1.Could artificial intelligence be the future of cancer diagnosis?

Published Tuesday 16 July 2019By Tim Newman Fact checked by Paula Field

In a recent study, researchers trained an algorithm to differentiate between malignant and benign
lesions in scans of breast tissue. Doctor and patient with breast scan

A new study asks whether artificial intelligence could streamline cancer diagnosis. With cancer,
the key to successful treatment is catching it early. As it stands, doctors have access to high
quality imaging, and skilled radiologists can spot the telltale signs of abnormal growth. Once
identified, the next step is for doctors to ascertain whether the growth is benign or malignant.

The most reliable method is to take a biopsy, which is an invasive procedure. Even then, errors
can occur. Some people receive a cancer diagnosis where there is no disease, while others do not
receive a diagnosis when cancer is present. Both outcomes cause distress, and the latter situation
may cause delays to treatment. Researchers are keen to improve the diagnostic process to avoid
these issues. Detecting whether a lesion is malignant or benign more reliably and without the
need for a biopsy would be a game changer. Some scientists are investigating the potential of
artificial intelligence (AI). In a recent study, scientists trained an algorithm with encouraging
results.

AI and elastography

Ultrasound elastography is a relatively new diagnostic technique that tests the stiffness of breast
tissue. It achieves this by vibrating the tissue, which creates a wave. This wave causes distortion
in the ultrasound scan, highlighting areas of the breast where properties differ from the
surrounding tissue. From this information, it is possible for a doctor to determine whether a
lesion is cancerous or benign.

Although this method has great potential, analyzing the results of elastography is time-
consuming, involves several steps, and requires solving complex problems. Recently, a group of
researchers from the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California in
Los Angeles asked whether an algorithm could reduce the steps needed to draw information from
these images. They published their results in the journal Computer Methods in Applied
Mechanics and Engineering. The researchers wanted to see whether they could train an algorithm
to differentiate between malignant and benign lesions in breast scans. Interestingly, they
attempted to achieve this by training the algorithm using synthetic data rather than genuine
scans.

Synthetic data

When asked why the team used synthetic data, lead author Prof. Assad Oberai says that it comes
down to the availability of real-world data. He explains that "in the case of medical imaging,
you're lucky if you have 1,000 images. In situations like this, where data is scarce, these kinds of
techniques become important." The researchers trained their machine learning algorithm, which
they refer to as a deep convolutional neural network, using more than 12,000 synthetic images.

Artificial intelligence better than humans at spotting lung cancer

Artificial intelligence better than humans at spotting lung cancer. A recent study concludes that
artificial intelligence could outperform human evaluation of CT scans. By the end of the process,
the algorithm was 100% accurate on synthetic images; next, they moved on to real life scans.
They had access to just 10 scans: half of which showed malignant lesions and the other half
pictured benign lesions. "We had about an 80% accuracy rate. Next, we continue to refine the
algorithm by using more real-world images as inputs."

Prof. Assad Oberai

Although 80% is good, it is not good enough — however, this is just the start of the process. The
authors believe that if they had trained the algorithm on real data, it might have shown improved
accuracy. The researchers also acknowledge that their test was too small scale to predict the
system's future capabilities.

The growth of AI

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of AI in diagnostics. As one author
writes: "AI is being successfully applied for image analysis in radiology, pathology, and
dermatology, with diagnostic speed exceeding, and accuracy paralleling, medical experts."

However, Prof. Oberai does not believe that AI can ever replace a trained human operator. He
explains that "[t]he general consensus is these types of algorithms have a significant role to play,
including from imaging professionals whom it will impact the most. However, these algorithms
will be most useful when they do not serve as black boxes. What did it see that led it to the final
conclusion? The algorithm must be explainable for it to work as intended." The researchers hope
that they can expand their new method to diagnose other types of cancer. Wherever a tumor
grows, it changes how a tissue behaves, physically. It should be possible to chart these
differences and train an algorithm to spot them.

However, because each type of cancer interacts with its surroundings so differently, an algorithm
will need to overcome a range of problems for each type. Already, Prof. Oberai is working on
CT scans of renal cancer to find ways that AI could aid diagnosis there. Although these are early
days for the use of AI in cancer diagnosis, there are high hopes for the future.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325750.php

2.Holy tech! Churches try new ways to connect

By Caroline Bullock

Technology of Business reporter

11 October 2019

Share this with Facebook Share this with Messenger Share this with Twitter Share this with
Email Share Geraint Harries, a technology specialist, for St John the Evangelist in Lancashire,
admits that when his parish first started using social media, it didn't get it quite right. "At first we
didn't really know what social media meant for the church and fell into the trap of simply chasing
the number of likes and followers on our Facebook page," he says.

But when a parishioner credited the Facebook page for her decision to return to the church, then
he felt the strategy had started to work. Weekly posts on the social media page of the church
which simply asked "How can we pray for you today?" resonated with the woman going through
a divorce last Christmas.

"Sometimes it can be daunting to turn up in person to a service so connecting online, more

anonymously, can make it easier to take that first step into the building which happened here," he
adds.

Getting more people through the door is a challenge for the Church of England.
Its own figures show that attendance at services has gradually fallen by between 10% and 20%
from 2007 and 2017. However, while physical attendance has been in decline, digital efforts
appear to be gaining traction. According to the church's data, monthly reach on social media has
doubled from 1.2 million in 2017 to 2.44 million in 2018.Under the Digital Labs programme,
more than 2,000 C of E parishes have attended sessions across the country since 2018, getting
advice on Facebook, Instagram, SEO and sharing best practice.

Mr Harries runs blog writing master classes. "Attendance at our Sunday service has gone from
15 to 80 in the last few years and we're the fastest growing in the Blackburn diocese and part of
this is down a strong digital presence," he says. "However, it's important to remember that it is a
shop window for your church and then it's down to the church whether people stay and remain
engaged, which is why we're always looking at how we can improve

Many rural churches stay closed outside of the scheduled services to deter vandalism and crime.
Thanks to an infrared digital tracker, Revesby St Lawrence in Lincolnshire discovered that
hundreds of people were arriving at the venue only to find it shut. In response the church revised
its opening hours. Churchwarden Robert Allen says many people like to visit outside of the main
services At St Mary's in Chartham, Kent, the deployment of a high-quality CCTV system means
the building can be left open. "Some of the old guard were worried about theft, but we were
determined to be open and available to the whole community," says churchwarden Robert Allen.

"I was speaking to one woman whose grandson was seriously ill and had come into pray one
weekday afternoon."She said that she didn't want to attend services but liked being on her own
when it was quiet, which wouldn't have been possible before. Many people are coming here
outside of the main services simply for contemplation."

Specialist software

For the time being, the camera also serves as a makeshift attendance monitor while the parish
applies for a digital counter to keep track of congregation growth. Attendance figures have an
impact on the level of income a parish pays to the diocese, known as the Parish Share, so keeping
an eye of the numbers is imperative, Robert says. "If you don't pay a Parish Share, you don't get
a priest, it's simple as that. The amount covers all clergy expenses, salaries and pensions." It
explains why a growing number of churches are using specialist software. Churchsuite is a
cloud-based church management system, which currently has around 1,800 churches of all sizes
and denominations.
Aside from reporting the numbers, managing director Gavin Courtney claims the tool can drive
engagement with members whose commitment may be wavering, though he adds the use of
technology in this capacity can sit uneasily with some traditionalists. "It can back up a hunch; if
the vicar thinks that a particular member of the congregation hasn't been around as much as
usual, they can check the numbers on Churchsuite and if confirmed, reach out to that person.

"There are some who believe that the clergy should just be able to sense if someone is drifting
away from church and that it's really more of a pastoral issue, but in larger organisations this
may not always be possible." While UK parishes have trailed the US market in using this kind of
software, Mr Courtney cites legislative demands such as General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) which have prioritised data management as driving a surge in usage.

Increasingly, the technology is being used to manage all aspects of parish life, including
organising the rota for flower arranging (an "historic mess" to sort out manually, says Mr
Courtney), planning the electoral roll and handling finances. "There's more online giving and gift
aid claims to deal with now, and more opportunity in using data to anticipate how much income
is coming in, which was never really the case before," adds Mr Courtney.

Digital collections: The Reverend Margaret Cave's parish is trialling contactless giving

Indeed, the Reverend Margaret Cave of Christchurch East Greenwich has seen first-hand how
more flexibility over payment has left her church less reliant on people having loose change,
having trialled a contactless collection plate. "Where we would traditionally just pass around the
velvet collection bag, we now use a contactless card reader as well, which has increased
donations," she says, though doesn't want to be drawn on figures.

"In fact, because my curate is leaving, we set up the card reader with several donation options the
other day and ended up raising £200 for his present from the congregation who were using their
Apple watches to pay." "Of course, there's some members who prefer to stick with cash but
there's been no resistance. It's so important for churches to embrace technology as it speaks of
how we're a church for 21st Century people."
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-
49772169?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-
11428889&link_location=live-reporting-story

Connecting the world is seen as a humanitarian mission for some technology evangelists –
but ensuring a free and open web is a harder problem to solve.

(Frank Swain)

By Frank Swain

28th October 2019

In 2013, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg released a 10-page white paper outlining his new vision,
titled “Is Connectivity a Human Right?”. It contained “a rough proposal for how we can connect
the next five billion people”, with help from a consortium of tech companies christened
Internet.org. Not only did Zuckerberg’s plan include broadening access to existing
telecommunications networks, it even covered developing new technologies like solar-powered
drones that would loiter over remote areas, beaming data connections to the people below.

Half the world’s population lives without a reliable internet connection, which limits their access
to education, financial services, political engagement, free expression, and more. Among them is
Salim Azim Assani, co-founder of WenakLabs, a digital hub in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad.
In 2008, government authorities shut down access to social media like Facebook and Twitter,
citing the spread of religious extremism. The services remained offline for 16 months. “We lost
money, and some of our customers, because of the internet block,” says Assani. “Some of our
customers cancelled their contracts because they think it is not a good moment to use social
media. Working with artists or musicians, they can’t have a lot of views because a lot of people
don’t know how to use VPNs, or because VPNs are not easy for them to use.”

Fifty years after the first computers were laced into an internet, and 30 years since the World
Wide Web was built on top of this “network of networks”, the free and open online world
envisioned by early pioneers is under attack. In the last few years, partial cuts and even total
blackouts have been reported in India, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Syria, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, and Iraq.
What if the internet stopped working for a day?

Joshua Franco is deputy director of Amnesty Tech. While the organisation doesn’t
comprehensively monitor the world for internet shutdowns, he says the practice is increasing. “In
the west and central Africa region we found 12 cases of intentional mobile and internet cuts in
2017, up from 11 in 2016. In 2018, we had 20 in that region,” he says. “Our fear is that would
continue to rise.” Typically, the justification for these cuts is to curb unrest: when Sri Lankan
authorities cut access to social media in the wake of the 2019 Easter terror attacks, they said this
was necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation and panic. “We look more at impact,
because the motives are not always totally knowable,” says Franco. But he adds: “The
coincidence around crucial public events, such as elections and protests, raise our suspicions that
it’s a way of quelling free speech.”

Taking the internet offline is a crude measure, but other methods of shaping internet access can
be just as dramatic. The Russian government, for example, is building a parallel internet that
exists entirely within its own borders. Once complete, this will give the Russian authorities
complete control over what users based in Russia can see and post online. And internet users in
mainland China log on to one of the most heavily regulated online spaces in the world, where
restrictions to foreign websites and services, active filtering of offending content and strict legal
provisions for companies operating online combine in what is known as "The Great Firewall of
China".

And the trend continues even in more liberal nations. A copyright directive passed by the EU this
year, known as Article 13, compels web operators to install filters that will automatically remove
content deemed illegal. In the UK, the government has repeatedly asserted that it should be
allowed to break the encryption that underlies everything from private messaging apps to online
payments. And in the US, lawmakers have repeatedly tried to overturn net neutrality rules that
ensure online services are treated equally.

Young people have the right to open social media, to use the internet, and they have to use it to
learn to do business – Salim Azim Assani Two years after launching Internet.org, Zuckerberg
appeared before the UN General Assembly to reiterate that “the internet belongs to everyone”.
He’s not alone in this view: reports from the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 and 2016
criticised internet restrictions as running afoul of international agreements on freedom of
expression and information. Both times, they were widely reported as being a declaration that
internet access itself was a human right.
“The internet is a human right,” agrees Assani, who also runs a non-profit organisation dedicated
to promoting digital services in Chad. “Young people have the right to open social media, to use
the internet, and they have to use it to learn to do business. All people have the right to use the
internet.” Vint Cerf doesn’t agree. His opinion ought to count for something: as the co-developer
of the TCP/IP protocol, he’s known as one of the “fathers of the internet”. Following the 2011
UN report, he wrote an editorial in the New York Times dismissing the notion that internet
access was a human right.

Cerf posited that as a technology, the internet was an enabler of rights, and confusing the two
would lead to us valuing the wrong things. “At one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to
make a living,” Cerf wrote. “But the important right in that case was the right to make a living,
not the right to a horse.” The internet was a means to an end, and not the end itself. Behind the
headlines, this is the position of the UN Human Rights Council as well. The reports issued in
2011 and 2016 highlighted the essential nature of the internet in enabling people to exercise their
freedom of expression, opinion and information, but they stopped short of declaring access to a
free and open internet a human right in itself.

Facebook community standards or company policies cannot replace the UN Declaration on

Human Rights – Joshua Franco. Indeed, an internet that operates for the benefit of all necessarily
comes with some restrictions. “It’s not illegal to restrict human rights in key situations,” says
Franco. To spin a phrase, the right to free expression online doesn’t necessarily extend to
shouting “fire” in a crowded chatroom.

For decades, regulators have been playing catch up with the web, introducing laws to curtail the
spread of pirated music, drug selling, child pornography, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, and
more. But the problem with a network of billions is that everyone has their own idea of what
illegitimate content is. This isn’t just a discussion for different nations, but also for the services
that operate online. “Facebook community standards or company policies cannot replace the UN
Declaration on Human Rights,” says Franco. Asserting our internet rights, then, means taking a
proactive stance. The World Wide Web Foundation is a non-profit which aims to defend
freedoms online. At the Internet Governance Forum in Berlin this November, it will launch its
Contract for the Web. “It’s been really challenging for policy makers to come to terms with what
is the web for,” says Emily Sharpe, director of the Web Foundation. “The Contract for the Web
is about making sure the web is empowering and accessible to everyone.”
The document asserts the principles of a free, open, and inclusive web, and forms a manifesto for
everyone aiming to make that vision a reality. Governments that sign up to the contract will
pledge to connect everyone equally, keep the internet online, and respect citizens privacy.
Companies can promise the same, as well as agreeing to develop technologies that “support the
best in humanity and challenge the worst”. Individual citizens, too, can sign up and agree to
create, collaborate, build communities and defend the online space.

In the six years since Zuckerberg launched Internet.org, progress to bring the world online has
been faltering. “In the years since it was created, we’ve seen the web advance human rights,”
says Sharpe. But she notes that as with most technologies, the initial enthusiasm surrounding the
innovation often overlooks potential for damage that it can pose. She hopes that the contract will
guide policy makers in creating regulations that balance the need to mitigate online harms with
the fulfilment of human rights on the web.

“Concepts such as hate speech are frequently abused,” says Franco. “This is not to mean hate
speech isn’t real – we’ve documented how violence against women drives them out of the public
sphere and limits freedom of expression – but it is something governments seize on for those
criticising them, and other forms of protected speech.”

In the six years since Zuckerberg launched Internet.org, progress to bring the world online has
been faltering. Telecoms companies were reluctant to move people onto data plans where
existing contracts for text messaging and voice calls were more profitable. And in 2018,
Facebook quietly grounded its Aquila project for internet drones. As such, there are still billions
of people around the world who are not connected to the internet. But in our efforts to bring them
online, we shouldn’t lose sight of what kind of internet we’re hoping to connect them to. It’s not
enough to connect the world: we have to work hard to ensure that there is a web worth
connecting to.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191025-the-fight-to-keep-the-internet-free-and-open-for-
everyone

By Frank Swain
28th October 2019

4.Wheels of fortune? A new age for electric motors

By Emma Woollacott

Technology of Business reporter

25 October 2019

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Email Share

Image copyrightPROTEAN ELECTRIC

When it comes to making electric cars better, it's the batteries that you'll hear about the most.

But what about the motor that actually drives the car?

Car enthusiasts have long-obsessed about what is under the bonnet of a traditional car, but in the
electric world the motor gets little attention.

That might be about to change, according to Dave OudeNijeweme, head of technology trends at
the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), a joint venture between the UK government and the
automotive industry.

He says improvements in motor technology are set to have a profound effect on the performance
of electric vehicles in the coming years.

"Electrification is based on three main pillars: batteries, electric motor and the powertronics [the
power management system]," he says.
"It's not all about batteries. They do get a lot of headline news but the motors and the
powertronics are absolutely key."

And with new technologies, from 3D printing to in-wheel motors (IWMs) that allow a car to spin
on the spot, electric motors could be grabbing more of the limelight.

Improvements in motor technology will mean profound improvements on electric vehicles'

perfomance

Most electric car motors follow the same basic principles, tightly wound coils of wire interact
with powerful magnets to create rotation.

But despite a relatively simple set-up, there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"The power of a motor goes up with its speed. What you want to do is spin it as fast as possible
in order to make it as small as possible - but then you get into problems of cooling," says Ian
Foley, managing director of British motor manufacturer Equipmake.

"The limitation now on how you improve the performance of electric motors, is how effectively
you can get the heat out of them."

Equipmake's solution is to rearrange the motor's magnets so that they're positioned like the
spokes of a wheel. This not only increases torque (the force which causes rotation), says Mr
Foley, but also makes the magnets more accessible, so that cooling water can be run directly over
them.

The company is also now using additive manufacturing - 3D printing - to improve cooling and
also cut costs. "There are two main benefits we'll get from additive manufacturing. One is that
you can integrate multiple components, so you end up with a much lower component count
because things that would previously have been bolted together are all in one piece," says Mr
Foley.

"The other main thing is the issue of cooling. "In order to cool you need much more effective
heat exchanges, and with additive manufacturing you can effectively increase the surface area
inside the motor for the cooling surfaces and therefore get much greater cooling potential."

One of the key challenges is keeping future high-performance electric motors cool. The company
is expecting to have its motors in production in around 18 months' time, initially selling them for
use in supercars and electric buses - where they're efficient enough to be able to run all day on a
single charge. It has already signed a deal with Brazilian automotive manufacturer Agrale.

And other manufacturers are thinking about a more radical shift.

In most electric cars, the motor is found on one axle and in four-wheel drive cars there will be
two motors, one on each axle.

But some companies are working on a radical redesign, placing motors in the wheels themselves.
According to Chris Hilton, CTO of Protean Electric, in-wheel motors improve handling because
the performance of each wheel can be finely controlled. "They also lower the overall centre of
gravity and help to reduce weight and optimise weight distribution in the vehicle," he says.

In-wheel motors like this can improve handling as they allow you to control the performance of
each wheel, says Protean

"Also, because IWMs are located in the wheel, there are minimal losses in transmission of the
torque to the road, meaning they are more efficient. This means greater vehicle range, or the
same range from a smaller battery." Protean's technology is currently being tested by
manufacturers of passenger cars, commercial vehicles and even autonomous "pods".

Another firm working on in-wheel motors is Japan's Nidec, which announced its prototype
earlier this year. According to Nidec, the motor has a long list of advantages, not all of them
obvious - less noise, for example, thanks to fewer moving parts. But perhaps the biggest
advantage is space. "Cars that use in-wheel motors don't need a motor compartment," says the
firm.

Experts say that in ten years electric motors will be unrecognisable from today"Also, with the
elimination of the drive shafts, the wheels can rotate freely. For example, it becomes possible to
rotate the wheels 90 degrees and drive to the left or the right, or even rotate in place, instead of
just driving forward or backward. This adds another dimension to how the car can move around
and makes it easy to navigate tight spaces."

APC has set out a roadmap of how it sees electric motors developing; and, by 2025, it expects
costs per kilowatt to almost halve, while power density triples. "For the same amount of power
they generate, they'll weigh a third as much and be one third of the package size as well. At the
same time the costs will reduce," says Mr OudeNijeweme. "The electric motor will dramatically
change. I don't know how quickly, but ten years from now it will be unrecognisable from what
you see today, not in how it looks - but in what it does."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49958457

Crossing Divides: How a social network could save democracy from deadlock

By Carl Miller

BBC Click

26 October 2019

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A protest known as the Sunflower Revolution gave rise to a consensus-building social network
There is one thing that practically everyone can agree on: politics has become bitterly divided.
Whether it is the daily Brexit face-offs, the endless scandals on Capitol Hill or the yellow vests
of France, the space for meaningful compromise has dramatically shrunk. Instead, it's a time of
digging in, fighting your corner, staying the course. No surrender.
It signals a deeper malaise - as electorates become more polarised, democracies become more
paralysed. Yet what if it doesn't need to be this way? What if new ways can be found to break
deadlocks and bring electorates back together? Thousands of miles from the controversies
around Trump and exiting the EU, a solution may have been found. For the last five years,
Taiwan has been blending technology with politics to create a new way of making decisions.
And with certain limits, it has found consensus where none seemed to exist.

It began in 2014, when Taiwan was split by a trade bill. As in Hong Kong today, many feared the
law would bring their country closer to China. Protestors entered its parliament and started a
weeks-long occupation that became known as the Sunflower Revolution because they used the
flower to represent a symbol of hope. "I was there the night before they burst in," Audrey Tang
told me. She was a leading member of Taiwan's burgeoning scene of civic hackers who joined
the protests. And in the wake of the occupation, the government asked for their help.

About 250 students stormed Taiwan's parliament in March 2014 before being joined by hundreds
more. Some of the civic hackers were invited to join the government and Tang became Taiwan's
digital minister. Their aim was to design a new process that people from across political divides
could join and express their views. But crucially, the process had to produce a consensus that the
government could turn into new laws and regulations.

Their creation was called vTaiwan - with the "v" standing for virtual - a platform where experts
and other interested parties can deliberate contentious issues. It works by first seeking to
crowdsource objective facts from those involved. Then users communicate with each other via a
dedicated social media network called Pol.is, which lets them draft statements about how a
matter should be solved, and respond to others' suggestions by either agreeing or disagreeing
with them. Once a "rough consensus" has been reached, livestreamed or face-to-face meetings
are organised so that participants can write out specific recommendations.

Ride-hailing row

The platform's first test was to regulate Uber. The ride-hailing service was expanding quickly in
Taiwan, angering the traditional taxi industry as the US firm did not require its drivers to have a
professional licence or the same type of insurance, and was not paying the same taxes as local
firms. Customers, however, enjoyed cheaper fares and added convenience.
To break the deadlock, vTaiwan invited groups from across the debate to join its online space.
Pol.is lifted everyone out of their echo chambers. It churned through the many axes of
agreements and disagreements and drew a map to show everyone exactly where they were in the
debate. A number of different groups, with different attitudes, emerged. Taxi drivers, Uber
drivers, Uber passengers, and other passengers formed four poles in the corners of the map.
There was no reply button, so people couldn't troll each other's posts. And rather than showing
the messages that divided each of the four groups, Pol.is simply made them invisible.

It gave oxygen instead to statements that found support across different groups as well as within
them. "Change the information structure," Colin Megill, one of its founders, told me, "and you
can tweak power". Technically, the tweak was small, but politically its effect was enormous.
Rather than encourage grandstanding or the trading of insults, it gamified finding consensus. The
vTaiwan process is designed to help participants identify common ground and use it as a basis to
resolve disagreement."People compete to bring up the most nuanced statements that can win
most people across," Tang told me. "They spend far more time discovering their commonalities
rather than going down a rabbit hole on a particular issue."

Setting the mood

The debate continued and as people drafted more nuanced statements Pol.is showed that the four
groups had became two"Invariably, within three weeks or four," Tang told me, "we always find a
shape where most people agree on most of the statements, most of the time." After a month,
"consensus items" emerged, that enjoyed near-unanimous support.

One, with 95% support across all groups, read: "The government should leverage this
opportunity to challenge the taxi industry to improve their management and quality control
systems so that drivers and riders would enjoy the same quality service as Uber." In July this
year, I saw vTaiwan in action on another disruptive technology - e-vehicle regulation.

The process had reached the final meeting stage and organisers had made efforts to put attendees
in a co-operative mood. The room was softly lit, everyone ate food together and the only issues
on the table were those Pol.is had already identified as those that most people agreed with.

This was completely different from simply asking them to vote via an app. vTaiwan gave
participants the agenda-setting power not just to determine the answer, but also define the
question. And it didn't aim to find a majority of one side over another, but achieve consensus
across them. As divisions were turned into consensuses, the government could act. New
regulation was passed allowing Uber to operate with licensed drivers, and regular taxis to use
apps.

And after Uber, it has been used to set the agenda for 11 pieces of law and regulation, with eight
more waiting to be voted on, on everything from the regulation of online alcohol sales, fin-tech
regulation to new laws on revenge pornography. vTaiwan has been used to settle a disagreement
on online alcohol sales among other disputes

But there may be limitations.

vTaiwan has not yet been tested on an issue of real, national division, much less one that is
already entrenched. And there are still fears that an online process could exclude less digitally
savvy groups However, Taiwan's experiment may have a tremendously valuable lesson for us all.
Democracy does not have to be fossilised or frozen in any particular form. The ones that evolve
may be the ones that survive, even flourish, in a world where the pressures and challenges they
face are surely changing just as quickly.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50127713