But locals quickly raised concerns about the project’s privacy implications and painted a grim picture of a company galvanizing economic development for the benefit of Silicon Valley rather than Canada.

In the networking days of the 1990s, computer manufacturers sought to maximize the processing power of individual machines. The power of the digital network was something of a market externality, the happy byproduct of linking many powerful nodes. Now, however, the rise of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency are driving a new demand for the... See more

The concept of “locality” started collapsing online slowly at first, then suddenly. Local places were first migrated online quite literally by companies like Yelp, Foursquare, and NextDoor. The crowdsourced reviews and ranking system transformed the relationship between people and places. Nextdoor magnifies the stark reality of American... See more

Many people on Twitter/X shared images from local parks with “no ball throwing” and other no-loitering-esque signs actively deterring children and teens from enjoying the space. People have every right to be angry about these cases, that there are few places to simply be. But even these situations can be traced in part to our phone-centric culture.... See more