bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fundamental issues with open source software development (originally published in Volume 9, Number 4, April 2004)
Authors: Levesque Michelle
Published: May 2013

Despite the growing success of the Open Source movement, most of the general public continues to feel that Open Source software is inaccessible to them. This paper discusses five fundamental problems with the current Open Source software development trend, explores why these issues are holding the movement back, and offers solutions that might help overcome these problems. The lack of focus on user interface design causes users to prefer proprietary software’s more intuitive interface. Open Source software tends to lack the complete and accessible documentation that retains users. Developers focus on features in their software, rather than ensuring that they have a solid core. Open Source programmers also tend to program with themselves as an intended audience, rather than the general public. Lastly, there is a widely known stubbornness by Open Source programmers in refusing to learn from what lessons proprietary software has to offer. If Open Source software wishes to become widely used and embraced by the general public, all five of these issues will have to be overcome.
Urban screens: Towards the convergence of architecture and audiovisual media
Authors: Slaatta Tore
Published: May 2013

Architecture and media technology is melting into each other, and buildings are turning into becoming media infrastructure. Following Sharon Zukin's suggestions on how to interpret urban change as social and cultural change, the article discuss how our new electronic landscapes mediates, both symbolically and materially, between the socio-spatial differentiation of capital implied by market and the socio-spatial homogeneity of labour suggested by place. The focus is set on how large media corporations are presently developing building projects where the use of screen technology is an important element. These projects are analysed as reflecting shifting corporate and cultural ideas about the relations between media and society: a new material and symbolic relation between constructed spaces for symbolic creativity in the global audio visual industry and global urban centres. As with all "new" technologies, the convergence of buildings and media technology has been envisaged for some time; what is new is not necessarily the idea, but the ways in which current technology makes it possible. As the technological possibilities of urban screens unfold, we become able to analyse their social and cultural consequences more fully.
Taking New World Notes: An embedded journalist's rough guide to reporting from inside the Internet's next evolution
Authors: Au Wagner James
Published: May 2013

In 2005, persistent online worlds — sometimes saddled with the unwieldy acronym MMORPGs, for “massively multiplayer online role playing games,” or somewhat less clumsily, MMOs — made the leap from niche entertainment to global mainstream medium. On a popularity metric, Worlds of Warcraft became the first game to surpass a million U.S. subscribers, while gaining a global audience over 4.5 million and counting (with a third of that from mainland China.) On an innovation scale, Second Life suggested the potential for MMOs to also be a development platform for commercial, educational, and research projects. As broadband and high end PCs saturate the international market, it’s time to consider MMOs as the likeliest candidate for the Internet’s next generation, supplanting the two dimensional, semi–interactive portal of the Web for an immersive, three–dimensional, fully interactive Metaverse of data.
But a new medium requires new guidelines for understanding it, and it is here that many questions loom. What happens as users continue to employ MMOs for purposes beyond gaming or light socializing, when they become the first true meeting space for the world, where cultural, commercial, and political intercourse is conducted in real time in an immersive setting that feels real, even hyperreal? When they have a direct, measurable impact on real world news? And who will do the reporting to understand this profound shift?
Unlike the Web revolution of the ’90s, documenting the emergence of online worlds is something that will be conducted from the inside, immersed within the media itself.
Some tentative guidelines are therefore proposed, a new kind of journalistic ethics for a world where reality and identity are mutable and anonymity is both hazard and godsend. Based on nearly three years as Second Life’s official embedded journalist, the author suggests several principles, with the object to preserve a separation between real life identity and virtual being, while sustaining the fantastic, otherworldly nature of online worlds. Paradoxically, it’s argued, maintaining the illusion increases the value of online worlds as a journalistic tool, enabling a direct, intimate form of communication with diverse people throughout the world. At the same time, it enables us to see these worlds as model and microcosm for the socioeconomic realm of the world at large.
In either case, these worlds can help us understand the conflicts and values of our own material world — and for good and ill, begin to shape them. To emphasize how crucial the need to understand this next dramatic shift for the Internet, the author offers five likely futures in which online worlds directly impact national and international politics and the global economy — a time when MMOs help decide the outcomes of real–world elections and influence long–established jurisprudence, while authoritarian government attempt to repress them, and they become the next theater for terrorist and counterterrorist infiltration.
Architecture and the Virtual World
Authors: Glazer Nathan
Published: May 2013

None Available.
When Internet Companies Morph: Understanding Organizational Strategy Changes in the 'New' New Economy (originally published in July 2002)
Authors: Kauffman Robert J. , Miller Tim , Wang Bin
Published: May 2013

This paper is included in the First Monday Special Issue: Commercial Applications of the Internet, published in July 2006. For author reflections on this paper, visit the Special Issue.
The rapid ascent of the Internet economy funneled almost $US90 billion of venture capital money into Internet startups over a period of four years that roughly ended in mid-2000. An equally rapid bust in the cycle that year abruptly shut off funding and thrust remaining Internet companies into an unprecedented frenzy of adaptive strategic and organizational re-focusing behavior. In this article, we relate the findings of our study of this period of hyper-evolution and give a snapshot of the publicly reported "morphing" activities of 125 Internet companies, based on which we propose a profitability-driven typology of Internet firm repositioning behavior. The study provides academic researchers with an overview of industry strategic mutation patterns and provides executives with a process analysis for identifying and evaluating their own strategies in a way that is essential for success in the highly volatile Internet economy. We also offer our predictions on these strategies' efficacy in light of the current emphasis on business profitability and return on investment (ROI).
Preface
Authors: Braman Sandra , Malaby Thomas M.
Published: May 2013

None Available.
Activists beyond Virtual Borders: Internet-Mediated Networks and Informational Politics in China
Authors: Yang Guobin
Published: May 2013

This article analyzes the main features and political functions of Chinese Internet–mediated networks that inhabit and traverse online and offline realms and that derive strength from their amphibious character whether they are primarily based online or offline. Internet–mediated networks in China shape the rules, practices, and institutions of Chinese politics by engaging in information politics, symbolic politics, leverage politics, and accountability politics. They influence the governance of Chinese cyberspace and Chinese society most visibly by contributing to the rise of an informational politics. The article identifies prominent features of this informational politics and discusses how new norms about information and information technologies are articulated and contested and what implications they have for democratic struggles in China. The case studies explored here involve environmental protection and those involving physical harm to vulnerable individuals.
Beyond Management: Considering Participatory Design and Governance in Player Culture
Authors: Taylor T.L.
Published: May 2013

This article explores relationships between players and the owners of the massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) they inhabit. Much of the language around these large scale communities currently focuses on “management.” Viewing these complex social systems as essentially mechanical in nature has led to a preoccupation with creating or retrofitting systems which can be constantly monitored, tuned, regulated, and controlled. Though the language often turns to things like “cheating,” “griefing,” and “disruption of the magic circle,” the underlying anxiety about unruliness, transgressiveness, and the emergent nature of these spaces as sites of culture needs to be more fully addressed, as well as the early formulations of the “imagined player” that shape the design process. Players are central productive agents in game culture and more progressive models are needed for understanding and integrating their work in these spaces. Drawing on the long tradition of participatory design this piece explores some alternative frameworks for understanding the designer/player relationship are proposed.
Digital Art/Public Art: Governance and Agency in the Networked Commons
Authors: Paul Christiane
Published: May 2013

Digital art has expanded, challenged, and even redefined notions of public art and supported the concept of a networked commons. The nature of agency within online, networked “systems” and “communities” is crucial to these developments. Electronic networks enable exchange and collectivist strategies that can question existing structures of power and governance. Networks are public spaces that offer enhanced possibilities of interventions into the social world and of archiving and filtering these interventions over time in an ongoing process. Networked activism and tactical response as well as artistic practice that merges physical and virtual space and augments physical sites and existing architectures are among the practices that are important to the impact of digital public art on governance.
Playing Politics: Videogames for Politics, Activism, and Advocacy
Authors: Bogost Ian
Published: May 2013

Videogames have dominated popular culture for some time, but only in 2004 did they make a significant break into the world of politics, advocacy, and activism. This paper provides an overview of a variety of types of games used for political speech, from endorsed party messages to activist dissent. After explaining the state of the field, I discuss approaches to design and measure success for such artifacts. While some political opinion is black and white, most issues occupy grey areas, heavily influenced by other public policy issues. Can healthcare reform really be separated from taxation, national budgeting, tort reform, and social security reform? Far from neatly isolated problems, policy issues are complex systems that recombine and interrelate with one another. In particular, I will interrogate how videogames afford a new perspective on political issues, since they are especially effective at representing complex systems. Central to the process of creating and understanding such games is an understanding of “procedural rhetoric” — the way that a videogame embodies ideology in its computational structure. By understanding how games express rhetoric in their rules, we not only gain a critical vantage point on videogame artifacts, but also we can begin to consider how to design games whose primary purpose is to editorialize, teach, and make political statements.
Introduction
Authors: Mansilla Eduardo Villanueva
Published: May 2013

None Available
E-media in development: Combining multiple e-media types (originally published in February 2003)
Authors: Koert Robin
Published: May 2013

This paper, on electronic media's potential contribution to rural development in less-industrialized countries, builds on the content of two earlier First Monday papers: "The Impact of Democratic Deficits on Electronic Media in Rural Development" (April 2002) and "Providing Content and Facilitating Social Change: Electronic Media in Rural Development" (February 2000). The former provides a theoretical argumentation on the influence of democratic deficits on the role of E-media in rural development, supported by case material, whereas the latter presents case material from Peru on how the different types of E-media contribute to rural development in that country. This paper also introduced the "information traffic pattern (ITP)" and "media richness" concepts. The February 2000 paper ends with the conclusion that combinations of different types of E-media are more likely to be successful in contributing to rural development than the isolated use of a single E-media type. Recently, this approach of combining multiple E-media types has been labeled "mixing media" in a paper by Bruce Girard (2002) and the approach is also being used for the "Radio Reed Flute" initiative in Afghanistan, started by Bruce Girard and Jo van der Spek. In this paper, the case for the multiple E-media approach will be made from the perspective of a need for multiple information traffic patterns, a concept introduced and elaborated in the two previous First Monday papers. Based on this theoretical argumentation, the paper will provide suggestions for ways forward for the use of E-media in rural development in less-industrialized countries. Two of the main suggestions are to use existing local radio station as "anchors" in prospective E-media projects in rural development and to establish partnerships between local radio stations and local development NGOs, the latter aimed at stimulating the collection and dissemination of locally generated information.
Collaborative development of open content: A process model to unlock the potential for African universities (originally published in February 2003)
Authors: Keats Derek
Published: May 2013

Given the cost of content, the under-resourcing of universities and the scattered nature of expertise in Africa, the collaborative development of open content seems like a useful way to get high-quality, locally-relevant content for using to enhance teaching-and-learning. However, there is currently no published operational model to guide institutions or individuals in creating collaborative open content projects. This paper examines lessons learned from open source software development and uses these lessons to build the foundations of a process model for the collaborative development of open content.
Open access to law in developing countries (originally published in December 2004)
Authors: Poulin Daniel
Published: May 2013

Securing a widespread and, whenever possible, free, access to legal information has become important everywhere. Open access has higher stakes in developing countries where access to law is often difficult. In this particular context, free access to statutes and case law could significantly contribute to a better establishment of the rule of law and an overall consolidation of national legal institutions.

Never before have better conditions existed for a wider circulation of law. The Internet and related technologies have dramatically revolutionized the possibilities of cheaply providing high–quality, low–cost access to national legal documentation. In this article, elements of a strategy aimed at developing open access to law in developing countries are put forth.
The Internet and state control in authoritarian regimes: China, Cuba and the counterrevolution (originally published in August 2001)
Authors: Kalathil Shanthi , Boas Taylor C.
Published: May 2013

It is widely believed that the Internet poses an insurmountable threat to authoritarian rule. But political science scholarship has provided little support for this conventional wisdom, and a number of case studies from around the world show that authoritarian regimes are finding ways to control and counter the political impact of Internet use. While the long-term political impact of the Internet remains an open question, we argue that these strategies for control may continue to be viable in the short to medium term.
Many authoritarian regimes translate a long and successful history of control over other information and communication technologies into strong control of Internet development within their borders. Potential challenges to the state may arise from Internet use in several areas: the mass public, civil society, the economy, and the international community. Authoritarian states will likely respond to these challenges with a variety of reactive measures: restricting Internet access, filtering content, monitoring online behavior, or even prohibiting Internet use entirely. In addition, such states seek to extend central control through proactive strategies, guiding the development of the medium to promote their own interests and priorities. Through a combination of reactive and proactive strategies, an authoritarian regime can counter the challenge posed by Internet use and even utilize the Internet to extend its reach and authority.
In this paper we illustrate how two authoritarian regimes, China and Cuba, are maintainng control over the Internet's political impact through different combinations of reactive and proactive strategies. These cases illustrate that, contrary to assumptions, different types of authoritarian regimes may be able to control and profit from the Internet. Examining the experiences of these two countries may help to shed light on other authoritarian regimes' strategies for Internet development, as well as help to develop generalizable conclusions about the impact of the Internet on authoritarian rule.
Zones of silence: A framework beyond the digital divide (originally published in May 2006)
Authors: Potter Amelia Bryne
Published: May 2013

There is no doubt that much digital divide work — including connectivity initiatives, technology transfer programs, and other projects — is done with good intention. Yet, as has been widely recognized, the conceptual framework of the digital divide is limiting. The language of the digital divide not only places people into simplistic “have”/“have not” categories, making assumptions about the solution to “information poverty” with little attention to local contexts, its logic also continues a paradigm of development that engages with the global south only at the point of what it “lacks”. I propose a framework, which provides a wider, and more nuanced, lens to look through. It focuses work in ways and in areas consistently overlooked by the digital divide, particularly on the realities, voices, and complexities within its unconnected, “have not” spaces — the zones of silence. Encouraging critical questioning of assumptions and an understanding of local contexts and points of view, a zones of silence framework is a way to broaden the dialogue on global communication and information access beyond a discourse of need, to one of mutual questioning, sharing, and learning. I begin with a brief critique of the digital divide, followed by a definition of this zones of silence framework and how it can help us to see and consider issues differently. I then suggest three areas where work from this perspective might begin.
Effective use: A community informatics strategy beyond the Digital Divide (originally published in December 2003)
Authors: Gurstein Michael
Published: May 2013

A huge industry has been created responding to the perceived social malady, the "Digital Divide". This paper examines the concepts and strategies underlying the notion of the Digital Divide and concludes that it is little more than a marketing campaign for Internet service providers. The paper goes on to present an alternative approach - that of "effective use" - drawn from community informatics theory which recognizes that the Internet is not simply a source of information, but also a fundamental tool in the new digital economy.
Digital divide or digital development?: The Internet in Mexico (originally published in March 2006)
Authors: Curry James , Kenney Martin
Published: May 2013

This paper discusses the development of the Internet in Mexico within the context of the digital divide. There is skepticism about whether the digital divide is something driven primarily by technology rather than an epiphenomenon driven by socioeconomic factors. The barriers to access are not technological but rather economic and historical. Although Mexico shows wide disparities in Internet access, it also shows rapid development toward more access. The number of regular Internet users in Mexico is small (about 14 million) but has shown consistent growth. Business and non–governmental organization presence on the Web is increasing, and the Mexican government is innovatively using the Web to broaden contact with its citizens. In the Mexican case, there is certainly evidence of a digital divide. Nevertheless, there is also ample evidence of digital development.
The impact of the Internet on Myanmar (originally published in May 2001)
Authors: Krebs Viola
Published: May 2013

In the present paper, I explore how the Internet has affected the flow of information between in and outside Myanmar (Burma). I show that there is a strong difference between the way information was presented before and after the introduction of the World Wide Web.
Within the last century, the country has been marked by political instability (Eliot, 1997; Freedom House, 2000). Particularly since its separation from British colonial rule in 1948, Burma has witnessed significant political change, violence and unrest. Since the early 1960s, Burma has essentially been an isolated state, with closed borders and a military government. However, the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War seem to suggest that isolationism is growing less common worldwide. Importantly, meteoric advances in communications have also paralleled the fall of isolationism.
In my study, I examine two political events in Myanmar connected to student uprisings, in the hope of documenting how the Internet - as an easily researched symbol of modern communications - may be affecting the political strategies of one of the last isolated states.
What’s the Buzz about? An empirical examination of Search on Yahoo!
Authors: Bladow Nicole , Dorey Cari , Frederickson Liz , Grover Pavla , Knudtson Yvette , Krishnamurthy Sandeep , Lazarou Voula
Published: May 2013

We present an analysis of the Yahoo Buzz Index over a period of 45 weeks. Our key findings are that: (1) It is most common for a search term to show up on the index for one week, followed by two weeks, three weeks, etc. Only two terms persist for all 45 weeks studied — Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez. Search term longevity follows a power–law distribution or a winner–take–all structure; (2) Most search terms focus on entertainment. Search terms related to serious topics are found less often. The Buzz Index does not necessarily follow the "news cycle"; and, (3) We provide two ways to determine "star power" of various search terms — one that emphasizes staying power on the Index and another that emphasizes rank. In general, the methods lead to dramatically different results. Britney Spears performs well in both methods. We conclude that the data available on the Index is symptomatic of a celebrity–crazed, entertainment–centered culture. Readers are invited to blog this paper at http://yahoobuzz.blogspot.com.
Book Reviews
Authors: Kocher Douglas , Dennis Dion , Esposito Joseph J.
Published: May 2013

None available.
From libraries to ‘libratories’
Authors: Waaijers Leo
Published: May 2013

While the eighties of the last century were a time of local automation for libraries and the nineties the decade in which libraries embraced the Internet and the Web, now is the age in which the big search engines and institutional repositories are gaining a firm footing. This heralds a new era in both the evolution of scholarly communication and its agencies themselves, i.e. the libraries.

Until now libraries and publishers have developed a digital variant of existing processes and products, i.e. catalogues posted on the Web, scanned copies of articles, e–mail notification about acquisitions or expired lending periods, or traditional journals in a digital jacket. However, the new OAI repositories and services based upon them have given rise to entirely new processes and products, libraries transforming themselves into partners in setting up virtual learning environments, building an institution’s digital showcase, maintaining academics’ personal Web sites, designing refereed portals and — further into the future — taking part in organising virtual research environments or collaboratories. Libraries are set to metamorphose into ‘libratories’, an imaginary word to express their combined functions of library, repository and collaboratory. In such environments scholarly communication will be liberated from its current copyright bridle while its coverage will be both broader — including primary data, audiovisuals and dynamic models — and deeper, with cross–disciplinary analyses of methodologies and applications of instruments. Universities will make it compulsory to store in their institutional repositories the results of research conducted within their walls for purposes of academic reporting, review committees, and other modes of clarification and explanation. Big search engines will provide access to this profusion of information and organise its mass customization.
A framework for Internet archeology: Discovering use patterns in digital library and Web–based information resources
Authors: Nicholson Scott
Published: May 2013

Archeologists use artifacts to make statements about occupants of a physical space. Users of information resources leave behind data–based artifacts when they interact with a digital library or other Web–based information space. One process for examining these patterns is bibliomining, or the combination of data warehousing, data mining and bibliometrics to understand connections and patterns between works. The purpose of this paper is to use a research framework from archeology to structure exploration of these data artifacts through bibliomining to aid managers of digital libraries and other Web–based information resources.
Re–approaching Nearness: Online communication and its place in Praxis
Authors: Mejias Ulises
Published: May 2013

An interesting transposition has happened. It used to be that the farther things were, the more difficult it was to know them. Today, thanks to communication technologies, we often develop relationships with what is far at the expense of what is immediately around us. This paper explores the increased irrelevancy that the near acquires through our use of online technologies. But by proposing a model of praxis that incorporates our actions online as well as offline, this paper also argues that online technologies can play an important part in bringing the epistemologically far near to us, and making the physically near relevant again.
The democratic divide
Authors: Birdsall Stephanie
Published: May 2013

Remote Internet voting has been proposed as a solution to low voter turnout. It is tempting to see the use of Internet technology by a large segment of the population as a quick fix for making the voting process more accessible to a larger number of people. This argument, however, demonstrates a disconnect with the reality of Internet use; that is, that it happens in a place. Internet use is not an ethereal, boundary–less activity, it is situated in a spatial/geographic context. Reviewing this geographic context using Geographic Information System technology can reveal the serious limitations of a "point and click" solution to improving political participation.
‘Public eyes’: Direct accountability in an information age
Authors: Meijer Albert
Published: May 2013

The Internet creates interesting opportunities for citizens to call public organizations to account. Government Web sites provide information and facilitate debates on public sector performance. An explorative study in the Netherlands indicates that citizens make little use of the opportunities to call public organizations to account. Openness, however, does have a direct effect: ‘public eyes’ stimulate government organizations to score better on performance indicators and comply with formal rules.
Beyond markets and firms: The emergence of Open Source networks
Authors: Iannacci Federico , Mitleton–Kelly Eve
Published: May 2013

Although hierarchies and markets (i.e., autonomy) have been subject to extensive study, heterarchies represent different modalities of organizing that have been little researched. Drawing on complexity theory and the main features of complex evolving systems (CES), this paper sets out to remedy this imbalance by showing that heterarchies feature highly decentralized and relatively stable interactions which are coordinated through an emergent process of parametric adaptation. Implications in terms of learning are discussed casting a new light on the delicate issue of motivation in Open Source software development.
WSIS: Whose vision of an information society?
Authors: Pyati Ajit
Published: May 2013

The United Nations (UN) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in their development of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), are contributing to the on–going discourse of the "Information Society." This study analyzes how WSIS contributes to the on–going Information Society discourse, especially how it frames a vision of an Information Society and the global "digital divide." The methodology of this study is a broad, comprehensive, and critical content analysis of the two main documents of WSIS, its Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. The content analysis utilizes discourse analysis and ideology critique, and quantitative and qualitative methods. The results of the analysis show that WSIS paints a wholly utopian, technologically deterministic picture of an "Information Society" that oversimplifies and generalizes a complex issue and phenomenon, about which no clear consensus exists.
Project Access for adult English–language learners
Authors: Henderson Anne , Adler Elyse
Published: May 2013

Project Access, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is a collaborative two–year program between the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Nashville Public Library. The goal of Project Access is to help increase adult English Language learners’ (ELL) skills in language, visual art, and computer literacy. The eight–visit program offers participants from local community service institutions the opportunity to engage in art making, computer–based learning, museum and library visits. This article and the project Web site, http://www.projectaccess.org, give the visitor an overview of the project, lesson plans, and interactive features.
Towards professional participatory storytelling in journalism and advertising
Authors: Deuze Mark
Published: May 2013

The Internet — specifically its graphic interface, the World Wide Web — has had a major impact on all levels of (information) societies throughout the world. For media professionals whose work has primarily been defined as creative storytelling — whether in advertising, journalism, public relations or related fields — this poses fascinating opportunities as well as vexing dilemmas. The central question seems to be to what extent storytelling can be content– or connectivity–based, and what level of participation can or should be included in the narrative experience. Although these two issues have been part of creative decision–making processes in media work before the Web, new technologies of production, distribution and communication are ‘supercharging’ them as the central dilemmas in the contemporary media ecosystem. This paper discusses the history and contemporary examples of media work combining various elements of storytelling as a hybrid form between content and connectivity, and considers the normative and economical implications for the professional identity of media workers in journalism and advertising.
E–deliberation and local governance: The role of computer mediated communication in local democratic participation in the United Kingdom
Authors: Hands Joss
Published: May 2013

This paper focuses on the use of local government Web sites in the United Kingdom to encourage and facilitate democratic deliberation. The question addressed is to what end, and on whose terms, citizens are being encouraged to engage local government via computer–mediated communication. After an initial investigation into the legislative framework of local e–democracy, this paper examines opportunities available for citizens to deliberate by examining 469 local government Web sites. This information is then reviewed in the context of empirical evidence on the practices and attitudes of those responsible for the management and upkeep of the specific sites under question. It appears that while interaction is being encouraged, it is limited and tends towards an individualistic liberal model.
Ethnic media and politics: The case of the use of the Internet by Uyghur diaspora
Authors: Kanat Kilic
Published: May 2013

The role of the active production and consumption of various forms of media on the ethnic groups and diasporas has long been debated among scholars from different disciplines. Currently the use of the Internet has become the focal point of these studies. In recent years, the Uyghur diaspora has been increasingly using the Internet and cyberspace in order to reach their goals of "being the voice of the repressed people of their homeland," disseminating information and increasing communication among themselves. In this paper I will try to discuss the influence of this netizenship of the Uyghur diaspora on Uyghur politics and identity.
A proposal for an open content licence for research paper (Pr)ePrints
Authors: Clarke Roger
Published: May 2013

Many academic papers that are to be submitted to refereed conferences and journals have been previously exposed to the author’s colleagues. The term ‘preprints’ has long been used to describe such documents. ‘Departmental Working Paper’ series were for many years a conventional vehicle for their publication. In the modern world, preprints are frequently transmitted electronically, variously as e–mail attachments and as files available for download via FTP or HTTP.

When a preprint is made available electronically, it is likely that the author provides the recipient not only with a copy, but also with a copyright licence. In most cases, however, the licence is only implicit, and the terms of the licence are unclear. This creates the potential for considerable uncertainties, and those uncertainties are of serious concern in the context of tension between for–profit publishers of refereed articles and the research communities that referee and edit them gratis, and depend on them for early access to information.

This paper briefly reviews the open content and ePrints movements, considers the interests of the various stakeholders, proposes a set of licence terms intended to satisfy the needs of all parties, and concludes that a particular Creative Commons licence type should be applied to all electronic preprints.
The unacknowledged convergence of open source, open access, and open science
Authors: Willinsky John
Published: May 2013

A number of open initiatives are actively resisting the extension of intellectual property rights. Among these developments, three prominent instances — open source software, open access to research and scholarship, and open science — share not only a commitment to the unrestricted exchange of information and ideas, but economic principles based on (1) the efficacy of free software and research; (2) the reputation–building afforded by public access and patronage; and, (3) the emergence of a free–or–subscribe access model. Still, with this much in common, the strong sense of convergence among these open initiatives has yet to be fully realized, to the detriment of the larger, common issue. By drawing on David’s (2004; 2003; 2000; 1998) economic work on open science and Weber’s (2004) analysis of open source, this paper seeks to make that convergence all the more apparent, as well as worth pursuing, by those interested in furthering this alternative approach, which would treat intellectual properties as public goods.
Software and seeds: Open source methods
Authors: Kipp Margaret
Published: May 2013

Open source methodologies used in software are interrogated and then compared to the methods used in farmers’ rights groups. The use of open source methods in other contexts illustrates increasing interest in grassroots democratic movements participating in the continuing process of balance between public and private interests. These efforts provide a possible alternate framework for policy decisions concerning intellectual property.
Cats in the classroom: Online learning in hybrid space
Authors: Kazmer Michelle
Published: May 2013

Students and professors create a shared on–campus classroom environment through individual and collaborative contributions. Similar contributions go into the design of an online classroom. Online instructors build the learning environment to create a shared learning experience, and designers of course management software reinforce this consistency. Examining the online classroom as "hybrid space" — comprising physical and online space — reveals a more complex reality than a seamless learning environment. Students and instructors share a learning experience, but they also occupy local environments that influence their learning and indirectly influence the experience of everyone in the online class.
Habermas’ heritage: The future of the public sphere in the network society
Authors: Boeder Pieter
Published: May 2013

In the digital age, the discussion about the public sphere has at the same time become increasingly relevant and increasingly problematic. The validity and relevance of post–modern critique to Habermas’ concept of the public sphere cannot be denied, yet the concept of a public sphere and Habermas’ notion of a critical publicity is still extremely valuable for media theory today.

The public sphere is subject to dramatic change; one might even argue that it is on the verge of extinction. Computer–mediated communication has taken the place of coffeehouse discourse, and issues such as media ownership and commodification pose serious threats to the free flow of information and freedom of speech on the Web. I don't believe the situation is quite that serious. I will give an introductory overview of Habermas’ theoretical concept and point out that it is conceptual rather than physical.

I will describe why Habermas’ key concept is valuable for media theory today. Further, I will give an overview of the main issues, debates and problems that arose around the concept of the public sphere in the decades that followed. I will conclude that the notion of the public sphere is not a static one, but subject to change, and show how the theoretical concept of the public sphere is being used to work out viable options for a digital future and models for positive change.
The legal and practical implications of recent attacks on 128-bit cryptographic hash function
Authors: Gauravaram Praveen , McCullagh Adrian , Dawson Ed
Published: May 2013

This paper discusses the legal and practical implications of attacks, presented at Crypto ’2004, against various 128–bit hash functions and in particular MD5 due to its wide usage. These attacks are significant because a number of important applications depend on MD5. It is argued in this paper that the MD–x style of hash function designs for various applications can be a single point of failure. New hash function design schemes with some strict security properties should be developed in order to avoid new attacks in the future.
Limits of self-organization: Peer production and "laws of quality"
Authors: Duguid Paul
Published: May 2013

People often implicitly ascribe the quality of peer–production projects such as Project Gutenberg or Wikipedia to what I call “laws” of quality. These are drawn from Open Source software development and it is not clear how applicable they are outside the realm of software. I look at examples from peer production projects to ask whether faith in these laws does not so much guarantee quality as hide the need for improvement.
Gifting technologies: A BitTorrent case study
Authors: Ripeanu Matei , Mowbray Miranda , Andrade Nazerano , Lima Aliandro
Published: May 2013

This paper is concerned with gifting: giving not motivated by a direct, immediate, or obvious benefit. We analyze a popular technology used for gifting: the BitTorrent file–sharing system. We determine features associated with high levels of gifting and suggest changes to the protocol and to the design of associated BitTorrent Web sites to promote it. We then extend our conclusions and suggestions to gifting technologies in general.
An empirical examination of Wikipedia's credibility
Authors: Chesney Thomas
Published: May 2013

Wikipedia is an free, online encyclopaedia which anyone can add content to or edit the existing content of. The idea behind Wikipedia is that members of the general public can add their own personal knowledge, anonymously if they wish. Wikipedia then evolves over time into a comprehensive knowledge base on all things. Its popularity has never been questioned, although its authority has. By its own admission, Wikipedia contains errors. A number of people have tested Wikipedia’s accuracy using destructive methods, i.e. deliberately inserting errors. This has been criticised by Wikipedia. This short study examines Wikipedia’s credibility by asking 258 research staff with a response rate of 21 percent, to read an article and assess its credibility, the credibility of its author and the credibility of Wikipedia as a whole. Staff were either given an article in their own expert domain or a random article. No difference was found between the two group in terms of their perceived credibility of Wikipedia or of the articles’ authors, but a difference was found in the credibility of the articles — the experts found Wikipedia’s articles to be more credible than the non–experts. This suggests that the accuracy of Wikipedia is high. However, the results should not be seen as support for Wikipedia as a totally reliable resource as, according to the experts, 13 percent of the articles contain mistakes.
Automated customer service at the National Library of Medicine
Authors: Ahmed Terry T. , Willard Carolyn , Zorn Marcia
Published: May 2013

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) launched a virtual customer service representative (vRep) named “Cosmo” in February 2003. Cosmo is a navigation tool that guides users to information on NLM Web pages. These Web pages contain information on programs, products and services provided by NLM. Cosmo directs users to information on consumer health, drug information, medical database instruction, grant information, online catalog access, exhibit details and onsite library information. Medical librarians manage the Cosmo knowledge base to link to this information. To ensure that we meet customer needs, staff review the user “conversation” log daily and modify answers as needed. This paper describes the lessons learned during Cosmo’s development and may help others who create and maintain a virtual representative.
The cost of (anti-) social networks: Identity, agency and neo-luddites
Authors: Bigge Ryan
Published: May 2013

The media coverage and resultant discourse surrounding social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster contain narratives of inevitability and technological determinism that require careful explication. Borrowing a tactic from the Russian Futurists, this paper attempts to make strange (that is, to defamiliarize) social network sites and their associated discourses by drawing upon an eclectic but interrelated set of metaphors and theoretical approaches, including: the digital enclosure, network sociality, socio-technical capital and Steven Jones’s recent examination of neo-Luddites. Whenever appropriate, this paper will integrate relevant magazine and newspaper journalism about social networking sites.
Open access publishing: A developing country view
Authors: Papin-Ramcharan Jennifer I. , Dawe Richard A.
Published: May 2013

This paper presents the experience with open access (OA) publishing by researchers in an academic research institution (The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus) in a developing country — Trinidad and Tobago. It describes the two parallel but complimentary paths for authors to enable open access, i.e. of publishing in open access journals and/or self–archiving. The benefits to researchers of free access to information, increased research impact and possible solution to the “serials crisis” are highlighted. It suggests that advocates of OA should consider all possible difficulties that researchers may have with OA, so that these could be ameliorated. To this end, it considers the UWI researchers’ knowledge of OA, their access to the scholarly literature, open access archives/repositories at the UWI and related issues of research and library funding, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and infrastructure/Internet connectivity.
It concludes that there are indeed obvious and well–documented benefits for developing country researchers. There are though some disincentives that make it difficult for researchers in developing countries to fully participate in the OA movement. Apart from author–side or “page” charges, the limited number of open access journals in many fields of study and inadequate and unreliable ICT infrastructure and Internet connectivity often limit access and publication in OA journals. Thus, because of technical, financial, human and infrastructural limitations, OA via self–archiving is sometimes difficult for developing country researchers. It concludes that much more should be done to ensure full participation in the open access knowledge community by developing country researchers, including direct technical assistance in implementing institutional repositories (IRs) and more financial assistance and support from international agencies to build the necessary human resource capabilities.
Managing risk and opportunity in Creative Commons enterprises
Authors: Rens Andrew
Published: May 2013

An eclectic mix of entities: businesses, educational institutions, non-profits and government departments make use of creative commons works to achieve their goals. Among these are newly emerging “commons enterprises”. Unlike entities which simply deploy creative commons as a tool in carrying out their ordinary activities, “commons enterprises” are structured around creative commons licensed works. This choice gives rise to unique opportunities and risks. What practical strategies can commons enterprises adopt to manage legal risk?
Constructing a framework to enable an open source reinvention of journalism
Authors: Witt Leonard
Published: May 2013

This article builds upon open source/open content literature and applications to develop a framework from which academics, citizens, critics, journalists and the media industry can collectively develop a sustainable model or models to save quality journalism — possibly by reinventing journalism as it has traditionally been defined. This article provides that framework, not so much as a theoretical construct, but rather as an annotated checklist to guide those interested in reinventing journalism.