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Digital Planet: Uber Controversy in Sydney

Factual: Science & Nature

Police forensic officers work at the scene of a dramatic siege in Sydney on December 16, 2014

16/12/2014

Uber Controversy in Sydney

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Uber Controversy in Sydney

Uber has been criticised for raising its tariff during the siege in Sydney

Uber controversy in Sydney, Safer online experience for children, Wellcome Collection's Mindcraft, Danceroom Spectroscopy.

The cab-ordering app Uber has been accused of exploiting the crisis during the Sydney siege when fares in the central business district rose up to four times their usual amount. Uber's 'surge pricing' is enacted through an algorithm. Simon Sharwood, the Asia Pacific correspondent for tech website The Register has followed the story which saw Uber change its policy and offer passengers free rides during the siege.

Digital Awareness UK and Project Rockit: Cyberbullying
The Australian government has unveiled plans to start fining social media sites over cyberbullying. Under the plans the parliament will appoint a children’s e-safety commissioner. The latest development has caught the attention of two sets of sisters in Australia and in the UK who have launched campaigns to encourage safer online lives for children and to curb cyberbullying. Click hears from the sisters who run Project Rockit and Digital Awareness UK. 

Wellcome Collection: Mindcraft
Wellcome Collection has unveiled an immersive digital story Mindcraft: A Century of Madness, Murder and Mental Healing.  Mindcraft, built in collaboration with the Web design agency, Clearleft, relies only on myriad digital tools to get its innovative story across from the birth of Mesmerism to the ascent of Sigmund Freud.  Mike Jay and Danny Birchall join Click to discuss how they pieced the story together.

Danceroom Spectroscopy
Last year David Glowacki, a theoretical chemist, created danceroom Spectroscopy, an interactive science-meets-art installation that has introduced the beauty and complexity of the atomic world to thousands of people across the UK and Europe. David Glowacki joins Click to discuss his aims to create a sort of 'nano glove-box' to give school children and the general public an interactive glimpse into the otherwise invisible molecular world.

(Photo: Police forensic officers work at the scene of a dramatic siege in Sydney on December 2014 © William West/AFP/Getty Images)

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