Notes

Tech Tent: Future Farmers, Minecraft And Doom

Tech Tent: Future farmers, Minecraft and Doom Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent @BBCRoryCJon Twitter



22 January 2016



Every Friday, Tech Tent on BBC World Service gives the latest technology news. proxylist101 Here's what this week looks like.



Big Data on the Farm



It's the oldest industry in the world and one that you wouldn't think of as being forward-looking, however, farming is experiencing an entirely new data-driven revolution. From drones giving aerial surveys of crops to combine harvesters that precisely measure the output of every square metre, to sensors giving minute-by-minute updates on the health of animals, farmers are handling an ever-growing amount of data. A farmer of chickens will discuss his experiences with this new method of working. Rob Carter, co-founder of Field Margin, will be our special guest. Field Margin is a smartphone application that helps farmers manage their data. Our BBC Radio colleagues from 4's Farming Today have been covering technology in farming all week. They will be presenting a special report on Saturday's On Your Farm.



Minecraft in the classroom



Since Microsoft bought Minecraft we've heard nothing about its plans for the popular world-building game. However, this week, Microsoft announced a big push into education, launching an online version of the game. Jane Wakefield, Jane's correspondent, went to BETT the UK's biggest educational technology trade show to discuss with Microsoft regarding the plan that allows children to learn Minecraft in school and play the game at home. Schools will need to have an Office 365 account to log into the education edition. We'll be asking whether this is part of Microsoft's plan to battle Google as the prime software provider in the classroom.



Lessons from an Kickstarter



Kickstarter received a lot criticism after the Zano mini-drone was brought back to earth last November. The crowdfunding platform hired an investigative reporter to examine what went wrong. Mark Harris' 13,000-word report was published this week. It is both an extremely detailed account of how to run a tech company and a warning for those who don't know that crowdfunding is not like buying products from Amazon. We talk to Mark Harris on the show about where he thinks this leaves crowdfunding as an opportunity to get tech ideas off the ground.



Doom increases in level



Twenty three years after the game Doom came out, it still has a dedicated community of players and they have something to celebrate this week. The first new level since the mid-1990s was released by one of the original developers John Romero. Our reporter Zoe Kleinman has been talking to him - he admits he was nervous about how the community would react but the majority of players have been very positive.



For all of this and much more watch the BBC World Service at 15:00 GMT or listen to the podcast later.


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