Internet

Yahoo!'s Buying Tumblr...But Will They Wreck It?

Virginia Prescott — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:30:08 +0000

Earlier this week, Yahoo!'s board of directors approved the tech company’s one point one billion dollar purchase of the micro-blogging site Tumblr, the latest move in CEO Marissa Mayer’s bid to revive the flagging tech company. The purchase has some Tumblr users up in arms, and others simply shrugging their shoulders at what just seems like the latest acquisition in the wake of so many to come before it.

Joining us to explain a bit more what the purchase of Tumblr means for Yahoo! and fans of the site is Lance Ulanoff, Editor in Chief at Mashable.

A Quantum Internet? Apparently, Yes.

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000

A government lab announced earlier this month that it’s been operating a quantum internet at Los Alamos for the past two years. Which led us to wonder, um, WHAT IS A QUANTUM INTERNET??? Joining us to explain it is Rob Fleischman, Chief Technology Officer at Xero-Cole, and the guy we call to help us understand things like, you know, quantum technology.

A Year Of Living Internet-Free

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:31:25 +0000

“Internet Addiction Disorder” is a disputed diagnosis in academic and mental health circles, but just try going a day without your daily habit of checking email, the news, weather, sports, recipes, and Facebook, and you may find yourself jonesing for access.

Social Media's Role In The Boston Marathon Bombing

Virginia Prescott — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:18:26 +0000

From anticipated weather events to shocking acts of terrorism, many people now turn first to social media to react and interact during moments of crisis – this past Monday was no different. Shortly after two explosions rocked Copley Square near the Boston Marathon’s finish line, the internet was flooded with graphic photos, video uploads from witnesses, and tools to help loved ones connect with runners and spectators at the race. With the online element of disaster response now an essential part of how we view these events, we wanted to break down what worked and what didn’t. Joining us is Brady Carlson, NHPR’s host of All Things Considered, and our in-house expert on all things internet.

Word of Mouth 03.16.2013

Rebecca Lavoie — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:21:49 +0000

Our niftiest and spiffiest content, all in one great show. This week, a look at the shifting human condition. Holocaust survivors being turned into holograms, a Russian "Swiss Family Robinson" that missed most of the 20th Century, corporate anthropologists, transplant "tourism," the nasty effect of internet comments, and a former professor pens a memoir about being stalked by an ex- student online.

Beware The Nasty Effect

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:10:15 +0000

The internet is a technological forum for public conversation, debate and cross-cultural interaction and their very opposites. Reader comments often take on characteristics more like the roman forum…it’s in the comments section where sniping, shaming and mean-spirited insults are pelted like rotten tomatoes onto a stage. A study published in the journal of computer-mediated communication measured the influence of reader comments on the articles they describe. Dietram Scheufele, John E. Ross Professor in Science Communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison discusses reader comments and their influence on the articles they cling to. He recently co-authored an article on the subject for the New York Times with Dominique Brossaard, "This Story Stinks"; the comments section for the article closed with 400 comments.

The Six Strike System: An End To Illegal Downloading?

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

On February 25th, the Center for Copyright Information, in cooperation with America's five largest internet service providers, launched a new "six-strike" alert system they hope will change illegal downloading for good.

Micro-Tasking: The New Digital Sweatshop?

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:21:00 +0000

Every day, the internet is inundated with more information, and more data to be to be categorized, organized, scrubbed, and filed away in a timely manner. Millions of miniscule tasks need to be performed each day to keep things running smoothly. Computers can do some of this mind-numbing work; other tasks are done piecemeal by hundreds of thousands of people for almost no money; Amazon Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for this kind of work. Ellen Cushing is staff writer for The East Bay Express, she wrote about the work called “micro-tasking,” which pays a pittance, drawing comparisons to working in a sweatshop.

Word of Mouth 12.08.2012

Virginia Prescott — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Word of Mouth's weekly program. This week's show features an art blog that uses Google Earth images to show the battlefields of drones, a radio show produced in an an insane asylum, Ty Burr's "Gods Like Us," and history's badass-iest nuns. Plus, webcast funerals!

Part 1:

Living with Hackers

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:08:24 +0000

The 1995 film “Hackers”, a young Angelina Jolie and baby-faced Johnny Lee Miller star as digital rebels dressed in a punk aesthetic with the power to takeover anything that dares to exist on the internet. Nearly two decades later, it’s clear that that hackers can’t be identified by dress, ethnicity, or any other one specific trait, but evidence of their presence and power in our increasingly digital world is everywhere.

The Library of Human Experience (Online)

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:15:09 +0000

Jonathan Harris is working to make the internet, or at least his corner of it, a more human experience by giving regular people the tools to become storytellers. As creator of Cowbird, he has built an online haven for vulnerable human thoughts, ideas, emotions, and stories.

The End of Smartphones?

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:31:09 +0000

Word of Mouth's favorite explainer of all things wired Rob Fleischman discusses our beloved internet devices and the emerging technologies that may be gearing up to take their spot.

The Secret Servers

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:31:15 +0000

Every Google search, every saved photograph, streamed song, text message and each stroke of the e-mail send button is served and stored on a digital infrastructure that is – to the end user – invisible. The New York Times has spent a year investigating the tens of thousands of data centers that support the information industry, and discovered a secretive, power-sucking infrastructure sharply at odds with its sle

Here's What's Awesome!

Brady Carlson — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:53:17 +0000

1) Replacement ref revolution! and Replacement ref Armageddon!
2)Protests – How they play out in web culture:
·US Ambassador Susan Rice: Twitter crucial to her mission

All You Need to Know About the New iPhone 5

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:31:24 +0000

It’s been only been a year since Apple revealed the iPhone 4s to the world: it looked a lot like its predecessors, but included one game changing new feature: voice assistance technology. A short time later, we had Apple guru and explainer-of-all-things-wired Rob Fleischman on the show. Well, it’s one year later and Rob is back to talk about the iPhone 5,