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Stallman: "Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 7, 2015

Jan. 7, 2015

*Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)* Written by Richard Matthew StallmanSoftware developer and software freedom activist December 31, 2014 It requires passengers to run a nonfree program (an app). As always, a nonfree program tramples its users’ freedom. I’m not talking about the software that Uber itself runs; if Uber runs nonfree software, that tramples Uber’s freedom, and Uber deserves our sympathy for that. The injustice here is that Uber requires its users to use special software and digital services that attack their freedom in various ways. […] Continua qui: http://qz.com/319592/why-you-should-not-use-uber-the-car-ride-brokering-com…

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Forbes: "What Happens To Uber Drivers And Other Sharing Economy Workers Injured On The Job?"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 7, 2015

Jan. 7, 2015

*What Happens To Uber Drivers And Other Sharing Economy Workers Injured On The Job?* Ellen Huet /Forbes Staff// / Omar, a 32-year-old Uber driver, was working a typical late-night shift in Los Angeles last month when his ride veered from pleasant to violent in just a few minutes. When he pulled his SUV full of passengers up to the Hollywood Tower apartments around 2:30 a.m., two of the riders refused to leave his car. An argument broke out, and Omar said one of the passengers hit him with a shiny object, broke his jaw in two places and landed him in the hospital for a week. Omar’s not the only worker to find that a newfangled job like driving for Uber comes with some very old dangers: on-the-job injuries. On Sunday, an off-duty Boston cop assaulted his Uber driver, yelled racial slurs at him and stole his car. In Los Angeles, people stabbed an Uber driver in the face and neck in November and choked another driver on New Year’s Day, though in both cases the attacker was likely not the passenger Uber assigned the driver. A San Francisco passenger attacked his Uber driver in November, landing him in the hospital with facial injuries. A Lyft passenger punched his driver and broke his nose in May. And it’s not just headline-grabbing assaults — if any Homejoy cleaner falls while mopping or any Instacart shopper throws out their back while carrying groceries, they’re in the same boat. […] Continua qui: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/01/06/workers-compensation-uber-…

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Talk: " net neutrality: days of future past? Taking stock after two years of net neutrality in the Netherlands"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 6, 2015

Jan. 6, 2015

Talk di 60' (video) http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2014/31c3_-_6170_-_en_-_saal_g_-_201412… net neutrality: days of future past? Taking stock after two years of net neutrality in the Netherlands Rejo Zenger and Thomas Lohninger <http://media.ccc.de/search/?q=Rejo%20Zenger%20and%20Thomas%20Lohninger> Our talk will highlight the current debates surrounding net neutrality in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world. We will look at the results of the SaveTheInternet.eu <https://savetheinternet.eu> campaign which was lunched a year ago on 30c3. We will discuss various legal protections for net neutrality, look closer at the experience of the Netherlands and we will give an overview of all important open ends of the debate.

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NYT: "Her Task Is to Wean the White House Off Floppy Disks"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 4, 2015

Jan. 4, 2015

*Her Task Is to Wean the White House Off Floppy Disks* By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS JAN. 3, 2015 WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top technology adviser cringes when she hears highly educated adults say how bad they are at science and math, particularly when they do so in front of children. “That has to change,” the adviser, Megan J. Smith, firmly told a group of teachers at the White House not long ago. “We would never say that about reading.” Ms. Smith, 50, an M.I.T.-trained mechanical engineer and former Google executive, is working hard to bring her Silicon Valley sensibility to the Obama administration. But four months into her job as the chief technology officer of the United States, the woman whose division at Google dreamed up Google Glass and the driverless car is facing culture shock in a federal bureaucracy ruled by creaky technology and run in part on the floppy disk. […] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/us/politics/her-task-weaning-the-white-ho…

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Morozov_digital sovereignty
by Alessandro Mantelero Jan. 4, 2015

Jan. 4, 2015

Interessante riflessione sullo scenario globale Who’s the true enemy of internet freedom - China, Russia, or the US? However, Russia, China and Brazil are simply responding to the extremely aggressive tactics adopted by none other than the US. In typical fashion, though, America is completely oblivious to its own actions, believing that there is such a thing as a neutral, cosmopolitan internet and that any efforts to move away from it would result in its “Balkanisation”. But for many countries, this is not Balkanisation at all, merely de-Americanisation. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/04/internet-freedom-china… -- Alessandro Mantelero Aggregate Professor, Politecnico di Torino Director of Privacy and Faculty Fellow, Nexa Center for Internet and Society http://staff.polito.it/alessandro.mantelero

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Smithsonian rende disponibili online 40.000+ immagini ad alta resoluzione (per usi non commerciali)
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 4, 2015

Jan. 4, 2015

http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/default.cfm Welcome to Phase 1 of Open F|S, the complete digitized collections of the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Freer Study Collection. With more than 40,000 works being made available for high-resolution download—expanding regularly with our new acquisitions—you can explore the Smithsonian's museums of Asian art from anywhere in the world, whenever you like. Images can be used for all non-commercial purposes, from desktop wallpapers to artistic gifts for family and friends. Send us your creations and your feedback about this beta version at openfs(a)si.edu! For permission to use high-resolution images commercially, contact Rights and Reproduction. Articolo di commento: http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/3/7485921/see-the-massive-stunning-collectio… juan carlos

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Robber barons and silicon sultans
by Alessandro Mantelero Jan. 3, 2015

Jan. 3, 2015

Self-made wealth in America Robber barons and silicon sultans Today’s tech billionaires have a lot in common with a previous generation of capitalist titans—perhaps too much for their own good In the 50 years between the end of the American civil war in 1865 and the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, a group of entrepreneurs spearheaded America’s transformation from an agricultural into an industrial society, built gigantic business empires and amassed huge fortunes. In 1848 John J. Astor, a merchant trader, was America’s richest man with $20m (now $545m). By the time the United States entered the first world war, John D. Rockefeller had become its first billionaire. In the 50 years since Data General introduced the first mini-computers in the late 1960s, a group of entrepreneurs have spearheaded the transformation of an industrial age into an information society, built gigantic business empires and acquired huge fortunes. When he died in 1992, Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, was probably America’s richest man with $8 billion. Today Bill Gates occupies that position with $82.3 billion. The first group is now known as the robber barons. The second lot—call them the silicon sultans—could face a similar fate. continua qui: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21637338-todays-tech-billionaires-ha… -- Alessandro Mantelero Aggregate Professor, Politecnico di Torino Director of Privacy and Faculty Fellow, Nexa Center for Internet and Society http://staff.polito.it/alessandro.mantelero

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Right to br forgotten_dibattito US
by Alessandro Mantelero Jan. 2, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015

Interessante e (per certi versi surreale) dibattito sul RTBF http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-01-02/the_right_to_be_forgotten Stewart Baker attorney at Steptoe and Johnson former general counsel at National Security Agency former assistant secretary of policy at Department of Homeland Security Marc Rotenberg executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center Mark Scott reporter, New York Times -- Alessandro Mantelero Aggregate Professor, Politecnico di Torino Director of Privacy and Faculty Fellow, Nexa Center for Internet and Society http://staff.polito.it/alessandro.mantelero

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Tim Wu (New Yorker): "Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 2, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015

"Ma cosa c'entra con Internet?", diranno i miei 11 lettori. C'entra, c'entra... Buon anno! juan carlos DECEMBER 26, 2014 *Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer* BY TIM WU This fall, JetBlue airline finally threw in the towel. For years, the company was among the last holdouts in the face of an industry trend toward smaller seats, higher fees, and other forms of unpleasantness. JetBlue distinguished itself by providing decent, fee-free service for everyone, an approach that seemed to be working: passengers liked the airline, and it made a consistent profit. Wall Street analysts, however, accused JetBlue of being “overly brand-conscious and customer-focussed.” In November, the airline, under new management, announced that it would follow United, Delta, and the other major carriers by cramming more seats into economy, shrinking leg room, and charging a range of new fees for things like bags and WiFi. […] Continua qui: http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/airlines-want-you-to-suffer

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Economist: "The future of work - There’s an app for that"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 2, 2015

Jan. 2, 2015

Come spesso capita all'Economist, dopo una lunga analisi, sostanzialmente equilibrata e ben fatta, verso la fine dell'articolo l'ignoto autore butta a mare l'equilibrio e diventa improvvisamente di parte: "governments will have to...", ecc. ecc. Ciò detto, vale la pena leggerlo. juan carlos *The future of work** * *There’s an app for that* Freelance workers available at a moment’s notice will reshape the nature of companies and the structure of careers Jan 3rd 2015 | NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO | From the print edition HANDY is creating a big business out of small jobs. The company finds its customers self-employed home-helps available in the right place and at the right time. All the householder needs is a credit card and a phone equipped with Handy’s app, and everything from spring cleaning to flat-pack-furniture assembly gets taken care of by “service pros” who earn an average of $18 an hour. The company, which provides its service in 29 of the biggest cities in the United States, as well as Toronto, Vancouver and six British cities, now has 5,000 workers on its books; it says most choose to work between five hours and 35 hours a week, and that the 20% doing most earn $2,500 a month. The company has 200 full-time employees. Founded in 2011, it has raised $40m in venture capital. Handy is one of a large number of startups built around systems which match jobs with independent contractors on the fly, and thus supply labour and services on demand. In San Francisco—which is, with New York, Handy’s hometown, ground zero for this on-demand economy—young professionals who work for Google and Facebook can use the apps on their phones to get their apartments cleaned by Handy or Homejoy; their groceries bought and delivered by Instacart; their clothes washed by Washio and their flowers delivered by BloomThat. Fancy Hands will provide them with personal assistants who can book trips or negotiate with the cable company. TaskRabbit will send somebody out to pick up a last-minute gift and Shyp will gift-wrap and deliver it. SpoonRocket will deliver a restaurant-quality meal to the door within ten minutes. […] Continua qui: http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21637355-freelance-workers-available…

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