John M. Burkey— “How can I help?” is a common refrain from family and friends of a person with hearing loss. Spouses want to alleviate their partner’s struggles and frustration. Children want to prevent an aging parent’s autonomy from being affected. Acquaintances of all kinds want to improve communication not
Edward Castronova— Three years ago, the digerati were abuzz about the idea of a “real” virtual currency. That turned out not to be the killer app. We still face the full disintermediation of the finance industry, but it’s being driven not by digital currencies but by digital wallets. What’s the
James Bessen is an economist and lecturer at Boston University Law School. He is the author of Learning by Doing: The Real Connection between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth. In a recent conversation, we had the chance to talk about the effect technology has on wages and job availability. Yale University Press: In your
Karen M. Paget— While writing Patriotic Betrayal, which chronicles a major Cold War covert operation with the U.S. National Student Association, I began a file in which I collected evidence of renewed covert activities in the late 1990s. The newspaper clips came from different parts of the globe in little
Philip N. Howard— Since the great tragedy of Charlie Hebdo, politicians and pundits around the world have succumbed to the notion that social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are to blame for violent online extremism. They argue that social media is not only a conduit for terrorists it is
Philip N. Howard— The excitement of this year’s CES—the enormous technology show and tell event that just ended in Las Vegas—was about the “internet of things.” Stoves and baby bottles will soon be smart, and the devices you already have will be smarter. Behind closed doors and in private chat
Bitcoin is on the rise. The completely digital currency has been covered by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among others. Bitcoins have the power to buy anything from a hot dog at a Sacramento Kings NBA game to a hotel room at a Holiday Inn in
Every day hundreds of thousands of websites are created and the number of unique Internet users is up in the billions. Our collective addiction to Facebook and Google is such that the brands have now become action verbs. When you have questions, Google (almost) always has the answer. The nearly
What does an 18th-century English minister have in common with such modern innovations as e-mail spam filters, Google searches, and even Clippy, the iconic (and sometimes reviled) paperclip-shaped Microsoft Office Assistant? In The Theory That Would Not Die, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne depicts the quiet birth and controversial coming of age
Goodreads is hosting a February book giveaway of It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by danah boyd. Enter now to win your free copy of this timely book that analyzes teenage behavior on social networking sites and how it affects the personal development of today’s teenagers. In the meantime, you can