Posts

Wiki Review - The History and Impact of Youtube

 Review of YouTube Group Wiki The written wiki on YouTube is comprehensive in its breath and depth. From informing the reader of the history and origins of online video streaming, the wiki provided detailed account of notable specific events affecting the trajectory of the now gargantuan platform.  The wiki includes a deep dive of the technical aspects of running a large video streaming service including the business model of advertisement to pay for the infrastructure. What was most interesting is the social impact of YouTube. The positives democratizing and bringing education to the masses but the negative problems of radicalization and astroturfing. What is impressive about this wiki, is that diving deep into the content moderation guidelines allows readers to understand the nuance and complexity of regulating YouTube. For many of us, YouTube is more than just a media consumption medium. The content hosted on YouTube is a place of Cultural discussion, sense of belonging and where pe
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review - Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Shoshana Zuboff

Surveillance capital is about the monetizing the human experience through raw data. The hoarding and privatization of user data goes beyond the intrusion of privacy in forms perverse and unsettling.   The issue of surveillance capitalism parallels the problem of advertising where the idea of invisible coercion is disturbing in the belief that human will or beliefs can be modelled, predicted and controlled. Most people do not realize the power of sublimal messaging where the use of targeted words, imagery can nudge them to think in a certain way. From the Cambridge Analytica Scandal which fueled Donald Trump's win in the presidential election, to dividing the public against each other. The data which Google and Facebook brokers to geopolitical and business interests has allowed them to fracture society. The author makes use of an analogy there her house is on fire and while waiting for the firemen she was frantically rushing to save her valuable belongings. The issue with Surveillan
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 15 - IT Ethics

 Cultural Relativism Theory Cultural relativism is the view that ethical and social standards reflect the cultural context of the background from which they are derived. Cultural Relativists uphold that cultures are fundamentally unlike each other and so are the ethical frameworks that structure relations between different cultures. So according to them, whether an action is wrong or right is determined by the ethical standards of the society that action has took place in.  As such, the moral norms of a culture can not be evaluated by the ethical standards of another culture.   The fundamental logic of Cultural Relativism was established by Franz Boas in the first decades of 20th century and has gotten increasingly popular since then. Boas first articulated Cultural Relativism in 1887 with thoughts that state quote on quote "civilization is not something absolute, but is relative, and our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes." In the modern day
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 14 - Computers, Technology, the MacGyver Way

Image
The MacGyver Way to saving lives During the first few waves of the Covid-19 Pandemic, hospitals around the world were scrambling to secure enough medical supplies and equipment to treat their patients. Due to supply chain issues, hoarding and insufficient pandemic mitigation responses, the lack of ventilators to assist breathing was key to reducing mortality rates. In this case, the resourcefulness of hardware engineers, software developers and medical professional have come together to design low-cost portable ventilators. From using 3D printers that replace expensive industrial molds, to testing the effectiveness of the device using widely available sensors.  Collecting feedback from healthcare professionals, allow hackers to iterate their product so these make shift face-shields and ventilators are accessible to patients of different ages,sex and sizes.   References: https://www.startribune.com/university-of-minnesota-is-going-full-on-macgyver-against-covid-19/569000032/ https://new
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 12 - Hacker Culture, An Ideal or still Relevant ?

Hacker Culture When the word Hacker is mentioned, most people have the misconception perpetuated by Hollywood and "The Matrix" where a person in a hoodie is crouched down, staring at a computer screen in a dark room. For those of us who study IT and programming, hacker culture represents passion, to  discover the unknown, a collective where meritocracy earns respect and admiration.  As a person who is leans more towards social science, what relates me the most to Hacker culture is the indomitable spirit of learning, curiosity and sharing. In this age of worsening social inequality and climate change, most people of our generation are anxious, depressed and beaten down by the complexity of these wicked problems. We seem resigned to our fate that nothing changes and our quality of life will continue to deteriorate.  Perhaps what Hacker culture brings in this context, is about being creative and resourceful in tackling these issues. While the news and social media often utilize
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 11 - Implications of Online Censorship and Internet Privacy

Online Censorship and Internet Privacy The freedom of Speech is imperative to a functioning democracy. However in Authoritarian Regimes, free speech is threat to their political power. As many people are familiar, China has the "Great Firewall" which blocks youtube, google and any other major website serving news and information. Behind this Virtual Brick, Chinese people consume pre-filtered and approved content which praises the Chinese Communist Party and frames the existence of the political party indistinguishable from their own country. Like Russia, the capital outflows of the Chinese Elite has inflated housing bubbles in major cities of Canada,USA and Australia. However, the over reliance of Chinese international students as university tuition funding and infiltration of political parties and media companies has led western institutions to self-censor the atrocities of the Uyghur Genocide and human rights abuses. Due to the information bubble, many Chinese nationals cla
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 10 - IT security landscape in Singapore

 Singapore's Security Landscape in the context of the Mitnick Formula Kevin Mitnick is an American Computer scientist and renowned hacker who have been arrested for various computer and communication related convictions. With his extensive experience of breaking into systems, Kevin has listed out a security formula consisting of: Technology - networks, firewalls, computer viruses Training - awareness and knowledge of various angles of attack Policy - standard operating procedures and mitigation strategies The Singapore Security Landscape Singapore has one of the highest global connectivity score scoring 2nd out of 79 countries surveyed. From broadband penetration to IT infrastructure investments, 91% of Singaporean are social media users.  In the recent pandemic, the online shopping expenditure has risen to 3.21million SGD. Coupled with high internet usage this means that Singapore is an attractive target vulnerable to cyber crime.  To reduce the rate of security vulnerabilities
Post a Comment
Read more