Tech Refactored

As we plan a few forthcoming Tech Refactored projects for our listeners, we re-visit one of our favorite episodes--Culturally Rerouting the Oregon Trail. We'll be back with new episodes soon!

Original description: We're discussing the role of video games in shaping popular understandings of history - specifically the game a generation of adults played as kids, The Oregon Trail. Each of our guests, Margaret Huettl and Katrina (Katie) Phillips, drew on their expertise with Native American history and culture in consulting on the popular reboot of the game and joined us to talk about the experience. Note, William Bauer from the University of Nevada,  also advised on the reboot, but was unavailable for this podcast.

On this episode Elsbeth welcomes Jona Van Deun, the executive director of the Nebraska Tech Collaborative. The collaborative is a a business-led workforce initiative committed to convening leaders from government, education, and not-for-profit organizations across the state to develop, attract, and retain tech-talent and entrepreneurs to Nebraska.

Note: Tech Refactored is on winter break! There will be no new episode next week as our team spends time with their families--see you in 2022!

It’s the 50th episode of Tech Refactored! We’ve talked about so many different technologies - but this is one of the coolest and scariest! On this episode Gus is joined by on of our faculty fellows, Dr. Bonita Sharif. Dr. Sharif is an expert in the use of eye tracking technologies to enhance the efficiency of software programmers in searching through thousands of lines of code.

A practical guide on conducting eye tracking studies in software engineering

Can the ez reader model predict eye movements over code? towards a model of eye movements over source code

Determining Differences in Reading Behavior Between Experts and Novices by Investigating Eye Movement on Source Code Constructs During a Bug Fixing Task

Nebraska Today Article

New technology is great — but adopting new technology often means moving on from older generations of technology. Take, for instance, 3G cellular networks. Cellular providers are in the process of turning off their 3G networks over the next several months, so that the spectrum currently used to offer 3G service can be repurposed for higher-speed 5G services. To look at some of the challenges that go with these transitions, the show welcomes Harold Feld, Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge, and Richard Shockey, Principal of Shockey Consulting LLC, a consulting firm specializing in strategic advice and action plans for Internet protocol communications technology.

On this episode we welcome Brent Skorup, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to explore his work on the legal history of the often politicized Section 230. Section 230 is a section of the United States Communications Decency Act that provides immunities for website and social media platforms regarding content posted by users and other third-parties - and it is often used as political fodder. Brent helps us break down the highly politicized, famous/infamous, Section 230.

See more of Brent’s work on tech issues here:
The Erosion of Publisher Liability in American Law, Section 230, and the Future of Online Curation

Thoughts on Content Moderation Online

Can Social Media Companies Censor Lawmakers’ Accounts?

 This weeks host, Kyle Langvardt, sits down with his friend Khaled Beydoun to discuss Islamophobia and surveillance. Beydoun is the author of the critically acclaimed American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear and co-editor of Islamophobia and the Law. His next book, The New Crusades: Islamophobia, the World and the Wars Between will be published in 2021 with the University of California Press.

Earlier this fall we released the TR/∂T (of the moment) episode ‘Supply Chain Shortages and the Cost of Building Fiber Networks,’ but one trip to the grocery store or the gas station and it’s clear: fiber and broadband aren’t the only industry being impacted. On this episode we welcome Erkut Sönmez, an associate professor of supply chain management and analytics at the University of Nebraska and one of our center’s Faculty Fellows to discuss problems that arise with the development of new business models and technologies across industries and in agriculture.