Tag Archives: big brother


Your Country Needs You!

Posted on by Ville Miettinen

… that might raise a couple of eyebrows, or even the hairs on the back of your neck.

One of the big news threads to come out of last year’s protested “elections” in Iran, was the protesters’ novel use of technology (social media including Twitter etc) to organize themselves and communicate with the media. Well, it seems two can play at that game. The Iranian regime, unable to arrest everyone, has been trying to harness the power of the people in order to limit the power of the …

Tags: big brother CCTV crowdsourcing democracy obama participatory government

, , , , , | 4 Comments

Hatforce: your friendly crowd of hackers

Posted on by Tommaso De Benetti

… the international “hactivism” group Anonymous (these guys are like WikiLeaks’ crazy kid brother). Back in April, Anonymous successfully obtained the credit card numbers of over 70 million Playstation users, exposing major security flaws at Sony. Just a few days ago, the same thing happened to gaming distribution platform Steam. Details are still emerging but Gabe Newell, Steam co-founder and beloved guru of the gaming industry, gave this not-very-reassuring advice: “watch …

, , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Searching Questions: how good is Google?

Posted on by Ville Miettinen

… fast, flashing and seemingly benevolent oasis of free information.

These days Google is big. Really big. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are both multi-billionaires. 64% of all web searches start beneath those famous letters. To millions of users “Google” and “the web” are virtually interchangeable terms.

But is Google’s virtual monopoly good for the internet? In his book The Googalization of Everything, media expert Siva Vaidhyanathan asks if it’s healthy for …

, , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Bribes and Prejudice: India’s crowdsourcing revolution

Posted on by Ville Miettinen

Share If there’s one thing that unites people the world over, it’s complaining about politicians. Whether you’re black or white, old or young, right or left there’s nothing quite as human as having a good moan about the people in charge.

At Microtask we pride ourselves on upholding this ignoble tradition with our “constructive criticism” of state-run crowdsourcing …

, , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Shining a light on local government

Posted on by Ville Miettinen

Share Recently, after long days at work, I find myself cursing the Government.

It’s not that I’m an anarchist, or because I am particularly upset about taxes or government policy. What annoys me is the streetlight outside my house.

Last month, after a brief, flickering illness, it died. Without its guiding light, fitting my key into the door to my apartment building has …

, , , , , , , | Leave a comment