technology

While three-fourths of the world’s population has access to a basic sanitation service, only about half of the world’s population uses a safely managed sanitation service. Over the last decade, the Government of India has strived to increase access to sanitation, building 100 million additional toilets in rural India over the last five years under […]

Public opinion of big tech is at an all-time low. Just a few years ago, many viewed Silicon Valley as holding the promise to a better world, whereas today its largest companies generate levels of public distrust usually reserved for investment banks. This is good news for those hoping to see public policy in the […]

Editor’s Note: Information for this article was obtained primarily from interviews by the authors. Names and identifying information have been withheld in some cases to protect the identity of the interviewees. In the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, reports of Russian interference and accusations of biased news coverage gave rise to a renewed […]

Introduction Blockchain is the decentralized system that underpins cryptocurrencies. It offers a secure and impartial platform that can store vast amounts of transactional data for any asset that can be digitized. It cannot be manipulated or hacked due to its complex security features and the legacy of transactions that promote continuity, much like real objects […]

“If you control an industry’s standards, you control that industry lock, stock and ledger.”[1] What Are Standards? Before the now-ubiquitous USB drive existed, computers used serial and parallel ports to transfer data from devices like keyboards, mice, and printers. To address this inefficiency, the USB was invented in 1994 by Ajay Bhatt of Intel and […]

  The media narrative on artificial intelligence (AI) is not far removed from the plot of a science-fiction movie: robots will one day become smarter than the humans who created them, leading to cataclysmic events we cannot control. While this scenario depicts the risks that AI may pose in the future, a more immediate threat […]

  In early Fall 2017, the husband of Ghanaian entertainer Afia Schwarzenegger uploaded videos of what appeared to be Schwarzenegger engaging in an extramarital affair. Ghana’s digital publics swiftly demonized her. That September, several women used the hashtag #MenAreTheirOwnEnemies to expose the misogyny pervading media coverage of the Schwarzenegger affair. Regardless of the facts of […]

After a decade of amassing influence, Facebook has unveiled another way to remain a financial heavyweight not only for digital markets, but for society. On June 18, Mark Zuckerberg announced the birth of a new form of blockchain-backed cryptocurrency dubbed “Libra”—a potential monetary revolution that’s raised eyebrows, particularly in the wake of the numerous data […]

Fear of increased automation in work has undoubtedly caught the public interest. From international organizations to multinational corporations and TV shows, there have been numerous attempts to predict the impacts that automation will have on the economy – especially within labor markets. Analysing the Future of Work is, however, more than just measuring the net […]

A new administration is at the vanguard of African leadership, prioritizing national development in a new model of partnership and possibility Sierra Leone has adopted a new strategy that is reforming its troubled past, piece by piece. Less than a year into his term, President Julius Maada Bio is leading his country in a novel […]

Most statisticians will only ever light up the Twittersphere in their wildest dreams. But for census staff at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), those dreams became a nightmarish reality as the country’s first digital census bombed spectacularly, earning its own hashtag, #censusfail. Every five years, Australians sit down on a designated ‘census night’ and […]

Abstract In the wake of the implementation of smart-city technologies in Latin American cities, this article reviews both their potential for making municipal administration and local service delivery more efficient and the risk they pose, particularly to vulnerable communities. Based on the literature and the international experience on the social and policy effects of algorithmic […]