_A Vast Machine_, Chapter 10, “Making Data Global”

p. 251–making data global: building complete, coherent, and consistent global data sets from incomplete, inconsistent, and heterogeneous datasources.–standardizing data collection and communication (reducing data ‘friction’). Must work against practical constraints (institutional traditions, funding, technical applicability, technical integration, differences of local interpretation of standards, operator training defects and incorrect implementation).

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_A Vast Machine_, Chapter 1, “Thinking globally”

p. 9–”Infrastructures” (via Star and Ruhdleder):

Embeddedness in other structures, technologies, and a social arrangements.

Transparency of support for tasks

Reach or stope beyond a single event

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The Web Means the End of Forgetting

When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives [...]

Sociologists invade World of Warcraft, see humanity’s future

The paper By Nate Anderson found that many real-world patterns of intimacy formation are recreated on the virtual stage. One interviewee recounted, “I and a guy I liked spent a lot of time flirting in game. One evening we discovered an abandoned hut near Ironforge [a major city in WoW] and spent the [...]

Wheelchairs That Listen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are developing a voice-operated robotic wheelchair for people with neurological disorders.

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