Page 24 - AT

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 21 december 2018
Then one foggy Christmas Eve, reindeer got connected

By JAMES BROOKS If a collar-fitted reindeer
Associated Press doesn't move after about
ROVANIEMI, Finland (AP) four hours, its icon changes
— Rudolph and friends no from green to red on the
longer need to rely on the app, signaling a potential
famous reindeer's red nose attack.
to avoid getting lost. Now To best locate groups of
they have wireless technol- reindeer, which are bred
ogy. for their meat, milk and fur,
To keep track of their ani- the trackers are fitted on
mals in Lapland, Northern the herd's female leader.
Finland's vast and remote "In the old days, we roughly
snow-covered forests, rein- knew reindeer locations,
deer herders are turning to in which part of the district
technology by fitting them they were," said herder Jar-
with internet-connected no Konttaniemi. "But today,
collars. with this technology, we
Herders who previously Reindeer herder Seppo Koivisto holds a smartphone, showing the mobile app used to locate rein- know exactly where they
spent weeks searching for deer in Finnish Lapland, in Rovaniemi, Finland, Thursday Dec. 13 2018. are."
their reindeer in sub-zero Associated Press Digita built the long-range
wilderness can now instant- network, which it says is the
ly see where they are on a "In all sectors of society, this reindeer husbandry," said Lapland's 4,000 square-ki- world's most northerly "Inter-
mobile app that receives (tech) efficiency is playing Seppo Koivisto, whose hun- lometer (1,545 square-mile) net of Things" network. The
up-to-date location data. a big role. It's the same in dreds of reindeer roam Palojarvi District. "Internet of Things" refers
Lapland's reindeer are the to the next generation of
main source of livelihood devices and everyday ob-
Human rights group report gains for about 1,500 herders, jects that are connected to
so there's high interest in the internet.
traction, Twitter hammered technology that can help While reindeer herding has
manage them. Koivisto is roots going back hundreds
using the latest generation of years, "at least some of
of wireless collars made the reindeer owners are
NEW YORK (AP) — A report possible by a group that in- really up-to-date when it
on Twitter by the human cludes Helsinki-based com- comes to using technolo-
rights group Amnesty Inter- munications firm Digita and gy," said Ari Kuukka, Digita's
national is gaining traction Finland's Reindeer Herding head of "Internet of Things"
and the company's shares Association. The associa- services.
were punished Thursday, tion is based in Rovaniemi, The herding association has
suffering one of their worst which bills itself as the "of- been working for years on a
declines this year. ficial hometown of Santa reliable GPS reindeer track-
The report, released earlier Claus." ing system. The main chal-
this week, said the social "We have fewer workers, lenge was coming up with
media platform has per- so their actions should be a device that was cheap
mitted a toxic online cul- more and more efficient all but had a long-lasting bat-
ture that allows pervasive the time," and this technol- tery.
abuse of women. ogy lets them do that, said The third and latest proto-
While reports from Amnesty Koivisto. Since he started type is the size of a deck
International are not regu- In this Feb. 8, 2018, file photo, the logo for Twitter is displayed using the technology, he of cards, stays charged for
above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Ex-
lar reading on Wall Street, change. has only had to hire half the about a year, and costs
the Citron Research news- Associated Press usual number of workers. about 90 euros ($102).
letter is. On Thursday, Citron The technology can also The herding association
editor Andrew Left cited be the subject of problem- this regard." help herders account for hopes to eventually shrink
the report and called Twit- atic tweets. After weeks of castigation attacks from predators the transmitter down to a
ter the "Harvey Weinstein" Vijaya Gadde, the legal, at Facebook over now such as wolverines and lynx coin-sized microchip that
of social media. policy, trust and safety well-known privacy issues, that roam across the Rus- can be attached to a rein-
Shares of Twitter Inc. global lead at Twitter, said investors have grown leery sian border. deer's ear, said Matti Sarke-
plunged 13 percent in mid- in a response to Amnesty of issues that have the po- At least 5,000 reindeer are la, the herding association's
day trading. that the company desires tential to become a public killed every year, accord- head of office who has
Amnesty and data firm El- a healthy and transparent nightmare for social media ing to the herding asso- previously helped develop
ement AI scoured through discourse. platforms. Left, of Citron Re- ciation. Most that die in a mobile app that alerts
288,000 tweets sent to al- "Twitter's health is mea- search, lowered his expec- Lapland's forests are never drivers to reindeer near Fin-
most 800 women politicians sured by how we help en- tations on company shares, found. Koivisto says he loses land's often icy roads.
and journalists in 2017. Ele- courage more healthy de- anticipating a difficult path about 8 percent of his herd He hopes embracing new
ment calculated that 1.1 bate, conversations, and for Twitter in light of height- annually. technologies can inspire
million abusive or problem- critical thinking," Gadde ened attention to the prob- The collars, which use GPS the younger generation to
atic tweets were sent to said. "Conversely, abuse, lems in social media. satellite positioning and carry on the herding tradi-
those women last year, or, malicious automation, and Left said that said Twitter special long-distance wire- tion.
Amnesty said, about one manipulation detract from has become "uninvestable" less networks, help herders "It has brought a lot of
every 30 seconds. the health of Twitter. We and that advertisers will find reindeer corpses so young people into our in-
Researchers found that are committed to holding soon have to reconsider they can claim valuable dustry all the time," said
women of color were much ourselves publicly account- their sponsorships on the compensation from the Sarkela. "It's a really positive
more likely, 34 percent, to able towards progress in platform.q Finnish government. thing."q