apps

Historians may look back on it and jokingly call it the “Tulip War,” but at present it’s a tense situation that could cause irreparable damage to The Park’s food and technology sectors.

It started last month, when the Society of Concerned Park Cultivators, Planters, Growers, and Farmers (SCPCPGF) complained in a print advertisement that The Park’s technology companies were encouraging Animals to abandon their natural practices of finding food in favour of letting apps do the searching for them. The SCPCPGF maintains that this negatively affects what it calls the “natural pacing” of food finding and will inevitably lead to uneven distribution, more food imports, and food shortages.

The Park’s technology sector laid low for a short time, hoping to wait out the controversy. But when the SCPCPGF refused to give up, SINCAP Technologies president Peppi Orava took to the airwaves to vigorously defend her company’s app, Bulb Beacon, and assert that SINCAP and other technology companies make it their business to support access to food in The Park.

“We all take access to food very seriously. I know from personal experience that it can be very frustrating and terrifying not to be able to find enough food, or to forget where you stored your food over the Winter. I’ve had relatives who almost starved and that was the impetus for me to develop our app,” she told Toro Talk Radio’s Yannis Tavros in an interview.

But that did not placate SCPCPGF president A.P. Civet, and a few days later, he called for a moratorium on the development of food-related technology.

Now, the anger that has been brewing for weeks threatens to spill over. As both sides begin to issue threats and accusations, experts say the issue could come to blows in May, as planting begins and the Park Finance Office turns its attention to the 2017 budget.

“What’s at stake here is not just peace in The Park, but the food supply itself,” says Kalliope Sun Bear, president of the Weather Makers, Producers and Sellers Alliance of The Park (WMPSAP).

“We all should be very scared.”

First in a series

A recent technology conference held in The Park highlighted the enormous amount of talent that exists in this tiny space we call home.

“It’s amazing what’s developed here over the last decade,” says Fikret Kartal, President and CEO of KartalTechSolutions. Kartal’s company brought the Verifyzer™— a device that helps Animals distinguish between news and entertainment—to The Park three years ago.

“When we started, we had no real competition,” Kartal says. “Now, there are times when we feel like we’re just hovering.”

Consuela Tapir, who runs the tech rumour web site, TikTekTok, understands the feeling.

“It’s an industry that’s just exploded over the last few years. I remember when these ideas had trouble getting off the ground. But these days, it doesn’t take long for them to soar,” she says.

So, just who are these new technological wonderAnimals and what great feats can we expect from them?

Tapir gave us a list of five to watch. Today, we highlight the first:[pullquote]I felt like a rare Bird at times. — gaggle founder Kawena Palila[/pullquote]

1. gaggle
The tech genius at the core of this new social media site is Kawena Palila, an alumna of BirdBrains, The Park’s first Avian mentoring programme, which was founded by the late Cesar Emilio Gander.

Palila calls gaggle the “social networking site with a difference.”

“All the other social sites focus on the individual and try to get you to connect with other individuals. Gaggle is for groups—families, charities, even educational institutions. We want to serve the collective community in whatever form,” she says.

The minimum number of members a group must have to join gaggle is five because, Palila says, “I don’t like even numbers. They’re so restrictive and they make Animals feel left out.”

gaggle itself took five years to launch, partly because it was difficult to get outside funding.

“I felt like a rare Bird at times,” she says. “It seems unbelievable now, but I had a hard time getting Animals to understand the concept.”

Up next:

2. FoodFinder

Prepare for all-out food fight as farmers and app makers engage in war of words

Five Park innovators to watch

Where in the world can I buy Noreen’s Book?

Margaret Atwood tweets Noreen

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