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Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

wired.co.uk

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Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#31

Post by silicon2401 »

rockbruno wrote: post #5

Funny that they were so concerned about GDPR violations given that in Sweden everyone's address/job/phone/salary is public and easily accessible. I like it that every time a foreigner joins my company (I live in Sweden) it's a matter of time before they post a message in our Stockholm channel saying "guys... what the hell is this website and why am I in it?". Then the swedes mention that they see nothing wrong with i…

Places like Sweden, Japan, Taiwan are often touted as examples of why XYZ works. However people often fail to mention that these places are, relative to many countries like the US, extremely homogenous in culture and ethnicity. Certain things that work in those countries will fall apart when attempted in a more diverse country.

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#32

Post by wyager »

castis wrote: post #9
donkarma wrote: post #4

Schools should NOT have applications, what a mistake

Could you go into more detail on why you think this?

Not him, but I can take a guess:

99% of apps suck and are horrible to work with. Government apps are probably worse than average.

Interacting with the government shouldn’t require the use of any particular tech device. It sounds like in this case there is no alternative.

Schools have managed for hundreds of years without this additional complexity, so there’s probably not a good justification to start adding this complexity now. Usually school/government initiatives like this are just driven by hype/someone wanting to make an “impact”/nepotistic job provision/etc.

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#34

Post by Loughla »

wonderwonder wrote: post #26
raxxorrax wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said, as a kid I would have hated this. I don't think kids benefit from this kind of overbearing parenting in the long run. Better than being neglected, I guess. Perhaps this is useful for very young children, but knowing myself I would have broken out of there as quickly as possible.

I can understand personal preference of a child but study after study show that children whose parents are actively involved with their education and schooling get better results.

I guess this comes down to the definition of actively involved versus overbearing.

There is a fine, fine, fine line to walk between the two. Knowing how your kid is doing, asking questions, and being interested in their schooling is okay. Using it to force action without learning consequence is not.

It is, sometimes, okay for a kid to miss an assignment because they're not great at time management. That's how they learn consequences for their actions.

Anyway, you two have a fundamental disagreement, I believe, about the level of interaction and control required to be involved.

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#35

Post by themitigating »

dylan604 wrote: post #24
literallyaduck wrote: post #13

Government should learn from that self organized teams who work for passion build better software. Authoritarian dictators mandating a poor solution vs self lead, self organized, committed parents building a piece of software they will instantly dogfood.

Please. If those in charge allowed the passionate to do these kinds of things, they wouldn't remain in charge. Authoritarian dicators not required.

Because there's only two levels 1. Passionate that produces amazing software 2. Completely don't care

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#37

Post by raxxorrax »

wonderwonder wrote: post #26
raxxorrax wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said, as a kid I would have hated this. I don't think kids benefit from this kind of overbearing parenting in the long run. Better than being neglected, I guess. Perhaps this is useful for very young children, but knowing myself I would have broken out of there as quickly as possible.

I can understand personal preference of a child but study after study show that children whose parents are actively involved with their education and schooling get better results.

Kids primarily benefit from parents education and their engagement in their children. But more by providing stimuli, not by surveillance.

This isn't a black and white issue and as I said, it depends on their age. As I understand it we are talking about more or less preteens here.

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#38

Post by Loughla »

arp242 wrote: post #12
rockbruno wrote: post #5

Funny that they were so concerned about GDPR violations given that in Sweden everyone's address/job/phone/salary is public and easily accessible. I like it that every time a foreigner joins my company (I live in Sweden) it's a matter of time before they post a message in our Stockholm channel saying "guys... what the hell is this website and why am I in it?". Then the swedes mention that they see nothing wrong with i…

Wait, who publishes this information, and why? Address/phone is somewhat standard phonebook stuff (or at least, used to be; less so now I guess) but job and salary?!

In the US, in almost every publicly funded position, your job, salary and benefits are available for everyone to see. I am employed by a publicly funded institution now, and everything I earn is available for consumption, along with extra-duty pay, benefits, and historical data.

Why would it be crazy for that to be available for everyone? I genuinely don't get what the big idea is.

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#39

Post by JackFr »

raxxorrax wrote: post #8

> In some cases, people’s personal information could be accessed from Google searches. SEO providers should take a note here. > It warned parents to stop using the app and alleged that it might be illegally accessing people’s personal information If your API allows data extraction, it probably isn't a fault of any client. Perhaps they meant that creators could steal credentials. A problem with any software. I think t…

> I think this digital child managing system sounds moderately dystopian to be honest.

I think you misunderstand the point of the system. It's much more mundane than that. The system just replaces paper notices going home with kids and getting lost in their book bags, looking phone numbers to report you child out sick, etc. It's not brave new world, it's simply replacing paper and phone tasks with an app.

Re: Stockholm parents built their own school app, then the city called the cops

#40

Post by tantalor »

JackFr wrote: post #36

"We don't have an open API" Sure you do. You just don't know it yet.

This could be a variant of http://hyrumslaw.com

JackFr's law: With sufficiently angered users of a private API, they will build an better, open API around it.

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