Tag: transparent_society

Transparency pays for itself

why transparent government proceedings increase market efficiency

Agression Detection

an application of the sound detection technology where the system is set to detect verbal aggression. As soon as the sound contains the indicators of aggression, a signal is sent which can be used e.g. to activate the nearest observation camera.

Sensors, Robots and Rivers

Scientists at the Beacon Institute are working with IBM engineers to weave a network of sensors, robots and simulations that will monitor 500 km of New York’s Hudson River on a “minute-to-minute” basis, creating the most complex model ever created of a river’s flow.

the sensor network is almost certainly the biggest yet. let’s hope the resulting data is freely available

Compound-Eye Camera

He looked at biological imaging systems–in particular, the compound eyes of insects–for the design blueprint. The technology, called TOMBO (Thin Observation Module by Bound Optics), is actually a collection of 9 small lenses and software that analyzes the scene by mimicking the process that insects use to recognize the position, shape, and color of objects. The researchers have crammed TOMBO’s hardware into a tiny box the size of a shirt button. And in the age of increasingly smaller and thinner mobile gadgets, such a compound-eye camera could provide powerful image-taking and image-recognizing functions in, for example, a cell phone.

camera the size of a shirt button can extract 3D information from scenes and recognize objects.

The Conspiracy Boom

conspiracy theories are everywhere because the means to distribute information far outstrips the access to good information. cue the transparent society

1TB hard drive

another milestone. $350. compare: “The storage requirement for a video stream and 2 audio streams, plus GPS location, is only ~10TB per year – which will cost about $25 by 2017”. ie, you can now do a lifelog for $5k/y

Earmarks are winning

8 months after Democrats vowed to shine light on the dark art of “earmarking” money for pet projects, the new visibility has only intensified the competition for projects by letting each member see exactly how many everyone else is receiving.

Congress Needs Git

Most people don’t get outraged when they hear that a clause has been inserted into a bill but that no one can say who inserted it. Those of us who use version control systems get outraged, because we think: why don’t they just check the commit logs?

OECD wiki?

the OECD is thinking of creating a wiki for the presentation and discussion of international, national and local initiatives aimed at developing indicators of societal progress.

BIG win for the dataweb

Citizen Analysis

Publishing the city’s operational data directly to the web, for everyone to see and analyze, with the explicit goal of making the delivery of government services transparent and accountable, was and is an astonishingly bold move.