Monday Round-Up: The fastest net in the West
Small Photo
Photo
Google, in its onward march towards making everything, now offers internet service boasting speeds 100 times faster than what you currently have. Don't get too excited; as of now, the only city that has access to the incredibly fast speeds is Kansas City, Missouri. Not only that, but neighborhoods must reach a threshold in order to receive service and become a "fiberhood" (except for schools, hospitals, and community buildings, of course). Still, with 5Mbps speeds for free, and 100 Gigabit internet speeds for $70, Google has given traditional ISPs a run for their money. Our other news today for the Monday Round-Up includes major donors renewed committment to ICT, findings from the latest Black Hat convention, and mobile phone impact:
- The World Bank announced this week that it will put greater focus on ICTs and its impact on development.
- In a further move towards open data in development, DfID has joined other major donors in requiring full transparency and publication of all data.
- Are you a crafty Pinterester? Then you should beware, as the social network is quickly becoming a target for survey scams.
- Analysts also caution about malware created for both Mac OSX and Android mobile phone systems, according to a recent white paper. One recent example of Android susceptibility included Near Field Communication, using close proximity to force the users phone to a site with malware.
- Some may wish that they could get back at all of these hackers with their own attacks. Apparently, that's exactly what 36% of security specialists at Black Hat do.
- Adding to the ever increasing library to assist ICT projects, mLearning now has a toolkit for mobile learning.
- You've probably heard of M-Pesa, and maybe you've heard of MAMA, but can you name the other top ten apps in Africa?
- Social media users have +1'd, tweeted, and liked the Olympics. In some cases, it has interfered with commentary about the games.
- In a recent article from the Council on Foreign Relations, authors discuss how mobile phones increase NGOs abilities to distribute loans and evaluate effectiveness.
- Providing insight to the crossroads between humanitarian assistance and innovation, the Humanitarian Innovation Fund has an interesting list of their ongoing large grant projects.
- Fail Fair (or Fail Faire given its London location this year) is an annual reflection and lessons learned from the ICT projects that did not quite work.
Events:
- This Tuesday features a discussion regarding the role of open information and social media for the intelligence community at the National Press Club.
- The Institute of World Politics this week hosts an event on cybersecurity challenges this Thursday.
Topics