News & Notes Roundup 1/19/2016

Happy Tuesday, fabulous readers! It’s a very chilly, windy day here in DC after an equally frosty three-day weekend, so we hope you’re living it up somewhere warm! Beltway dwellers be warned, the Capitol Weather Gang is predicting a doozy of a snowstorm this Friday.

Next Tuesday (1/26), we’re hosting a #Tech4Dem happy hour at the Science Club! We’ll be talking about the Games for Good concept and how gamification can be utilized in the fields of international development and democracy assistance. Make sure to RSVP here and we’ll see you in the funny papers!

Also, it’s National Popcorn Day! Throw on a movie tonight and relax with humanity’s favorite cinematic snack.

Tech News:

• Classrooms around the world are building their knowledge with Minecraft
• The Dark Web is alight with piles of voter data, thanks to hackers
• Some cool dataviz on Tor traffic flow around the world
• Neat freaks will love the new Google Drive updates
• These 20 tech insiders will have incredible influence on the 2016 campaign
• Remember those teenagers who hacked John Brennan and James Clapper? They just hacked Obama’s senior advisor on science and tech.

Tech4Dem:

• Our friends at the NED are hosting an event on democracy and the Internet of Things
• Chicago is rethinking and retooling its civic tech environment
• 5 insights from MERL Tech 2015
• After a 3-year ban, Pakistan has unblocked Youtube
• Have some useful insights or lessons learned? Share them at the ICT4D Conference in May!
• The World Bank published a number of papers on the development impact of social media

Mobile News:

• WhatsApp announced it's dropping its subscription fees
• The White House finally joined Snapchat - we’re expecting frequent selfies, Mr. President!
• Verizon Wireless now offers “FreeBee Data 360” - an exemption program for data caps on content providers
• Your smartphone might soon lose those little black dots on the top