Interestingly enough, recently I read about NextDoor.com, a relatively new social network designed specifically for neighbors. Police have used it in Orlando, which is how I heard about it; the cops send out crime-prevention info to those areas that have signed on to this social media site. Not sure if you would call it civic science, but I think it's along a similar vein. But it's not just about crime prevention or reporting. It was designed, from what I've read, to be the online version of the mini village square, so people can let neighbors know of a great plumber, that they need to borrow an edger, that their kid babysits, etc.
Hopefully, the people who used that NBC service will be able to recreate its benefits using locally controlled tools.
As big, central institutions break down, we're going to see more reliance on local services. This is a good development -- local services, unlike big, central institutions, can operate on a human scale. You can get in to see your City Councilman, but just try and get face time with your Congressman.
But, I have been providing simple services to civic groups and they have reaped immense benefits. So have I, simply by helping people help others. I liken it to a real-life example of the movie Pay it Forward.
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The US National Security Agency learned the hard way that it can be dangerous to give a contractor too much money and access, with too little scrutiny. The NSA and other government agencies hire tens of thousands of contractors
a year to analyze data. Edward Snowden -- who revealed himself as the NSA leaker after fleeing the country -- was one such contractor, reportedly holding a $122,000 salaried position at Booz Allen Hamilton at the time of his departure.
Midsize businesses rarely achieve the same standards of security in their own datacenters as professional providers that specialize in delivering these services to organizations.
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
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