Innovation & Technology Archives - Page 6 of 8

Latin America’s High-Tech Warriors

Interstate conflict is rare in Latin America. Yet some nations in the region are emerging as world leaders in advanced military technology. From drones to complex border surveillance systems, their research and development (R&D) laboratories have come up with sophisticated tools to counter this century’s unconventional threats to national security. That’s reflected in part by … Read more

Internet in the Americas: Who’s Connected?

Across the Americas, Internet usage is on the rise. Access to the Internet—fundamental to the full realization of human rights, according to the United Nations—can significantly improve quality of life by increasing knowledge and understanding, by broadening expression, and by deepening engagement with civil society.1 Especially since the widespread use of the Internet by activists … Read more

The Battle for High-Speed Internet

Chattanooga, Tennessee, may be best known for the Glenn Miller Orchestra’s 1941 hit, “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” But today, the city of about 173,000 people can also boast the first, most cost-effective and fastest high-speed municipal Internet in the United States. Chattanooga’s fiber-optic Internet costs $70 a month1 and connects users at one gigabit per second … Read more

Is Bitcoin Latin America’s Next Big Thing?

The new technology for financial transactions is a boon for people who lack access to traditional banks and financial systems. The historic surge of global Internet access and usage underlines the tremendous potential of the technology known as Bitcoin.* In two decades, the number of Internet users worldwide grew from approximately 25 million in 1994 … Read more

Silicon Valley 2.0

Not too long ago, in a city known for its sunshine and surrounding mountains, a team of young developers submitted their newest creation to Apple’s app store. It was called Typic. Beautiful in its simplicity, it offered a means of artistically embedding text in a photo, along with various filters and other options. After the … Read more

Protestify

When Christina Hawatmeh was a graduate student at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2012, she searched Twitter for breaking news on protests in the Middle East. She soon realized that much of the material uploaded to Twitter ended up “lost” for a variety of reasons: imperfect social media algorithms limit search … Read more

Business Innovator: Jose Kont

Every entrepreneur aims to reinvent the world, but José Contreras went one step further by reinventing his identity. The 28-year-old Guatemalan, who has brought a social media marketing technique called “neuromarketing” to companies in Central America, not only established a new firm called iLifebelt to promote it; he gave himself a new name. Under the … Read more

Colombia’s Internet Advantage

We are at the center of a revolution. The social, cultural and political changes triggered by the development of information and communications technologies (ICTs) that were unforeseeable just a couple of decades ago are now an undeniable reality. As our children and grandchildren are keen to remind us, once-transformative technologies such as fax machines and … Read more

Robots in Your Future

By 2025, a driverless vehicle will navigate rush-hour traffic in Mexico City or São Paulo. A criminal group will use a drone to attack security forces or critical infrastructure somewhere in Latin America. And at least one government in the region will face a major crisis due to job losses caused by robotics and computerization. … Read more

The Region’s Hottest Apps

Hard Talk: Police Accountability

Will police body cameras improve accountability? Yes: Shira A. Scheindlin; No: Peter K. Manning

Innovators

Some of our hemisphere’s emerging leaders in politics, business, civil society, and the arts.

Americas Quarterly, technology, Technology in the Americas

Technology in Latin America

Articles: Robots in Your Future by James Bosworth Getting a grip on technology—before it gets a grip on us. Full text available. Interview: Javier Olivan, Facebook by Americas Quarterly Facebook’s Javier Olivan on the future of social media in Latin America. Full text available. Decoding the Digital Cold War by Ellery Roberts Biddle Could newly … Read more

Monday Memo: Venezuela Enabling Law—U.S.-Cuba Talks—Mass Protests in Brazil—Hydroelectric Projects in Bolivia—Public Wi-Fi in Cuba

This week’s likely top stories: Opposition alarmed by President Maduro’s power of decree; U.S. and Cuba continue talks; Brazilian citizens protest corruption; Bolivia and Brazil to sign energy agreement; Cuba allows first public wi-fi center. President Maduro Given Power to Rule by Decree: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was given the power to rule by decree … Read more