bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Educational Games and Outcomes
Authors: Ochsner Amanda , Ramirez Dennis , Steinkuehler Constance
Published: February 2015

The field of games and learning encompasses research around the design of educational games, the ways in which teachers and players use commercial games for educational purposes, and even ways in which game‐like systems are being implemented to make learning more engaging. The first section of this entry outlines several foundational theories for games, learning, and engagement, including flow, the zone of proximal development, and hard fun, as well as principles of learning that are often embedded in good game design. The second section includes a discussion of the ways that games are designed for and used for learning – to teach content and to introduce players to new ways of being, including providing entrance to new knowledge domains and discourses. The final section describes emerging trends in the educational games and the games and learning field, including the gamification of education, badges, and embedded assessment strategies.
Online Games, Cooperation and Competition in
Authors: Peng Wei
Published: February 2015

This entry gives an overview of the theorization of cooperation and competition in social interactions and applies it to online games, including browser based online casual games, massively multiplayer online games, and networked multiplayer gaming. Empirical evidence of the effects of cooperation and competition, and their interactions with other variables, in online games are summarized. Directions of future research on cooperation and competition in online games are discussed.
Intellectual Property Rights
Authors: Burkart Patrick
Published: February 2015

The prevalence of computer mediated communication has expanded the field of intellectual property (IP) to practically all interaction contexts. The business of IP exploded in the West during the industrial age, with robber barons creating private empires in new communication technologies based on intellectual property rights (IPRs). When the United States government needed to intervene on behalf of a strategic new communication technology, such as radio, it did not hesitate to create and enforce “patent pools” led by national champions of industry. IP came to characterize the primary mode of production for the information society by the mid‐twentieth century. The rise of law and policy studies within communication and media disciplines reflects the expansive juridification and codification of IPRs since the 1980s, when personal computing, digital media, and biotechnology began to diffuse. Revisions to IP law follow and sometimes anticipate technological changes affecting copyrights and patents. Current research and theory emphasizes the practical difficulties of building “leak‐proof” IP for media producers and distributors, the economic valuation and devaluation of IP, and the social consequences of asymmetrical media trade relationships and strong IP rights enforcement. This entry emphasizes attempts, frequently led by the US private sector and supported by the US government, to promote a maximalist approach to IP, and addresses some of the issues raised for trade with other regions, especially the European Union.
ICT4Dand Sustainability
Authors: Marais Mario A.
Published: February 2015

Sustainability is a systems concept, and ICT4D plays a vital role in a sustainable earth, as well as in sustainable communities. The concept of resilience is introduced since rapid change can push a system into another, possibly undesirable, state. Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance. ICTs play a key role in the decoupling of economic development from the use of natural resources, by reducing the energy use of economic processes. ICT4D has moved to the use of ICTs as a platform for transformative development. This development must start with human development, since technology is only a multiplier of human intent and capacity and cannot substitute for it. Human scale development strategies are discussed where self‐reliant relationships are built via a network of aligned interests. These in turn are built from the bottom up and are supported via networks that span the local, regional, and national levels.
Online Games and Business Models
Authors: Zackariasson Peter
Published: February 2015

Game development has always been dependent on functional business models with the capacity to secure the delivery of fun games to consumers and profit to the developers. Developing effective business models can be observed from the start of the industry to the present day. This development exhibits creativity that is comparable to other processes in the industry. Although the internet has enabled a greater variety of business models, traditional models are a persistent presence.
Anonymity and the Law
Authors: Fargo Anthony L.
Published: February 2015

Anonymous publishing has a centuries‐long history, but the internet and other new technologies have made it both easier and harder to mask one's identity while engaging with the public. Digital technologies also encourage people to share information with a broad audience, which can be either a blessing or a curse. Issues arising in the digital context include whether internet service providers should be required to identify their users to litigants; whether the use of cameras by governments and private individuals invade a right to be functionally anonymous in public; and whether social network sites online should be allowed to mine personal data and photographs for information that can be used in marketing as well as in connecting users.
Professional Gaming
Authors: Taylor Nicholas
Published: February 2015

Professional gaming represents the configuration of competitive gaming as spectatorial activity. While the professional gaming (or e‐sports) industry has met with recent success in cultivating mass audiences for live streamed competitive gaming, the brief history of competitive gaming is marked as much by sudden decline as by propitious growth. Given the constantly shifting terrain of organizations, leagues, tournaments, and players, e‐sports represents a moving target for researchers. For this reason, and because of the increasingly diverse global contexts for competitive gaming, this emergent field can greatly benefit from more case study research and from multiple disciplines and perspectives.
ICT4D
Donor Agencies and Networks
Authors: Uimonen Paula , Hellström Johan
Published: February 2015

Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) evolved as a field of development cooperation in conjunction with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005. Prior to this United Nations summit, few donors were involved in ICT4D, but as policymakers around the world became involved in the WSIS process, ICT4D emerged as an important aspect of the global development agenda. Donors started to recognize that ICT offered a tool for development, not least for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). After the WSIS interest dwindled among leading donor agencies, but resurfaced as mobile technologies became widespread even in income‐poor countries and among poor populations and after the digitally mediated social uprisings of the so‐called Arab Spring which highlighted the social and political significance of the internet. New actors are becoming involved including philanthropic organizations, while the ICT4D field continues to explore new working methods like multistakeholder partnerships. Meanwhile, ICT is gradually becoming integrated into development efforts, although global patterns of digital stratification still remain to be overcome. This entry focuses on the roles of donor organizations and their networks
Online Games and Genre
Authors: Krzywinska Tanya , Brown Douglas
Published: February 2015

Genre is used by game developers as a means of targeting certain markets by providing easily identified product differentiation. This entry provides an overview of the development and diversity of genre in online games and maps out the major factors that drive genre formations. In addition, academic approaches to the study of genre are applied to online games alongside an overview of the commercial and cultural contexts that shape online game genres.
Virtual Economies: Origins and Issues
Authors: Knowles Isaac , Castronova Edward , Ross Travis
Published: February 2015

Within virtual worlds, users collect, trade, destroy, produce, and refine virtual resources. Collectively these activities comprise a virtual economy. This entry discusses a definition of virtual economy, touching on important issues and current research on the subject. It provides an historical and conceptual grounding for understanding virtual worlds and virtual economies. The connection between virtual and real economies is an issue of particular importance since it lies at the nexus of interests originating in the academy, business, and game development communities. The exchange of virtual currency, goods, and services for their real‐life counterparts – known as the real money trade, or RMT – continues to fascinate researchers, befuddle the popular press, and ignite sparks in the eyes of venture capitalists.
Multistakeholder Partnerships
Authors: Unwin Tim
Published: February 2015

Partnerships are central to the implementation of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) initiatives and yet many have been much less successful than their advocates had hoped for. This entry discusses why this is the case and summarizes some of the key models and success factors for their implementation that are advocated in recent literature. It begins with an overview of the reasons why partnerships have become such a popular modality for delivering development interventions and then considers some of the theoretical and empirical challenges to the notion of partnerships. A summary of work on critical success factors for ICT4D partnerships is given, followed by an analysis of some of the interests underlying the use of different partnership terminologies. The entry concludes with an overview of two broad types of partnership models and the key implementation requirements for ICT4D multistakeholder partnerships.
Online Intermediaries and Supply Chains
Authors: Chircu Alina M. , Resnick Mark , Saraswat Satya Prakash
Published: February 2015

A supply chain is a complex, multilevel web of relationships between many companies, with multiple facilities spread around the globe and with multiple, often conflicting, objectives. Supply chain intermediaries, or middlemen, have evolved over time to alleviate the uncertainty and risk of the supply chain processes. Online intermediaries are a new breed of supply chain middlemen that use technology to provide transactional and informational support for these processes. This entry provides an overview of the key issues related to online intermediaries in supply chains and presents several examples of such intermediaries in various industries.
Online Games, Effects of
Authors: Skoric Marko , Poor Nathaniel
Published: February 2015

This chapter gives an overview of the literature examining the effects of online gaming, focusing primarily on the unintended consequences of online game play, including aggression, civic and political engagement, and the effects related to health, gender, identity, and sexuality.
Online Games Modifications and User Generated Content
Authors: Sotamaa Olli , Wirman Hanna
Published: February 2015

This entry covers a range of methods and tools players use in reworking the games they play. It discusses the history of game modifying and establishes its contemporary role in game cultures and within a larger context of co‐creative game design and development. Providing examples from both online and single‐player games, players' motivations and linkages to other gameplay practices are considered together with the ambivalent relationship between game developers and the players who modify games.
Online First‐Person Shooter Games
Authors: Voorhees Gerald A.
Published: February 2015

First‐person shooter (FPS) games position players from the point of view of a game character and require them to navigate 3Dspace and shoot enemies in order to complete game objectives. While theFPShas developed and adopted numerous gameplay and narrative conventions in the 20 years since the form coalesced, competitive online multiplayer gameplay is a pillar of the genre.FPSgames are controversial with the general public because of their representations of violence but very popular within gaming cultures and a mainstay of the game industry. While a good deal of historical, formalist, and interpretive scholarship informs this entry, social scientific research is only beginning to move beyond the question of violence and to examine prosocial effects and applications ofFPSgames.
Online Retailing
Authors: Holland Christopher , Mandry Gordon
Published: February 2015

International trends in internet penetration are presented to illustrate the varying levels of internet technology use by country. Online retailing is discussed using the concept of the online customer journey. A model of the online customer journey is set out, which includes recursive movement between different stages and captures the new forms of communication between customers and online retailers. This provides a framework for showing that consumers have relatively small online consideration sets, and the marketing implications of this search behavior are outlined. The internet channel is composed of multiple subchannels, which is important for the allocation of advertising budgets. An online sales model is used to demonstrate the relationship between unique visitors and online sales conversion. Online retailing is then placed in the context of a multichannel strategy. The last stage of the online customer journey, e‐service, is shown to play two important roles, that of reducing the cost to serve customers and to improve customer retention. Future developments and the importance of mobile technology and social media are outlined.
Network Neutrality
Authors: Frieden Rob
Published: February 2015

As the internet evolves and matures, it will become an increasingly dominant medium for the delivery of information, communications, and entertainment. This outcome offers opportunities for everyone to benefit from diversified internet services. However, such concentration of resources also increases the risk that the few remaining conduit operators will acquire market power and exploit it in ways that limit competition for both content and its delivery. This entry explains the debate about whether governments should require internet service providers to operate in a neutral and nondiscriminatory manner. It concludes that while many concerns about network neutrality overstate the potential for harm, researchers and governments can assess whether and how price and quality of service discrimination enhance or harm internet access.
Online Games and Militarism
Authors: Huntemann Nina B. , Payne Matthew Thomas
Published: February 2015

This entry describes the interlinking histories of video games and militarism in the United States. It contends that the history of video games is incomplete without an accounting of the role that defense interests play in the technological development and popularization of military‐themed games. The piece introduces key concepts and titles worthy of scholarly attention.
e
‐Commerce Online Payments
Authors: Bons Roger W. H. , Alt Rainer
Published: February 2015

The ability to pay for goods and services bought online is vital for any successful business model in electronic, mobile, or social commerce. This entry discusses the most common categories of online payments which involve real as well as virtual currencies. The classification applies a user perspective based on the needs of buyers and sellers, and looks in particular at risk, convenience, and cost. The entry primarily addresses the most common payment methods in use today and offers some future directions for research on online payments.
Peer‐to‐Peer Content
Authors: Aitken Paul , Morris Jeremy Wade
Published: February 2015

This entry provides an overview of peer‐to‐peer (P2P) content, with a particular focus on the sharing of audiovisual content (such as music and video) through dedicated file sharing software clients. It reviews various definitions of the term, histories of popular P2P technologies (from Napster to current file locker services), and scholarly approaches to understanding P2P content, most notably its effects on the media industries, copyright and other intellectual property ramifications, issues of surveillance and tracking, practices of gift economies, and the community aspects of P2P technologies. Special attention is paid to the tensions that P2P content and file sharing present: on the one hand, an industrial threat rooted in the logic of gift economies that challenges traditional modes of content distribution, and, on the other, an emerging venue for consumer interaction that further extends control over cultural content, users, and the data they generate.
Online Games and Cheating
Authors: Consalvo Mia
Published: February 2015

The act of cheating in digital games helps us understand the play process in ways that examining normative or “ideal” play cannot. Scholars investigating the phenomenon have uncovered a rich diversity of practices and justifications that demonstrate how seriously players take the process of playing offline games, and how much they can invest in the activity. This entry addresses current research into cheating in digital games, including how and why players cheat, how cheating is conceptualized in different contexts of play, and how the online game industry has responded to cheating. It also takes a brief look at the changing landscape of online games, including social and mobile games and how cheating practices have evolved (or not) in those new contexts.
Competition/Antitrust/Antimonopoly Law
Authors: Just Natascha
Published: February 2015

This entry is devoted to competition law. A discussion of economic concepts of competition underlying such laws and attendant policy paradigms is followed by an examination of the histories of competition law in various jurisdictions, of the substantive provisions and of the agencies responsible for their enforcement. Finally, selected research and policy topics and issues in media and communications are highlighted and reviewed.
Online Games, Globalization of
Authors: Jin Dal Yong
Published: February 2015

Online gaming has rapidly become one of the most significant segments in the global media and entertainment sectors. Globalization of online games has been studied in relation to international communication, political economy, and audiences/fans. Unlike several other cultural genres that have been largely dominated by Western cultural industries in the global markets, this cultural genre is also strongly influenced by non‐Western countries. While there are several factors that account for the popularity of local online games in regional and/or global markets, localization plays a key part in the globalization process of online games. Localization involves local people in adopting, integrating, and connecting their local and foreign cultures. Two major strategies are involved: hybridization and (g)localization. This entry identifies and discusses these primary localization strategies to map the globalization of the online game industry and its distinctive articulation between global and local forces.
B2BElectronic Markets
Authors: Klein Stefan , Alt Rainer
Published: February 2015

Absract

This entry provides an overview of the main characteristics of the phenomenon of business to business (B2B) electronic markets (EMs). After introducing this concept and discussing major effects related to the benefits and risks from an institutional viewpoint, the configuration options of EMs in the B2B domain are presented from a functional perspective. The discussion then shifts to the intermediary, highlighting critical issues that shape the business model of a marketplace operator and addressing criteria that are known to influence the choice of a particular marketplace configuration. Finally, the future development of B2B EMs is discussed.
Online Newspapers
Authors: Mitchelstein Eugenia , Siles Ignacio , Boczkowski Pablo
Published: February 2015

This entry discusses recent scholarship on the production and consumption of online newspapers. The analysis of production dynamics reveals the main challenges faced by news organizations to generate revenue and to innovate as they move online. It also discusses various factors that have shaped how news organizations have dealt with the internet, and some of the consequences of this approach for news production practices and professional development. Scholarly analyses of consumption issues introduce two important discussions about the contemporary development of online news: whether news consumption complements or displaces traditional news media, and whether it results in audience fragmentation or homogenization. This body of work also illuminates some consequences of online news consumption for democracy. Building on this assessment, the entry concludes by considering some main implications for studies on online newspapers and suggests various areas for further research.
Social Search
Authors: Halavais Alexander
Published: February 2015

Social search refers to the ways in which social interaction online influences search results and social interaction is, in turn, affected. Web search is an essentially social technology inferring which information is salient in response to a given set of queries. Attempts to improve the relevance of search results draw upon the social connections of users in new ways to make inferences based on social connections and contextual information in a manner that helps to constrain the results. “Social search” emphasizes the role of social interaction and relationships in the organization of information on the World Wide Web and in other online venues. Of course, online search could not be other than social, making the term somewhat redundant, but refinements of search engine algorithms reveal the social elements in more visible ways. The most significant change in search during the early part of the twenty‐first century has been the incorporation of “social signals” in the search process, but the role of social relationships in the search process has a longer history and greater long‐term potential as compared to the role of these signs in today's algorithms.
Social Media Business Models
Authors: Rohn Ulrike
Published: February 2015

This entry provides a definition of social media business models. A business model helps to analyze and communicate how a business works in terms of value proposition, value creation and provision, as well as financial endurance. Based on these three business model components, the entry describes possible manifestations of business models for organizations that are active in the social media domain. It differentiates between two kinds of organizations: enterprises that own and operate social media platforms and companies that use social media platforms for their communication with customers, prospects, and everyone else interested in the company or its products and services.
Social Media and Data Aggregation
Authors: Hardey Mariann
Published: February 2015

There is an increasing familiarity with the digital technology and web‐based software that together are referred to as “social media.” This entry sets out the defining elements of social media, and describes how their characteristics are bound to the particular communication actions and discursive networks of which they have become part. Social media can now be seen to offer new opportunities for data collection, research design, and publication based on (often complex) data aggregation and visualization practices. The focus is on the modern sense of the “social” in social media that is inextricable from experiences of individual digital autobiography, and of shared and co‐produced content including images, sound recording, video, and other digital media that save text, image, and sound files.
Social Media and Literacy
Authors: Banaji Shakuntala
Published: February 2015

This entry explores debates about what it means to be literate, to be media literate, and to be literate in a social media environment. The significance given to formal and informal learning and teaching about social media depends on how the concepts of literacy and media literacy are defined and understood. Literacy has been linked historically to both technical knowledge about reading and writing and the acquisition of social status and political power. Media literacy most resiliently has been viewed as a bounded set of enabling skills that can be applied to distinct texts and technologies. It has also been seen as a fluid and contested field of knowledge with links to political power, and even as an orientation towards knowledge and society. Literacy and media literacy can be construed as deeply political concepts and the implications of literacy in an age of file sharing, social networks, and social bookmarking are increasingly significant for society.
Globale‐Commerce and Trade
Authors: Lanvin Bruno
Published: February 2015

This entry examines the recent history of global e‐commerce and trade, what is known about its development, recent advances, and current issues, including the impact on emerging economies, global supply chain, small and medium‐sized enterprises, standards, regulations, and norms, and the emerging challenges and research directions.
ICT4Dand Poverty Reduction
Authors: Grimshaw David J.
Published: February 2015

Reducing poverty is a key feature of the rhetoric of institutional actors in the international development community and serves as the main driver of aid. Reflections on what poverty means and how reductions can be measured have evolved as the amount of aid increased yet failed to deliver expected results. At the heart of this debate is the issue of what we are trying to achieve when engaging in international development. This entry considers narrowly focused definitions of poverty measured in economic terms, for example, those living on less than US$2 per day, and broader conceptions of increasing a person's choice to live the life he or she has reason to value. This entry discusses dimensions of poverty in the context of the potential roles of information, knowledge, and technology in poverty reduction with detailed consideration of the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and economic growth and livelihood improvements.
Social Media and Activism
Authors: Cammaerts Bart
Published: February 2015

This entry provides an overview of the ways in which social media and digital networks are contextualized and examined in relation to social movements and activism. A number of communicative practices that activists deploy are identified and the ways in which information and communication technology (ICT) mediated practices are embedded in roles and functions relevant to activists and social movements are addressed giving attention to the importance of social ties and networks online and offline and to constraints and limitations of ICT use. Networks and communicative practices increasingly manifest themselves as a field of contention which is giving rise to a digital rights and freedoms agenda that is being embraced by activists, nongovernmental organizations, and social movements.
Social Media Ownership
Authors: Ford Sam
Published: February 2015

Ownership of social media content has most often been thought of in relation to the increased consolidation of corporate ownership of digital platforms and services. This entry looks instead at the history of scholarship focused on the contested cultural conception of “ownership” in relation to media texts and platforms. In particular, this entry draws from longstanding strands of work on the negotiation of a sense of ownership between audiences and content creators in the discipline of fan studies and how concepts from that work have been applied to research in marketing, sports, and the study of the sites which enable social media discussions.
Social Media and Youth
Authors: Haddon Leslie
Published: February 2015

This entry examines young people's experience of social media. While the term “social media” often refers to a more restrictive range of internet based platforms, a broader understanding of social media, taking into account historical antecedents, allows an appreciation of the precursors to current online practices, issues, and research frameworks. Hence, this entry covers relevant research on young people's use of mobile phones and the internet, before examining the emerging risk agenda.
Geographical Information Systems in the Global South
Authors: Sala Simone , Dendena Bianca
Published: February 2015

Geographic information is of key importance in promoting sustainable development in the rural and urban areas of the global South. Within the broader framework of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), geographic information systems (GIS) include a wide range of tools used for landscape representation, including community produced paper maps, participatory mapping, and computer based systems. The prominent role of GIS in the global South is acknowledged by many scholars and institutions. This entry explores applications relevant to global development, such as crisis mapping and location based services, presents methodologies and approaches for the deployment of GIS in the global South and highlights the main sustainability issues.
Data Mining and Marketing
Authors: Dholakia Ruby Roy , Dholakia Nikhilesh
Published: February 2015

The rapid rise in available cloud based big data on marketing transactions and consumers and the increasing sophistication of data mining methods is transforming scholarly research and managerial practice. Following an historical review of marketing research, this entry focuses on trends and challenges of big data for scholarly and commercial marketing research with respect to data acquisition, data analytics, data privacy, and security. Critical issues pertaining to the new analytical approaches for data mining, as well as theory building and knowledge creation, are summarized. A key issue for future marketing research is how to divide efforts between fast and accurate customer response prediction with the help of big data – employing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks – and research aimed at developing in‐depth understanding of big data‐led changes in markets, consumers, and social networks.
Mobile Lifestyles in the Business World
Authors: Forlano Laura
Published: February 2015

Since 2000 researchers in the field of communications have been studying the role of mobile lifestyles at the interpersonal, organizational, and urban levels. Specifically, researchers have focused on the social, spatial, and technological aspects of this topic as well as on the ways in which these three dimensions are interrelated. Mobile devices have allowed for a rethinking of traditional dichotomies such as private–public, global–local, digital–material, and individual–community. Mobile lifestyles have been enabled by the adoption of mobile and wireless communications technologies that include a wide variety of devices, applications, and features. This entry gives an overview of research on mobile lifestyles that has been conducted in the field of communications.
Online Consumer Behavior
Authors: Hoffman Donna L. , Novak Thomas P. , Li Yuanrui
Published: February 2015

Consumers perform various behaviors online. In this entry, we apply the
4Cs
(connect, create, consume, and control) model of higher order goals consumers may pursue online to examine several important research questions related to what motivates consumers' online behaviors and what insights marketers can gather to promote their business. Consumers may go online to connect with their family and friends (e.g., checking and sharing status updates on Facebook), create content (e.g., posting
YouTube
videos), consume content created by others (e.g., reading product reviews), and finally, consumers may exercise control over their online self‐presentation (e.g., adjusting online profile or privacy settings). These four goals are not mutually exclusive, as one behavior could fulfill more than one goal. For each primary goal, we define how it relates to consumers' online behaviors, describe some of the most important ways it has been examined in the literature, and then conclude with ideas for future research.
Identity and Agency
Authors: Krotoski Aleks , Hammersley Ben
Published: February 2015

Identity is a complex and multifaceted construct that, when considered within a binary, digital environment, is divided into two constituent and occasionally conflicting parts: the collection of information that relates to a single entity (digital identity) and the representation of the self‐identity in the digital space (online identity). This entry primarily considers the latter, including the ways it is expressed in an anonymized space – both at an individual and a social level – and the structures that inhibit and support its expression. It also explores the necessary role in digital identity in creating the online environments that make up the technologically mediated world, and the negotiations currently debated between social science, philosophy, law, and computer science for creating an identity‐rich and safe digital media.
Mobile Business Models
Authors: Bouwman Harry , de Reuver Mark
Published: February 2015

In this entry we discuss the role of business models in the mobile telecommunications domain, considering technology trends at the level of hardware, infrastructure (4G and LTE as first release), platforms (operating systems, network based platforms, and service aggregator platforms) and presentation protocols (HTML 5), and how they affect end‐user services or applications. With regard to business models, we adopt a service or application centered approach, based on platform concepts, discussing several business model frameworks and their relevance to mobile applications, specifically for networked enterprises (or micro‐ecosystems). Future trends are also discussed from a convergence perspective with a particular emphasis on ubiquitous computing and smart living concepts.
Semantic Web
Authors: Dabrowski Maciej
Published: February 2015

The semantic web is an attempt to provide technology, standards, and methodologies to structure and describe the meaning of data on the web, and to make it easier to process by machines thus allowing software to accomplish many of the tasks users must currently perform manually. The term coined in 2001 by Sir Tim Berners‐Lee, the creator of the web, has conceptual roots in the early decades of the twentieth century. This entry describes the foundation technologies of the semantic web and current trends impacting its adoption.
Defamation/Libel
Authors: Sanders Amy Kristin
Published: February 2015

Around the world, criminal and civil laws, collectively known as the law of defamation, are designed to deter false attacks on an individual's reputation. However, the amount of speech punishable with these laws varies greatly from nation to nation. On one end of the spectrum, the United States protects even false statements of fact about public plaintiffs unless actual malice is shown. On the other, in China insulting statements need not contain false information to be actionable. As the internet unites the world through instantaneous communication, the differences in these legal protections have begun to present global communicators with numerous challenges.
e
‐Learning for Development: The Role of the Teacher
Authors: Winters Niall
Published: February 2015

Much of the discourse on e‐learning has a focus on technology. Teachers are positioned as external to the design of e‐learning interventions in development projects. In this entry, this positioning is critiqued from a methodological and pragmatic standpoint, arguing that projects will struggle to be successful in the longer term if they continue to take this approach. Drawing on research in technology enhanced learning (TEL), ways of repositioning the teacher as central to the e‐learning design process are detailed and the key challenges that need to be overcome to achieve this ambitious goal are discussed. An approach that begins by understanding the context of teachers' everyday practice, promotes participation in the design process through multistakeholder partnerships, and urges a more self‐reflective role on the part of corporate funders in e‐learning projects is introduced.
Legal Limits to Technology Use
Authors: Proferes Nicholas
Published: February 2015

This entry describes the efforts by some states to limit citizens' use of digital communication technologies. The entry details five common characteristics of these limits to use. The first characteristic deals with limits placed on citizens' access to certain forms of content through digital communication technologies. The second details how certain categories of citizens are singled out and how their use of digital communication technologies is restricted. The third and fourth characteristics illustrate the ways that states may restrict use based on time and place. Finally, the last characteristic illustrates the different technological and legal means by which citizens' use is limited. This entry concludes by suggesting that many future technologies will face limits to use with similar characteristics.
Living Labs
Authors: Ballon Pieter
Published: February 2015

A living lab is a way of organizing innovation processes that is closely linked to the rise of social media. Social media use community platforms to leverage the creative inputs of, and the interactions between, users. Living labs apply the same principles, but in a design and experimentation oriented manner. While they comprise a heterogeneous mix of methodologies and organizational settings, living labs have in common the objective to involve multiple stakeholders, including users and communities of users, in the exploration, co‐creation and evaluation of innovations within a realistic setting.
Obscenity Law
Authors: Cenite Mark
Published: February 2015

The legal and technical challenges of regulating sexually explicit content through obscenity law have multiplied in digital media environments. Age‐old criticisms persist that obscenity laws are vague attempts to legislate morality, while defenders of such laws argue that regulation of morality is a legitimate aim. This entry reviews obscenity laws in numerous jurisdictions and considers the extent to which they are enforced.
e‐Government
Authors: van Dijk Jan , Ebbers Wolfgang , van de Wijngaert Lidwien
Published: February 2015

There are similarities between e‐government services and commercial e‐services, but also a number of basic differences, given that they are public services that should be available to everyone. E‐government services are evolving from one‐way operations with a supply‐side and technical orientation to two‐way operations with a demand‐side and a social role. Service development extends from information services, download and upload services, transaction services, participation and communication services, to integrated services (one‐stop services and portals). In this way the focus is transformed from traditional administration to modern communication between governments and citizens or companies.
e‐Agriculture
Authors: Flor Alexander G. , Cisneros Andrea Jimenez
Published: February 2015

The term e‐agriculture refers to three things. It may mean the use of electronic media to promote and support agricultural programs, projects, and activities. An example is the harnessing of radio or television to disseminate innovation or support capacity development programs of national agriculture agencies. The term e‐agriculture is also used in reference to a movement within the international agricultural sector that advocates the use of information and communication technology for agricultural production, marketing, and advocacy. Part of this movement champions mobile phones and texting services for agricultural market information and crop decision support systems as well as food policy advocacy. Additionally, e‐agriculture refers to a global organization, a community of practice, engaged in the sharing and reuse of best practices and lessons learned using digital communication applications for agriculture via an established online platform administered by the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. This entry introduces these various developments that are associated with the term e‐agriculture. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ICT4D
and Global Connectivity
Authors: Waema Timothy Mwololo
Published: February 2015

Many countries in the global South are dramatically expanding their broadband infrastructure as part of national plans to use domestic and global connectivity to achieve accelerated social and economic development. This entry reviews recent developments in the expansion of undersea fiber networks connecting with African countries and considers some of the opportunities and constraints to achieving the potential benefits, focusing on both supply‐ and demand‐side factors.
Online Games and Role Playing
Authors: Mortensen Torill Elvira
Published: February 2015

Large online role playing games (
RPG
s) have a long history of development and several aspects in common with analog role playing games. This entry discusses the progression from re‐enactment to live‐action role playing games, and how these are connected with text based adventure games, multi‐user dungeons (
MUD
s), and massively multiplayer online role playing games (
MMORPG
s). The entry also touches on the connection between role play and story, narrative, and suspension of disbelief.
ICT4Dande‐Governance
Authors: Madon Shirin
Published: February 2015

E‐governance initiatives have proliferated in many parts of the developing world and are aimed at enhancing the efficiency, accessibility, and democratic accountability of public administration. This entry reviews the major categories of theories and research findings on e‐governance for development, beginning with literature focusing on various stages of development in e‐governance applications with respect to technological sophistication and support structures, followed by a discussion of approaches to studying the impact of e‐governance for development initiatives ranging from the assessment of short‐term measurable gains to longer‐term social change, and a consideration of connections between this work and broader literatures on governance and development, pointing to new pathways for scholarship on this topic.
Freedom of Expression and Professional Status
Authors: Eko Lyombe
Published: February 2015

The institutional media are the traditional beneficiaries of free speech protections. However, members of other “expressive” professions have sought refuge under the umbrella of constitutional protections by virtue of their professional status or occupations. The practice of conferring speech rights on specific individuals or members of certain occupations on the basis of their professional status reflects the politico‐cultural specificities of each nation. In the United States, professional groups seek protection under the First Amendment, while in Europe the focal point of freedom of expression is the citizen, not the professional journalist. In European court cases involving newspapers, the “press” is not often singled out as the beneficiary of constitutional protection as is the case in the United States. This entry describes and explains the law and policy of attribution of freedom of expression rights by virtue of professional or occupational status in the United States and selected jurisdictions.
Wikis
Authors: Alevizou Giota
Published: February 2015

This entry describes the sociotechnical specificity of wikis and their application in domains of culture, knowledge, and learning. It begins by locating the wiki in the history of technological visions for collective cognition and continues by examining the material and social properties of wikis through a series of concepts: collective intelligence and crowdsourcing, openness and open collaboration. It examines some key tensions surrounding the properties of participation within open collaborative systems and points to empirical research within media and communications, education, and computer and information sciences. In doing so, it situates the ways in which wiki phenomena have been used to define ideological movements and fields of socioeconomic activity in the domains of science, culture, and politics.
ICT4D
and Mobile Communication
Authors: Samarajiva Rohan , Kapugama Nilusha
Published: February 2015

The entry outlines the evolution of mobile communication, addressing both its substitution for fixed communication and the novel feature of communication while mobile and untethered. A discussion of the economic impacts of utilizing mobile technology as well as its limitations follows. Social impacts are illustrated with health and disaster early warning applications based on mobile communication.
Online Advertising
Authors: Ma Wenjuan , Wildman Steven S. , Li Hairong
Published: February 2015

This entry provides an overview of online advertising, focusing on its growth over a fairly short period of time to become a major category for advertising spending, the various forms online advertising takes, the measurement of online audiences, mechanisms for pricing online ad inventory, and the new players that have emerged and the institutions that have developed to serve the market for online ads.
Cybercrime
Authors: Sarno Federica
Published: February 2015

This entry addresses the emergence of cybercrime in relation to the evolution of information and communication technologies (ICTs), emphasizing the important difference these have made to people's lives, the new opportunities they introduce for criminal behaviors, and the growing challenges for contemporary society. Concrete and distinctive manifestations of cybercrime are discussed, with particular attention to definitions and classification, and cybercrime is considered in the light of the characteristics of cyberspace and challenges for law enforcement and policing.
Telecenters
Authors: Bailur Savita
Published: February 2015

This entry explains how telecenters are defined, reviews their history, and introduces the main stakeholders. It then turns to a discussion of telecenter business models and considers their impacts on the “digital divide(s),” the potential for community participation, and their role in contributing to the Millennium Development Goals. A final section considers the ways in which telecenters can be considered successful, whether they are sustainable, and what their future is likely to be.
Mobile Communication Law
Authors: Goggin Gerard
Published: February 2015

Mobility has emerged as a central issue in law and policy in the digital communication field. This entry provides a brief history and overview of how mobility has been dealt with in law and policy, covering: institutional and legal frameworks, markets and industry structure, competition and access, consumer and citizen issues.
Freedom of Expression
Authors: Youm Kyu Ho
Published: February 2015

Freedom of expression is a definitional challenge because it is not easily definable. While “freedom” is the central issue, “expression” is relevant to what deserves protection. Free expression as a human right is not fully understood without its theoretical and conceptual framework. Given that freedom of expression is not absolute, free expression is balanced with its conflicting interests. Electronic media and internet law issues highlight the pervasive impact of new communication technologies on freedom of expression. This article identifies and examines various key legal issues, whether content or process related. While using an international and comparative law perspective, the entry notes American experience with freedom of expression as a possible point of reference for the world of the global twenty‐first century.