Fighting for the right to repair

Fighting for the right to repair

Author: BBC World Service July 13, 2021 Duration: 42:26

US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order asking the Federal Trade Commission to “limit powerful equipment manufacturers from restricting people’s ability to use independent repair shops or do DIY repairs”. This could mean manufacturers can no longer require repairs only be offered by themselves or through authorised retailers. Gay Gordon-Byrne, CEO of The Repair Association in the US, has been speaking about the impact this could have.

Are public-funded cultural institutions falling behind in creating digital content and in danger of becoming irrelevant? A new report from the Serpentine Galleries, “Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse”, suggests that might be the case. While the Games Industry is ploughing huge amounts of money into developing the spatial decentralised web (web 3.0), cultural institutions are lagging behind. Kay Watson, Head of the Arts Technologies team at the Serpentine Galleries, tells us more about the tech they are using to be part of this new metaverse.

It’s the 30th anniversary of the first public website. Composer Kieran Brunt is back to tell us about his latest creation. This new work explores how the internet has dramatically reshaped our lives over the past 30 years. Woven around personal stories Kieran Brunt features electronic and vocal elements that explore the impact the internet has had on all our lives. The full Virtual Symphony can be heard on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 18th July 2021.

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington

Studio Manager: Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz

(Image: Getty Images)


Every week, the team at Digital Planet from the BBC World Service takes you beyond the headlines to explore how technology is reshaping lives, cultures, and economies across the globe. This isn't just a rundown of gadget releases or corporate earnings; it's a grounded conversation about the real-world impact of our digital choices. You'll hear from engineers in Nairobi, policymakers in Brussels, and coders in São Paulo, offering a genuinely international perspective that challenges the usual Silicon Valley narrative. Each episode digs into the human stories behind the innovations, examining both the promise and the peril of our connected age. We tackle questions about ethics, accessibility, and the unintended consequences of progress, making sense of complex issues with clear, thoughtful reporting. Tune in for a nuanced and curious exploration of our technological moment, where the focus is always on the people designing, using, and living with these tools every day. This podcast provides the context you need to understand not just what's new, but what it actually means.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Digital Planet
Podcast Episodes
What’s the deal with the metaverse? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:34
So what is the metaverse really? Following a montage of BBC World Service listeners’ responses and opinions, contributing expert Ghislaine Boddington will shed light on this question. As it turns out, while there are cur…
Japan tackles online insults [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:07
Increased punishment for online insults in Japan Japan has taken the first steps to make online insults punishable by up to one year in prison. This new legislation comes two years after the suicide of Japanese reality T…
Archiving music in glass [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:18
‘Project Silica’ uses ultrafast laser optics and machine learning to utilise glass as a storage device. The fused silica glass is fully resilient to electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and to the most challenging environmental…
Community Networks: Connecting the unconnected [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:23
Across the North American continent, there is a stark difference in the availability of internet to different communities. Tribal lands are typically remote, rural and rugged landscapes, and often have very patchy, or no…
Data-driven football [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:41
Data-Driven football With the end of this year’s Premier League season and the Champion’s League final in the last two weekends, viewers around the world were cheering on their favourite teams. While the rules of footbal…
Detecting earthquakes with seafloor internet cables [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:25
Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory have released research that utilises existing subsea telecommunications cables as environmental sensors, for example to detect earthquakes. These cables exist in many parts…
Reclaiming African art in digital form [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:16
A Nigerian project called Looty is seeking to take back African art in digital form. Members go into museums, take LiDAR scans using their phones, and recreate these African artworks as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The fi…
North Korean digital control [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:03
North Korea is known as one of the most isolated countries in the world. Yet, there are North Koreans who have access to some of the same kind of technologies that are available to the rest of the world, albeit with seve…
Electric road trip on Jersey [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:57
This week you can listen again to our electric vehicle Jersey road trip. Gareth and Bill are on the small English speaking island off the coast of France investigating the tech scene. We’re travelling around in an on-dem…
Can we predict Twitter’s future? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:11
What’s in store for twitter, now that Elon Musk’s offer has been accepted by the Twitter board? Bill and Gareth discuss.Is video chat tech still listening when you’re muted? Video conferencing technology might still be l…