Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Going Cashless: What Can We Learn from Sweden’s Experience?

In some instances, it appears the rocks are stronger than the river.
- via AT
Government open data comes to life
GOVHACK: Government agencies who have worked hard to free up their data will see that data being put to good use this weekend.
◾ Making open government more impactful

Labor MPs want response to JPC inquiry report on whistleblower protection

Data Ethics Framework for TF
"Ethics and innovation are not mutually exclusive. Thinking carefully about how we use our data can help us be better at innovating when we use it." (UK government)

 It wasn’t me: Trump officials deny writing anonymous opinion column
"In a spectacle that may be without precedent even for an administration that has seen many of those already, almost the entire cabinet and leadership team working for President Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to writing an extraordinary anonymous essay about plotting against him." (New York Times)

Scott Morrison is perfecting the art of Not Being Malcolm Turnbull
"And so it was that on day 14, Prime Minister Scott Morrison underwent his most perilous and gruelling test yet: Interpreting Robert Menzies." (ABC)
  
**The new Secretary to the Treasury gives his first major speech
PHILIP GAETJENS: It is important to continue to search for innovative policy approaches to ensure that all people can share in the growth and opportunity that has benefited the overwhelming majority of Australians.

Can you be partially corrupt? Is this only slightly corrupt, or very corrupt?  It is not obvious to me:

The financial assistance wealthy friends provided, in an era when ties between politicians and businessmen were not scrutinized, was indicative of Humphrey’s longer-term dependence on such people. His three sons…attended Shattuck Military Academy…courtesy of scholarships provided to the school by Minneapolis-born William Benton, who had made a fortune in advertising before becoming Humphrey’s Senate colleague from Connecticut during 1950-52…Eventually, Ewald [a wealthy Minnesotan dairyman] also helped.
Later, when Humphrey became vice president, he would turn over his modest stock holdings to Dwayne Andreas, the multimillionaire agribusinessman who transformed the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company into a multinational powerhouse, to be put into a blind trust.  Andreas commingled Humphrey’s funds with his own in his mutual income fund that invested heavily in ADM stock.  Andreas never mentioned this arrangement to Humphrey, who never inquired.  By the time of his death in 1978, Humphrey’s share of the mutual income fund was about half a million dollars…

That is all from Arnold A. Offner’s Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of a Country.


Going Cashless: What Can We Learn from Sweden’s Experience?

Knowledge@Wharton: “Sweden is regarded as the poster child of cashless countries and is expected to become the world’s first cashless society by March 2023. This means that cash will not be a generally accepted means of payment in Sweden. This journey has been powered by various factors such as a robust card payment system, strong internet infrastructure, a popular mobile payment app, supportive legal framework and a cultural mistrust of cash Jonas Hedman, associate professor at the department of digitalization at the Copenhagen Business School, believes that becoming cashless is inevitable, not just for Sweden, but for other countries as well. In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton, Hedman talks about Sweden’s journey to becoming a cashless society, its implications for the rest of the world and lessons that can be learned. Knowledge@Wharton produced this interview in collaboration with the SWIFT Institute. This is an edited transcript of the conversation…”


Identity – What Is It, Really, And How Much Can We Truly Choose It For Ourselves?


Kwame Anthony Appiah: "Like all the words in our language, the identity labels we use are a common possession. Were everybody to follow Humpty Dumpty's example ['When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean'], we simply couldn't understand one another. If Toni Morrison isn't a black woman, the term isn't doing any work. ... 'Lesbian' isn't much use if you're looking for a partner on Bumble unless it signifies a woman who might be open to sex with another woman." … Read More


 Making journalists smarter; the story behind 'Anonymous'; the feminist blogger facing prison time

You don’t need to be available 24/7. You could alternate work among team members to respond to late-night emails, and you could set social expectations on social media.
By doing that, journalists and others will have time to deepen and clarify thinking, digital experts told a conference Wednesday. The Atlantic’s “Humanity + Tech" conference at MIT came as members of Congress grilled tech executives in Washington to get a handle on the digital disruption of American voters, politics and journalism.
“Time is regenerative,” said Maggie Jackson, a former AP reporter and author of “Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention.” 
And you don't have to change your entire lifestyle to make it happen, Jackson said in an interview. “One of the things we’ve learned is that small, incremental steps matter,” she said. One idea to add balance is reporters or editors working in teams, alternating duty after-hours to allow coverage of the job but get people more time away from work.
With efforts like that, Jackson said, journalists and others can unlock “the digressive, slow, uncertain part of ourselves that are key to our creativity.”
That approach helps people only if they set their expectations with friends or other social networks that they won’t respond at certain times, sayid Glen Murphy, Google’s director of UX. Part of his job is working on ways that people can be more efficient in Google use.
It’s not easy, Murphy conceded, noting one investigation of a jump in audience usage in which his team asked who built that tool distracting users. “Oh, it’s us,” was the answer.
Kevin Holesh, who created the Moment app to mark how much time a person spends on a smartphone, said there is a “happiness cliff” — the moment beyond which readers or viewers of an app or site become unhappy.
With that in mind, companies are moving from “time spent” as a key metric to optimum time, said Deb Roy, CEO of Cortico and an associate professor at MIT’s Media Lab. They are asking, “Is usage of the platform healthy?” said Roy, whose company has been working with Twitter on studying usage and identifying improvements amid the Congressional scrutiny of the platform.
“The internet detaches us from our local and human roots … and that’s coming back to bite us,” Roy said.
Nir Eyal, author of the upcoming book “Indistractable,” said he’s taken Facebook off his phone and limits his usage of that social network to a few minutes each evening. “These devices provide us an escape from our lives," said Eyal, explaining the psychological addiction. “Distraction starts from within.”
Four ways to lessen these distractions, according to Eyal: 1) Manage the triggers that get you on your phone; 2) Plan your time; 3) Disable notification settings; 4) Make pacts with yourselves.
Moment's Holesh had two easy steps that are proven to cut smartphone usage significantly: Don't take the phone to bed, or to the bathroom.
One goal from all of these moves, said Google’s Murphy: To move from FOMO to JOMO (Joy of Missing Out).
Readers, let me know if there are ways in which your workplace is limiting digital time or email response expectations — and if so, if it is helping productivity, as studies have shown. Email me at dbeard@poynter.org (I’ll be reading them only during certain hours).

Quick hits

RARE: The extraordinary "Anonymous" New York Times op-ed, by a senior Trump official, who says he and others are working to thwart the worst impulses of the president. Their goal: protect the nation. Here's my separate story on the essay, the firestorm and the calls for Trump White House officials to go public with their efforts to protect America from an inept leader.
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE AT 10: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the fact that they are liberated to make news judgment the only judgment,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan in an overview of the site by CJR. … In a remarkable move, the Trib released a strategic plan for 2025, acknowledging the need to hire more Spanish-speaking employees, to build newsletters and to rethink membership. Here’s why we released it, by Evan Smith.
HUH?: Russia charged a feminist blogger for … wait for it … inciting hatred toward men. Lyubov Kalugina faces five years in prison if convicted, The Moscow Times reports. (h/t Miriam Elder)
A PSEUDONYM: An editor and columnist for the conservative Daily Caller wrote under a fake name for a publication associated with white supremacist Richard Spencer, The Atlantic’s Rosie Gray reports. The articles expressed racist anti-black views and anti-Semitism.
CRASH: Man arrested after repeatedly crashing his vehicle into Dallas TV station and complaining about a 6-year-old police shooting, the Dallas Morning News reported. No one was injured Wednesday.
MOVES: White House reporter Jacqueline Alemany joins The Washington Post to write its new “Power Up” morning newsletter. She spent the last six years at CBS News. … Bond Huberman is heading to Snopes as social media editor. Huberman comes from Seattle public radio affiliate KUOW.
  
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