Tech Talk Roundtable 71 | Hacking The Data

The past decade has seen the sudden, dramatic appearance of community spaces offering public, shared access to high-end manufacturing equipment. These spaces are interchangeably referred to as hackerspaces, makerspaces, TechShops, and FabLabs. This can lead the intended audience to become incredibly confused as to why there might be so many names for a single concept. I’d like to take some time to untangle the mess, explain the concepts behind each title, and talk about why I now make significant distinctions between all of these types of spaces.

Sticks and stones aside, words can hurt, whether said out loud or on a screen. And for teenagers today, four in ten of whom report experiencing cyberbullying in the past year, the free speech of the Internet has enabled new online forms of harassment–and easy access to information about self-harm. “For a student who was dealing with emotional issues and talking about very adult behavior, we were able to intercept and talk to the student, and get that student some help.” But the Internet also offers new tools for preventing cyberbullying and suicide. By using data from student searches and posts on social media, analytics tools like Securly and Mevoked offer educators, parents and students a way to recognize harmful behavior and intervene.