Dr Laura James's writings

NationBuilder - a nice example of how legally connecting bits and bobs gets you targeted advertising not for products, but for politics . Fascinating notes from a Harvard workshop about public interest internet - politics, standards and infrastructure. Thanks Niels ten Oever. PwC’s recent Responsible AI Diagnostic Survey of more than 750 senior business executives through September 2019 found that only 34 percent think their use of AI is in line with their organisation’s values . UN entities are not subject to GDPR , it turns out. Cybersecurity for cars is a huge industry - growing to $2.3b in 2025 ! Maybe car companies should have spent money upfront on securing their designs, rather than paying startups to fix problems later. (via Beau Woods ). Cybersecurity for shipping. A fascinating tale of investigating how vulnerable systems are. An investigation into how Boeing's financialisation links to the 737 MAX crashes . An article from early this year by Deb Chachr...

The latest and third edition of the Fairphone was announced . Looks like another solid Android phone, as Fairphone 2 was. Nothing fancy in terms of 'conventional' specs - screen resolution, camera, some processors - although the dual SIM and replaceable battery are nice features. You buy Fairphones for other specs - fairly traded minerals, decent working conditions, repairability - and in this edition, recycled materials, too. I plan to replace my Fairphone 2 - it's given good service, but has also seen heavy use and is starting to show some signs that it may be wearing out. A lifetime of 3.5 years seems quite respectable, for all that it's far less than one might hope for. Fairphone 3 should be maintainable for 5-7 years - if this seems short, you'll be horrified by how electronics manufacturing works . There are p ositive effects to going green - it's not about what you give up , but what you get, as a person.  It's not so clear cut for companies - some ...

Last Friday was the Festival day at Wuthering Bytes , and for the third time I was the compere. Andrew Back did an excellent job curating a great range of speakers as ever. I've written up a few notes on what struck me as most interesting below. The diverse talks managed to weave together several common threads. Community came up in many talks - communities around local projects, building guitars, designing satellites. Some communities are made of citizen scientists measuring air quality, tracking satellites, and even testing genetically modified seeds. Technology in our homes, in our local areas, in our societies and the control we have over it, and the purposes for which it is used. Another theme seemed to be technologies and ideas arising in perhaps less likely places - past and present - in the Calder valley, in catering businesses; nuclear physics in gardening and medical care. Wuthering Bytes 2019 badge JP Rangaswami opened the day with a keynote about the ...