2000s News Quiz | Innovation in Digital Society, Science and Culture
1 / 100.0s
Problem 1
Wikipedia began in 2001 and developed as an online encyclopedia whose articles are written and edited by volunteers around the world.
Which description best captures the form of knowledge production that Wikipedia expanded?
View explanation
Wikipedia's distinguishing model is an online encyclopedia written and updated collaboratively by volunteers. Open participation does not make every statement automatically correct, so sourcing, neutrality and community review remain important. The Wikimedia Foundation was formed in 2003, not at the same moment Wikipedia began.
Problem 2
The original iPod, announced in 2001, stored up to 1,000 songs on a 5 GB internal hard drive and used Auto-Sync to update songs and playlists from iTunes when connected to a Mac.
Which statement correctly describes the original iPod's usage model?
View explanation
The original iPod synchronized songs and playlists from iTunes on a Mac and stored them on its internal hard drive for portable playback. It was not designed around today's subscription streaming model, nor did users insert CDs directly into it.
Problem 3
In 2002, Creative Commons released licenses that allowed copyright holders to state conditions for using their works in advance.
Which statement correctly describes the basic idea of a Creative Commons license?
View explanation
A CC license uses the copyright holder's consent to grant certain permissions in advance. It does not necessarily surrender copyright, and conditions concerning attribution, adaptation or commercial use vary by license, so a reuser must check the particular terms.
Problem 4
In July 2003, WHO reported that the known chains of person-to-person SARS transmission had been broken worldwide and the outbreak had been contained. It nevertheless asked countries to maintain surveillance and the ability to respond to a recurrence.
Why were those two positions consistent?
View explanation
Containment was a public-health milestone indicating that the transmission chains being tracked at the time had been interrupted. It was not a declaration that SARS-CoV had disappeared from Earth, so surveillance, early detection and response capacity remained necessary.
Problem 5
UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003. Its domains include oral traditions, performing arts, social practices and festivals, knowledge concerning nature, and traditional craftsmanship.
Which action best fits the Convention's idea of safeguarding?
View explanation
Safeguarding intangible heritage means supporting its viability through measures such as documentation, research, education, transmission and revitalization. The definition also recognizes that communities recreate heritage in response to their environment and history, so safeguarding does not mean freezing it and prohibiting all change.
Problem 6
The asteroid explorer Hayabusa launched in 2003, reached and landed on Itokawa in 2005, and returned its sample capsule to Earth in 2010.
How should the claim 'Hayabusa completed every stage of its sample-return mission within the 2000s' be evaluated?
View explanation
Hayabusa's mission extended across several years: it launched in 2003, reached and landed on Itokawa in 2005, and returned its sample capsule in 2010. Landing on the asteroid was not the same as completing the mission or returning immediately, so each stage needs its own date.
Problem 7
Facebook launched in February 2004, dropped 'the' from its name in 2005, and expanded registration to the general public in September 2006.
Which statement most accurately summarizes this development?
View explanation
Meta's corporate history records the 2004 launch, the 2005 name change and the 2006 expansion of registration as separate stages. Today's service should not simply be projected back onto its launch. The corporate name change to Meta occurred in 2021 and was unrelated to the 2005 change.
Problem 8
At CERN's LHC, the first proton beam travelled around the 27-kilometre ring in September 2008. The first proton collisions followed in 2009, while the Higgs boson discovery was announced in 2012.
What stage did the 2008 'first beam' represent?
View explanation
The September 2008 milestone was the successful circulation of the first beam around the full LHC ring. The first collisions came in 2009 and the high-energy research programme developed later. Treating the 2012 Higgs discovery as a result of first-beam day skips several distinct stages.
Problem 9
On October 21, 2008, Google and the Open Handset Alliance released the Android source code. The first Android-powered device, the T-Mobile G1, went on sale the next day.
Which statement correctly describes the relationship between Android and the T-Mobile G1?
View explanation
Android is an operating-system and software platform for mobile devices, while the T-Mobile G1 was the first commercially released handset powered by it. Releasing source code and selling consumer hardware were closely connected but separate events.
Problem 10
NASA launched the Kepler space telescope in 2009 to search for exoplanets. Kepler continuously measured the brightness of many stars.
Which observation pattern indicates a possible planet under the transit method?
View explanation
The transit method detects the small, periodic dip in starlight that occurs when a planet crosses the face of its host star from the observer's viewpoint. It does not directly photograph the planet's surface, and repeated observations and follow-up checks are needed to confirm that a dip is planetary.