kerkko.fi

I have noticed a huge trend not only in websites moving away from RSS to Twitter and Facebook, but removing it completely! This is NOT a good move for people who provide content to stay in touch with consumers. RSS is a way to consume a LOT of information very quickly, and store it in nice categories if you miss it. I can catch up with a small blog’s output at the end of the week and, if I so choose, read every article easily in one sitting.

Small blogs cut their own throat by taking away the RSS capability. Social media outlets are information colanders: 5% of your followers will see anything you post, and that is probably only within 20 minutes of posting. That is the way it is, and it is going to only get worse. Apart from email lists, RSS is the best way you can collect stuff across the internet to read quickly, and I am so irritated when that choice is taken from me.

http://feliciaday.com/blog/rss-rant

The Never-Betters believe that we are on the brink of a new utopia, where information will be free and democratic, news will be made from the bottom up, love will reign, and cookies will bake themselves.

The Better-Nevers think that we would have been better off if the whole thing had never happened, that the world that is coming to an end is superior to the one that is taking its place, and that books create private space for minds.

The Ever-Wasers insist that at any moment in modernity something like this is going on, and that a new way of organizing data and connecting users is always thrilling to some and chilling to others; that this is what makes it a modern moment.

American software developer Dave Winer announced that he is working on a simple blogging tool that keeps an archival copy of your content on your servers, but pushes it out onto whatever other publishing platform you choose. "The important thing is that you and your ideas live outside the silo and are ported into it at your pleasure," Winer wrote. "You never have to worry about getting your stuff out of the silo because it never lived in there in the first place."

Companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, they know more about you than your significant other. They know what you’re searching for and when, what sites you visit, who you email, who you constantly check up on, who you ignore, and who knows what else. With all that data sitting on a server somewhere, they all try to do the same thing: sell you more junk.

We are strongly of the view that things should be published. Where you are open things will not be WikiLeaked. Whatever view you take about WikiLeaks -- right or wrong -- it means that things will now get out. It has changed things. Government and authorities need to factor it in. Be more proactive, publishing more stuff, because quite a lot of this is only exciting because we did not know it.

You cannot un-invent WikiLeaks. It is part of the phenomenon of the online, empowered citizen. These are facts that are not going to go away, and government and authorities need to wise up. One response is that they will clam up and not write anything down, which is nonsense, you cannot run an organisation that way. The other is to be even more open. The best form of defence is transparency.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/30/wikileaks-freedom-information-ministers-government/print

Vapaa tieto on kaikkien etu: olemassa olevasta tiedosta saadaan jalostettua lisää arvokasta tietoa. Avoin julkinen data mahdollistaa linkitetyn tiedon tehokkaan hyödyntämisen, joka on seuraava askel tiedon avaamisessa. Tiedostot voidaan julkaista sellaisessa muodossa, että niitä on helppo käyttää esimerkiksi sovellusten rakentamisessa, ja tietoa on helppo analysoida ja jalostaa eteenpäin. Analysointi johtaa uuteen tietoon.

Tiedon vapauttaminen on esimerkki siitä, miten (julkis)hallinnon instituutio muuttuu. Avaamalla julkista dataa muutamme tapoja, miten hallinnoimme itseämme. Samalla muutamme tapoja, kuinka hallinto toimii. Perinteisille instituutioille tiedon avaaminen tuntuu pelottavalta: mitä tapahtuu, kun tieto onkin vapaata? Tilastoista voi paljastua tietoa, joka ei mairittele tiettyä hallinnonlohkoa. Tilastot eivät enää ole viranomaisten käsissä.

Kyse on tiedon omistajuudesta: Kuka omistaa tiedon? Kenellä on oikeus hallita tietoa? Avoimessa yhteiskunnassa tieto on mahdollisimman paljon jaettua omaisuutta; se edistää ja nopeuttaa uuden tiedon syntymistä ja innovaatioita. Vastakohta on yhteiskunta, jossa tieto asuu viranomaisten vartioimissa siiloissa. Tiedon vapauttaminen vaatii ajatusmallin muutosta: pois siiloutuneesta tiedosta vapaasti virtaavaan dataan.

http://www.uusikultakausi.com/julkinen-data-gordon-brown-ja-radikaalinortit

The majority of today's hard disks use perpendicular recording, which means their storage densities are limited to a few hundred gigabytes per square inch. Scientists have for some time been trying to find ways of increasing the limit, and a new method has been proposed that could stretch the limit as high as ten terabits per square inch.

The write speed obtained by the researchers was 250 megabits per second and the error rate was low. Data tracks were separated by 24 nm, and the researchers obtained a data storage density of one terabit per square inch of high-quality data quite easily. The researchers believe 10 terabits per square inch is theoretically possible.

http://www.physorg.com/news192693274.html