This week, the blind see with data, algorithms are uncovered, networks are analyzed, and data remains siloed. As always, if you want to keep up with what we’re reading/thinking about on a weekly basis the best way is to subscribe to the “else” feed either as an email newsletter or through RSS.
Disruptions: Visually Impaired Turn to Smartphones to See Their World – NYTimes
Assistive technologies in smart phones help the blind read the world as data.
Eulogy for a Horse – Dan Sinker
Susan Orlean broke that the @horse_ebooks twitter account that tweeted seemingly random selections from books is not a bot, but performance art. The internet got up in arms about the revelation, mostly because it disrupted our desire to believe that there was beauty in algorithms and randomness. Dan Sinker (of @MayorEmanuel parody twitter account fame) offers some final thoughts for his “monkey Shakespeare.”
Google Alters Search to Handle More Complex Queries – NYTimes
Search gets semantic as Google quietly replaces keyword based search algorithms with Hummingbird, which understands context.
Facebook Launches Advanced AI Effort to Find Meaning in Your Posts – MIT Technology Review
Facebook introduces “deep learning,” or more advanced machine learning and AI, to uncover more meaning in all our data.
N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens – NYTimes
As we might have expected, the NSA is conducting social network analysis or “large-scale graph analysis on very large sets of communications metadata.” Immersion is still a great tool for visualizing and understanding what your own metadata social graph looks like.
NSA Internet Spying Sparks Race to Create Offshore Havens for Data Privacy – WSJ.com
As trust in US-based internet companies falters, international alternatives jump at the opportunity and compete on local law.
The Extremely Quantified Self: Meet Rachel Kalmar, Who Wears 21 Fitness Trackers at the Same Time (Video) – AllThingsD
Kalmar suggests that even as she collects so much data, it’s all locked up in proprietary silos. This is a recurring theme in the world of personal data that I’ll explore further in a breakout session at the upcoming Quantified Self conference.
From Anonymous to Bitcoin, The Good Wife Is the Most Tech-Savvy Show on TV – Wired Opinion
Clive Thompson shares his enthusiasm for responsible and nuanced depictions of technology in fiction as they shape the way we see the world. Adding The Good Wife to the Netflix queue…