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Interesting.
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...since the pricing options he [Bernardo Huberman] outlines gauge how a person values privacy and risk, they address at least two big obstacles to making such a market function.

The first: how to put a realistic dollar value on any given bit of personal data so that people will find it worthwhile to sell and buyers won't be spending prohibitively huge sums.

And second: how to sell "unbiased data" so buyers can use small samples of people to infer information about larger populations. An example of this problem can be found in Huberman's own work: thinner people were more likely to share their weight for a low sum than those who were heavyset. So a pharmaceutical company developing a weight-loss drug wouldn't get the best data if it purchased only the cheapest data.
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mit_techreview data

This could get interesting!
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Right now Adobe and WoodWing are charging magazine publishers something like six figures just for a system that will transform their magazines into apps that can be sold through Apple. And magazines are basically just enhanced ebooks. Meanwhile, companies like OnSwipe are trying to become the de-facto system for publishing content to tablets—but only on the web. Companies like Arcade Sunshine, whom I've written about before, are also limited to Apple's App store.

The Atavist Platform, meanwhile, promises to do all of that, and then maybe turn its competitors' bones into bread when it's done.
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atavist e-books platforms publishing mit_techreview

The comments on this article are excellent (critical). Have to agree with the ones that criticize central planning. If zone 1 and 3 were connected directly (skipping zone 2), I bet it would be the same story as with building more and bigger roads...
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The researchers' algorithms indicate when the network of roads and subway lines between two regions cannot support the number of people traveling between those regions. By pointing out underlying problems, the system shows urban planners where to focus their attention, Zheng says.

In some cases, Zheng says, the busy regions aren't really the ones that are flawed. For example, it may be that people from region 1 are going through region 2 on their way to region 3, in which case it may be better to connect region 1 and 3 directly, rather than trying to widen highways in region 2.
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planning urban_planning traffic congestion mit_techreview

Couldn't agree more with Aaron Swartz and fellow activists:
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"We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks," wrote Swartz.
Maxwell says he released the papers for similar reasons. He says the papers come from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and were published before 1923, which means they're in the public domain (his claim has not been independently verified). "This knowledge belongs to the public," he argues. For the sake of scientific progress, Maxwell says, such databases shouldn't keep research under lock and key at all, let alone beyond their copyright expiration, as is the current practice. "Progress comes from making connections between others' discoveries, from extending them, and then from telling people," he says.
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mit_techreview commons creative_commons copyfight patents aaron_swartz harvard research

Title says it all.
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The findings add to a growing awareness that manufacturing plays a critical role in driving innovation. Harvard Business School professors David Pisano and Willy Shih argue, for example, that innovation capacity often disappears if a country loses its manufacturing sector, because the knowledge and abilities needed to develop new technologies are often closely linked to the skills and expertise associated with manufacturing (see "Innovation Depends on a Robust Manufacturing Sector"). Fuchs builds on this idea by showing that regional manufacturing differences can cause the most advanced technologies to fall by the wayside. "Manufacturing locations can affect the evolution of technology globally," she says.
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mit_techreview manufacturing erica_fuchs globalization innovation

Must-read article, America... (And Canada is actually even worse, because this economy manufactures very little, basing its wealth on the export of raw resources. Terrible.)
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To illustrate the importance of maintaining a U.S. innovation ecosystem even when an innovation's value isn't apparent immediately, Shih points out that rechargeable batteries didn't seem very important to U.S. companies when the University of Texas licensed lithium-ion technology to Sony two decades ago; hardly anyone in the United States was making consumer electronics. But after Sony introduced the technology in its Walkman in 1991, other Asian consumer-electronics companies also developed rechargeable-battery technology. Later, as rechargeable batteries became an important component of laptop computers, the battery makers honed their skills with manufacturers, which in turn transferred expertise with small consumer electronics into building laptops in Asia. Today, with hybrid and electric cars on the rise, manufacturers in Japan, Korea, and China have a big head start on the technology behind those vehicles.
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mit_techreview technology innovation economy david_pisano willy_shih

Wow...
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The days of iPad content apps in app stores are numbered, if HTML 5 is up to the task of delivering an app-like experience in the browser
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mit_techreview onswipe online_publishing apps html5 content browser

Yes, that's about right:
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If there's one topic likely to generate spit-flecked ire, it is the controversy over the potential health threat posed by cell phone signals.
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Not sure yet where I stand (or fall). Probably on the side of caution (i.e., if I'm going to power-use this stuff, give me a headset v. gluing the phone to my head).

microwaves cell_phones cellular_health biology physics mit_techreview

Design stuff, for reference.
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Here are 10 essential elements or aspects of good design that transcend context, industry, and geography.
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mit_techreview design reference lists tom_wujec bill_o'connor autodesk

Fascinating. New approach to tackling melanoma cancer, and possibly all cancers: start with the cell.
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Butler and his colleagues harvested immune cells from nine patients. They souped up the cells in their lab—in effect giving them the ability to remember cancer cells—multiplied them in number, and infused them back into the patients from whom they been taken. This technique, called adoptive t-cell therapy, primes the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells throughout the body.
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mit_techreview cancer cells cellular_health health

Wow. As a fan of the Commons, Hessel's observation really rocks my boat:
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Then there's Andrew Hessel, a biohacker fed up with the biotech business model, which he believes is built on the hoarding of intellectual property and leads companies to prioritize one-size-fits-all blockbuster drugs. "During the sixty years or so that computers went from a roomful of vacuum tubes to iPhones, the pace of drug development has never quickened," Hessel tells Wohlsen. Hoping to change that, Hessel is developing the first DIY drug development company, the Pink Army Cooperative, whose goal is to bioengineer custom-made viruses that will battle breast cancer. "Personalized therapies made just for you. In weeks or days, not years. Believe it. It's time for a revolution," the company's website proclaims. "We are trying to be the Linux of cancer," Hessel explains.
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additional article link:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/37444/?a=f

mit_techreview biotech diy hacking medicine

Intro, after which the author summarizes 7 trends relating to collaboration:
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Since the dawn of managerial capitalism, collaboration and work have almost always been synonymous. People need other people to realize their greatest impact, and innovation, perhaps the most valuable activity in business, depends critically on the kind of cross-pollination of ideas that collaboration enables.
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1.Consumerize everything.
2. It's all about the culture.
3. Cherish your experts, not your documents.
4. Build the 24-hour knowledge factory.
5. Mandate structure within the social cacophony.
6. Tap the wisdom of your crowd, and any crowd.
7. Keep it real.

mit_techreview trends collaboration

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As behavioral economists—who use social, cognitive, and emotional factors to understand how people make choices—refine their understanding of what helps us stick to commitments, they are using this information to design new tools. Not surprisingly, money turns out to be a good motivator.

Ian Ayres, a behavioral economist at Yale, developed a website called StickK.com, on which users set a specific goal and then pledge a sum of money to forfeit should they fail to achieve it. Unlike other sites that track weight loss and fitness goals and offer support via social networking, StickK leverages another discovery from behavioral economics: our extreme dislike of losing money.

"The specter of losing money is twice as motivating as the possibility of gaining the same amount of money," says Rose.
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mit_techreview behavioral_economics cognitive_function apps

Sort of spooky, but simultaneously completely logical, the web is getting into predictive...

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This focus on the timeline sets Recorded Future apart from other firms trying to gain insights by mining news and other data, says Ipeirotis. "I'm curious to see when other text analytics firms will jump into the trend."

Recorded Future is about to expand its service to cover Arabic and Chinese sources. Making its indexes bigger is a major priority. "I'd like to be able to get in front of every piece of streaming data on the planet," says Ahlberg.

As the databases covered by Recorded Future, General Sentiment, and others grow, more powerful types of analysis will become possible, says Skiena. "I'm currently working with social scientists on models to predict what the probability is that a person that gets few mentions today suddenly becomes very famous in the future, by looking back at years of past data," he says.
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Be sure to check out the video demo of Recorded Future:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?gl=US&client=mv-google&hl=en&user=RecordedFuture#p/u/1/Un8toBItXdo

mit_techreview recorded_future web futurismo

Oh boy. Time to wake up, America.
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Getting from rocks to the pure metals and alloys required for manufacturing requires several steps that U.S. companies no longer have the infrastructure or the intellectual property to perform.
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You cannot rely on outsourcing everything, you have to produce and manufacture STUFF yourself.

mit_techreview rare_metals outsourcing china manufacturing

Could this move solar panel use into the mainstream? I hope so:
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The film is 3M's answer to demand by solar-panel makers--particularly manufacturers of certain thin-film solar cells--for an alternative to glass. Glass has been the armor of choice because it's cheap, weather-resistant, and durable enough to last decades. The vast majority of the solar panels made today rely on glass as the top cover. But glass also adds weight and bulk to solar panels, and it must be packaged carefully to keep it from breaking, adding to shipping costs. By replacing glass, the new film can do away with the need for supporting racks, which is particularly useful on roofs that can't bear a lot of weight. Blending solar panels into roofs also can overcome aesthetic objections by homeowners.
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mit_techreview solar_power green_technologies

Fungi as gateway species - fascinating.

mit_techreview video fungi mycelium paul_stamets

Tumblr founder David Karp explains short-form blogging and how Tumblr competes with Facebook and Twitter.

tumblr david_karp socialmedia mit_techreview video

On Aviary, by Avi:
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At his startup’s headquarters in New York, Avi Muchnick, a 2010 TR35 member, explains where the inspiration for his online multimedia editing suite, Aviary, came from, and how people can use it to share work.
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creativity mit_techreview video avi_muchnick

Toward smart skins for buildings?
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Windows that absorb or reflect light and heat at the flick of a switch could help cut heating and cooling bills. A company called Soladigm has developed methods for making these "electrochromic" windows cheaply, making them more viable for homes and office buildings.
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mit_techreview solar_power eco green_technologies windows