Politics and Governance

• Over-Politeness is the Fatal Flaw in the Open Data Movement -Tom Steinberg, Civicist (@steiny) (@Civicist)
  Meaningful transparency reforms typically only happen when a government has faulted and officials need to act to ease the tensions. As the drive for open data in countries continues to languish and yield poor results, the author points to over-friendly collaboration between government and transparency advocates as a hindrance to the open data movement.

• A New Map of Poverty, a New Approach to International Aid -Bill Gates, The Wall Street Journal (@BillGates) (@WSJ)
  Gates explains that the way the current global-aid system uses a nation's "average income" to measures poverty poses setbacks to accessing development aid. The present system needs to adapt to account for shifting patterns of poverty, so that countries with extreme inequality and poverty do not lose aid too soon. In addition to broadening eligibility requirements for aid, developing countries must also work to increase government revenues in the fight against poverty.

Peacebuilding and Violence

• Emerging Urban Digital Infomediaries and Civic Hacking in an Era of Big Data and Open Data Initiatives -Piyushimita Thakuriah, University of Glasgow (@UofGlasgow)
  This paper is part of the forthcoming publication Seeing Cities Through Big Data: Research Methods and Applications in Urban Informatics. Authors review non-traditional urban digital infomediaries working to push the agenda of urban Big Data and Open Data. Among the infomediaries assessed, four major groups of organizations and nine organizational types are identified; authors also consider the overlap of activities within organizations and note the need for improved cross-fertilization among those organizations.

Data Ethics and Literacy

• British Mobile Phone Users' Movements 'Could Be Sold For Profit" -Damien Gayle, The Guardian (@damiengayle)
  Mobile phone networks and wireless hotspot operators who collect their customers' location data are now selling that data for profit. The data, so detailed that it can reveal the users gender, sexual orientation, religion, and other personal detail, is anonymized, but many fear the possibility of the data getting into the hands of criminals and hackers.

• Elements of a New Ethical Framework for Big Data Research -Washington and Lee Law Review (@WLU_LawReview)
  This essay outlines the elements of a framework for capturing the benefits of Big Data while at the same time still respecting the fundamental principles of ethics and privacy, in light of emerging large-scale data sources . The new framework, which should be the product of a collaborative multistakeholder process, aims to support Big Data research in a sustainable and trust-building manner