bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social Reproduction in the Live Stream
Authors: Thorburn Elise
Published: May 2018

In the most recent wave of struggles a changed logic of activism is evident (Dyer-Witheford, 2015). Research on this wave has often emphasised the interactions of the digital (through online forms of activism, communication, and coordination) with the embodied (in assemblies, spatial occupations, and face-to-face encounters) (Gerbaudo, 2012). Although gender has been considered in regard to these struggles (Herrera, 2014) feminist concerns over social reproduction – concerns which have also been central to the contemporary epoch of struggle (Brown, et al, 2013) – have been largely neglected.   Social reproduction refers to the capacities of populations to reproduce themselves and through this to reproduce the material basis of the economy (Bezanson and Luxton, 2006; Federici, 2012). It is a site wherein human beings and capital compete for the reproduction of living bodies, and contemporary social movements have become ground zero for such socially reproductive contestations (Thorburn, 2015). Within contemporary movements, struggles over social reproduction are increasingly channelled through digital networks as well as embodied practices. This digital-embodied convergence opens up strengths and weaknesses in the contemporary epoch of social/political contestation.   In this paper I seek to explicate how alternative feminist modes of social reproduction emerge through digital networks in contemporary social movements and compare this digital social reproduction to more embodied forms also witnessed. Using a case study of Concordia University Television’s live streaming of Quebec’s 2012 student strike, as well as the live streaming initiatives in the anti-police brutality protests in Ferguson and Baltimore 2015, this paper will suggest future horizons of digital and embodied activism around social reproduction focused on media forms within social movements. Based on ethnographic research, including participant observation and interviews, I argue that the practices and projects of live streaming can expand forms of social reproduction autonomous from both the state and capital. The digital practices of social reproduction emerging in contemporary struggles can contribute to circumventing power while at the same time constituting sites of resistance within and beyond social and political contestations.
Framing Privatisation: The Dominance of Neoliberal Discourse and the Death of the Public Good
Authors: Silke Henry , Graham Ciara
Published: May 2018

This paper looks at the privatisation Bórd Gáis Éireann (BGÉ) in 2014 and the treatment of this issue by the mainstream print media in Ireland. From a contextual perspective, this came in the wake of the global economic recession and its longer term implications for Ireland. The media’s coverage of the sale could not be found to be impartial: both the volume and thrust of the articles were inclined to portray privatisation in a favourable, non-critical light. The majority of content was presented within Neo-Liberal frames, with a competitive frame being dominant; in other words the topic was treated from a market or business perspective rather than the perspective of the public good or wider society. A consistent source bias was also found favouring business or market interests with almost no representation of workers or civil society. Theoretically the paper argues that the framing of privatisation as a business and consumer issue, rather than a political one or that of the public good, acts to detract from the political aspects of the appropriation of public assets by international capital, including the implications for infrastructure, economic development and accountability to democratic structures, none of which receive sufficient journalistic attention.
Information as Work and as Value
Authors: Dantas Marcos
Published: May 2018

This article suggests an approach to Marx's capital valorisation theory supported by a dialectical information theory as developed by physicians, biologists and also communication theorists during the second half of the 20th century. It suggests that it is possible to link the basic concepts of information, as science has established it, to Marx's basic concepts of capital. Based on this foundation, this article also tries to explain how capital, in its development, has evolved to discharge redundant or repetitive jobs but has become increasingly dependent on random or creative ones. Because of this circumstance, in its present stage, the capitalist production process creates value in many concrete forms of semiotic information. Because information cannot be reduced to the status of a commodity, as the theory explains, capitalist states and corporations are improving and hardening the intellectual property laws in order to appropriate the information value created by "creative" or "artistic" work.
Multiple Temporalities of the Movements
Authors: Hardt Michael
Published: May 2018

The past and the future as a way to comprehend movements of today.
Industry 4.0: The Digital German Ideology
Authors: Fuchs Christian
Published: May 2018

Especially in Germany, a vivid public debate about “industry 4.0” has developed in recent years. It advances the argument that industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution that follows on from technological revolutions brought about by water and steam power (industrial revolution 1.0), electric power (industrial revolution 2.0), and computing/computerised automation (industrial revolution 3.0). In 1845/46, Marx and Engels wrote The German Ideology. 170 years later, we live in the time of digital capitalism that has its own peculiar forms of ideology. This paper argues that “industry 4.0” is the new German ideology, the digital German ideology.

Image: By ChristophRoser, AllAboutLean.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
News Satire: Giving the News a Memory
Authors: Basu Laura
Published: May 2018

It is claimed that journalism is facing a far-reaching crisis, with mainstream news becoming ever less independent and informative, and therefore less trusted by publics. In response to this journalistic crisis, what has been termed the “fifth estate” – news satire – has flourished globally in recent years. A fertile area of scholarship has sprung up around it, arguing that it plays an important role in contemporary democracy. This article aims to contribute to these debates around the social functions of both news and news satire by bringing questions of memory and forgetting to these discussions. Firstly, it argues that, linked to acceleration under capitalism, news is a key site of the production of amnesia, and that this media amnesia has ideological outcomes. Secondly, it shows how television news satires both critique and attempt to make sense of the news, and to some extent counter the amnesiac tendencies of news by giving it a memory. In doing this, to some extent news satires thus resist the ideolog-ical work performed by news-forgetting along multiple dimensions. The article explores five memory practices in two news satires: The Daily Show (US) and Newswipe (UK).
Academic/Digital Work: ICTs, Knowledge Capital, and the Question of Educational Quality
Authors: Fernback Jan
Published: May 2018

The ideology of the information society has transformed the performance of academic duties within higher education through the permeation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into all aspects of the university. These technologies provide a common ground upon which teaching, research, and administration fuse; but how have such arrangements affected the quality of academic work? This ideology functions through values, hierarchies, rewards and punishments, and surveillance that influence routine work. Using a critical orientation, this paper examines the transformation of the quality of the intellectual products and work processes of higher education in a North American context. It examines how the educational technology industry fosters a type of control over academic workers, inhibiting the individual laborer’s pursuit of educational quality. Grounded in Foucault’s concept of “disciplinary power” and in Freire’s notions of critical consciousness, it suggests a community-centered approach toward building knowledge capital in higher education.
Digital Labour in the University: Understanding the Transformations of Academic Work in the UK
Authors: Woodcock Jamie
Published: May 2018

Universities have been the site of a variety of shifts and transformations in the previous few decades. Both the composition of students and academics are changing (to a lesser or greater extent), along with the ways in which teaching and research is supported, conducted, and delivered. The effects of neoliberalism, privatisation, precarious employment, debt, and digitalisation have been highlighted as important factors in understanding these changes. However, the ways in which these tendencies are expressed in universities – both in specific and general ways – remain fragmented and under-analysed. In particular, the role of academic labour processes, increasingly mediated through digital technology, remains in the background. There is a risk of viewing these transformations as abstracted, far removed from the day-to-day activities of academic labour on which universities rely. This article will therefore focus on connecting the broader changes in funding, organisation, and digital technology to the labour processes of academics. Rather than seeking a return to a romanticised pre-neoliberal university, this article explores the possibilities of resistance and alternatives to the university as it is now.
Academic Labour, Digital Media and Capitalism (Combined PDF of all articles)
Authors: Allmer Thomas , Bulut Ergin
Published: May 2018

Combined pdf of all articles published in the special issue "Academic Labour, Digital Media and Capitalism", edited by Thomas Allmer and Ergin Bulut, tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique 16 (1), 2018, pp. 44-240
Reusing Implicit Cooperation. A Novel Approach to Knowledge Management
Authors: Lancieri Luigi
Published: May 2018

The study described in this paper deals with information reuse obtained by implicit co-operation, particularly by recycling the contents of a proxy cache (shared memory). The objective is to automatically feed a Web server with large multimedia objects implicitly centred on community fields of interests. We show that the strategy of reusing previously downloaded information provides interesting advantages at a low cost; in particular, to reduce Web access time, to improve information retrieval, and to reduce Internet bandwidth use. Moreover, we use the conceptual frameworks of forgetting and collective intelligence to develop a model on which the operation of implicit cooperation is based.
Self-organizing Systems in the Light of the Arrows of Orderedness, Symmetry, and Entropy
Authors: Darvas György
Published: May 2018

The paper makes an attempt to resolve two conceptual mingling: (a) the mingling of the two interpretations of the concept of orderedness applied in statistical thermodynamics and in symmetrology, and (b) the mingling of two interpretations of evolution applied in global and local processes. In conclusion, it formulates a new interpretation on the relation of the emergence of new material qualities in selforganizing processes on the one hand, and the evolution of the universe, on the other. The process of evolution is a sequence of emergence of new material qualities by self-organization processes, which happen in negligible small segments of the universe. Although thermodynamics looks at the universe as a closed (isolated) system, this holds for its outside boundaries only, while the universe has many subsystems inside, which are not isolated (closed), since they are in a permanent exchange of matter, energy, etc. with their environment (with the rest of the universe) through their open boundaries. Any ";;emergence";; takes place, i.e., all new qualities come into being just in these small open segments of the universe. The conditions to apply the second law of thermodynamics are not present here. Therefore, global evolution of the universe is the consequence of local symmetry decreases, local decreases of orderedness, and possible local decreases of entropy.
Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Systems Thinking
Authors: Hammond Debora
Published: May 2018

Drawing on more than a decade of research on the social implications of systems thinking, as well as practical experience in integrative, community-based approaches to education, this paper is an inquiry into philosophical and ethical considerations growing out of recent developments in systems thinking. In his foundational work on general system theory, Ludwig von Bertalanffy distinguishes between three general developments in the systems field: systems technology, systems science, and systems philosophy. These three dimensions of systems thinking each nurture distinct and often widely divergent theoretical and practical orientations. In his abstract for this session, Gary Metcalf asks whether the systems approach really has anything to offer. Science is a form of social feedback; it has created an enormous body of knowledge about the world and shaped humanity’s understanding of the nature of our collective reality. Knowledge then informs action. Assumptions built into scientific frameworks condition certain kinds of actions, as Bertalanffy has noted. Systems thinking as science nurtures a way of thinking that engenders a different kind of practice; systems as philosophy cultivates an ethic of integration and collaboration that has the potential to transform the nature of social organization. Although humanity still has a lot to learn about living more harmoniously and sustainably, systems thinking has made significant contributions in this direction in many fields, both theoretical and practical. The challenge is to integrate what we have learned, to communicate these insights to a larger audience, and to nurture institutional practices that honor the ethical principles inherent in the systems view.
The Dialectic of Bottom-up and Top-down Emergence in Social Systems
Authors: Fuchs Christian , Hofkirchner Wolfgang
Published: May 2018

In this paper we will present a theoretical explanation of the relationship between so-called individual emergence and the emergence of social systems. We want to take as our point of departure the assumption that from the perspective of hierarchical systems theory self-organization on the level of social systems includes a bottom-up process as well as a top-down process. The bottom-up process refers to what in sociology is called agency, the top-down process refers to what is called structure. We will show that it is convenient to suggest that these processes be linked in a dialectical manner. In this respect we will discuss problems of determinism and indeterminism. This is the background against which we will try to clarify the notion of individual emergence. Our rather general considerations will be illustrated by how ideology, that is consciousness in a collective as well as an individual sense, is conceived of by a number of theories and how it should be conceived of when aspects of self-organization are included. We will conclude with a statement that makes clear why consciousness is a property of individuals that emerges only when individuals participate in society and why society emerges only when individuals are endowed with consciousness.
Cognition, Communication, and Co-operation in Living Systems. Biosemiosis in the Context of Self-organisation
Authors: Hofkirchner Wolfgang , Ellersdorfer Günther
Published: May 2018

In the perspective of an as yet-to-be-developed Unified Theory of Information as part of an as yet-to-be-developed theory of evolutionary systems semiosis plausibly coincides with self-organisation. A concept of sign processes that is flexible enough to perform two functions as follows is everything that is required for this framework. It must relate to the most various manifestations of sign processes, thus enabling a variety of scientific disciplines to use a common concept where it seems appropriate; at the same time, it must be precise enough to fit the unique requirements of any individual branch of science dealing with a concrete manifestation. Different types of sign processes have to be related to, if not derived from (albeit in a nonformal way), different types of self-organisation. The paper illustrates how the relationship between the genus proximum of semiosis in self-organising systems and the differentia specifica of semiosis in biota may be approached.
Available information — preparatory note for a theory of information space
Authors: Janlert Lars-Erik
Published: May 2018

Information technology warps information space, but there are limits to the availability of information. Information distance is introduced to begin investigate the shape of information space, which is very much needed. The concept of availability profile is proposed as a way of defining spatial location in information space, also interpretable as information state. A first check of the possibilities to extend the agentcentric view into an infocentric view is not immediately discouraging, but many problems and issues remain.
Memory versus logic: two models of organizing information and their influences on web retrieval strategies
Authors: Numerico Teresa
Published: May 2018

We can find the first anticipation of the World Wide Web hypertextual structure in Bush paper of 1945, where he described a “selection” and storage machine called the Memex, capable of keeping the useful information of a user and connecting it to other relevant material present in the machine or added by other users. We will argue that Vannevar Bush, who conceived this type of machine, did it because its involvement with analogical devices. During the 1930s, in fact, he invented and built the Differential Analyzer, a powerful analogue machine, used to calculate various relevant mathematical functions. The model of the Memex is not the digital one, because it relies on another form of data representation that emulates more the procedures of memory than the attitude of the logic used by the intellect. Memory seems to select and arrange information according to association strategies, i.e., using analogies and connections that are very often arbitrary, sometimes even chaotic and completely subjective. The organization of information and the knowledge creation process suggested by logic and symbolic formal representation of data is deeply different from the former one, though the logic approach is at the core of the birth of computer science (i.e., the Turing Machine and the Von Neumann Machine). We will discuss the issues raised by these two “visions” of information management and the influences of the philosophical tradition of the theory of knowledge on the hypertextual organization of content. We will also analyze all the consequences of these different attitudes with respect to information retrieval techniques in a hypertextual environment, as the web. Our position is that it necessary to take into accounts the nature and the dynamic social topology of the network when we choose information retrieval methods for the network; otherwise, we risk creating a misleading service for the end user of web search tools (i.e., search engines).
Error-correcting codes and genetics
Authors: Battail Gérard
Published: May 2018

The conservation of genetic information through the ages can not be explained unless one assumes the existence of genomic error-correcting codes, our main hypothesis. Shielding by phenotypic membranes does not protect the genomes against radiations and their own quantum indeterminism. The cumulated errors then make the genomic memory ephemeral at the time scale of geology. Only means intrinsic to the genome itself, taking the form of error-correcting codes, can ensure the genome permanency. According to information theory, they can achieve reliable communication over unreliable channels, so paradoxical it may look, provided some conditions are met. The experience of communication engineers witnesses their high efficiency. As a subsidiary hypothesis, we assume moreover they take the form of `nested codes', i.e., that several codes are combined into a layered structure which results in an unequal protection: the older and more fundamental parts of the genomic information are better protected than more recent ones. Looking for how nature implements error-correcting codes, we are led to assume that they rely on the many physical, steric, chemical and linguistic constraints to which the DNA molecule and the proteins for which they code are subjected. Taking account of these constraints enables to regenerate the genome provided the number of accumulated errors remains less than the correcting ability of the code, i.e., after a short enough time. Based on these hypotheses, fundamental results of information theory explain basic features of the living world, especially that life proceeds by successive generations, the discreteness of species and their hierarchical taxonomy, as well as the trend of evolution towards complexity. Other consequences are that evolution proceeds by jumps and that the genomic message originates in random regeneration errors. That basic results of information theory and error--correcting codes explain biological facts left unexplained by today's biology confirms the necessity of our hypotheses. The direct experimental identification of genomic error-correcting codes and regeneration means still lacks, however, but it would obviously require the activecollaboration of practicing geneticists.
The Internet as a Moral Mediator. The Quest for Democracy
Authors: Bardone Emanuele , Magnani Lorenzo
Published: May 2018

Recently the impressive growth of the Web, and the Internet in general, has been considered as a promise that may both challenge and boost our representation of democratic institutions. It is well known that modern democracies are based on the possibility to control and even replace who rules by the force of the best arguments. More generally, the control of the government, and the effectiveness of democracy, is possible, if the citizens can access information. Hence, the promise of the Internet mainly relies on the fact that people may more freely access information, because it seems it cannot be controlled or manipulated by the political power. In the first part of this outline we will depict a cognitive framework to deal with the relationships between Internet and democracy. We shall show that Internet, as an information technology, can be considered as a cognitive and moral mediator; it can provide stories, texts, images, combined with sounds, so that the information fosters not only a cognitive, but also an emotional and moral understanding. In this sense, the Internet represents a kind of redistribution of the moral effort through managing objects and information to overcome the poverty and the unsatisfactory character of the options available. In the last part we will illustrate that Internet, as a moral mediator, may enhance democracy in two respects. First, it affords civic engagement and participation; second, it allows people to face different sources of information so that almost everyone can verify and test the information delivered by traditional media.
Autonomy and Morality in DRM and Anti-Circumvention Law
Authors: Burk Dan L. , Gillespie Tarleton
Published: May 2018

Digital rights management technology, or DRM, provides self-enforcing technical exclusion from pre-determined uses of informational works. Such technical exclusion may supplement or even supplant intellectual property laws. The deployment of DRM has been subsidized by laws prohibiting both disabling of technical controls and assisting others to disable technical controls. To date the public debate over deployment of DRM, has been almost entirely dominated by utilitarian arguments regarding the social costs and benefits of this technology. In this paper, we examine the moral propriety of laws endorsing and encouraging the deployment of DRM. We argue that a deontological analysis, focusing on the autonomy of information users, deserves consideration. Because DRM shifts the determination of information use from users to producers, users are denied the choice whether to engage in use or misuse of the technically protected work. State sponsorship of DRM in effect treats information users as moral incompetents, incapable of deciding the proper use of information products. This analysis militates in favor of legal penalties that recognize and encourage the exercise of autonomous choice, even by punishment of blameworthy choices, rather than the encouragement of technology that limits the autonomous choices of information users.
Information Structure Representation And Extraction From A Corpus Of Patient Data, Using An Ontology
Authors: Cote Christian
Published: May 2018

We propose a methodology to model the information structure for its extraction from any medical text. We experiment this extraction in a corpus that represents the information system of a specific professional activity in the hospital pharmacy. the information structure represent how the meaning of a sentence is specified by the constraints of the information flow. But the information structure is systematically recognized and interpreted in the context of a text: it’s also the last object of the information system. Then we consider the text as a contextual frame to model the recognition and the extraction of the information structure. A text can’t be considered only as a linguistic object in a professional and information context: it’s an implemented (or externalised following situated and distributed cognition) ontology. The updated text articulates the ontology of the patient body and the referential dimension of the information. The model of the information structure presupposes we know what are the constraints of the information system on the symbolic entities (in a way to distinguish the information structure to any sentence description). In a way to determine these constraints, we propose to model the information process by the information flow: we represent in this way how any fact in the body of the patient is symbolised, conveyed and represented into a text. The information flow characterizes only the constraints of the information on the linguistic entities and structures. But the information is linguistically a referential semantic object: it’s the representation at distance of a new fact in the world in the frame of a text that accepts this information. Then the model of At last, The information flow allows the articulation of an ontology and a semantic precisely on the question of the information structure. We unify the model of the information structure by the definition of five primitives. A sign representation allows both the characterisation of the structure and of each of its components.
The Origin and Evolution of Language and the Propagation of Organization
Authors: Logan Robert K.
Published: May 2018

In this presentation we will study propagating organization. We begin by examining the evolution and origin of language by briefly reviewing the impact of the phonetic alphabet (Logan 2004a), the evolution of notated language (Logan 2004b), the origin of language and culture (Logan 2006, 2007), the role of collaboration in knowledge management (Logan and Stokes 2004), the impact of “new media” (Logan in preparation). We will then connect this work to the propagating organization of all living organisms (Kauffman et al. in press) where we will show that information in biotic systems are the constraints that instruct living organisms how to operate. We will demonstrate that instructional or biotic information is quite different than the classical notion of information Shannon developed for addressing engineering problems in telecommunications. We also will show that biosemiosis is in some sense equivalent to propagating organization (Kauffman et al. in press). We then conclude our presentation with the speculation that there exist at least seven levels of biosemiosis.
Biosemiotics, Bioinformatics, and Responsibility: Ambivalent Consequences of the Deciphering of the Human Genome for Society and Science
Authors: Fuchs-Kittowski Klaus , Rosenthal Hans-Alfred
Published: May 2018

Deciphering the Human Genome is one of the greatest achievements of modern science. The genetic code shows the importance of semiotics in our understanding of evolution. Biosemiotics as the study of signs, communication and information in living organisms has very much in common with Bioinformatics. Biology, Bioinformatics, and Bio-semiotics meet, but with ambivalent effects on science and society. In the paper we discuss the scientific and social implications, as well as a number of ethical problems. For instance, does the fertilized egg have the right to human dignity? Should pre-implantation diagnostics remain absolutely prohibited in the German society, while abortion of a twelve-week old fetus after counseling is allowed? What are the genetically engineered interventions that make sense from the few point of medicine, and what are those that should be fundamentally rejected? Furthermore, the possibility is being discussed that the human genome project and the considerations accompanying it may eventually initiate new varieties of eugenics and racism (Fuchs-Kittowski, Rosenthal, Rosenthal 2005).
Time and Digital Poetics
Authors: Pinto Julio
Published: May 2018

From a semiotic standpoint, this discussion focuses on the issue of time in digital environments so as to attempt an answer to the question whether temporal awareness undergoes a collapse into presentness or whether narrative structure is dissolved in the unpredictability of links that may be accessed randomly; that is, the hypertext loses exactly the anaphoric reference to a significant preexistence on behalf of a succession of bits of presentness.
The dawn of the information age in least developed countries (LDCs): lessons learned from four case studies
Authors: Bichler Robert M.
Published: May 2018

The emerging information age is characterised by the ubiquitous availability of information and communication technologies. While in highly developed countries, due to heavy investments in the telecommunication infrastructure, the public and scientific discussion more and more focuses on the so-called digital divide 2.0, i.e. the lack of ICT skills, for developing countries both, the access to and the use of ICTs still remain a huge challenge. The goal of my dissertation thesis is to highlight these challenges, as well as the opportunities that occur for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on their way towards an information society. The study examines ICTs in four geographically and culturally diverse regions, including the countries Yemen, Guatemala, Malawi and Lao PDR, on the macro and on the micro level. The research on the macro level is guided by the central research question: Are ICTs in LDCs used to foster societal development or are they reinforcing imperialistic patterns of Western hegemony?On the micro level the project aims to investigate the users’ demographics, their habits of ICT use, as well as the barriers and opportunities for the citizens emerging from the upcoming information age. The findings from the macro and the micro level will be correlated on the basis of the five dimensions of society (ecological, political, cultural, economical and technological) to assess the state of the art and to formulate strategies to counter the current eColonialism tendencies and to foster a sustainable implementation of ICTs in LDCs.
Internet-driven changes in environmental NGO action
Authors: Neto Pedro Pereira
Published: May 2018

Information and Communication Technologies, considered both as a technological resource and as a social technology, play an important role in the shaping of existing social relations and in the creation of new modes of interaction and social organization (AA. VV., 2000). However, traditional approaches of political action frequently misstate just how politically active citizens are by underrating changes occurred in the realm of political mediation (Norris, 2002, p. 2; Epstein, 1991, p. 230). The changes in the organizational and action repertoires go hand in hand with the specificities of each NGO's cultural interpretative devices, which are influenced by technological change (Zald, 1996, p. 266-270). On the other hand, frames are also subject to internal debate, a process in which ICTs also take part (Webster, 2001, p. 7). Hence, this paper focuses on clarifying the ways in which NGOs have their structure and action repertoires changed by the use of ICTs.
Socio-epistemic analysis of scientific knowledge production in little science research
Authors: Pepe Alberto
Published: May 2018

The processes that drive knowledge production and dissemination in scientific environments are embedded within the social, technical, cultural and epistemic practices of the constituent research communities. This article presents a methodology to unpack specific social and epistemic dimensions of scientific knowledge production using, as a case study,  the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation “little science” research center involved in theoretical and applied work in the field of wireless communication and sensor networks. By analysis of its scholarly record, I construct a social network of coauthorship, linking individuals that have coauthored scholarly artifacts (journal articles and conference papers), and an epistemic network of topic co-occurrence, linking concepts and knowledge constructs in the same scholarly artifacts. This article reports on ongoing work directed at the study of the emergence and evolution of these networks of scientific interaction. I present some preliminary results and introduce a socio-epistemic method for an historical analysis of network co-evolution. I outline a research design to support further investigations of knowledge production in scientific circles.
The ‘True’ Democracy and the ‘True’ Self-Organization: Regulative Ideas or Reasons for Doubtful Estimations?
Authors: Dobronravova Iryna
Published: May 2018

The way from theoretical principles to the estimation of real events is often affected by personal preferences. This problem is typical for the post-non-classical situation in science in which authors are not indifferent toward their topics. The article uses the example of Ukrainian ‘Orange revolution’ in its consideration of how to avoid the classical position of high judgment from the point of view of pure ideas.
Some Reflections on Manuel Castells’ Book “Communication Power”
Authors: Fuchs Christian
Published: May 2018

Manuel Castells deals in his book Communication Power with the question where power lies in the network society. In this paper, I discuss important issues that this book addresses, and connect them, where possible, to my own works and reflections. The book is discussed along the following lines: the concept of power, web 2.0 and mass self-communication, media manipulation, social movements, novelty & network society.
Philosophical Foundations for Democracy: A Ukrainian Perspective
Authors: Myelkov Yuriy , Tolstoukhov Anatoliy
Published: May 2018

The article intends to conduct a philosophical analysis of democracy as it is presented by democratization processes in societies under globalization. Turbulent political life or contemporary Ukraine with its recent ‘revolution’ provides an excellent example of such a process. The authors demonstrate that the processes in question could be denoted as rather manipulation and political technologies than democratic transition. They argue that democracy can only be understood correctly as the self-organization of society composed of free and conscious human personalities. They show that personality as the subject of democracy, opposed to crowds led by contemporary demagogues, is the only possibility to achieve real changes for a better society.
The Topos of Virtuality
Authors: Zimmermann Rainer , Hofkirchner Wolfgang
Published: May 2018

Generalizing the conceptual approach to a theory of biosemiotics which is primarily based on insight from mathematical topology , we discuss here the relevance of the cognitive representation of the category of space in terms of the consequences implied by topos theory: In this sense, it is shown that a topos is a Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra for a logical theory whose models are the points of a space. We also show what kind of epistemic conclusions can be drawn from this result with a view to model theory and by doing so establish important relationships among the concepts of social space, networks, systems and evolutionary games on the one hand and semiosis on the other. We can thus achieve a suitable reconciliation of both the onto-epistemic approach of the Kassel group and the evolutionary approach of the Salzburg group, respectively, carrying us forward among other things to fundamental aspects of a unified theory of information. This first paper deals with the mentioned relationships in general spaces, the second deals with applications to virtual space proper.
Technontologies, Complexity, and Hybrid Interfaces
Authors: Lemos Renata , Kern Vinícius
Published: May 2018

NBIC (nano-bio-info-cogno) applications enable hybrid cognitive interfaces between matter and mind. These hybrid interfaces between human and artificial intelligence are also found in cyberspace. These new developments, together with recent advances in quantum computational physics, challenge traditional philosophical ontology. The nature of being in relation to reality seems to be transformed. New ontologies, technologically based, appear. We call them technontologies. Pan-communicationalism is the most important technontology, evolving around the concepts of ubiquitous information, universal semiosis and a universal quantum computational matrix. Being seems to be, in this context, meaning in modulation.
The Notion of Information
Authors: Campos Manuel
Published: May 2018

The term information has an obvious ordinary use: from information we obtain in our interaction with the world, we are capable of acquiring knowledge about it. Assuming a realist point of view, information thus interpreted (measurable in propositional terms) is acquired by the subject through inductive fallible processes based, in part, on the recognition of natural correlations. This approach to the notion of information has, however, as a counterpart, that it seems to render the notion redundant.
An integrated framework for information, communication and knowledge definitions
Authors: Gejman Roberto
Published: May 2018

An integrated set of definitions and distinctions in the information, communication and knowledge field is proposed. It is argued that more attention must be given to records, usually confused with information. Descriptions are shown to be the fundamental facts behind information. Information is defined as an abstract concept, free of material or syntactic constraints. Information is observer free but it is dependent on the shared ontological background of communities. The world may be characterized as being structured by only six components. Knowledge is the capacity to act effectively and it is not information. Information quantity and its relation with the entropy of physical systems are shown to be more ambiguous and less important than they are usually thought of. It is argued that information studies should move on from these old concerns to confront the vital information challenges in this globalized information society with information superabundance.
Latin America’s information technologies: promises and realities
Authors: Mastromatteo Estela
Published: May 2018

This contribution emphasizes that in order to achieve a real and sustainable human development in Latin America, and for this region to be part of the information society is extremely important to create conditions for a free access to information, education for everyone and  permanently, and a development in science and technology destined to serve society. Access to information and information technology are major promises in this era, but at the same time, become new forms of exclusion. In Latin America the two realities coexist. Is crucial in the solution, to rethink the ethics of information and values that underlie it, respect for human rights, the commitment of societies and our leaders. Highlights the role of libraries as mediators in the production process, organization and retrieval of information access, in safeguarding the freedom of information and the right to free expression through technology, with ethics and values into a real development in Latin America.
Biosemiotics: Communication and Causation (Information included)
Authors: Álvarez Juan Ramon
Published: May 2018

Pretensions of Biosemiotics as a unified approach to biological information are critically scrutinized within the study of different projects of semiotisation of nature and naturalization ot cultural processes. Main textual references and arguments are presented and critically pondered. Biosemiotics is here presented as an analytical method to study communication as founded in causality.
How are women fostering home Internet adoption? A study of home-based female Internet users in Bangladesh
Authors: Choudhury Naziat
Published: May 2018

This study proposes to investigate what role women are playing in bringing the Internet to the home in Bangladesh. Home-based female Internet users are focused upon herein. This study is based on the appropriation phase of the domestication of technology theory and the model of becoming an Internet user. Semi-structured interviews are conducted among sixteen participants. The central theme of this study is to understand how women participate in the decision-making process associated with Internet adoption. The Internet is brought home for many interesting reasons. Through the Internet some women are making an effort to voice their concerns and thus bring changes to their own and their families’ lives. Thus this study offers an in-depth look at home-based women Internet users in Bangladesh.
Some Thoughts on Tourism in Lao PDR: Communist Ideology and Touristic Reality
Authors: Bichler Robert M.
Published: May 2018

no Abstract - Reflection
Position Paper Number 1 for the Workshop “Towards Criteria of Sustainability and Social Meaningfulness in Development“: Instrumental Reason as a Hindering Factor for Meaningful Technology Design
Authors: Hofkirchner Wolfgang , Bichler Robert M.
Published: May 2018

This paper is the first of a number of position papers for the workshop “Towards Criteria of Sustainability and Social Meaningfulness in Development“
Position Paper Number 2 for the Workshop “Towards Criteria of Sustainability and Social Meaningfulness in Development“: Critical Reflections on Modernization Theoretical Thinking and its Implications for ICTs in Development
Authors: Bichler Robert M. , Gaderer Eva
Published: May 2018

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Information, Self-Reference and Observation Theory in the Context of Social Sciences Epistemology
Authors: Aguado Juan Miguel
Published: May 2018

By attempting to fix an observable magnitude, the concept of information involves a cognitive model that enables a double ontological rupture: between subject and world, on one side, and between cognition and action, on the other side. A genealogical approach to information as a simultaneously epistemological and cognitive crossroad highlights the centrality of observation theory in the resolution of its contradictions. The recursive nature of observation inherent to informational logics makes constructivist assumptions especially relevant as a key contribution for an epistemological revision of the ideas of information and communication.
The Advancement of Information Science
Authors: Marijuán Pedro C.
Published: May 2018

The advancement of a new scientific perspective, information science, devoted to the study of the vast field of informational phenomena in nature and society, implies putting together a number of cognizing domains which are presently scattered away in many other disciplines. Comparable to previous scientific revolutions spurred by thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, it would be time to go beyond the classical discussions on the concept of information, and associated formal theories, and advance a “new way of thinking”. Cells, Brains, Societies, and Quantum information would be crucial arenas for this discussion. Rather than hierarchy, reduction, or unification, the catchword is unending recombination... A mature information science should offer a new panoramic view on the sciences themselves and contribute to achieve social adaptability & sustainability.
Weak consistency and strong paraconsistency
Authors: Robles Gemma
Published: May 2018

In a standard sense, consistency and paraconsistency are understood as, respectively, the absence of any contradiction and as the absence of the ECQ (“E contradictione quodlibet”) rule that allows us to conclude any well formed formula from any contradiction. The aim of this paper is to explain the concepts of weak consistency alternative to the standard one, the concepts of paraconsistency related to them and the concept of strong paraconsistency, all of which have been defined by the author together with José M. Méndez.
The Convergence Theory on ICT, Society and Human Beings – towards the Good ICT society
Authors: Bradley Gunilla
Published: May 2018

The convergence model illustrates ongoing changes in the Net Society. However the theoretical model goes back and synthesises the theoretical framework in research on psychosocial work environment and computerization. Interdisciplinary research programs were initiated by the author in the 70th and then analyzed changes in society related to various periods in “the history” of ICT. The description of the convergence model is structured with reference to the concepts Globalization, ICT, Life Environment, Life Role, Effects on Humans. Both Convergence and Interactions are important features in the model.  There are four levels of analysis – individual, organisational, community, and societal.
Iconics: Icon Evolution in Digitality
Authors: Thompson Steven John
Published: May 2018

Image manipulation, archiving, and sharing are all critical technological aspects of Western culture and postmodern civilization. Consequently, creation, identification, dissemination, and proliferation of powerful images across media channels today indicate a burgeoning area of information technology.While words alone are capable of conveying adequate information across media channels, the news industry crafts around the dual enterprise of both word and image. Audio-visual supports of these communication devices constituting new media are standard means of rhetorical expressions in acquiring and sharing information in daily life.Overwhelming sensory experiences associated with broadcast media ensure that neither 1) time to study individual factors that render media as iconic, nor 2) interest in interpretation of such dynamics prior to public release. That leads to deeper issues of access, privilege, and motive, yet only through serious scholarly inquiry can we gain understanding of rhetorical roots and expressions of the diverse entities producing media that eventually becomes iconic.
3rd ICTs and Society Meeting; Paper Session - Theorizing the Internet; Paper 1: Toward Trust as Result. A Transdisciplinary Research Agenda for the ‘Future Internet’
Authors: De Paoli Stefano , Gangadharan G. R. , Kerr Aphra , D’Andrea Vincenzo , Serrano Martin , Botvich Dmitri , McGibney Jimmy
Published: May 2018

Trust has emerged as one of the key challenges for the Future Internet and as a key theme of European research. We are convinced that a transdisciplinary research agenda - that we define to as Trust as Result - shared by Sociology and Computer Science, is of paramount importance for devising sustainable Trust solutions for the (Future) Internet stakeholders. The scope of this paper is to present some elements we consider important for building such an agenda.