a couple of great clips from Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post.

From there, we try to get a handle on which camp better harnessed technology in pursuit of victory. We speak first with Phil Noble, founder of a website called Politics Online. Phil told me that he's been amazed at what the Obama campaign has managed to do on-line, both from a fundraising point of view, and an organizational point of view. He looks back to 2004, and Howard Dean's failed campaign for the Democratic nomination. Noble quoted veteran 'net campaigner Joe Trippi: "The Dean Campaign was the Wright Brothers. The Obama Campaign is the Apollo moon shot."

Then, we broaden it out by turning to Andrew Rasiej at the non-partisan group blog techPresident. Andrew also has praise for the Obama campaign when it comes to using not just the web, but also cell phone text messages. The interesting question for Andrew is what happens to the online communities Obama has created after the election. He told me:

"Win or lose, it's very clear that politics is going to be completely changed, not so much as battles between two parties, but between generations over the future of the country in relation to how much information is available, when decisions get made, who makes them. This is a new vanguard of citizen activists that this technology has enabled, and every administration going forward is looking at a new 21st century democracy."

Next, we hear from a San Francisco based mobile phone company called Credo. It's a full-service company that's doing some very interesting free projects around social causes in general, and around this election in particular. They're offering a web and text message service that allows you to send friends and family an SMS reminder to go and vote. You can also send a text message to 69866, with your street address and zip code, and you will receive back, in short order, your polling location and a Google map to help you find it. And finally, Credo's implemented a Mobile Action project. Some 12,000 poll watchers worldwide will be monitoring polling locations, and using texts and calls to alert folks to potential problems at polling stations.

I find this use of mobiles and texts fascinating, and familiar. Familiar because I've reported on it before, and fascinating because it's usually in the context, not of developed democracies, but in emerging democracies. Phil Noble cites The Orange Revolution in Ukraine. See also great blog posts on this by Ethan Zuckerman of the Berkman Center at Harvard, and Erik Hersman, blogging at White African.

Happy Voting!

Oh, almost forgot. The Onion has already called the election. The winner? The voting machines.

Thank you, Onion, for some much needed, semi-comic relief.

The Long, Winding and Largely Tech-Free Road

October 30, 2008

Well, it's the post that I've finally been forced to write. We're down to the wire now with the US Presidential elections. The editors at the day job have been on me now for a many months to "do something about Obama and McCain on technology policy." OK, first of all, that's a horrible assignment. It's too broad, for starters. I mean, how can I squeeze H1-B visas, broadband policy, and spectrum into four and a half minutes of radio. Heck, I can't even explain net neutrality to someone...coherently...in less than 10 minutes. Trouble is, well -- war, the economy, health care and host of other issues seem to have pushed tech off the official agenda. I sat through three presidential debates eagerly awaiting at least ONE tech-related question I could run with. All I got, during the second debate, were numerous questions FROM the Internet, but not ABOUT the Internet. I wondered out loud not only who this Internet was, but why he/she/it was allowed three questions, when others got only one.

So imagine my delight when I found out that the New America Foundation in DC was sponsoring "McCain v. Obama: The Tech Policy Smackdown." In one corner, wearing the red trunks, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Chief Economic Adviser to McCain. And in the blue trunks, in the other corner, Reed Hundt, Technology Policy Adviser to Barack Obama. I tuned into the webcast at 12:25PM today, ready for the rumble.

Trouble is, Holtz-Eakin from the McCain camp was a no-show. And no one came in his place to represent to the McCain camp. I'm not in the business in reporting one-sided talks. If you want to listen to Reed Hundt talk about what tech policies an Obama adminstration might or might not pursue, you can listen here. You can find McCain's tech policies laid out, in similarly vague fashion, here. Hundt did manage a head-on collision with FCC Chairman Michael Powell back in June, and you can listen to that here.

Some final links to help your inner geek at the ballot box: Wired Magazine's election scorecard. There's also this report (PDF) comparing the candidates' tech and innovation policies from The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

And for the cynics among us, here's Scientific American's take on whether your vote will even get counted correctly by the voting machines.

(Pix from the official websites of the candidates)

A Different Kind of Political Candidate

October 15, 2008

As you ready yourself for tonight's final debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, I'd like to draw your attention to...wait for it...the Presidential election in Azerbaijan. Azeris went to the polls today to, well, give the incumbent Ilham Aliyev (son of the previous leader) yet another term in office. Expect a landslide; all of the major opposition groups boycotted the election. But one candidate didn't. Take a gander at Shiraslan Qurbanov, straight out of the Azeri heartland, according to his bio. My Azeri is a bit rusty, but I'm assured that the slogan reads, "The People's Candidate." Uncle Shiraslan, as he's known, just happens to be 70 years old today...on election day of all days. Again, according to his official bio.

But don't let Shiraslan's age fool you. The man seems to be an online whizkid. He's got lots of Azeris on his email list, not to mention his own slick website, his own Facebook page, and his own channel on YouTube. No wonder the younger generation is excited about Shiraslan's candidacy, no?

Bakhtiyar Hajiyev is the "political director" of Shiraslan's campaign. He told me in an interview today that "young Azeris are looking for new faces, new actors in Azerbaijani politics. Shiraslan is a very positive politician." Hajiyev pointed out as plusses not only his candidate's rejection of negative campaigning, but also his strong foreign policy.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

"It sounds like a paradox, but the only real opposition candidate in this election...is a virtual candidate," says Hajiyev.

Yep. Shiraslan only exists online. Hajiyev, who is a student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, worked with some other Azeri expats to create their own opposition candidate. At first, real opposition groups in Azerbaijan laughed Shiraslan off as a joke. But when they saw the success the virtual candidate was acheiving, they quickly started web sites and YouTube channels for their own, real candidates.

"We want to send a message that if there is no platform to discuss and reach people offline, you can at least try online. You can reach some voters, and create momentum," Hajiyev told me.

As for Shiraslan, no, he's not actually on the ballot. A cell phone text message campaign today urged those disinclined to vote to head to the polls, and scrawl Shiraslan's name across the ballot. Sure, that negates the ballot under Azeri law, but at least, the thinking goes, you might actually feel like voting.

And if all else fails, you can enjoy the Shiraslan rap. I'm pretty sure you can learn some useful Azeri swear words in here...but don't quote me on that.