Korean and Finnish university researchers have conducted a new study into how cultural differences influence computer interface requirements, focusing on how Korean, Japanese, and Finnish people responded to different mobile data services and how those responses matched cultural aspects. The…
Category: Values In Design
Understanding how ethical values are embedded in technology, and working to ensure values are considered in technology design practices.
Analyzing the Google News Bias
Continuing the on-going discussion of bias at GoogleNews, TechDirt links to this study (an MA thesis) which aims to measure the source bias in GoogleNews.The study examines search results for evidence of bias. By analyzing the content of articles returned…
NYT on Grokker
Today's New York Times article "Your Internet Search Results, in the Round" features Grokker, the graphical search engine interface that presents results in a spatial map.Currently, the major search engines have all limited displays to ranked lists of sites. The…
Eliminating Folders: Progress or Hindrance?
Insdie Google points to Lee Gomes's article "Folders That Now Seem So Yesterday May Be Very Handy Tomorrow" in today's The Wall Street Journal arguing that Google and others, revolutionizing individual computing by eliminating folders, are actually making things less…
Post-It Notes – 25 Years of Hypertext in Paper
A Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine, The Rake, has a fascinating article revealing the history and development of the humble, ubiquitous Post-It Note. An intriguing tale of a dedicated visionary working the system to bring an innovative product to life in a…
How “search” is redefining the Web — and our lives
The Seattle Times had an article this weekend on "How 'search' is redefining the Web — and our lives." It is a well-written piece and provides a succinct history of the search engine industry, but ,as is typical, these kinds…
Read More How “search” is redefining the Web — and our lives
Google TrustRank
Google registered a trademark for the word "TrustRank," as Search Engine Watch and Google Blogoscoped discuss. I agree with the speculation that TrustRank sounds like a more social variant of the link-based PageRank algorithm Google relies on for search results.…
Value Implicaitons of Nanotechnology
While presenting at the AAAS Science and Technology in Society Graduate Conference this past weekend, I met Ruben Rodriques, a Political Science grad student from Northeastern University. Ruben is a researcher at the Nanotechnology and Society Research Group, an exciting…
Barr: Law vs. Technology
Bob Barr, formerly a member of the House of Representatives and the Judiciary Committee, recently published an editorial on FindLaw asking the questions "Can We Protect Our Privacy Through Legal Solutions? Or Is Technology Now Beyond Our Control?" He points…
Ubiquitous Cameras & Privacy in Public
My earlier discussion of privacy as Contextual Integrity builds on the problem of "privacy in public and how public surveillance has become a part of a modern citizen’s everyday life. This AP article drives home just how ubiquitous surveillance cameras…
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