(Left) Karin Fleming, Communications and Administration Officer at EMMA/the Future Media Lab..

The Future Media Lab. is the place where media innovation and media policy intersect, with the goal to aid in the exchange and accumulation of information. The Future Media Lab. team has decided to start publishing every two weeks a feature on the Future Media Lab. blog that shares articles about innovations and developments in the media sector including references to relevant media policy debates. Future Media Minds and the team are invited to inspire/challenge/inform you, the reader, about some of the recent advances in the media sector - as they see it.

Today Karin Fleming from our team in Brussels shares her recent findings with you:

1) This week incoming Vice-President of the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip fought accusations of not communicating well with the public by hosting a Q&A on Twitter under the hashtag #AskAnsip. During the Q&A, Ansip said that copyright reform that is accepted by authors and adapted to new technologies will be a priority.

2) President-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker is set to request that the Parliament vote on the entire Commission on Wednesday, 22 October, following the hearings of Slovenia’s commissioner-designate Violeta Bulc, and Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, both scheduled for Monday (20 October). Minor changes in the team are expected to be announced early next week.

3) With Apple announcing that its new iPhone’s encryption methods are so advanced it will keep the NSA out of your e-mails (and photos and videos), it’s clear that privacy is still a top concern for many consumers. In a recent TEDGlobal talk, Glenn Greenwald explores the reason why privacy is so important in the current era of indiscriminate survellience. The desire for privacy was emphasized this week in the backlash against revelations that the “secret” Whisper app not only tracked users who opted out of geolocation services, but it also provided information about users to the US Department of Defense.

4) The UK has revamped the way computing is taught in state-run schools by adding mandatory programming classes. By teaching children as young as five the basics of algorithms and coding, the UK has become the first G20 country to include computer science at the center of its curriculum.

5) Facebook is expanding the way member’s data is used by targeting users with advertisements based on their most recent location (as long as the user has allowed Facebook to access this information, of course).

And to kick-start your weekend, Tech Week Europe has created a quiz to test your knowledge of Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ tenure as European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. Take the quiz here.

Have anything to add? Let us know!