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A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

VIRGIN ORBIT FAILS FIRST TEST

VIRGIN is a company whose reach even extends into space, as Virgin Galactic aims to take tourists beyond the limits of earth’s atmosphere at some point.

An offshoot of that is Virgin Orbit – a company to definitely keep an eye on. Its role is to send small satellites into space, but in quite a novel way. The Orbit rocket is strapped to an ex-Virgin Atlantic 747, which takes it up to 30,000 feet, where the pilot points the plane upward at a 30-degree angle, drops the rocket and peels away before it fires up and (theoretically) hurtles into the nothing.

I say theoretically because the latest test this week failed as something went wrong after the rocket was dropped and it never made it into space.

Virgin Orbit says it learned a lot from the failed test and will be trying again soon.

There are some great videos on YouTube showing how the system works – search for Virgin Orbit.

NEW CODE OF CONDUCT FOR WIKIPEDIA

WIKIPEDIA is not immune to the scourge of online harassment, it would seem. This week the free online encyclopedia announced it was planning to create a new code of conduct for editors on the site to stop a continuing problem of what it calls “toxic behaviour”.

It seems some of Wikipedia’s volunteer editors can’t be civil with others and have created an environment that is putting new users off getting involved.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees said in a statement: “Harassment, toxic behaviour, and incivility in the Wikimedia movement are contrary to our shared values and detrimental to our vision and mission.

“The board does not believe we have made enough progress toward creating welcoming, inclusive, harassment-free spaces in which people can contribute productively and debate constructively.”

The board says it will have a draft of the new regulations ready by the end of the year, but will start to crackdown harder immediately until those new rules are in place.