Extended Browsing, Plugged-In Activism
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. … And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t” (“I Am Part”). The anonymous...
Happy Birthday, Pick A Charity: Are Facebook Fundraisers All They Seem?
Facebook recently introduced the birthday fundraiser; users now have the option to start a fundraiser for any of Facebook’s 750,000 nonprofits to honor their birthday, and can invite their friends to donate. While this has raised a significant amount...
The new Xbox adaptive controller, another step towards digital inclusion?
It is not easy for some players to enjoy the virtual experience of video games. Microsoft noticed the issue and, to break down the barriers faced by people with disabilities, the multinational technology company just launched a couple weeks...
When Fiction Becomes Reality: From Black Mirror to China’s Social Credit Score
Since 2014, the Chinese government is working on implementing a new behavioral scoring system: the social credit score. Presented as an assessment of the ‘reliability’ of citizens, it combines a whole set of criteria such as consumption habits, records...
The Zero UI Music Player
One of the most iconic computers in cinema is certainly HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s epos 2001: A Space Odyssey. With all inner workings hidden beneath a red light in a camera lens, the mischievous A.I. created an eerie atmosphere...
Supporting Female Empowerment through Dating App Bumble
ABSTRACT – For all the single Juliets who are looking for a Romeo or for another Juliet, look no further. After dating apps like Tinder and Happn now a relatively new dating app has emerged: Bumble. Why Juliets...
“Be the Exception” for New Balance: Brand Surveillance and the Corporatization of Individuality
New Balance’s New York Fashion Week installation, “Real Time Exception Spotting,” combines surveillance and algorithmic technologies to celebrate and reward personal expression through style. But what does it mean for an algorithm to quantify individuality? And can surveillance technologies,...
Reassessing the Viability of Cloud Gaming
Cloud gaming as a concept, as promising as it may be, has not been able to live up to its expectations. Having been around since the year 2000 with the launch of a startup like G-Cluster (Cai et al....
Skipping the Line or Skipping Time? How Foodsy Speeds Up Life
The new app Foodsy is an example to show how life is speeding up and how digital media contribute to this. Foodsy is an emergent app made for train passengers in the Netherlands which allows them to order food...
The rise of connected cars: telematics, carrots, and ads
The car culture, as we know it, is dying. Not because cars are going hybrid or electric, and lack of noise coming out of exhaust systems makes car lovers depressed, neither because they are “learning” to drive by themselves....
IGTV: The Latest Blow to Traditional TV?
On the 20th of June this year, next to an announcement that they now have over a billion monthly active users, Instagram announced the release of Instagram TV – also referred to as IGTV – in a video that...
Reading News From Knowhere in the Post-Truth World
Misinformation is one of the global risks outlined by the World Economic Forum in their Global Risks 2013 report. The world is grappling with the viral spread of unvetted information in a hyperconnected world. News media are implicated in...
Facebook AI protects life from Live Streaming
In an era when everyone lives online, Facebook, the biggest social platform, adds constantly new tools for the user. One attractive feature is live streaming. Despite chatting and concerts that we are used to see, live video shows us...
Vulnerabilities in Car-Sharing Apps
Car-sharing applications, like Uber and Car2Go, do not really need an introduction. These days it is as easy to order or rent a car through an application as it is to order food through an application. But are...
The MinION DNA-scanner: More DNA, More Data, More Ethical Questions
Early this year British researchers first managed to read a complete DNA profile with a small device, the so-called MinION, which is as large as a USB stick. With this breakthrough and the invention of the device, it is...
Make-Up Metrics: The Downfall of the Beauty Community on Youtube?
Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has been host to an ever-expanding community of people looking to showcase their artistic and creative ideas on the platform. With over a billion hours of videos watched every day and with tools available...
Civil: The Savior of Journalism or Just Another Blockchain Startup?
Civil wants to save quality journalism using digital tokens and blockchain. Would it foment a revolution in the industry of journalism, or is it just another product of the entrepreneurial solutionism trying to resolve a complicated situation by a simple...
Is your personal safety app keeping you safe?
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports, “one in three women globally have been sexually or physically abused- amounting to some 800 million people world-wide.” One of the tools gaining acceptance among women to help prevent harassment is ‘Safetipin:...
Article 13: The End of Internet Freedom . . . and Memes?
Generally speaking the world of European politics and memes have very little overlap. However, a vote on the 10th of September in the European Parliament has brought together two parties that are traditionally mutually exclusive. Article 13 of the ‘European...
Don’t ask my name, just scan!
Say, you met a new group of people who are bon vivant just like you, and you spent a nice evening with them. Before you meet each other again next time, you wanna exchange your social media accounts to...
IGTV: Instagram’s TV or Influencer’s TV?
On June 20, 2018, two major announcements were published on the Instagram Info Center. The first being that Instagram reached one billion users. The second was the launch of a new stand-alone application affiliated with Instagram: IGTV. IGTV:...
Spare Change Investment: Saving for the Future or Selling Out Today?
Millennials are a new target market. Personal growth, independence, and self-improvement are trends especially prominent with generation Y and Z. Right in tune, finances are following suit with budget, mobile payment and now investment apps like Acorns and Moneybox....
Goodbye Cashiers. Goodbye Checkouts. Goodbye Privacy?
Imagine going to University in the morning. You haven’t had breakfast, but you missed your train, so there’s no time for that queue at Albert Heijn. Now, imagine how convenient it would be to just run into a grocery...
Drones Floating to Freedom
On a warm August night in the Dutch summer of 2018, I went for a stroll in the heart of my new home: Amsterdam. Arriving at the edge of the center, I found myself surrounded by thousands of people...