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How the online business model encourages prejudice | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Oct. 29, 2018

Oct. 29, 2018

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/28/how-target-ads-threaten-…> In September, a group of people searching for work in the US filed charges against Facebook and 10 other companies for discriminating against women by targeting certain job advertisements only at men. The employers, from sectors such as labouring and lorry driving, had used Facebook’s ad-targeting tools to direct the opportunities at those they thought most suitable – and this did not include women. Although the outcome of the case has not yet been decided, it could – along with similar cases – have a seismic impact on the future of digital advertising and, consequently, on the future of the net. [...]

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Richard Stallman: Talking to the Mailman. New Left Review 113, September-October 2018.
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 28, 2018

Oct. 28, 2018

https://newleftreview.org/II/113/richard-stallman-talking-to-the-mailman richard stallman TALKING TO THE MAILMAN Interview by Rob Lucas You’re widely recognized as the world’s leading campaigner for software freedom, having led the development of the gnu operating system. Today, the gnu /Linux operating system, and free (libre) software more broadly, underpin much of the internet, yet new structures have emerged that can wield a great deal of power over users. We’d like to talk to you about the present computing landscape and the political relevance of free software. But may we start by asking about your formation, as a programmer and as a thinker—how did it all begin? I grew up in Manhattan, born in 1953. I was a behavioural problem—I couldn’t go to a public school without getting in trouble—and started working with computers at an early age. In 1969, during my last year of high school, an ibm lab let me come and use their computers. In 1970 I had a summer job there. They gave me a project to do, implementing a certain algorithm to see how well it would work. I finished that in a few weeks, so they let me spend the rest of the summer being paid to write whatever I felt like. I went to Harvard to study physics, and carried on programming there. Towards the end of my first year I started visiting computer labs to look at their manuals, to see how the computers differed. When I visited the Artificial Intelligence Lab at mit, they didn’t have much by way of a manual, because they had developed their own time-sharing system. The administrator there decided to hire me more or less straight away. So although I graduated from Harvard in 1974, I had actually been an employee at mit for three years. Harvard’s computer was a lot better to play with than ibm’s, but it didn’t have a lot of memory, whereas mit’s computer at the ai Lab had plenty. Not only that, they let me change the time-sharing system; in fact, that was my job—they hired me to work on that system. I added lots of features to lots of different programs—whatever I thought of, or people suggested to me, that seemed like a good idea, I would implement and then people would use it. And this was absolutely delightful—and gratifying to make things that people used and appreciated—so I kept working there. From that point on, I did programming using the machine at mit. [...] (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Uber and Lyft are behind a sharp rise in US traffic deaths - MIT Technology Review
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 26, 2018

Oct. 26, 2018

https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612346/uber-and-lyft-are-behi… Uber and Lyft are behind a sharp rise in US traffic deaths October 25th, 2018 12:56PM The rise of ride-sharing services has increased traffic deaths by 2% to 3% in the US since 2011, equivalent to as many as 1,100 mortalities a year, according to a new study from the University of Chicago and Rice University. [...] (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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DNS evolution
by Marco Mellia Oct. 26, 2018

Oct. 26, 2018

Dal ripe. https://ripe77.ripe.net/presentations/13-RIPE77_Plenary_Its_DNS_Jim.pdf Inviato da iPhone

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SQLite adotta il Code of Conduct
by Giacomo Tesio Oct. 25, 2018

Oct. 25, 2018

E' fantastica. Credo che sia uno degli hack piu' geniali che io abbia visto fin ora. Having been encouraged by clients to adopt a written code of conduct, the > SQLite developers elected to govern their interactions with each other, > with their clients, and with the larger SQLite user community in accordance > with the "instruments of good works" from chapter 4 of The Rule of St. > Benedict <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict>. *This > code of conduct has proven its mettle in thousands of diverse communities > for over 1,500 years*, and has served as a baseline for many civil law > codes since the time of Charlemagne. > > This rule is strict, and none are able to comply perfectly. *Grace is > readily granted for minor transgressions.* All are encouraged to follow > this rule closely, as in so doing they may expect to live happier, > healthier, and more productive lives. The entire rule is good and > wholesome, and yet we make no enforcement of the more introspective > aspects. > > [...] > > However, *those who wish to participate in the SQLite community,* either > by commenting on the public mailing lists or by contributing patches or > suggestions or in any other way, *are expected to conduct themselves in a > manner that honors the overarching spirit of the rule*, even if they > disagree with specific details. > https://sqlite.org/codeofconduct.html Spero vivamente che altri seguano questo esempio di intelligenza e acuta ironia. Giacomo

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Rivista di diritto dei media, 3/2018
by Bassini, Marco Oct. 25, 2018

Oct. 25, 2018

Cari Amici, ho il piacere di segnalarvi l'avvenuta pubblicazione del terzo numero annuale della Rivista di diritto dei media, che potete trovare al link di seguito: http://www.medialaws.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/3_2018.pdf Sempre a disposizione per ogni tipo di contributo da parte della comunità nexiana (che anche in questo numero c'è!). Un caro saluto, Marco Marco Bassini Università Commerciale "L. Bocconi" Dipartimento di Studi Giuridici "Angelo Sraffa" Via Roentgen, 1 20136 Milano Grafton Building - room 1-C1-07 Direct (ITA) +39.02.5836.5611 Mobile (ITA) +39.329.2478832 View my LinkedIn profile View my SSRN page View my Academia.edu page

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CEIPI Advanced Training on Internet Platforms, GDPR and IP Enforcement - Ultime iscrizioni
by GC F Oct. 24, 2018

Oct. 24, 2018

Cari tutti, Ci sono ancora posti disponibili per la seconda edizione del "CEIPI Advanced Training on Internet Platform, GDPR and IP Enforcement" ma le iscrizioni si chiuderanno a breve. Il corso si tiene a Strasburgo il 6-8 dicembre 2018. Ulteriori informazioni e programma sono disponibili qui di seguito: http://www.ceipi.edu/en/news/piece-of-news/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=10471&cH… Ci occuperamo di copyright, marchi, brevetti, privacy e libertà d'espressione nella "platform economy". Tra i docenti il Prof. Marco Ricolfi, Prof. Miquel Peguera, il sottoscritto e esaminatori dell'Ufficio Brevetti Europeo. Sono disponibili sconti per studenti e dottorandi e altre offerte. Vi prego di condividere l'annuncio con chi possa essere interessato e contattarmi per ulteriori informazioni. Giancarlo

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Leading academics reveal: what are we getting wrong about AI?
by Giacomo Tesio Oct. 23, 2018

Oct. 23, 2018

Un timido passo avanti dell'accademia rispetto alla divulgazione dei problemi TEORICI della AI: > These advances are genuinely impressive but don’t point the way to general AI. > I think that is a long way off, and we really don’t know how to get there. > > Another misconception is that AI techniques are about modelling the brain. That isn’t what AI researchers do. > Even techniques like neural networks [...] are only loosely related to brain structure. > [...] > A common misconception about machine learning is that it provides only “black-box” algorithms – that is, their workings are inherently incomprehensible to human overseers. > There’s some truth to this belief. > [...] > In reality, many of the AI developments constitute very early progress that is presented as huge promise, but that promise depends on a lot of underpinning work that has yet to be done https://www.research.ox.ac.uk/amp/Article/2018-10-15-leading-academics-reve… Tuttavia siamo ancora lontani dal riconoscere i problemi PRATICI delle AI. L'impatto sulla economia e sull'impiego viene ridotto ad analogie con il passato. Non si dice nulla dei dati, dei segreti industriali che i modelli estratti da essi possono costituire. Quando poi si parla di bias, lo si fa per dire che è un problema degli umani, suggerendo implicitamente che sia inevitabile e giustificabile. E non si parla mai di problemi come bug e versioning, dimostrando una scarsa preparazione rispetto alla ingegneria (lacuna evidente quanto comoda) che limita il ragionamento al massimo alle problematiche di deploy senza pensare affatto alle implicazioni di lungo periodo. Noto poi una sottile evoluzione retorica: si dice finalmente che gli scenari utopici e quelli distopici della letteratura fantascientifica sono eguamente ingannevoli, ma 1. non si discutono le potenzialità positive e le esternalità negative effettivamente probabili 2. si confronta gli eccessi di ottimismo degli "esperti" con le preocupazioni degli "altri", non esperti e dunque in qualche modo screditando tali preoccupazioni Insomma... un mea culpa un po'... affettato. Si potrebbe quasi pensare che si tenti di mantenere un minimo di credibilità apparendo equidistanti dagli entusiasmi del marketing e le paure degli impressionabili, in modo da poter influenzare regolamentazioni di buon senso che non danneggerebbero alcuna ricerca ma ridurrebbero l'appetibilità commerciale di queste tecniche. A pensar male si fa peccato, ma... :-) Giacomo

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OWLTEH Conference 2018 | 25 ottobre 2018, Coventry
by Francesco Ruggiero Oct. 22, 2018

Oct. 22, 2018

Gentilissimi, vi segnaliamo che Il* Centro Nexa* parteciperà alla OWLTEH Conference 2018 <https://www.conf.owlteh.org/>, dedicata all'Open Web come ecosistema per l'insegnamento, l'apprendimento e la comunicazione scientifica. Nella circostanza sarà presentata la prima versione dell'*EduHack knowledge sharing platform*, una piattaforma di social networking che fornisce agli educatori e agli studenti strumenti per promuovere la discussione e l'apprendimento collaborativo online. La piattaforma è stata sviluppata all'interno del Progetto Erasmus+ Edu-Hack <https://eduhack.eu/>, di cui è capofila il Politecnico di Torino. La conferenza avrà luogo *martedì 25 ottobre* a partire dalle ore 09.30 al Transport Museum Millennium di Coventry (map <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/25290671>). La presentazione della piattaforma è affidata a *Francesco Mecca, *Junior Researcher del Centro Nexa. Maggiori informazioni all’indirizzo: http://conf.owlteh.org/contributions/published/elearning-in-the-age-of-soci… Cordiali saluti, -- Francesco Ruggiero Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino web: http://nexa.polito.it mail: francesco.ruggiero(a)polito.it tel: 011 090 7219

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The Prime Effect: How Amazon’s Two-Day Shipping Is Disrupting Retail - WSJ
by J.C. DE MARTIN Oct. 22, 2018

Oct. 22, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-prime-effect-how-amazons-2-day-shipping-is… The Prime Effect: How Amazon’s Two-Day Shipping Is Disrupting Retail The quest to offer fast, free delivery has triggered an arms race among the largest retailers Christopher MimsSept. 20, 2018 9:00 a.m. ET By Christopher Mims Alongside life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, you can now add another inalienable right: two-day shipping on practically everything. Amazon.com Inc. has made its Prime program the gold standard for all other online retailers, according to surveys of consumers. The $119-a-year Prime program—which now includes more than 100 million... To Read the Full Story (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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