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Digital Planet: Tech help after Cyclone Idai

Factual: Science & Nature

MOZAMBIQUE crop.jpg

26/03/2019 GMT

Tech help after Cyclone Idai

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Tech help after Cyclone Idai

A website in English and Portuguese is launched to help find missing people after Idai

A website in English and Portuguese is launched to help find missing people after Idai. Also is the World Wide Web becoming more centralised?

As the death toll across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi rises following Cyclone Idai, families are desperately trying to find missing loved ones. To help reunite families, the International Committee of the Red Cross has launched a dedicated digital website in English and Portuguese. We hear about the difficulties of gathering this data when there is no electricity in some places, let alone connectivity.

Decentralising the Web
Following 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web we look at how the web may change in the future. A network where so much data, money and control resides in a handful of huge tech companies seems at odds with that original vision of a ‘distributed hypertext system'. Given that much of the world is on one social media platform, uses one search engine and shops at one online store – the world wide web of today looks remarkably ‘centralised’. But could it be decentralised?

Bee Virus Music
Imagine a music track that keeps glitching, but the faults are intentional and the sound files have deliberately been corrupted. The track itself is based on a virus that is threatening some populations of bees and it is now part of an installation just outside London. Visitors are kitted out with wearable technology that transmits the corrupted WAV between themselves, which simulates the spread of the virus and raises awareness of the increasing threat to bees. 

Social Media President
Hashtag #Bolsonaro Persona Non Grata has been trending on social media in Chile in recent days during the visit of Brazil’s far-right leader. This time controversy came following a lunch where the dress code for women was 'short skirts'. The social media response to this request spread quickly, with some delegates refusing to go and is just one of many controversial posts on social media linked to the Brazilian President's account.

Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz

(Photo: Tropical Cyclone Idai lashed Mozambique. Credit: Getty Images)

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